There's a new development here! Using a little Korean softens the blow that I in fact am not fluent in the language to the people here. I can now correctly say "I don't speak Korean," which the Koreans accept with far more grace than when I said, "Korean language, no." Haha, I'm just like the students with "no eng-gu-lee-she." I was doing some shopping tonight and the store associates were trying to talk when I explained that I couldn't effectively communicate back. They kind of nodded and then asked where I was from (which I understood the first time! or the key words at least...), which I answered. I bought a shirt and got a service wash cloth adorned with teddy bears and the store's name. It's cute because it was free. I like to think I got it for free because I was a sweet foreigner who tried to speak Korean.
And ironically, after telling them I can't speak Korean, all I did was do just that while shopping. Here's the funny thing that happens now. And it ALWAYS happens. I tell them I don't know the language and they're all: Okay... but... you have a Korean face... So while they can accept the fact that I can only speak English, they have trouble digesting the idea that I can look Korean yet not know the language. They also won't accept any answer other than, "Yes, I am Korean-American." If I say, "I'm American," they add "Korean" to it. Yeah okay, I can be that for you.
Tomorrow a practicum teacher wants to interview me about being adopted because the class he's working with is reading an adoption story. I wonder how that goes... surely some Korean family reunion by the end or the girl coming back to her ethnic roots. I'm not sure how I feel about it. On one hand I'll answer anything anyone wants to know, it's not something I actively keep secret. The other side of it is that it does feel personal, and it's always a little awkward to explain to people my opinions of the grittier questions they tend to ask.
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