Excuse Me?

One of my biggest worries about Korea is the language barrier. Unlike Spanish I can’t just read a sign with jumbled English letters and have a single phrase such as, “how do you say ______ in English”. Although Koreans only use individually pronounced characters, three are combined together to form one symbol. Several words have many symbols so rather than learn the 40 characters and how to read the language I am opting against learning the alphabet at this time and will just focus on several phrases before I arrive and a few words here and there. Luckily there are a few websites and iPhone apps that have common translations. To date I can speak the following words / sayings:

Hello

Please

Thank You

Cheers

Can I have a bottle of Soju?

Can I have two bottles of Soju?

Everyone keeps warning me about Korea and how it’s a very alcoholic friendly country, specializing in Soju. From what I’ve been told, Soju is like Sake but kicked up a bit. Perhaps it’s a good thing I don’t learn how to say, “Can I have three bottles of Soju” just yet.

My golf partner from last summer, Mike, is from Korea so I’ve been using him to practice some words when we pass by each other at work. Last Friday at our first Korean language exchange the dialogue was quite funny:

Me: “Shibil Il”

Mike with a confused look: “Excuse Me?”

Me: “Shibil Il”

Mike: “What are you trying to say?”

Me: “You know, 11 days” (It was 11 days until my departure)

Mike turns his head away from me and starts to snicker to himself. He then looks back at me and says, “Don’t say any numbers between 10 and 12”

Me: “Why, what did I say?”

Mike: “The F-word. It’s ok you are going to have a great time, just keep a good attitude, they will understand.”

We then both broke out laughing hysterically and still laugh whenever we see each other.

            Positive that I had the pronunciation correct I later looked for what I thought I was saying versus what I actually said:

11 days: Shibil Il

F-word: Shibbal

            Tonight is my last Tuesday in America for a while. This time next week I will be over the Pacific Ocean on my 13 hour flight to Seoul.