Thursday, August 03, 2006

my very random neighbourly encounter

i had the strangest experience today, it was good though, its easy to feel excluded from society here, not being able to read anything or say anything, and just living in an English school bubble. Today after work I walked into my building and I ran into one of my Korean neighbours. My building must have about 12 apartments but I rarely see anyone at all. The woman babbled away in Korean, completely undeterred by my blank expression. I tried to say that I didnt speak Korean but she just kept on talking. Then she invited me into her apartment, called her husband in from another room, sat me down, gave me a drink (um, yummy banana milk) and then both of them started talking to me in Korean. It was quite funny, they kept talking in Korean, I kept talking in English and making elaborate facial and hand gestures, and then we'd all laugh uncomfortably, and then the whole process would start again. I stayed for about 15 mins. They did have a few English words: teacher, highschool. But i'm unsure whether they were asking me if I worked in a highschool or whether they had children in highschool.

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