Friends

At the end of summer vacation I resolved to study Korean a lot harder. The time I spent schlepping around Korea brought home just how much I didn't know, and so I set myself a target of 6 hours study a week. I've kept to it, and my Korean has now jumped up a level from "serviceable in a restaurant" to "basic conversational". I still only understand about 20% of what anyone says to me, but I am at least able to say quite a lot these days.

The fact that I can now hold up one end of a basic conversation means that I've made the odd non-English speaking friend, as well as surprising old ladies in shops occasionally. By far the best of these is Jae-yeong, one of the Jinbu footballers. I say Jae-yeong, but when I remember I call him "Hyeong", which is Korean for older brother. In Korea names are rarely used for people older than you. Familial or professional titles are used instead, so all my colleagues at school are "Seon-saeng-nim" (teacher) rather than their names. It does have the advantage of meaning I never have to remember anyone's name.

Jae-yeong and his wife have a daughter, Se-ah who may be the cutest child I have ever met. Stacy and I have become her uncle and aunt (she has many of these) and now spend as much time as possible spoiling her and making her wink for us. The child is a born flirt and favours dancing and pretending things are telephones. She doesn't speak English yet, though I'm working on it.

Here are some of the photos of everyone.

The above are from the Sol Beach Hotel, a swanky resort on the coast near Yangyang. Apparently it's a favourite Korean celebrity hang out. Jaeyeong and I are thinking of hiring the whole place out for our shared birthday, though it seems like it might be a little expensive.

Like I said, Se-ah enjoys pretending that things are telephones. In the case of the above photo, it's my camera case.

These were taken at my apartment after we'd been out for dinner. I think that Se-ah is going to be a K-pop star when she grows up. As proof, there's a video below of her dancing. Sadly, some halfwit is drunkenly singing My Way in the background, so you'd best watch it with the sound turned down.

I think that more or less covers it for this post. More adventures coming soon.

A