After a wonderful evening at my favorite Irish pub with our very own Tuna (in town on naval business) here at the home port in Little Rhody (the Wayward Sailor knows the one of which I speak), I am now listening to The Missus Herself discussing the latest election with her baby sister.
In Korean.
So I'm catching perhaps one word in twenty. 'Tis been a while since I've had to resort to the language of her people, it's rusty I am. Truth be told, I never approached fluency, I knew a few strategic phrases. What little I knew I spoke very well. Very Korean sounding I was, so much so that my stock phrase of "I'm sorry, I don't speak much Korean" was always delivered well enough that my protestations of a lack of Korean were never really believed.
So I would just nod and smile. No doubt the Koreans outside of my family considered me to be some sort of genial half-wit.
Which isn't that far from the truth.
So I started the month off with this. The whole "Not my circus, not my monkeys" thing has become a very popular phrase in my vocabulary. (No, I don't know how to say that in Korean. Yet. But I am getting better at saying it in Polish. Which is kind of cool. To me at any rate. As always, YMMV.)
So a cuppla days ago, one of the valued members of the commentariat (a bear) left the following comment...
Well, turns out that the postman apparently does know who "Old AF Sarge" is, or perhaps the accurate address led the envelope to the correct destination. At any rate, a bear, package received, gave me quite a chuckle. Made my day as it were.
For the envelope contained that coin depicted in the opening photo and a funny cartoon...
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| Borrowed from Pinterest, for purely educational purposes. Of course. |
A lot.
It certainly beats talking about politics.
In any language.
To a bear, thank you very much. A very thoughtful (and most humorous) gesture.
When I boasted to The WSO of this newest acquisition, all she could say was -
"Oh no, now he's getting fan mail..."
Sigh, the progeny have turned against me...
You realize, of course, that you are now subject to following the RULES that apply to the ownership of said challenge coin, don't you?
ReplyDeleteBut of course.
Delete(I need to put those rules up over on the sidebar!)
That is a funny saying.
ReplyDeleteI am absolutely enamored of it.
DeleteHe knows the rules, as do I for when he brought it out, along with his Lex coin, and I couldn't meet his challenge, I promptly paid for the meal.
ReplyDeleteAnd a fine meal it was!
DeleteThe food AND the company.
Yes, your wife was good company! hahahahaha
DeleteHahaha!
DeleteYou rogue!
At my old profession we often had people asking questions in Spanish. Fortunately we had several multilingual employees. On one occasion I was the only person in the office when a Spanish question was asked. "Habla Espanole un poco solomente." Had the same result as your "I'm sorry, I don't speak much Korean" It did not deter the questioning in Spanish.
ReplyDelete:)
DeleteI just read your excellent post regarding language and fluency. Too true!
Looking forward to seeing the rules for releasing the monkeys
ReplyDeleteSigh...
DeleteI'll have to look those rules up.
can you give warnings in Korean, like " Look out, there are Llamas! "? Or, "Moose bites can be quite nasty! " ) ?
ReplyDeleteWow! I need to learn those. You never know when your Korean relatives and friends may be in imminent llama or moose peril! Google says -
Delete밖을 봐, 라마가 있습니다!
엘크 물기 매우 불쾌한 될 수 있습니다!
(Note that in Korean, "moose" translates to "엘크", which actually translates as "elk." So, my guess is, Koreans call moose the same thing Europeans call them, which is elk. (And we often call elk, wapiti.)
Isn't English wonderful?
Thank you, Sir!
Delete:)
DeleteGlad it brightened your day! I've had it on my cube wall for a while, but it felt like it needed a new home.
ReplyDelete(If anyone's curious, they can be bought here, although that specific one came from the author, at a convention. [By which I mean, I gave him money and he gave me a coin.] Is it a true challenge coin if the only "challenge" is having a valid form of payment?)
Thanks for that link.
DeleteYeah, I've been chuckling since I got it in the mail. Brilliant! (Sometimes the challenge is being able to find a valid form of payment!)