Saturday, December 8, 2012

"I Am Speaking Korean!"

Wow, two posts in one week?! I must be on a roll...

I thought I'd share a funny story from Friday night. If you read my last blog, you know that Andrew and I said no pizza for a month. However, before we even shook on this agreement we had one clause: We could only have pizza if called and ordered it in Korean (another bucket list item: order delivery).

Sadly, it had only been a week into our agreement and we were considering pizza. Before you judge, you have to know that Pohang had a bit of snow on Friday and the roads were covered in an icy mix. Koreans drive crazy when the weather is nice, we were not about to venture out in a taxi or city bus to get something to eat. This is where the clause comes in.

Before leaving school, I had asked one of my co-teachers, Belle, if she could quickly walk me through ordering a pizza. She said I can do it online with Pizza Hut. I thought to myself, this doesn't count, I'm not doing it in Korean. Then she showed me the ordering page and I quickly changed my mind. It was TOTALLY in Korean. Page after page, step after step, I decided right then that we were still within the clause. Belle was walking me through the steps and I was taking mental picture after mental picture to try to remember. Now I can read Korean just fine, but that doesn't mean that I understand it all. When we got to the end Belle said that she could just schedule the delivery for me, to have it delivered to our apartment at 7pm. I thanked her, informed her about our "clause" and said that we had to do it on our own....BIG mistake...

When Andrew and I got home from school, I wanted to show him the convenience of ordering online. We took a vote, and again, decided that we were without our agreement to order the pizza. This was no longer a craving issue...it was about safety, right?

We got on his Mac but sadly discovered that we had to use Internet Explorer to use Pizza Hut's online site. What, how strange we thought....Plan B. I was going to have to call.

We looked up the number and I practiced saying our address like 20 times in Korean. The thing is, I was told by my other co-teacher that delivery people would have a hard time with our apartment because it was a new building and it's tucked away. So I knew if this was going to work, I needed to have my pronunciation down pat.

Nervously I dialed the number. I had thought about my opening statement, "Anyounghaceyo, waygook salam baedal juesayo, Pohang Shi" which means "Hello, I'm a foreigner, delivery please, Pohang city." (Not like they wouldn't haven known by my horrible Korean). Then I was just going to lead with my address and then my order because I would not know which one she would ask for first.

"Ring, Ring, Ring," she answers. I go with my rehearsed line and then start with my address. She starts talking a hundred miles an hour and I have no idea what she is saying. I got nervous and tried my address again. She repeats two thirds of it back to me, incorrectly. Discouraged, I tried again. She says something and then hangs up.

I'm defeated at this point. I thought for sure I was saying our address right. Two minutes later my cell phone rings. I answer it and it's Pizza Hut! And the woman is speaking a little English!! WIN! I say my line, and then my address again, slower this time, really concentrating on my pronunciation. She asked me several times the name of our apartment building, I tell her over and over again and she's still confused. My guess is that she typed it into the system and nothing showed up because A) our building is too new, or B) My pronunciation is so bad she can't decipher what the heck I'm saying. You see, the name of our building is "Castle Ahoe." Even though castle is an English word, Koreans pronounce it differently, so I had to fake a Korean accent saying an English word if that makes sense.

We get through the address and the order and I even pay. She tells me it's going to be 50 minutes. I hang up and then celebrate a little feeling so proud!

An hour rolls around and my cell phone rings. It's the delivery man. He's lost. I can understand what he's asking me, but I didn't know how to respon in Korean, so frustrating and totally my incompetence. I repeat the street name because I know he is somewhere close. We end the conversation by him saying, "Ok, ok, ok." Andrew and I decide to go out and wait for him. Another 10 minutes passes and still no delivery man. I'm feeling so bad for the poor kid at this point. In Korea, delivery men deliver food via scooter. It's like 25 degrees outside and this sweet guy is lost and knows he can't call us back to give him better directions. I see a Korean man walking down our street. I stopped him, pointed to my phone and said, "Pizza Hut, hangumal." (Pizza Hut, Speak Korean)...embarassing Korean, I know. He's waves no and walks away. Two minutes later he comes back. Calls someone and hands the phone to Andrew. The guy on the other end begins speaking great English and then Andrew proceeds to tell him that we need to call this delivery man back, and have someone give him directions in Korean. Andrew gave the guy the number and then the nice man walked away.

We waited 10 more minutes out in the freezing cold. We think we hear a scooter and Andrew takes off running around the corner and was able to flag down the delivery guy. I apologized about a million times and we stuffed a tip into his scooter glove. (Tipping in Korea is not common, ever, but this whole situation was entirely our fault, and this guy deserved every cent of that tip.)


All in all, that pizza was WELL within the clause and I had never worked so hard for a pizza in all of my life. We didn't mind in the slightest that it was cold... YUM!

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