I came across an interesting article/piece that was written by someone who is doing his PhD. in Korean studies. He spoke of a syndrome that occurs to Koreans when they meet foreigners. They suddenly fail to be able to speak English. He calls it Foreigner Shock Meltdown. (It's worth reading, a bit long, but quite interesting).
We have definitely encountered this. Jeff especially has a hard time as Koreans truly believe that he MUST speak Korean, so despite his gestures indicating that he doesn't understand what has been said, people CONTINUE to talk to him in Korean, hoping that eventually he'll understand.
Last Sunday Jeff and I met a random guy (Richard) on the street (we asked him how to get to the subway station from Costco) and told him that we were quite surprised to hear that he spoke such good English. Most Koreans that we have met (at least 85% if not more) speak no English, making transactions difficult. Richard told us that most Koreans can actually speak English, but that it gets caught inside of them, making it difficult for them to respond to what we are saying. He said that most Koreans understand what we say but are unable to respond.
I find this all to be quite interesting. I think that's all I'll say about it for now. My brain is kind of dead (it's Friday...) and I'm a bit tired from the relay race that I ran this morning with the other teachers (we came in 2nd!). I haven't run a relay race since 8th grade! (I won a bar of soap wrapped in a box... the parents we raced against won boxes of Kleenex (facial tissue...) as consolation prizes, random, but they were happy with these prizes.
~Jen
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