Korean Lesson: 12/08

Today's lesson is:

생일 축하 합니다.

Happy birthday. Or Congratulations~

생일=birthday

축하=congratulate

합니다=verb form

너 공부 좀 해!

You must study hard!

너=you

공부=study

해=do

Itaewon Blast

Although the temperature read 9 degrees Fahrenheit I trekked my way to Itaewon to meet up with Rob. The only details I had were that he was meeting some other friends and it was at the Rocky Mountain Tavern at 11 am.

I tend be somewhat of an early bird or I make it to a place at the time someone tells me to get there. I got there exactly at 11am, and so I ended up waiting about 30 min for Rob. It wasn't a big deal, the place was warm.

While I was waiting I took a look around. It had a bar and tables. The place was decked out in Canadian knick-knacks (flags, license plates...). Seeing the English on practically everything, and the atmosphere of wooden walls made me feel like I was in a Tavern somewhere back in North America.

Unfortunately I didn't get any snapshots from this place, so you are just going to have to read my story.

Well Rob came by and with him was Danielle, which was a great pleasure to finally meet. We ordered the "Truck Stop" breakfast menu item, which included 2 eggs, bacon, potatoes and toast.

Then sometime later, Joe joined us. And the laughing and story telling really started to kick in. When we first met I think I had to adjust myself to their humor and inside jokes. So today I found myself more comfortable.

And sometime even later, Gomushin girl and her friend showed up. And there we all were, like some kind of crime fighting group, except we don't fight crime. Instead I think we just all took some time to let off a little wai-guk-in steam. (Venting on being a foreigner)

The Food at The Rocky Mountain Tavern:

• Time: 3 orders of the same thing (eggs, bacon and toast) took the cook 35 minutes to whip up. It took a bit longer for Joe's and Gomushin girl's to come to the table too. So we were all very perplexed as to why it took so damn long.
• Taste: Ordinary. Nothing special here folks. You can get the eggs done in any way you like. I chose scrambled and they were pretty decent. Except you could tell the cook did not clean off the grill and so there was quite an extensive amount of grease. My potatoes tasted pretty good, but Gomushin girl and her friends had a strange acidic sour taste. This left us all wondering why potatoes would have this taste.
• All in all, the food at the Buttermilk Pancakes place in Apgujeong is way better.

We ate, we talked, joked around and had some relaxing moments. Somewhere in the middle of all that Danielle had to leave for more of her wedding photos. And we had a special guest join us, that is Garrett. (He is kind of a new guy, like me, living here in Korea.)

I guess since I don't hang out in Itaewon often, or in general at the bars...that I am not familiar with these kinds of places. But I have to say they are SMOKEY!!!

Cigarette Smokey! I come from California where if you light up in front of an entrance or at the bus stop people do not have a problem telling the smoker to go somewhere else. So having to adjust to a smokey indoor environment is a big hassle for me. I am grateful that most of the places BK and I go to eat and have fun at, do not involve people smoking inside them.

Allright...let us move on!

Next Stop was The Wolfhound, due to that some members of the group were starting to crave their burgers. This place boosts itself as being an Irish Pub, however I would like to know what made it "Irish" except for the Guinness beer logos of 4-leaf clovers.

The place was serving up late lunch, and we found ourselves at one of the corner tables. This place too was a pub/restaurant deal, and so it came with the indoor cigarette smoke. Yet, they had some fans going somewhere so at least it was able to circulate.

Anyways I did manage to get pictures of the food at this joint.

I ordered an Apple Crisp (although it was called something else). That large square chunk you see on top is actually vanilla ice cream. Underneath the crumb layer were some warm apple slices in a cinnamony goo. It was good and satisfying.

Here we have Gomushin Girl with here lovely camera.

Here you see Joe and Gomushin Girl's friend. Joe ordered a speciality item on the menu that included baked beans, sausage, croquettes, toast and maybe something else.

What is this??

What could this be???

LIMES!!!!!!!!!!

While we were sitting at the table I looked across to another diner's table and saw atop their Corona bottle a slice of lime!!! My heart skipped a beat as I identified the green sliced thing to be a lime! I immediately told everyone of my discover. But it seemed I was the only one amazed by this site.

