똥침 Dong-chim

**This post is rated MA - Mature Audience only for a bit of graphic content and severely bizarre behavior. If you are easily offended do yourself a favor and skip the following**

Something perplexing has recently come to light for me. When working with the kindergarten kids from early on I've had to constantly spin 180's quick and swipe a hand behind me quick as a blink. My actions were in response to the befuddling behavior of the kids who would poke me in the bum using their index fingers and shouting a Korean phrase.

At first I thought something was disturbingly wrong with the first child who did this. Then after a few more did it, I just passed it off as extremely unusual behavior for a select group of children. The behavior continued sporadically, as did my lightening quick reactions.

Somehow the topic came up in conversation (fortunately) with our friend Emma, who is a Seoul native. She laughed and laughed at us and then explained...

When we get poked, the phrase we've been hearing is "똥침", or "Dong-chim".

똥, or dong (long O), means poo, crap, fecal matter, etc.

침, or Chim (cheem), means needle.

So, poo-needle.

Anyway, Korean children (and apparently some people beyond that age... : / ) clasp their hands together with interlocked fingers then "poke" with their extended index fingers at the victim and yell "Dong-chim!".

It doesn't make sense, and I'm not sure I want to figure it out. Most recently I was teaching a weekend class at the educational museum and one little boy (English name Charlie) was the first person to engage the activity since I've learned exactly what it is. I brushed it off and at least understood.

And then he dongchim'd me about 153 times over the next two hours. Even more astonishing was his mom sitting idly by. Want to talk about the ultimate exercise in patience? Hey lady, I'm about to push your kid to the ground right in front of you!

All that being said, I'm sure there are some cultures that would find a "wedgie" as the most offensive possible thing. So with all due respect, please go on Dongchiming each other, but leave me be.

If you would like references (why would you honestly?) here you go.

Statue1, Statue 2

Poor foreigner...

Arcade game pic

cartoon pic

An actual game you can play online, ridiculous.

Language Fail

Ugh, we all know that problems in the workplace are no fun. Well, add a language barrier to the mix and these problems can be a million times worse. BIS is an amazing school and we’ve been very fortunate to get the opportunity to work with some incredible people. There are, however, frustrations just like any other professional environment.

One of the more prominent frustrations is the communication problem. Christopher and I are often frustrated with the communication between the only English speaking staff, the English/Korean speaking staff, the semi-English/Korean speaking staff, and the only Korean speaking staff (does that make sense?). We have co-workers from every degree of the spectrum and it gets frustrating and exhausting communicating policy, ideas, and concerns in this manner. We feel that important words are often lost in translation, resulting in an entirely different scenario than we had anticipated. There have been times when a Korean staff member tells each of us foreign teachers something individually and then when we convene to discuss, we all have gotten something different from the conversation, leaving us very confused.

We wish there wasn't such a barrier between the foreign staff and the Korean staff. All of the staff here are so kind and gracious yet we don't really know them or their true personalities. We often hear them laughing and are disappointed because we want to be in on the joke; we want to know what funny thing happened on the way to work or what child they are making fun of. Unfortunately, our Korean skills are sub par and we probably won't be at the level to understand them more clearly any time soon. We don't even know their real Korean names - they only tell us their English names and all of the children use their English names. If you know me, you know that I like to talk and I hate that I can't always converse with the other staff members on a productive level. When riding in an elevator with them, I simply have no words and it's frustrating.

Chris and I have decided that we need to make more of a conscious effort to become better citizens of the Republic of Korea which includes learning more of the language. Reading Hangul is clearly not enough to effectively communicate with the many interesting people whom we encounter and wish to know. We are going to be having a very basic Korean class, facilitated by our Korean friends, in exchange for writing help and "accent improvement" (that's what they want). We will keep you posted on our progress, although it may be slow.

In the meantime, these daily Korean words and phrases on the Korea Times website have been helpful...

