Language Laughs

It has been awhile since I've posted so I thought I would share some of my recent thoughts.
I am currently enrolled in an TEFL course (that's: Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and it requires me to reflect about the difficulties in learning another language.

I'm a little disappointed about the progress I have made in learning Korean. I guess I naively hoped that Blake and I would be fluent by the end of this year (hear the chuckle), but we are far from even competent in our language skills. Korean is a really hard language to learn! To start with, there are two languages within the one. There is a formal and informal way of speaking and the words are sometimes entirely different. Korean society is based on a Confucian system where age is extremely important. It is a horrible thing to address someone who is older than you in an informal way. To maintain sanity with our learning, Blake and I just try to learn the formal way of saying things so we seem polite, but it puts us in a position of hilarity when speaking to kids or people younger than us.

I have a fairly good grasp of the alphabet which is largely phonetic- thank goodness! I can't describe how incredible it felt when I finally figured out how to sound out the words and could read the signs around me. (I don't remember this experience when I was learning English so it was really cool!)

We have had some pretty hilarious moments while learning the sounds of words. Korean does not have a symbol for the word 'f' and consequently, many Koreans have difficulty pronouncing this sound. I was buying a muffin the other day at Paris Baguette and noticed the wording on the package (in Korean letters) spelled out 'muppin' instead of muffin.

The other quite hilarious situation had to do with Blake trying to get a cell phone. He was trying to communicate with the guy at the counter saying he wanted a phone. The sales guy seemed a little intimidated to be dealing with us and couldn't seem to figure out what we wanted. Blake finally hung his head in shame and said 'we want a pone.' The guy lit up and said, 'Ooooooh! a PONE!' I couldn't stop laughing at how defeated Blake looked when he called it a pone. We teach kids how to use correct English and call out the 'Konglish' (that's Korean and English words mashed together like 'sangu' for 'thank you') when we hear it. I bet our kids would love to know we make use of the Konglish outside of school.

In any case, we now have a new pone! :)

P.S. Less than 4 months!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We hope that this season brings an opportunity for rest, family and a time for reflection. Amidst the busyness and chaos that this time of year can bring, we pray that you will be touched afresh with the true meaning of Christmas.

Blake and I are far from home this Christmas and feeling the pang of homesickness. While we miss the celebrations with family and friends, it is forcing us as a couple to create our own traditions. Christmas isn't a big deal in Korea, but most people have the 25th off as a holiday. Unfortunately...not us. However, we were blessed by a visit from good friends Matt and Sarah Bean. They are teaching in Singapore for the year and took a vacation over Christmas to visit us (and Korea/Japan). It was such a huge blessing and encouragement to us!

As we look to the new year just ahead, we are blown away by how little time is left in our contract. We are less than 5 months away from the finish line!

We love you guys and wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,
Blake and Erin

Welcome Baby Nathan!

We are an aunt and uncle again! Welcome baby Nathan! Congrats Jason and Jackie!

Fashion

While we love Korea for many reasons, one aspect that we can't stand is how superficial it can be sometimes. When I dress up, I still feel under dressed compared to the girls here. Everyone seems so formal all the time! Fashion seems so overdone compared to what I'm used to. Clothes have sparkles and shiny pieces and ruffles and frills everywhere! These wedding dresses are just a glimpse of these extra frills that aren't so common back home!

Another cultural difference that we laugh at all the time is how girls appear to be so conceited. Back home, people may secretly try to check themselves out in a mirror, but usually the more intense fix-ups are done in private. In Korea it's acceptable to look at yourself in a mirror for like 20 minutes and it happens all the time! There are mirrors everywhere and people seem to always be fixing hair, make-up and clothes. I know we're geeks, but this is entertainment on our bus rides- it's really hilarious!

American Thanksgiving!

One of the perks of being in an international crowd is that we celebrate all different kinds of special occasions. We've had 3 Thanksgiving celebrations this fall. The picture is the latest one from American Thanksgiving at our church. It was one of the biggest feasts I've ever seen!

We're coming up on Christmas here and I think it's going to be a hard one. We aren't reminded that it's Christmas much until we go shopping or when we think that it's almost December! The stores are happy to promote and celebrate the holiday because it brings them business. I think we're going to have to work on the 25^th and we've never been away from family for this long or for special occasions like this. We know it's good to try to establish our own family traditions, but it's still really hard. We're past the 6 month mark and on the way down now. Crazy!

Korea's got Seoul

This past term Blake and I have had Wednesdays off together and we've tried to make the most of our time touring around and taking in the sights. Two weeks ago we decided to make the trip to Seoul which is the capital of South Korea. Seoul is actually where we arrived in Korea off the plane and also where we stayed for a week in training. Life has taken on a rhythm here and we're getting busier, continuously feeling more confident and sometimes forget how much we've learned. We sometimes have trouble remembering all the bumps and hassles of adjusting when we first arrived, but going to Seoul was like a trip down memory lane. While riding the subway in Seoul, we had a flash back to that first week when we didn't know how to make our subway cards work. We tried all the buttons, but the meter wouldn't let us out. There was a man working in a booth nearby and he was rolling his eyes at us and yelling something in Korea. It was pretty frustrating at the time, until we noticed that we were simply trying to exit through the 'enter' meter. Needless to say, we felt really dumb, 'stupid foreigners.' :) After that incident we didn't want to ride the subway much for fear of not being able to find our way back. This time, we were transferring and going all over the place! I guess we should take heed knowing that pride comes before a stumble- and we definitely don't want another toaster oven incident! ;)

While we were walking downtown, we stumbled across a Buddhist temple. This religion is huge in Korea and it seemed so odd to see people bowing down in front of these statues- not really something we see much of back home. You can't really get the full idea from the pictures of how big these Buddha's were. Absolutely massive! For those of you who don't know Blake well, he can be a bit of a bull in china shop in certain delicate situations ;) He kept wanting to get pictures of himself giving Buddha the thumbs down sign and talk to the monks- even though they don't speak English. At one point I turned around to see him (without thinking) 'hork' on the 'holy' ground. I thought we were going to get kicked out or put in jail!

While leaving, Blake gave some money to a beggar just outside of the temple and said 'Jesus' to him, but I don't think he understood. Sometimes it can be really frustrating to not be able to speak freely with anyone we want to.

Fall in Korea

Blake and I have been enjoying the weather these last few weeks here in Korea. The colours on the trees have been brilliant and the season has lasted a lot longer than what we're used to back home. We're coming up on December and we usually only need a light jacket during the day. I'm loving it! A few weeks ago Blake and I took a walk up a nearby mountain and took some pictures of the sights.