What is one kind of food that you could not live with out? I am not talking a certain kind of meal... I mean what kind of food - thing? Strawberries? Chocolate?

Well for me that is limes! I eat these raw! They are the best things on this earth! And I can not find them at the grocery stores, and believe me I have looked. So it was like seeing hope atop a bottle.

Anyways, we got the waitress to give me some, and so I was a happy camper.

Again we all ate, talked and shared some good stories. I really enjoyed everyone's company and I think it helped me feel less alone here in this crazy yet cool country.

Now for a few follow up things:
*Garrett: the VPN service I use is: Strong VPN

*The Korean Lessons:
BK and I talked about it and we agreed that it is good to still post my lessons, but he would like me to not allow comments for those posts. I kind of wish it wasn't such a big deal but I want to come to a compromise and this seems to be it. Again, if you ever do have something to say you could email me.

Okay~

My Korean Lessons

Dear patrons of my blog,
Bo Kwan is really a nice guy and doesn't mean to offend anyone. He just sometimes gets a hot temper and goes off-the-wall. I will work on convincing him to continue teaching me Korean on a daily basis as was done this week.

But, it seems, he doesn't want to hear the feedback that was given to his lessons. Therefore, I will not post my lessons on here. If you want the daily dose of Korean that he gives me for your own personal use, please email me.

Anyways, I want to say that I appreciated everyone's comments and do not feel the same as BK. I thought it was important to have the comments because it would help others who are reading my lessons.

Well hopefully he has calmed down. ;)

Korean Lesson: Friday

Today's wonderful and glorious Korean lesson is:

나는 지금 바빠요.

Now I`m busy.

나는=I

지금=now

바빠요=busy

We can say just 바빠요(Busy)

나는 집에 가고 있어요.

I`m going back home.

나는= I

집에=home

가고=go

있어요=ing

Yes this sentence is usually used with out 나는, and 있어요 this form is the polite way. So you can use 있어 without 요.

See this dialogue

Q=What is your job?

A-My job is a teacher.

I think there are many answers to this question.

1) teacher! or

2)I have a teaching job.

3)I`m a teacher.

Every kind of answer is good, right?

This lesson was taken from the email BK sent me. I am really busy today so haven't had time to study it yet.

Pronunciation

During my time in college I took Chinese. I worked my ass off and got an "A" in that class, but it took practicing everyday for 1-2 hrs and taking a daily class at school. It was exhausting, due to that you had to learn the tones, characters and romanization. But I was able to get it down.

With learning Korean I wish I could take a class, but I am not willing to travel into Seoul during the week to do so. There might be a school around here, and so I will look for one. But there is the time in between and I need to keep going with it.

As we all know BK is giving me weekly sentences to start getting my brain on the speaking / thinking Korean path.

But memorization is not enough I need to get down my pronunciation. Therefore I am left with internet resources:


And websites:
Click and hear Korean

The major advantage will be that I am here and hopefully will start to understand more and more what I hear and read.

Anyways I hope my attempts at learning Korean and sharing them will help other beginners out there.

Korean Lesson: Thursday

The rain comes down and the clouds shadow the sky, but warmth is found next to a heater fan.

Today's lesson is:

나는 오늘 피곤해요.

I`m tired today.

피곤= tired

오늘=today

나는=I'm

보고싶어요

I miss you.

BK chose these, I feel, due to that these are sentences we usually say to each other normally. So now we can practice saying them in Korean. I already know how to say "I love you" so I can add on the "I miss you."

I should be at the lunchroom eating with the teachers but I am scheduled for my health check. This is a requirement for my school transfer. The hospital told my coteacher I shouldn't eat lunch due to a certain blood test. But I know that it doesn't really matter. Anyways, what does mean is that we will go after she finishes lunch to the hospital. And after that I will go eat lunch. Also she is going to accompany me to the bank, as I need to transfer money back home. I wish I could wait and wait till the exchange rate settles down but my American bills have deadlines.

Anyways hope everyone is staying warm and cozy.