A NIGHT ON THE TOWN
My homeroom students (the ones who took me out for sam-gap-sal and who went to the folk village with me) invited me out on a Friday night near the end of the term for dinner and singing.
ROUND ONE: GALBI DINNER
We went to a place in Suwon near Patrick’s house. Just as before, we sat on the floor. Jasmine and I were again given aprons to protect our clothing. Two differences I noticed from our last dinner outing: 1) instead of only cushions we had special chairs with a wooden back but no legs and 2) the floor we sat on was heated. This method of heating is common in Korea.
Eric read the menu and ordered two kinds of beef: thin squares of “tender” beef (sirloin, perhaps?) and another kind of beef cut into strips and marinated in sesame oil. Like the sam-gap-sal, the meat was brought to us raw; Eric and Patrick cooked the meat on a special round, metal gas grill set into the middle of the table.
While the boys cooked, Jasmine used tongs to transfer cabbage from a large pile on one dish to individual bowls. On top of this she poured sauce out of a ketchup-like red bottle. In actuality, the sauce was a mixture of soy sauce (?), red peppers, and other ingredients which were part of the restaurant’s secret recipe. The other side dishes, were raw cucumbers, raw garlic, and candied figs. Eating candied figs made me think of Fig Newtons in the U.S. Yum! It was also nice to get away from pickles and eat regular cucumbers.
At one point, Paul asked me, “can you eat raw garlic”? I took it at as a dare and tried it. And in the process I learned that I can’t stand raw garlic. As I was chewing, Paul said, “I can’t do it. I was just ASKING if you can.” My other students said it was something to tell my family. I added it was also a story for my linguist friends (another great example of semantics vs. pragmatics).
The men who had to drive home that night drank soda, but the rest of us drank beer or soju (Korean vodka). We had one-word toasts (a sharp contrast to the speeches given in Ukraine and Moldova), and then took only a sip. Occasionally, though, someone called for a toast “one-shot”. We then had to drink everything in one shot. Jasmine, it turns out, is particularly skilled at drinking about 50 mL of beer in one shot. After the shot, another student said we had to “confirm” the shot by pouring the last few drops over our own heads.
After 4 or 6 plates of beef were cooked and eaten, my students asked me what I wanted for the second course. I said I was getting full, but someone protested, “you can’t be full! We’re just getting started!”. I had two choices: a cold noodle soup, or a spicy soup. I chose the spicy soup. But the spicy soup was spicy even by Korean standards. A student who had ordered the cold noodle soup asked me to switch with him. I was glad I did—the noodles turned out to be green tea noodles. A delectable experience to say the least.
ROUND TWO: THE NOORIBANG
It is traditional in Korea not to just go to one place with a group of friends or colleagues; you go to at least two if not three different places. Round two, my students had decided, would be at a Nooribang: a Karaoke place.
Karaoke in Korea is very, very different from Karaoke in America. First of all, in Korea Karaoke is not an event where you sing in front of a group of strangers. My students paid about $20 to rent a private room with couches and a big screen TV. I loved that. I also thought it was cute that there were two tambourines in the room for people to accompany each other.
What I found a little troublesome was that screen and the words face the couch, so that anybody who sang usually kept their backs to the people who were sitting down. But in Korea this isn’t usually a problem because in “Korean style” everybody gets up as a group and sings most of the songs together. At one point I had to beg people to sit down so I could hear Brent’s voice as he sang “Tears in Heaven”.
Another twist to Karaoke Night was the rating system. I’m not sure how, but somehow the karaoke machine generated a rating (100 being the best) at the end of each performance. Everyone got a rating of 90 or higher, and I thought it was well deserved. Jasmine did a very good job with the Korean version of “I Will Survive”. Patrick did a great job of singing “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel, right down to the “my-yay-yine” and “fy-yay-yine”s in the song. Paul also wowed me with his ability to sing Nirvana.
The first song I sang was “Thank You” by Dido. I got a 98 and a round of applause. When I sang Judy Collins’ version of “Both Sides Now” I scored 100. Brent commented, “pronunciation really makes a difference.” Between that and Brent pointing out the pronunciation of the word “can’t” in the lyrics of “Without You” by Mariah Carey, I knew I’d made an impact on his English.
After an hour or two at the nooribang, my students wanted to go out for coffee. But Patrick said there were no cafes near the restaurant, so instead we went our separate ways. My students said “Have a nice weekend” and “See you Monday” with much more ease and fluency than our last trip. I was proud of them.