One of the amusing parts of me being new in Korea is that when I sit down to eat with a Korean for the first time they are amazed that I know how to use chopsticks. The usual remark is something along the lines of, "Wow, you can eat with chopsticks?!"
Once the amazement dies down a little the Korean sitting next to me wants to know if I like Korean food. When I say yes they are amazed again and usually say something along the lines of, "But Korean food is so spicy! You really like it?"
Korean's seem to be either excited and/or amazed at the ability of foreigners to adapt to Korean-style anything. In some ways it is amusing but after hearing it several times the charm slips away.
Jason and I went out to eat with one of my co-teachers last night. We had Chicken Dokgalbi which I find absolutely delicious. There is of course chicken, but also there is cabbage, green leaves of some kind, garlic, onion, rice tube-thingys (kind of like rice penne pasta shape) , and a few other vegetables.
It seems that just about all Korean food has some amount of red pepper in it. The different levels of spicy, I think, go hand-in-hand with how much red pepper is mixed in. When a Korean asks me what my favorite Korean food is, and I say chicken dokgalbi, their eyes get very big and they exclaim,
"Really? But it is so spicy!" to which I reply, "Yes, it is spicy, but I love it."
Anyway, dinner was very good and my co-teacher was kind enough to pay for all three of us (in Korea 'going Dutch' is almost unheard of--whoever invites people to dinner usually pays). Her English is very good but like most Koreans she believes that her level is very low--which it isn't--but trying to get Koreans to say "My English is okay," or "My English is fairly good" just doesn't happen here.
Jason took some pictures of dinner while it was being cooked. It is brought to your table uncooked and part of the fun of eating chicken dokgalbi is that you get to sit around the table and talk with your company while the food cooks in front of you. When Jason has uploaded the pictures to the computer I will add some. :)
So, my co-teacher and Jason got to meet one another and enjoy a meal. Because Jason has been in Korea for nearly four years he explained to my co-teacher that the amazement of, "Wow, you can use chopsticks?!" is the equivalent of an American, Canadian, etc. saying,
"Wow, you can eat with a fork?!"
which made her laugh very hard. The best thing was that she did understand what he was getting at. After the utensil discussion ended the varying topics of dinner were places traveled, hobbies, the differences between elementary, middle, and high school education and students, different kinds of Korean food, and sex education, among other things. lol It was a diverse conversation that was an enjoyable two hours for me.
After eating A LOT of food we left the restaurant and Jason and I decided to walk home to settle our stomachs a bit and get some light exercise. Jason took some pictures on the way home too. We took a different way than usual so we noticed a bunch of things we had never seen before. Everything in Korea seems to be vertical because the country is so small. So, you only really notice the things that are across the street while walking around.
I will post some pictures of dinner and other things soon so you can actually see what I am talking about a bit better. Tonight Jason and I are going to work out at the gym and then I have to make lesson plans so it will probably be tomorrow that pictures are posted. :)
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