Interactions

Hello again everyone! Today I'm going to be posting about my interactions with people in South Korea: difficulties, breakthroughs, and learning.

When I first entered the country, the language barrier presented itself very fast. I had difficulty understanding people, whether it was due to a lack of mutual language understanding or me misinterpreting their hand gestures. What I've realized from being in a non-English language country is that gesticulation (or body language) becomes the major means of communications. The unfortunate part is my difficulty at interpreting this body language - I'm optimistic I will improve at this however!

There have been a few times where I've talked to Koreans that know English. These cases are very exciting, and typically I learn the most when talking to these people. For example, the Seoul National University students that we are working with are very interesting to talk to and I always enjoy eating lunch with a couple of them after class. Having somebody to translate is also invaluable; because we are friends with these SNU students, they can take us to places that non-touristy and help interpret our surroundings for us. As a result, us American students can experience more of the true Korean lifestyle and better understand the culture we are immersed within.

Overall, interactions in South Korea have been quite interesting and each and every conversation is different. While there are many times in which an attempt at communication results in nothing, there are other times in which breakthroughs are made through repeated hand gestures and basic language. In general, I feel welcome within South Korea and am very excited to continue interacting with new people.