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| 'Thank You' Is 'Gomapsupnida in Korean' |
| A Korean countryman meets a French family |
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Song Sung-young (internews)  |
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Published 2006-07-25 19:08 (KST) |
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 | |  Claire Ulrich and her son, Lou. | | | ©2006 Song Sung-young | | My telephone rang. It was a foreigner speaking English.
"I am at the inter-city bus terminal in Gongju."
I guess that she probably said something like this. Despite my poor English, I could manage to get the point of this simple sentence. Do you want to know how I answered? I told her, "Please wait for me there. I will come to you within 30 minutes."
I know that my English is not better than a middle school student in the 1970s in Korea. But, we understood each other on the phone somehow. About 20 minutes later, I met this "foreigner" at the bus terminal.
Although speaking English to me, she was French. Her name was Claire Ulrich, and she was with her son, Lou. I had met them before in the OhmyNews International Citizen Reporters' Forum 2006 earlier this month.
I picked them up without getting lost!
On the last day of the OhmyNews Forum, I gave a speech about my family stories. I think that Claire got interested in my stories about my livelihood as a farmer and writer. She wanted to see how my family could manage our daily lives although we earn such small money and do not even have a cellphone.
It was her first trip to Korea. She must have had many other interesting places to visit. But, she wanted to spend one day in my house. I thanked her for her request. In spite of our language barriers and difficulties in communication, I invited her to visit my house anytime when she could make it. As promised, she came and called me at the bus terminal.
Claire is 48 years old, one year older than me. She was brave enough to make a trip to a small, remote town in Korea without an interpreter, although she knew about my poor English abilities. Honestly, I can barely speak English at all.
On the way home, Claire and I tried to make conversation: "It is still raining." "We will arrive at my house in 10 minutes." "My wife speaks English better than me." Things like that.
I believed that our communication could improve once getting back home. My wife received scholarships throughout her four years in college. Therefore, I trusted her English abilities.
But, once confronting the reality, she was not so helpful either. Anyway, she prepared herself with a Korean-English dictionary and was a bit better in communicating with Claire than me.
Childish English vs. 'Frenglish'
 | | | Claire Ulrich and the author communicated with each other using an Internet interpretation site. | | | ©2006 Song Sung-young | | Claire wanted to interview my family and to write an article about us in an agriculture newspaper where she regularly writes. I also suggested that I would write an article about their visit to OhmyNews.
In fact, during our conversations, she spoke English mixed with French. Her son, a tall young man with long hair, seemed to enjoy watching two people with language barriers trying hard to understand and be understood by each other.
I managed to ask her some simple questions, but could not understand her answers. Then, she searched the Internet and found a Web site that helps with translation. We typed English and Korean words in the web-translation machine, and communicated that way.
Claire has written a few articles for OhmyNews International. She is a newspaper and broadcast journalist in a small city in France, with 20 years of experience. Her main interest is agriculture.
She published a book about agriculture, and gave me a copy of it as a gift. I also gave her my book. After exchanging the books which we would not be able to read, we excitingly looked at photos in the books, instead.
18-year-old Lou, finishes two bowls of rice
 | | | On the left, Lou, Claire's son, ate two bowls of rice, despite our humble lunch of bean stew and vegetables. | | | ©2006 Song Sung-young | | We prepared lunch with our normal dishes. Claire and Lou looked happy when they saw fresh vegetables grown in my garden and spicy bean stews.
They particularly liked lettuce. I explained to them that the soybean paste, which we ate together with the lettuce, was a type of fermented food. They told me that the beans tasted very good. Lou finished two bowls of rice with bean stew and vegetables. He is 18 years old and studies space science at his university.
After lunch, I showed them our garden and heaps of organic manure. She suggested that I could open a home-stay business and provide organic vegetables for guests. I wanted to answer, "We just like our nice guests to visit and stay with us. Our guests and we thank each other. But, if we opened a business, we may not feel thankful with our guests anymore because we would make money through their visits. I feel comfortable with my current ways of living."
But, being shy, I just smiled at her instead of speaking. She responded with a smile as well.
We took a few photos in my vegetable garden, and returned to my house. Then, we listened to my son In-hyo play the sogeum (a Korean traditional bamboo flute) and Lou's acoustic guitar. Lou is a skillful guitarist.
Warm, French style greeting: gently rubbing cheeks
 |  | | | Lou playing the guitar. He is a natural. | | | ©2006 Song Sung-young | In the evening, we went to a Buddhist temple at Gyeryong Mountain, located 10 minutes from my house. Claire and Lou were very interested in Korean temples and Taekwondo (Korean martial arts). We had our dinner in a dining room at the temple. Our French guests were very curious about what they were seeing because it was their first visit to a traditional temple in Korea.
After looking around the temple in the rain, we returned to my house. The Ulrich family was planning to leave for Daejeon early in the morning and to visit Pulguksa (a Buddhist temple) in Gyeongju later. They were also scheduled to travel to Japan by ship from Busan. We had a nice conversation until late in the evening despite the language barrier.
When we brought them to their hotel nearby the inter-city bus terminal, they invited us for a beer. My wife and I suggested that we invite them because they were our guests who had come such a long distance. But they insisted they would pay.
I brought them to a convenience store near the bus terminal. We finished one beer and one soft drink each, and said "good-bye."
Claire asked my wife to do this in the French way. She hugged my wife and kissed on her cheeks. Lou also rubbed his cheeks on mine. His cheeks were gentle and warm.
I can summarize our meeting with one word, 'Gomapsupnida'
|  | | | My son, In-hyo, plays the korean flute. | | | ©2006 Song Sung-young | It was the time to say goodbye then. Claire asked me how we say "thank you" in Korean.
"'Thank you' is 'Go.map.sup.ni.da.'"
"'Go.map.sup,ni.da?'"
"Yes, right. Macshi Boq (Merci Beaucoup). Thank you. Gomapsupnida."
"Gomapsupnida."
"We thank you for visiting us, too."
Yes. We could summarize the meeting between the Ulrich family and my family with one word. It is "Gomapsupnida." This is the word that we most often used during our meeting.
I wonder if we will be able to meet again in the future. We promised to exchange emails, but, I guess, our family won't have a chance to meet Claire and Lou again. The French mom and son were waving at us further up the road. They were smiling. The looked like they were saying "Gomapsupnida." I also thank them for visiting me from a country far away from Korea.
I dream about a world full of love and peace; where people thank each other regardless of differences in nationality and background.
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©2006 OhmyNews
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