Korean 101

I am definitely the worst out of all my siblings with my Korean. My brother seems to be pulling it out of his subconscious much faster than I am, and my sister has taken Korean courses at BYU, so she's obviously better than all of us combined. Still, I've picked up on a lot of Korean words and phrases, and I will probably not lose them for a while when I come back to the States, making my communication somewhat sporadic and scattered.

It is rainy and cloudy in Seoul at the moment as I am writing this; this only amplifies the humidity to the point where none of my siblings want to do anything anymore. They are laying on the bed, one asleep, the other eyes closed as he listens to my sister's iPod. The only reason why I have not joined them in their slumber is that I'm talking to my girlfrind 15 hours ahead in the future. It's kinda mind blowing when you think about it.

Korea is a fine place to visit, but I don't think I could live here. I miss speaking English to people besides my family. I am a writer, for heaven's sake! Seoul especially is a flood of new stimuli overloading the senses, from the cornucopia of neon lights to the faint odor of waste wafting up from the sewers on especially hot days to the jabbering of Korean going all around me. To read is to wrack my brains in a most painful manner to remember my rudimentary learnings on consonents and vowels. To speak is a labor, to try and buy any kind of merchandise without my parents nearby excrutiatingly hard sometimes, as haggling is still very much alive here.

Still, I'm glad I've come. Hugh Nibley, famous Mormon scholar and a master of many languages, was asked why he didn't master any of the Asian languages. He said, basically, that it was enough for one to learn as much as they could about their own ancestry, and since he was from Europe, that's where he would concentrate. I feel the same - the chance to try feebly in reconnecting with my ancestry has been wonderful. It is strange to realize that I have a past, an ancestry that ranges all the way into the eras when the birth of Christ was only a rumor. I am used to learning about other peoples heritages, but not mine. So to walk in the town from which our family originated, to embrace history as not simply a subject to learn about but my own, is a new and wholly strange experience, but I am enjoying it.

History is an important thing, one that few people realize. As one who knew very little about my own history until now, I can safely say it adds an extra dimmension to your personality, depth to who you are, and a strange connection to those you never really knew in this life. It is all together very bizarre, and yet tugs at my heartstrings, that this is where I come from and this is where I may ultimately return someday.