The Master and Student Relationship.

One, hot summer, Friday afternoon the Co-master and I sat together for 1 whole hour.  We had finished negotiating payment for the month at the end of which, she told me that she wanted our relationship to continue as a Master and Student relationship, instead of an Employer/Employee relationship. 
I could see both sides of why she said this to me.  On the first side, she didn't want me to expect any extra payment for any of the extra hours I spent there or for any of the extra work I did for them.  And on the other hand I could see that she wanted to keep our relationship the same as it has been for the past 8 years.  Knowing her, I would actually expect that the first reason is more valid than the second. 

However, in that one hour, she demonstrated a genuine effort to spend time with me as her student instead of as her employee.  We shared a refreshing bowl of Pat Bing Soo (bean fruit soup) a Korean, summertime favorite of cooked and sweatened red beans, sliced kiwis, strawberrys, grapes, and blueberrys, vanilla ice cream, milk, and crushed ice.  While eating together, she painfully labored her English to its limits to tell me all about what it looks like in Korea, how the city is, and what life is like there.  Though it was hard to understand, I hung on her every word; drinking it up like the delicious Pat Bing Soo in front of me. 

[I will summarize what she told me here, in plain English so you can understand and appreciate it just as much as I did]:
In Korea, it is like a big city.  Lots of tall buildings and bright lights everywhere you look.  Technology is far more advanced than what we are use to here.  Here we still click,  push buttons, and select icons, whereas there, the majority of the technology is touch screen and automated.  She talked about the busses, because over there very few people drive.  Nobody counts out change, they all have prepaid passes and the scanners are sensitive enough to read through clothing; everyone just keeps their pass in their hip pocket and hipchucks the sensor to get on the bus. 

Young people stay with their families until they get married, which is typically not until their mid-30s.  Parents pay for everything and encourage their children to have as much fun as possible while they are young and single.  The Co-master explained that while she was in college in Korea, she would go out every night with her friends, to the movies, to the markets, shopping or just hanging out. 

The immediate families are a tight unit and the church body is just as much tight.  Every Sunday, they go to church and after service they all eat together a full course meal cooked by different women in turn.  Koreans believe that once a couple is married, they are forever together and divorce is severely frowned upon.  They also place a high value on loyalty.  The Master and his family once housed someone who was in the process of moving from Korea; they provided him with a car to use and a cell phone as well, and he promised to find his own place soon as his family came.  One month after his family came the Co-master realized that the man had not even started looking or saving for a place of his own and was just planning to stay there for free as long as possible.  Needless to say, the Master's were unhappy about this and the relationship did not last much longer. 

I sat in complete silence as the Co-master explained, thought to herself, and muddled through her English about her times in Korea and about how it has been for her, here in America.  These are the times when I consider myself lucky to work/spend the majority of my life in a place where I can learn about a different culture and a different styles of living.

Until next time...

Ahn- Yung- Hah Seoh

You know I barely understand you in person right??? Well... It's WAY WORSE one the phone!!!!

Ahn- Yung- Ha-Seo,

So I believe I've already mentioned that I only work Monday and Tuesdays now at (now called) "Only One American Staff Member- And if You Want to Speak With Her, You Better Make An Appointment- Martial Arts". Just in case I haven't mentioned it before, which I'm sure I did, I only work Mondays and Tuesdays now.  Well, I knew this would be a difficult adjustment for both myself and the Masters, so in the months leading up to the start of my new work hours, I set appointments and warned most of the parents that I would only be around on either a Monday or a Tuesday and that I would be bouncing between studios so it would be difficult to get a hold of me. 

On that first week I, took care of EVERYTHING that needed to be done.  I spoke with every parent and finished all the little things I normally do during the week in the two days that I worked, and left with confidence that mostly everything would be fine as long as the Co-Master didn't panic and RE-DO everything I had set into motion.  (She actually did this went I went on Vacation for 1 week in the summer). 

And so it was FINALLY here, my first Wednesday off in months: I took a nice long shower, cleaned my room, brought lunch to my dad at his work, went for some long needed retail therapy, covered the last 2.5 hours at my dad's store, and got started on a new project that I'd been wanting to do for a really long time.  Then, to my complete indignation, my phone rings at 6:30pm with the co-Master's caller ID; feeling obligated, and slightly guilty for abandoning them, I answered the phone. 

"Yes Ma'am" I say because hello and goodbye are non-existent in her phone conversations. 

"Sah-Boo-Ree-Nah,  Mechew pemily Hah-Goh." (Sabrina, Matthew family [some Korean word she uses after almost everything])comes her voice through my phone, extremely muphled by all the background noice that never seems to bother her. 

"Who?" I say because I have no idea what she said after my name.

"Mechew peh-mily" she says more slowley but still the same amount of unclear as she was before.

"WHO?" I say, completely annoyed because we can barely understand eachother in person, I wish she wouldn't bother calling me because, on the phone it's WAY WORSE.

"Mechew Peh-mily, E-ri-ja-bet, Tah-bi-ta..." she says as she names the children in the family.

"OH!!!!.. ok I know... why?" I ask.

"Uh, Contract-uh- phinish-eh, sign-up?" she aks (if they have finished the sign-up process with the contract)

"Yes ma'am" I say

"How'-suh phay-mont?" she asks (how will they pay?)

"Done" I say

"Done?" she says

"Yes Ma'am, phi-ni-she." I say ;)

"Ok goo' jah" she says (ok Good Job) and hangs up. 

If you didn't understand what I wrote above.... its not your fault cause I barely understood it myself.  ;)  But so goes the fallback occupation of a college graduate who STILL doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up.

Until next time-

Gal-Keh-Oh!!