Reading and Unexpected Surprises

As teachers, Joseph and I understand the full power behind being able to read and comprehend in whatever language you speak or are trying to speak.

Never has that been as well defined for us as in Korea these past two weeks and never has our speaking Spanish been so fluent!  We are finding ourselves answering in Spanish sometimes with the students or people at a market or taxi.  Too funny!



Example:  Ordering in a restaurant in Korea there are picture menus or pictures on the walls or you have no pictures.  God bless the person who decided to put pictures on the walls and in their menus. 

While at our school it is not necessary to speak Korean we do speak to the children in general "hello and good-byes" and a phrase here and there.  The ability to speak Korean and to read Korean is greatly needed outside of our apartment and school.

Joseph and I carry around a notebook and if we are with someone who is able to read and speak Korean we may ask them a word or phrase and spell it phonetically in that notebook.  Why can't we just look in our trusty Korean pocket guide?  We are unable to correctly say the sounds of the characters and letters.

Now for the surprise:  while ordering last night we were at a restaurant that had yummy looking pictures then items with no pictures.  Feeling overly confident Joseph told me to choose so I said go for that one that is 6,000\.  No pictures for that one.  Next thing you know we are given a table full of side dishes (yummy!) and a large pot of steaming soup with an entire (large) fish in it.  Eyes, fins, skin and all.  Now, it was delicious but if I had seen a picture of it that would not have been my first choice two weeks in.  Joseph was delightfully happy and ate most of it. :-)

Mission: learn to read the Korean characters.
Welcome to Korea!