오늘

Today I had my last Korean class over at the university. We reviewed how to say "since" by adding nikka (니까) to a verb. When I had to make up my own sentence, with my teacher's help I wrote:

한국 사람은 작으니까 내가 커보의다.

(hanguk sarameun jakeunikka naega keoboeuida).

(Korean people small thus, I big seem).

Since Korean people are small, I seem big.

I got a certificate from Suncheon University stating that I've completed 60 hours of Korean instruction. I think the class was pretty much intended to help foreign students meet some kind of Korean learning requirement, but no one seemed to mind me being the only American and English teacher in the class. I don't know if the certificate will serve me in the future (the only references to me in it are my birthdate and first name Koreanized: Tae Meo Reo--the Romanization eo sounds like 'uh.'). But it comes in a nice blue hardbacked folder.

For the last hour of class we sat and ate french fries in the cafeteria--the three students (from China, Japan and the U.S.) and our teacher. We talked a little in Korean but at the end we were discussing the popularity of cell-phones in our respective countries, in English. Maybe it was just where I went to school, but when I left the States I thought that some college students and some high school students had cellphones, and it was growing, but it wasn't too wide-spread. I was amazed by how many young people had cell-phones when I got to Korea, but apparently it's not that different in China or Japan. I don't know, maybe there are fifth-graders with cellphones in the U.S. and I'd be aware of this if I hadn't spent the four years prior to Korea living in a cave where any unabashed display of materialism, even the practical kind, was greeted with cringing and hissing.

Today was also the first day of my school's sports competition, where the different classes compete in various different sports. I discovered at the end of last week that I was the judge for the 'aerobic dance' competition--which basically means I had to watch 9 different groups of 12-17 students imitate music videos. It was alternately unsettling and impressive--I mean, they really have those sexy moves down, but with a sort of stoicness that almost makes you believe that it's just part and parcel with the 'sport' and they don't get the connotations. It's less disturbing when you see 17 year-olds doing it as opposed to 8 and 9 year-olds graders, as I have unfortunately witnessed, but still, my Christian missionary school never ceases to amaze me.

Initially I'd thought that I was judging it with another teacher, but unfortunately I realized at the end that I was the only judge. This was probably actually fortunate, because if I'd known beforehand that it was my sole responsibility to choose a winning team from amongst all of my cute, dedicated, hopeful students, I probably would have choked. As it was two teams came up at a tie, and before fleeing the scene, I chose as the winner the team that stood out in my memory the most. Since I had my Korean class in twenty minutes, I managed to leave before the announcements were made, though I guess that tomorrow and all this week I'll be confronted with numerous disappointed girls.