Friday, June 5, 2009

notes on the birthday (pt 2)

On June 1st we had a small office party between classes for teachers with June birthdays. It was just me and one other teacher. The school gave me a gift ... 3 pairs of Arnold Palmer socks. There was also rice cakes and candles and they sang happy birthday to me in korean. They wanted me to speak in korean, but they didnt give me any time to think of what to say... so i just said "thank you" and they probably have a bad impression of my ability to speak korean now.

A couple of my classes sang happy birthday to me also, but I wish I had girl students because they would have given me lots of presents. My boys never give me presents, but my friends at girl schools always get gifts.

On June 3rd a package arrived from home... but the mailman made a mistake and delivered it to room 202 instead of 303. I haven't gotten the package yet. They told me that I need to go speak to the resident in 202 to get the package. The problem is that when I knock on his door, he will never open up for me. He shouts to me from his apartment without coming to the door. I assume he says something like "Who is it?" so I reply "저는 이웃입니다" (I am the neighbor). The problem was that he still didnt come to the door. He kept shouting at me in Korean that I could not understand. I tried saying "삼백삼호 이웃" and "저는 미국 살암입니다" and "외국은입니다" (Apartment room 3o3 neighbor, I am from America, I am a foreigner) but still he wouldn't answer the door. Also I told him that I dont know korean, and that I can only speak a little bit. But then he just stopped talking to me and wouldnt answer. I'm going to have to think of a new approach to use today...

1 comment:

  1. Matt, I hope you have a nice neighbor or else he will be enjoying all your american gifts! You may need to recruit some friends to help with the communication.
    Mutti

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