화장실 어디에 있어요

화장실 어디에 있어요 pronounced in English hwajangshil udeae essuyo means 'Wheres the bathroom?'  Im sure as many of you know they speak a different language here in Korea.  Kinda the only reason im here.  So ive decided that it will be helpful to learn as much Korean as I can.  You know the necessities.  Like wheres the bathroom?

About a month after living here i decided i had to at least learn how to read the language.  It really doesnt take that long and is quite helpful.  There are many "konglish" words in Korea.  Basically, words that have been changed from English to Korean.  They can sound very different sometimes but its the same thing.  For example, 카드 or caaduh is card.  To explain why its caaduh would take way to long and it doesnt really matter but the words are similar and if u can read it ur off to a good start. 

Anyway, about a week ago i started doing a language exchange.  I go to this coffee shop type place and they have FREE beer.  There are other foreigners paired up with koreans there too.  So I was paired up with a korean who is already pretty good at English but wants to get better at speaking, and then they teach me Korean.  In Korea the focus for learnin English is writing, reading, and listening because it is much easier to test those.  Because of that many Koreans can understand English and can read/write it for the most part but speaking is hard because they were never really forced to do it.  Anyway, my partners name is Elli.  Shes also a English teacher but she teaches little kids.  Shes a little older than me and is very kind and wonderful.  I meet with her twice a week for about 2 hrs and then after that there is a social time.  During social time you can just go around and talk with anybody to get to know them.  Most of the convos are in English but some people use a lil Korean too.

My first week Elli taught me how to count money and ordering food at a restaurant along with a few helpful words thrown in.  We meet Tuesday/Thursday so she teaches me words on Tuesday and then I practice and she will test me Thursday.  Elli is so wonderful that she made fake money that we could practice with...too nice.  But yes as of right now I can count money and understand when people tell me how much things cost.  Also, I have gotten decent at ordering at restaurants and bars.

Not sure how far ill take this learning Korean thing but as of right now, Im really enjoying the challenge.  Am i pretty terrible at it?  Of course.  But slowly I am gettin better at pronuncing the words and i can every once in a while hear words and think "I know what that means...I think."

Anyway, 안녕 yall