urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:nomad_kate nomad_kate nomad_kate 2007-10-24T14:48:11Z urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:nomad_kate:14818 2038-01-19T03:14:07Z 2007-10-24T14:48:11Z In order to understand today's post, you have to know that Trish and I have a system of points here in Korea, by which we live our lives.<br /><br />The first set of points are Good Roommate Points. You can get positive or negative Roommate points. You might get positive good roommate points by doing something like taking out the garbage (not me). You might get bad roommate points for something like leaving the freezer open and melting all the meat (that one WAS me). <br /><br />The other set of points are called "I ROCK Korea points" and are somewhat more ephemeral, and awarded on an astonishingly random basis. Good Roommate points have a fairly substantive value (i.e. I had to deal with Catshit Mountain TWICE IN ONE WEEK shortly following the freezer incident), while I ROCK Korea points are really only about bragging rights.<br /><br />Well, this week I both earned some SERIOUS I ROCK Korea points, as well as taking further steps towards becoming a functioning member of Korean society.<br /><br />So far, Trish and I have pretty much avoided ordering anything over telephone. If you are trying to buy something in person, you can play charades with the other person, making bridging the language gap at least a little bit easier. Well, I was determined to spend all of Saturday lounging in my pajamas while Trish was out for the day, and I wanted to have pizza delivered to my door. My boss Jessie made a script for me, listing all of the relevant things I might have to say to the order-taker, and for three days leading up to the event, I had to keep practicing. I now have the Korean expression written down for "I want to order a pizza", "I don't have a point card" and "for the LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY, NO I DON'T WANT CORN ON MY PIZZA!" (I'm actually kidding about that last one). I also have the obligatory "I don't speak Korean", which is actually one of my favourite phrases.<br /><br />As an aside, I love being able to say "I don't speak Korean" in Korean, but it seems like it backfires all the time. Now, I don't know about you, but if someone obviously foreign said "I don't speak English" to me in a halting, labored, badly-accented fashion, I'd be tempted to take them at their word. No so in Korea. It seems that every person I say this to assumes that if I have mastered this simple and highly necessary phrase, I must be a master of the entire language. Even if they had been inclined to speak slowly, using their 10 English words before, now they take a sigh of relief and immediately start racing along full-speed in Korean. I'm not quite sure what to do about this (well, learning more Korean might be the obvious solution, but come on. Seriously now folks.), and it's causing me a fair bit of stress.<br /><br />In any case, I called Domino's on Saturday evening. I said (in Korean) "I want to order a pizza. I don't speak Korean" and to my absolute amazement, the voice on the other end of the phone said "Oh, OK. What is your address?". IN ENGLISH!!!!!!! While it was pretty thrilling, and I did in fact get a corn-free pizza delivered, I was almost disappointed that I didn't get to follow my script. To make up for my disappointment, I did explain my address in Korean.<br /><br />So, while I didn't get quite the 1,000,000 I ROCK Korea points that I had been hoping for, I did OK for myself. AND, my pizza showed up at my door. Wembley and I sat on the couch eating pizza and watching the OnStyle channel (another aside--it's my new guilty pleasure. I've now caught up on EVERY episode of America's Next Top Model--except those from the current season). What was on OnStyle, you ask? Well, my cat and I ate pizza while watching a show called Manhunt: The Search for America's Studliest Male Model (I'm paraphrasing, but I hope you get the idea). Yup, it's true. We sat on our asses watching buff guys parachute out of airplanes wearing nothing but man panties and combat boots, to the tune of "It's Raining Men". Life is good.<br /><br />I also feel obliged to share my new words/expressions for the week. I have a couple for each week (usually helpful ones like "I want to go home", or "what do you want to eat?"), but this week's were particularly enjoyable. This week I learned how to say the following in Korean:<br /><br />1) who<br />2) shit<br />3) crazy poop dog<br /><br />Wanna guess which one I learned from the kindergarten students?