Last week the kids and I were at WooMul, the coffee shop just off post. I ordered our food and lemonades for the kids, and when I sat down this woman next to us kept sort of looking at us funny. She eventually scooted over and sort of ooh-ed and aah-ed over the kids, and then asked how long we'd lived here. I told her we'd been here about 6 months, and she nodded and scooted back to her seat to sort of confer with a friend of hers, and then came back and asked if I would teach her son English. I was quite surprised, as you can imagine. Just because I can speak English doesn't mean I am able to teach it, especially to Korean kids. But she explained that he's 12 and understands English well, just needs help speaking and writing. I thought about it and told her I'd give it a shot. So I met with her this week to talk about hours and pay, and it turns out that he (and his 3 friends!!!) can't start till July, but she and her 20 year old niece would also like to have English tutoring, just basic pronunciation help and stuff. So yesterday I printed out a news article for Sue and her niece Wonnie (Jung Won, but Wonnie is what her family calls her) to read aloud for me so we can work on pronunciation. We met for an hour, and after they read for me and we talked about the content of the article for a bit, we really just spent about 40 minutes chatting. And then Wonnie paid me $30. Seriously, I got paid to chat. We decided that I'd see Sue on Wednesdays, and Wonnie on Thursdays, and they'd each pay me $30 for an hour of practice time. And then starting in July there would be four kids who would be taught in two separate groups and they would pay $50 per group. Crazy that I can get paid for talking to people!
This very blurry picture is Sue - Reagan caught her while she was talking to me. Sue later told me she was very nervous about talking to me because she had attempted to talk to other Americans about tutoring, but she was totally ignored. I thought that was so weird, since her English is actually quite good, and she isn't terribly hard to understand. It's not like you could just wander off thinking to yourself, "Oh well. I couldn't understand her anyway." So she'd had experiences with some pretty rude people just trying to find someone to help her speak our language more clearly. :(
This is me and Wonnie - Sue took it while I was talking to her yesterday. We both look so angry! Sue says she thinks we just look like we're talking about something serious. :D
Now about Aiden's Korean uncle... we sometimes go to a corner store called Shinwoo. The owner knows us and is always very friendly. One time he had a bunch of his friends there, and one of them speaks English. He introduced himself - his name is Hoyun - and chatted with us as we did our shopping. A few weeks ago he was there again, and when Aiden saw him he said, "Hey guys! It's Hoyun!" Hoyun went nuts! He was so excited that the kids remembered him AND remembered his name that he came up and gave Aiden a huge hug. So we went in again today to get the kids ice cream cones, and Hoyun was there, and his eyes just lit up when he saw the kids. Aiden walked in and he got another hug from him. Here's a picture of them together.
And I thought I'd end this post with a few awesome pictures of random Engrish.
Ashamed Cat is ashamed that she lives in the dollar store. :(
Mr. Pizza... "Love For Women"? What? Is this "delivery" in Korean? I have no idea what that could possibly have to do with anything.
"Sweets make a very special." They surely do. :)
And a couple more of the monkeys - here's a random kid who came up and walked with Aiden while we were coming home from church one day. Usually the girls are the ones to get all the attention, so it was kind of fun for Aiden to get someone who was hooked on him.
And this is probably my very favorite picture of my kids ever. :D
Hope life is going well for all of you!
Thanks for sharing all your crazy, fun Korean experiences with us. We are so glad we could see it for ourselves.
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