While eating, we naturally talked about Christmas. I mentioned how excited I was to go home and start my advent calendar, only to find out that neither Minju nor Yang had ever had one! This surprised me since I’ve had an advent calendar every year since I was born. However, considering that Christmas isn’t as significant in Korea, it made sense. Minju shared her wish to have one someday, and I encouraged her to get one since they’re readily available in stores now.
We also discussed our future travels and dream destinations. Yang’s dream was to visit Paris, which he achieved through this exchange, while Minju dreams of visiting Turkey. I found this surprising because, as a European, I rarely hear people listing Turkey as their dream destination—it’s more common to hear about places like the Maldives, the U.S., or Peru (like Machu Picchu, which is my dream).
Later, we focused on languages. I decided to learn Korean instead of German, so today, Yang and Minju taught me how to count in Korean. I found it fascinating that their writing system is based more on sounds than on letters, a concept unfamiliar to me.
0. Young
- Eel
- Ee
- Sahm
- Sah
- Oh
- Yook
- Chil
- Pahl
- Goo
- Sib
I was very surprised because it sounded more like sounds than words. But one thing I was able to take away from our meetings is that in Korean, and in Asian languages in general, they work a lot with sounds. For example, they wrote my first name based on its pronunciation and not on the letters that make it up. Which I find surprising given that I have never been used to this. In any case, the numbers that I immediately remembered were zero and ten because their pronunciation was like English words. Zero sounds like the word “young” and ten is pronounced like “sheep”. It was quite funny.
On the lighter side, Minju expressed her love for the French expression “Oh là là,” finding it adorable. She asked me to explain its context, which was tricky because it’s a versatile phrase used for surprise, mockery, and more. I also taught her how to order a croissant in French: “Bonjour, je voudrais un croissant, s’il vous plaît.” I emphasized the importance of saying “s’il vous plaît” to avoid being seen as impolite.
Finally, it was time to say goodbye. We exchanged farewells in our respective languages. In French, we say “au revoir,” or “adieu” when we know we’ll never meet again, though I prefer the former. In Korean, they taught me how to say goodbye too : 잘가.
So 잘가 my friends !
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