My First Foreign Interface

Anxiety and excitement. These feelings immediately struck me when our instructor, Mr. Jayson Patalinghug, informed us about our activity for the day(Jan.7,2012). And yes, it is to have our first foreign encounter, but not just ordinary foreigners, they are Koreans. Yes, Koreans. We all know that they are one of those few who has this fair-white skin and lovely faces which some of us are envy of. But, enough of that. Anyway, I felt anxious of what would happen in that activity. I was worried that my performance will not be what they expect from me. That my language will be corrected knowing that they are from outside the country and are here to study English. At the same time, I felt excited, since it would be my first time to have a real conversation to a foreign one. Mixed feelings rumbled inside me. But, still I thought of positive things about the activity. Eric was the guy I was assigned to talk to. Yu Ji Woong is his Korean name. He's six-feet tall(I guess!) and his eyes are cute. When we started our conversation, the mixed feelings I felt began to fade. My expectation about him and his classmates was somewhat wrong. Knowing that they are here to study English, English language acquisition is maybe hard for them especially, now that they are grown-ups. When he started to talk, I found it hard to understand him. He struggled speaking in English but, still he tried his best to be understood of the things he tried to tell me. As we talked for minutes, I felt confident and comfortable. We exchanged details about ourselves and I found out some things about him. He's 23 years young and was born on 2nd of Dec. 1988. He's a 1st year Civil Engineering student in Chong Yang College in South Korea. He takes up that course in his own choice. They are five in the family. His mother is a housekeeper but I think he meant housewife. He has two brothers and the older one is in Manila and is studying. It's his 3rd time in our country, actually. He was here for vacation on his first time. He doesn't do recreational activity that much. When he's vacant, he spend most of his time with the computer. He's not fun of surfing the internet, rather he's fun of playing online games. He sometimes go out and hang-out with his friends. They drink and swim a little. His favorite food is fried chicken. And that was shocking because I was expecting it would be a Korean dish. Blue is his favorite color. His favorite actress is Kim Tae Hee, whom I do not know. There are lots of things I asked him but, he must have misunderstood some of my questions. Sadly, he was not able to answer some of my questions, too. I believe it was hard for him to understand and there are things that I also found difficult to understand on his words. But it was okay. At least we got to know each other. Knowing a person like him and his classmates is a rare thing. I felt glad that we are chosen for that activity. I realized that acquiring the English language is a bit hard for them. I realized, being an English teacher is not easy especially, when you're teaching a foreign one. I was thinking that it must be a bit difficult for an English teacher to teach alone and without knowledge of their mother tongue. I'm still looking forward of knowing Eric and his friends. Me and my classmates are excited for our next meeting! Sarang hom ni da Korean friends :D