If this month has been paltry in words of blog substance, it is because I have been busy living a life of late nights, light alcoholism, and wonderful friends. I’m not sure if my liver or my brain is more fried.
Still, it has been such a terrific month of deepening existing friendships, and establishing new ones. It makes me realize that what is important is not where one is in the world, but who one is with. I fear that August may seem pale in comparison as friends leave for other pursuits, but perhaps it will also give me a chance to quietly focus on my studies, and reflect… (and write more blog entries).
I am really, really starting to hate this stuff. I don’t care if it’s the Korean hipster drink. It’s as if someone took the leftover water after you wash rice, let it sit out in the sun for three months, then refrigerated it.
Innocently crass? Someone called me a contemporary Marie Antoinette.
Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.
Yesss look at those skilllzzz.
On a more serious note, this was taken at Nam Sam Tower.
If there is one thing I pride myself on, it would be my ability to verbalize my point in a way that is both precise and easily understood. I suppose I’m a decent writer, but I’m definitely a better talker.
Now I am in an environment where my linguistic skills are very subpar (in Korean, that is). I also think that I am forgetting my English on some level. For example, I could always, with swiftness in thought and fluidity in speech, pick the unequivocally perfect word to describe something. Now I’m losing my ability to so easily find le mot juste. Perhaps it just means I’m beginning to think in Korean.
Yet it is a profound experience to have lost my silver tongue. Now I must rely on facial expressions and body language just as equally, if not more, than my verbal iterations. And in that sense I am learning a new language that transcends linguistic and cultural barriers.
Learning a foreign language, ironically, helps you better understand your native language. I am slowly discovering that Korean is a language based upon ethos, and quickly recognizing that English is a language based upon precision. Because of this, some words and expressions cannot easily translate.
I learned a new word today: 허무감
허무감 is an emotion. Not happy and not sad; neither hopeful nor hopeless. Perhaps one could translate it as emptiness, but without the Western association of emptiness with despair. The meaning of 허무감 is just… nothing… with all the lightness and weight, freedom and burden, significance and senselessness that feeling nothing implies. And yet not, because even that is something. It is just… nothing.
Korean is an emotionally complex language.
I applied for a Korean language exchange partner. We had orientation today. This is Rule #1. Too funny.
Exploring Bukchon Hanok Village. Discovered a funny combination of contemporary and traditional.
Seems as if the owner picked the Porsche to match the house. Any other reason to choose such a heinous color for a such a beautiful car is sacrilege.
I learned that there is a social hierarchy to the number of steps upon which each traditional Korean house is built.
1 step = a wealthy family
2 steps = yangban (ruling class)
3 steps = royalty
4 steps = for a king, or a shrine