한복 (Hanbok)

Christopher and I got a chance to dress up in traditional Korean clothing (hanbok) this past weekend. We went to a soiree at a traditional Korean house (hanok) where they had dozens of different hanboks to choose from. The brightly colored hanboks are not as common as they once were but are still worn to traditional ceremonies or during special holidays. I opted for the bridal look - many Korean brides wear a jokduri (the little cap) during their traditional wedding ceremony. Chris is wearing a dopo (the bright blue overcoat) and a gat (the hat). It was fun to dress up for awhile, especially because we will not be dressing up for Halloween this year.


Here Christopher is wearing the king's everyday clothes. This hanbok is marked with a dragon on the chest. This pose is extremely common among Koreans; whenever you reach for or give something away you either use two hands or one hand supported by the other. We assumed that this was a sign of respect but have learned that it began when people had to hold back their oversized sleeves on their hanboks. These sleeves were used as a sort of pocket to hold scrolls and other items.


We are quite the colorful group!

Illiterate

I don't know at what point it happens, but learning to read is one of the greatest blessings in life. To communicate through written word is unlike anything else. Scratch a pattern of markings onto a surface and another person with a code to your pattern can decipher the message's contents in their entirety. Simply Amazing.

There is one very important key to it all. Someone else must know the combination to your pattern code, otherwise your scratch is nothing more than a chicken's.

Why is this relevant? Hangul. Hangul, Korean language, is a pattern that Lauren and I are in the process of unlocking. "Learning a new language" is a nice term, however I prefer "code busting". "Learning a new language" to me sounds difficult, but the feeling I have trying to understand Hangul isn't that it is difficult, rather that it appears to be a daunting task that discourages me before I begin, but if I bust the code to that, my oh my, the relief I will have.

There are a few things working in our favor though. First, we're hungry. Go to a restaurant when you're hungry, open a menu, and read this: 김치 김밥. Oh, what's wrong? Don't know how to say it? Bummer...how are the hunger pains coming along?

Exactly -- Motivation #1

We've also heard that Hangul is wonderful once you learn it because it is very easy and logical. It isn't like the Chinese's Mandarin with a different symbol for every word. Rather, it is a phonetic alphabet similar to English. Not only that, the written word is broken into syllables (could be very help for those pesky pictionary games -- 1 or 2 syllables?).

So far we have learned a little bit. We are getting to the point where we can begin to sound out words very, vuh, ehh, rrr, eee, sss, sslll, oooo, slowww, llll, eeee, slowly, slowly! Very slowly!! (See how exciting it is?? Am in Earth class?) We know most of the letters and know it is written in syllable blocks left to right, top to bottom.

Syllable blocks??

Take Bulgogi (one of, if not our #1, favorite dish so far in Korea).



Bulgogi has three syllables. Written in Hangul: 불고기

First syllable Bul. B = ㅂ , U = ㅜ , L = ㄹ , organized into a block 불
Second syllable go. G = ㄱ , O = ㅗ , organized into the block 고
Third syllable gi (pronounced like gee(k)), G = ㄱ, i =ㅣ, organized into the block 기
So, brought together with all three syllables 불고기.

Hopefully that makes sense and wasn't too confusing. It goes (obviously) a little deeper than that, but unless you want to team up with Lauren and I and take Hangul head on, I'll stop there.

Another thing. You might be wondering to yourself or aloud "Well, that's great you can sound out a word, but what good does that do you without knowing the meaning?"

Well now, that depends on how hungry you are (we've tried some interesting things so far... WHO KNOWS what they were?!)

We recently found out from a friend and co-worker, Molly, that a University here offers multiple levels of Hangul classes every Saturday for a few hours for virtually nothing (1000 won = 71 cents right now with the current exchange rate). So hopefully we will be starting the beginners course here shortly. I am so glad I am not doing it alone.

"The man who finds a wife finds a treasure and receives favor from the LORD" Proverbs 18:22