This past weekend was nice, but at times, long. On Friday after work, Nate, Rodi, and I stopped by a bar for a few drinks and cigarettes. We shot the shit as usual and ending up having a conversation about English slang. Apparently Nate and I say: tight, word, right on, holla, that's fire, this is the shit (and any other possible randomization with shit), what up, yo, and many other colloquial gems quite often. Rodi is from Canada, and it's not that he doesn't understand us, he just rarely uses those phrases or words. We spent the next hour thinking of different varieties of slang, because every field of speech has its own insular terminology, often used as a code, especially if "the man" doesn't like what you're doing. Slang is a very important part of a language, often illogical if you interpret it word by word, but necessary and unique.
Most of our Korean co-workers studied English while at university, but there's always a disconnect in our conversations. Even if I speak perfectly plain, as simple and structured as possible, there's always a loss of meaning, or a delayed understanding - a brief echo and then a laugh.
That being said, there's an abundancy of miscommunication at work. For example, my school is somewhat disorganized. When I first arrived, I was explained my duties regarding my middle school classes. No tests. Homework, optional. Don't worry about the book, etc. Now, I've been told I have to make mid-term tests for the middle school kids. But, I wasn't told by any of my managers; instead, Nate told me yesterday during supper, one of our Korean co-workers, over three slurps of soup, communicated to him that we'd have to write some mid-term tests for the middle school kids. No clarification beyond that. So, from my understanding, I have to write tests covering what I thought was completely arbitrary material. I feel sorry for the kids if that's the case. I'll ask around this week to find out what's up.
On Saturday, I woke up and went for a short bike ride, because Nate, Matt, I had already planned to meet up with Katie and Anna in Seoul to go to the Korean War Museum the day before. After biking for a half hour or so, I took a shower, then Nate and I met up with Matt and took the subway to Seoul. We stopped for lunch at a little diner and had some kalbi-tang (something like that.)
When Katie and Anna arrived we went to the museum. It was a short walk away, so that was a plus.
A statue of two brothers meeting on the battlefield during the Koreak War - one brother from the North of Korea, the other from the South of Korea.
We didn't manage to go inside the museum, though. We spent too much time outside looking at the tanks, ballistic missiles, planes, anti-aircraft machine guns, helicopters, and all other types of war relics.
Nate's great uncle passed in the war. He found his name.
Afterward, we ate Mexican in Itaewon, then went to Anna's for some drinks. We played Beer Uno and managed to grow more enlightened as the night progressed. The best part of the game was the rule where we weren't allowed to use verbs when speaking...
Nate kicked me at 6:30AM or so and we took the subway back home. Somehow we managed to turn an hour trip into 2 1/2 hours.
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