Sunshine and Accents

For the first time since I've arrived, the sun has peeked through the clouds and made its glorious appearance today. Once that little crack was made in the gloomy canopy, the sunshine tore through as if the clouds could no longer restrain the crushing weight of it any longer.  I'm not affected by weather much ( see Seasonal Affective Disorder); as a matter of fact, I quite enjoy cloudy, rainy days. But, I must admit, seeing the sunshine literally brightened my day. On top of this, Satan's crotch seems to be less inflamed today and humidity is low! I actually walked from my cousin's apt to this here Starbucks (20 min walk) without breaking into a sweat!

So, the other day, I was in a different cafe and I saw that the menu had both Korean and English. I approached the cashier and said, "I would like the hazelnut-flavored vanilla latte, please."

She looked at me like I was crazy. "I'm sorry, what would you like?" she asked me in Korean.

I repeated myself. "The hazelnut-flavored vanilla latte." I was reading it right off the menu, as written.

Again, deer in headlights.

"Aye wood-uh rike duh hay-gel-nuttuh play-bor bun-eela lah-tteh, preeze."

"That will be 5,400 won, thank you." she replied in Korean easily.

o.O

This country will NOT do this to me. I cannot believe I had to severely fob-ify English words in order for them to understand me. Why even write it in English, then?!

Even if it kills me, the children I teach WILL be able to distinctly pronounce the words "eat" and "it" and they will not add an extra syllable after every consonant, thereby making them sound retarded. For example, the word "class," though one syllable, can be up to three syllables in Korean: "kuh-rah-suh."

This I swear by the Suh-Tah-Zuh!