I think I'm going to sacrifice chronologicality for the most part since I've been doing such a bad job of making timely updates, and try to stick with more interesting anecdotal non-time-specific posts. Hopefully it turns out well.
Today at school 2 girls came up to me and communicated to me (poorly) that they wanted me to help them with some interview thing after school. I agreed, because, why not, and I like when the students realize that I can help them with their homework assignments because I'm good at English. So, after school rolled around and at 4-ish they came to the office to get me.
I go out into the hallway with this group of girls, who I've now figured out have to make a video of an "interview." It wasn't really an interview as they basically just talked and told me about sikhye, a traditional Korean drink made with rice and sugar and water. Because the girls are recording the whole thing with their digital camera, they are of course giggling like crazy and the first take fails epically because when the 2nd girl's turn comes around she loses control.
They've got their script pre-written and I notice some problems in the English so while the girl is trying to recover I ask if I can see their paper. At first glance, the whole thing is written in Korean and my first thought was "how are they gonna read the Korean and translate it in their heads and talk at the same time?"
Silly me.
I start reading it and I realize they've written the entire thing in Hangeul but it's just a "phonetic" writing of the English words. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, because that's how they learn English here. Not as English, but as English spelled out in Korean. This leads to some problems and much is lost in translation.
For example, the letter C in Korean is pronounced 'she' because any S+i(e) sound becomes an SH (this is also a problem with the word 'sit', which in Korean becomes 'shit'). Other problem letters are F, L, Q, R, V, W, Z to name a few, and letter pairs like D/T, B/P, K/G which Korean speakers have difficulty differentiating when they hear an English speaker say.
So these girls have a sheet of improper English written in Korean characters and I'm correcting it all for them. I know that my Korean coteachers don't want me to correct things like that but I figure the more important part of the assignment is the actual speaking, so I helped them out. For example, they had written "Do you want Sikhye eating?" instead of "Do you want to drink sikhye?"
I tried to get the girl to write my corrections in English but she insisted on doing it in Hangeul, except for a couple words. I guess that's a victory. They "introduced" Sikhye to me (I've drank it many times before) and managed to record the 2nd take with only minor incidents, the one girl started to read the uncorrected line, and they giggled about that, and also when the girl opened the can of Sikhye for me to taste they all giggled for some reason.
They thanked me, and I thanked them for the free drink and went back to my office.
Interesting account, Brian. What about the girls? How old did you say they were? What grade were they in? How did they wear their hair, long short, curled or spiky? What did they look like? Were there any blue-eyed ones, per chance? Did you say one of the girls wore eye glasses? Now I am very curious. You got singled out to be called upon for help because you are an easy pick, one identified as a helper among helpers, who will defy rank and code to come to the aid of seekers [of help]. Right on my brother! Right on! Break the rules and defy the codes of convention. When all is said and done, one day those kids will master English - Like LLCool Jay or M&M. They will be rapping with the best of us . . . .
Nice job Brian. I am proud of you.
W.L. Wilson, Milwaukee, WI