Breaking Up & the Youth in Asia

Almost more doodles than phrases. I tried.

Last Monday night, Eun Young and I were at the Culture Complex cafe for our language exchange. As we looked through a magazine devoted to current events and activities in Seoul and talked about art shows and restaurants, she suddenly dropped the bomb. After that week, she could no longer meet with me. She had registered to take the TOEIC exam and would be looking for a job in February. These reasons sounded good enough but didn't quite justify why she couldn't meet with me for an hour and a half twice weekly. I took it in stride, taught her the phrase, "It was good while it lasted," and continued hanging out for a while. I'm not sure if it was better or worse that she didn't wait until the end of our session to bear her bad news. 

When 8:00 rolled around we said our goodbyes and I wished her luck with the exam and job hunt, but then in a weak moment like a desperate rejectee, I reminded her of my free movie coupons we had discussed using together. "We can still go see a movie sometime!" I said, probably way too eagerly. I should have taken the hint when, the week after we'd talked about maybe going to see Love and Other Drugs together, Eun Young told me she had gone to see it with her mom. 

On the subway home I began blaming myself, wondering where things had gone wrong. Did I not ask her enough questions about herself? I had flashbacks to our meetings and me yammering "In the USA blah blah blah..." "... and then my boyfriend blah blah blah..." Being the health and fitness enthusiast that she is, was she repulsed when I opted for the free beer and snacks available at the cafe? Perhaps had I asked her for too much help with my personal questions? (What is this that came in the mail? It's junk mail from Buddhists wishing you happy holidays. Do you know where I can get a pedicure? No.) I also hadn't known the famous Korean soap opera star whose haircut Eun Young had recently mimicked. Fail, fail, fail.

A week later, I encountered first date-like nervousness as I prepared to meet my new language partner. Though I had a serious case of the Mondays and hadn't felt like taking a shower earlier in the day, I wanted to make a not-awful first impression so I spruced up and was only slightly late. Well, forget Eun Young because I hit the jackpot with New Language Partner Hanna. She spent several years in New Zealand so she has a slight but charming accent on some words. She swears she forgot everything she learned during her time there, but still has the skill to say "My grammar sucks." She thinks the spelling of my name is unique and special. She used to live in my neighborhood. She said we should go to a Korean-style bar sometime. But then she asked me some trick questions, as Koreans are prone to do. "How old do you think I am?" is the worst! Second worst is "How do you like Korea?" I wisely underestimated her age (she's stressed about being 30 this year) and raved about Korean food and the transportation system. So far, so good.

Hanna is looking for a job as an English teacher at an elementary school, so she's fantastically forward yet patient with teaching me new phrases. She quickly remedied the fact that I'd never learned "My name is Lindsay. Nice to meet you." Whew! Then after an hour of one-on-one conversation, other Culture Complex members joined us for a discussion Hanna led to help everyone feel more comfortable expressing their ideas in English. Previous weeks I had joined other groups to talk about blind dating in Korea and the "over-education" of Korea's young people, which is resulting in insane competition for a limited number of jobs. This evening with Hanna's group, our topic was nice and light: euthanasia. Though they could competently collect their thoughts to debate its pros and cons, everyone had a hell of a time pronouncing it. My suggestion to break it down by thinking of the "youth in Asia" was quite helpful. Hopefully this will shape up to be a win-win partnership and I won't get dumped again.