First things first, I have finally discovered how to type with color, fonts, and even paragraph indentions. I know, exciting stuff y'all. The twenty first century welcomes me with open arms.
Anyway, today was my first meeting with my English conversation partner, Jae Ho. We began on a rocky start after he assumed my first name was DeVincenzo, and I assumed he was a girl. This was the first of four conversational surprises I was to encounter throughout our time spent together. But I digress.
After awkwardly correcting both name and gender, we proceeded to divulge the basic information about ourselves: hometowns, majors, etcetera. I must admit that "The Google" came in handy for much of this conversation. He showed me pictures of his city (Seoul, South Korea), pictures of his apartment building, and pictures of his two younger sisters. This is where the first surprise came. His two younger sisters were 19 and 21 years old. When I got up the courage to ask how old he was, he said he was about to turn 24. Thus, the conversational partner I assumed would be a girl my age suddenly became a man half a decade older than me. This was my second surprise of the hour.
Next, Jae Ho told me about his girlfriend and bluntly asked me about my boyfriend. A little shocked by his candidness, I laughed, blushed, and replied that I didn't have one. His face fell as if I had just committed some cultural crime. He looked stunned and confused. "But you so sesy," he told me. Confused, I asked him to repeat the comment. This time a little clearer and a lot louder, he repeated, "YOU SO SEXY!!" My mouth dropped. Fingers stopped typing. Pages stopped turning. All necks in Union Grounds began craning to better see the situation at hand. I did the best I could to awkwardly smile, thank him for the sincere compliment, and direct the conversation to what he had eaten for lunch that day. This was surprise three.
Lastly, I wanted to talk a little bit about the differences between the United States and Korea. So naturally, I asked him how he felt coming to this country. He responded bluntly that it was "calm and boring." Frankly, I was taken aback. Every foreigner I had ever talked to had described America as always busy and slightly stressful at best. Excited, I dug for more information, but as he began talking, I realized that he had taken my question quite literally, and was describing his physical trip from Korea to the United States... Yes, Jae Ho. I agree that fourteen hour plane rides can be quite calm and boring.
Thus, my hour-long conversation with my new friend Jae Ho was hilarious, entertaining, and always kept me on my toes. I cannot wait to meet with him again to continue laughing at how we misinterpret each other's communication.
Always,
Julia
Let me be the first to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this post. Just goes to show that embarrassing situations can be some of the funniest. In retrospect. In the moment they are simply embarrassing.
ReplyDeleteFirst and foremost Julia, I wanted to complement you and your blog posts. You are a spectacular writer. Though all of your posts thus far have been very though provoking, I though that The Four Surprises of Jae Ho was hilarious! I actually meet Jae Ho during the Ice Cream Social where I became quite fond of his witty and unreserved sense of humor. I found it very impressive that you and Jae Ho were so open amongst one another in your first encounter. I attribute your blogs/experiences success to this open, intimate relationship. Please keep up the great work! I cannot wait to read more of your one of a kind encounters’ with Jae Ho.
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed reading this blog post. I actually laughed out loud reading about your conversation. I thought it was so interesting that, when asked about coming to America, he thought about the actual act of traveling. It makes sense and I completely understand where he was coming from, we just never consider that interpretation of the question. I, too, will probably be surprised as to gender and age of my conversation partner when we finally meet. I've never met anyone named Mull, so I'm not sure what to expect...I'll keep you updated.
ReplyDeleteHi Julia, wonderful post, wonderful description. As others have stated above, with your four surprises, your post is enjoyable to read Great stuff. I know first conversations are not always easy, but your surprises kept your conversation lively!
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