until I…
- …lose 15 kgs!
- …am prettier!
- …know how to wear heels.
- …know how to wear make-up.
- …am fluent* in Korean. (*my definition of fluent here is when I am good enough that no one would ever say “Oh, don’t mind her, she doesn’t understand.” right in front of my face again! EVER!)
- …know how to drive.
- …have enough money to buy things I want (because there were many cold nights last spring when I would walk back home tired and hungry and there were nice and hot 왕만두 or 순대 or 닭꼬치 or waffles or 뿡어빵 on the streets but I only have three 100won coins on my wallet ㅠㅠ).
Yeah, I know. Silly thoughts. But I AM serious!
Now, the thing is I really want to go back to Korea by the time Kim Sun Ah‘s new movie The Five will hit the theaters which will be sometime in Fall or early Winter this year. So I guess I have to work really hard to achieve all these as soon as possible! x.x
My Korean Corner 
FIGHTING!!!
Thanks! 🙂
힘내! 할수있어!! 화이팅~~ 아자아자아자!!^^
감사합니다! ^^
Fighting!
I’m sorry if it brings up bad memories, but number 5??! D-:
Just to specify (the smiley is a horrified one turning the corners of the mouth downwards)…
Haha! Number 5?
I was having dinner with fellow Kim Sun Ah fancafe members. In our fancafe, you can probably group the members into three – 1.) The Koreans 2.) foreigners who can speak Korean and 3.) foreigners who can’t speak Korean. Although I belong to group 2, I am the worst among them. The other foreigners were as good as native speakers and never had trouble communicating with the first group. Group 3 doesn’t join us, or when they do they usually have a world of their own, talking amongst themselves. Anyway, someone from group 1 cracked a joke. I was listening intently – half trying to be polite and half sincerely trying to comprehend. The joke ended. I didn’t understand a thing. One from group 2 who’s sitting beside me laughed wholeheartedly. Me – no reaction. Totally awkward! I didn’t want to offend the person who cracked the joke but at the same time I don’t want to pretend that I understood. Maybe the one who told the joke felt a bit awkward too so he said “How come (you tell a joke in front of two women but) one woman laughed while the other didn’t?” I was about to apologize and explain that my Korean is not good enough to understand everything he said when The Crush said “Oh, don’t mind her, she doesn’t understand!” – which I perfectly understood by the way. >.<
In fairness to The Crush, he is not a mean person. He was just being extremely annoying and acting like a complete jerk that night to me AND I was also being very sensitive. I guess we were both trying to act cool in front of our friends when we were truly in a very awkward situation.
He may not mean anything bad with what he said but it struck me so bad!
"두고 봐 오빠! 한국어를 유창하겠어!"라고 생각했어요.
When it comes to 5 on your list, I find that even when people KNOW that you understand there are so many horrifyingly awkward situations. Years ago I was witness to a conversation between a married woman with a newborn baby and her younger, single female friend.
A: 가슴이 원래 크죠?
B: (Looking in my direction.) Jibril 듣잖아!
There’s no proper response for awkward situations like that…. ㅠ_ㅠ
헐! sooo awkward!!!
In my situation, I should’ve answered back in English “Oh, I’m so sorry I didn’t understand” American accent and all with my head held up high. But as expected for a 바보 like me, I just lowered my head and smiled shyly. Since I’m still struggling with my Korean, when I’m in a complete Korean setting like that, all my attention is into trying to understand everything so all my wit and 센스 have jumped outside the window. ㅜㅜ