Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ed]

I guess you could call this funny strange :
I was walking in town one summer afternoon and I turned a corner and saw a korean man walking. he was about mid forties and upper middle class I guess.

three seconds later he grabbed ahold of me and before I had time to react he carefully removed the white stuff from the corner of my eye and then continued walking and turned the corner.

I stood stunned for a minute then shook my head and continued on.

[shawner88]

Did I mention the subway salesman who sells garlic cutting thumb rings on the subway in Pusan?

[william beckerson]

The smartest boy in my Middle School One class was asking me, "Bill, what's your favorite adverb?"

being someone who doesnt like to pass up an opportunity to be a smart ass, I said, "Sexy"

He looks at me, and says, "Hey! We're kids!"

[sillywilly]

Hmmm.. is there such a word as sexily? I always thought there was and have been using it... Oh well, wouldn't be the first time my English was under par.

[The Bobster]

I think "sexily" works as a word, but it doesn't go trippingly off the tongue the way a word really ought to ... I think I usually stretch it out a bit and say "That girl walks and talks in a very sexy way." Maybe it's just me ... maybe someone else's tongue could trip it along "sexily," and mine is just too clumsy for it.

Okay, here, I think I told this story in the "Jokes" thread but it probably belongs here more accurately - go ahead and nod off if you read it there already.

Had to give vocabulary words to a kid, the only one who showed up that day, and the homework was to look the words up and come back with sentences using them grammatically and logically within a context. I chose the word "arouse," and I thought it was safe to do so because in my dictionary the sexual meaning was, like, 3rd or 4th out of a possible five separate definitions ...

Sure enough, what the guy comes back with the next week is : "My mother aroused me in bed this morning."

His mother was quite a looker as Korean moms go, and since I have no formal training in Freudian analysis, the best I could do was pat the little guy on the shoulder and say, "Hey, don't worry about it, kid. It could happen to anybody ..."

[The Marchioness]

One of the weird and surprising things that have happened to me happened after I had finished some shopping in my dong. I carried my purchases in one hand and my handbag in the other (money, passport, you name it), and suddenly this guy whizzes up on a motorscooter and grabs all of my stuff! I mean, he literally grabbed it, grinned at me, and then took off. I'm yelling and trotting after him as fast as my fat little pins will carry me and the bugger zooms around the corner while I'm waving my arms and hollering. Lo and behold, when I finally caught up to him, red in the face, breathless, and furious, he had unloaded my stuff, including my handbag, in front of my door, smiled, bowed and said "Lady no carry shops. Too heavy."

[The Marchioness]

In my last post I forgot to mention that everybody in my dong seemed to know where I lived. I mean everybody - kids, adults, shopkeepers, even the guy in the van with the ba-na-nas and the loudspeaker appeared to know where the Canada songsanim had her little abode. I'm guessing that the little tubby man on the scooter somehow or other knew where I lived and decided to deliver my stuff for me. Weird, freaky, and downright scary to think that everybody was watching me doing my thing, and they were probably discussing me all during their idle moments. Nobody ever missed delivering pizza, chicken, drycleaning, or sending their kids over to ask if I wanted to come down to the corner to drink some soju.
Just remembered: my drycleaning lady had done some repairs on my bedsheets (all asked for by bodylanguage), and I spotted her a couple of days later sitting outside her shop on the stoop with a gaggle of her cronies and sure enough, here she and the others had my flat sheet in their hands, pulling it this way and that, trying to figure out what the hell it was. She delivered it later ( I guess after they were through with it), and when I wanted to pay her for the sewing, she refused to take any money. I guess the entertainment value was enough payment. Go figure.

[shawner88]

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

[denz]

pedantry is reserved for the impotent.

denz

[The Lemon]

Tread lightly on the grammar correction, friends - this thread lives on as a reminder of what can happen when we go down that road:
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=73
Lemon.

PS. Beckerson - you *should* have known that "sexy" is an adjective...

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

Denz,

I'm sorry if I offended your boyfriend. This is the second time you've jumped to defend William after I pointed out an error of his.

[william beckerson]

I'd call you a nerd, but I think that counts as flaming under the new rules.

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

Well, if by nerd you mean someone with a high level of intelligence who teaches ESL and is able to distinguish an adjective from an adverb, then I guess I am one.

However, if by nerd you mean someone who spends most of his free time in front of his computer, typing messages to post on this forum (602 posts to my measly 40), and gives out so much sage advice, but was gullible enough to get stiffed by his last employer, then I guess that would be you, Hulkamania.

[itchy]

yup