Brothers

Me: What people are in your family?
Robin: Older brother, older brother...
Me: How many brothers do you have?
Robin: Two. No... four. 
Me: What are their names?
Robin: (pause) No names. 
Me: No names or no English names?
Robin: No English.
Me: Ok, what are their Korean names? Older brothers first.
He tells me a name, and I put up one finger. Then he says some more Korean, so I put up a second finger. He pushes it back to my palm. 
Me: Who else?
Robin rattles off some more syllables, and I put up a second finger again. 
Me: And who else?
More Korean. But again, when I try to put up a third finger, he pushes it down. 
Me: So...hmm. Two older brothers?
Robin: Yes.
Me: And you have younger brothers. Who are they? 
Robin: Younger brother, baby brother...
Me: How many younger brothers? 
Robin: Two.
Me: So, two older brothers and two younger brothers? How many brothers all together?
Robin: Many.
Me: How many?
Robin: I have seven brothers. 
Me: ...seven ...? 
Robin: (laughs) Yes. Very many.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Time Zones

Image
Fact #4 Korea's time zone is GMT+9:00. Minnesota is GMT-6:00 (Central Time).  That puts Korea 14 hours ahead of Minnesota. (borrowed from  http://www.travel.com.hk/region/timezone.htm )
Read more

Graphite Chopsticks

We ate lunch outside in front of the coffee shop that gets a decent chunk of my income. I had tuna bibimbap . Like most rice dishes, this one is supposed to be eaten with a spoon. I was too lazy, however, to pull out chopsticks AND a spoon. A few minutes into my lunch, one of the baristas came outside, stuck a small plastic spoon in my bowl, and returned to her work.  When I arrived in my first grade class, quiet Shiyoo proudly held out her shiny, gray fingertips for me to see. She used her break wisely to color them with her pencil. Jason did the same but clearly forgot about it. He didn't make it ten minutes before his cheeks and nose were varying shades of pencil gray. 
Read more

Now That I Know (1)

I'm sure this isn't unique to me, but I've learned so many things that would have been nice to know when I first arrived in Korea (or before I arrived). So, since everyone who moves to Korea in the future will stop by this blog first, I'm going to share those things that residents may not think to tell you right away... If someone cuts in front of you, spits where you're walking, or burps while passing you, don't take offense. The definition of "rude" is different here, and the sooner you can learn that the better.  You can put up to a few hundred thousand won on your T-Money card, but you're better off reloading small amounts more often. There's always the possibility of losing it ... or messing up the (very simple) reload process, freezing your card, and losing your money. Before buying laundry soap, find out what in the world a laundry detergent container should look like. Otherwise, there's a fair chance you'll go through s
Read more