Day 13- Linguistics and Language Barriers

So, today was fairly eventful. Today's post involves the last part of the experiment, a visit to COEX and a dinner with important people. Well, maybe not technically important people but important to me.

Today's linguistics experiment (the final one) involved sensors being glued and taped to various parts of my face. There were three sensors that were glued to my tongue- one at the part of the tongue which would be in line with the molars, one in the center of the tongue and the final one at the tip of my tongue. I had one sensor glue to my upper gums right above my incisors and one on my lower gums in a similar place. Finally, I had sensors taped (not glued) to my top lip and bottom lip as well as my nose. Whew. That took a lot to type and it took a lot for me to get them on.

The hardest (and first one) was the one on the back part of the tongue as I had to have my tongue almost fully extended for a few minutes. It doesn't sound that bad on paper, but when your salivary glands are trickling like a broken fire hydrant, it becomes a bit strained. After a few minutes of that, the sensor for the back of my tongue actually fell off and they had to glue it again. Mentally, after only those three or so minutes, I just was beyond using any curse words and sighed. But fortunately, it worked out alright the second time and all of the other sensors went on without any complications. Here's a picture of me with only the sensors.

Now did I mention I needed to put a helmet on as well? Oh, I did. I had probably fifteen points of headgear on my head as well as a helmet that would make Master Chief roll laughing on the ground. Here's a shot with me with all of the crap on my head at once.


Jiseng and Hyunwoong were monitoring the experiment (it was actually Hyunwoong's experiment, Jiseng was merely helping). Finally, here's a picture with me and Hyunwoong:

The experiment was pretty much the same as the others before it, except the sensors on/in my mouth allowed them to physically map my movement. It was pretty cool science, though my head felt kinda rough after having that beast of a headgear on my head for an hour and some change. However, the researchers were really nice and kind so it wasn't that bad at all. Also, the fact that I was paid W80,000 for my time there ($80 about) helped as well. :)

After that, I met up with a friend of mine: Katherine. This isn't her real name, but rather the one she took for America (I admittedly don't know her Korean name). Katherine is a year ahead of me in school and in my same major (pharmacy). She lives in Seoul but is a fulltime student at my university. She's really cool and I'm glad we were able to hang out. She took me to this facility known as COEX, which may or may not be an abbrevation for anything which is pretty much the largest shopping mall in all of Asia. And let me tell you, it was HUGE. In addition to having a load of stores (oddly enough a lot were American), it was just so vibrant and colorful.

But, thinks I to myself, I had some Korean language under my belt. I should be able to strike up some conversation with Koreans, right?

Now is the part where you laugh at my silliness.

Got it out of your system? Good. Now then, a couple things need to be considered: I'm a foreigner (which while Americans are viewed as mostly positive, I'm someone that most Koreans don't see every day), my vocabulary/phrases consist of roughly ten or so different responses (which are OH so helpful if people respond to your questions in a differeny way) and the fact that normal people in any country don't walk up to other people randomly, say "hello" and ask their name. Oh ho ho ho ho. Oy.

I was able to talk to one girl who was (judging by her uniform) probably in middle or high school in the smoothy place that Katherine took me to, but that was easier as we were both sitting. Nevertheless, she (while embarassed, though that may have been not only because I was a foreigner but an older guy talking to her) was a great person to have that slight dialogue with and this is my shout out to her right now.

I tried to talk to a few people en route back to the subway station, but they looked at me like I was trying to scam them. Which, I guess is expected. So, I was in a bit of a Catch-22 situation- I could speak some of the language, but practicing it would be incredibly awkward at the very least so improvement would be difficult.

I guess this is a long way for me saying that I can appreciate the awkwardness and weirdness people who speak English as a second language must feel in America. It was definately one of those times that you realize exactly how far outside of society you are and (this is my overactive imagination speaking) if you got into trouble or happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, how you may be in deep trouble to say the least.

After my time at COEX drew to a close, Katherine and I hopped on a subway and she got off at the first stop to make her connection. As she left, she expressed doubt that this was the correct direction that the subway was heading (for me). Rut row. I pay attention and watch the next few stops. Crap. I am going the wrong way. But Katherine had already jumped out and looking around, I wasn't sure if anyone spoke English. Fortunately, I lucked out and through English and pantomine, I realized that I was indeed going the wrong way and was told to hop out at the next stop and start heading the other direction. While this cost me around W900, it wasn't that bad of a cost and I got back to my dorm without having screwed up too badly.

For dinner, I went out with people from my university, along with people who will be coming next year. We at some steamed chicken and drank some coffee at a Starbucks of all places. It was nice to meet them and I'll go into more detail tomorrow about who they are what they are up to.

On a side note, midterms are Friday, though I only have one so far- Korean History, but I think I'll rock that one no problem. The interesting bit is after class, the university is throwing a party for all of us international students by renting a local bar named Viaerae for the night. Sounds good, right? Oh, it get better. Apparently it is free drinks for all, but there is a catch.

They are giving out cards to everyone at the party (ie spades, hearts, 9, 3, ace, etc) and as long as you go to the bar with someone else who has your same number (5, 6, jack) or suit (clubs, hearts, spades, diamonds) you can enjoy all of the alcohol that you wish. I'm pretty interested in what my card will be (not sure quite why that is) but like the idea of the cards for bonding. Should be a fantastic evening after a good week.

-Reven