Language of the people

I realized I need to put thought into my posts so I stay sane. Teaching 7-12-year-old children whose first language isn't English for eight hours a day is proving to be detrimental to my own ability to use complete sentences with adults when I leave the classroom. Also, I find myself adjusting my language to be more Korean friendly to adults. This could be a delusion on my part that if I say "maybe not" instead of "No, I don't think so" (and other similar wordings I commonly hear Koreans say in English) they will understand more clearly, but it's becoming a habit. I debate if it's me assimilating to the Eastern culture of not wanting to blatantly deny or turn down anything or if it's simply a difference in phrasing. And then I remember that language is how we express thoughts cultivated in our cultures. And it makes sense. I assimilate pretty easily to my surroundings and I'm usually aware of it - like when I had a friend from Pennsylvania at the beginning of college, I started pronouncing things like she did. But then I could decide not to blend back into the South Louisiana accent. So now that I'm living in a completely different culture, it's interesting to see how my language is reflecting that.

On a similar note, I've been teaching one of my new English friends how to speak like "like a Southerner chewing on a straw of hay" (as per his request) and in turn have been working on my English pronunciation, which has been really entertaining. I was told by some Canadians I met in Itaewon that I do have a twang, once I talk for a while, and I was a bit disappointed. I know it's pretentious of me to not want to have any trace of a Southern accent in my speech but it's also become such a habit to purposely pronounce things "more correctly/Northern" when I realize I'm not. So much to think about!

So I'm trying to remember what it was like to be 12. The classes I'm most anxious about teaching are the older girls because they're almost teenagers and don't want to be in school or listening to me tell them what to do. But since I can't let them play on their cell phones for the entire 40 minutes, I'm trying to remember what else would have engaged me at that age. On the other hand, I'm really excited to teach the little kids. They are so much fun and have actually taken to me quite quickly! I can't walk out into the hallway without hearing "Heather Teacher!" yelled from somewhere. It's a good feeling :)

As much as my language might be adapting slowly to the culture, my daily habits are struggling to adjust. Right now, I'm blogging because I'm scared to try and wash clothes in the scary monster of a machine that I have to use here. Also, bathrooms are set up differently here, which I actually like but I'm not well-prepared for it yet. Essentially, the whole bathroom is the shower floor, so most of the time, the floor is all wet - so you need shower shoes to go to the bathroom, or in this case, since the washing machine in this dorm I'm in right now is in the bathroom down the hall, to wash clothes. And since I'm in this "box" until the first, I don't have shower shoes. There are just a lot of little inconveniences that I'm not adjusted to yet and hopefully will figure out soon.

Yesterday I had my first cup of good coffee. Yes, I paid around four dollars for it, but it was regular brewed Kenya coffee and it was delicious.

Last night the group I'm training with and I had a night of complete comfort. We went to Itaewon, which is, I think, where the largest military base is in Seoul, so there are usually more foreigners than Koreans there. We went to a place called Dillinger's and had chicken fingers and french fries and watched American football - replays of the Thanksgiving day games - and it great.