When I'm feeling restless, I find a good walk is just the medicine I need. Tonight I walked the block... it's a big block. I found a dance studio and stood outside the door watching them do the waltz. Suddenly I was spotted. An instructor came out and asked in English if she could help me. I said... "Swing Dance?" She smiled, shook her head, and said no. Oh well. I shyly made my way back to the street and continued my walk.
Oh the frustrations of language. My co-teacher is a deep person; I can tell. She likes to write. And I think she is probably a good poet. However, It's so hard for me to read what she writes. It takes me painstaking amounts of time to "decode" her small notes to me. I have to carefully type the Korean words into a dictionary website. I wish I could easily understand. It is getting a little better. Slowly I'm improving, but I have so far to go.
The thing is, I can't simply type them straight in, I must separate the words from their various modifiers, markers, and conjugations. And then there are the words that I can't seem to find in the dictionary. Once I get the meaning for all the words, the work is still not done. I must translate the literal meanings. I have to understand the "feeling" of what's being said.
Here's an example...
Today afternoon book (object marker) read will?
Will you read a book this afternoon?
1 comment:
Love the self portrait! I can see the smile in your eyes! :-)
Love you and miss you!
Mom
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