Surviving as a Real Adult and My Thoughts on Language

Without a doubt, my parents’ bed is the best in the house. The mattress is not too soft, not too hard. The sheets are silky and cool. And currently the various multi-sized pillows are perfectly cushioning my sore back muscles–the aftermaths of throwing myself into a twirling handstand during capoeira (or trying to).

My entire family left just this morning for a Europe trip–my sister and brother’s graduation gift, college and high school respectively–and I have received a gift of my own. Two weeks of alone time.

And so, I find myself sprawled on my parents’ bed, playing Taylor Swift so loudly no burglar will dare think this is an empty house and coordinating a meal prep date with some friends.

Living Alone Takes Practice

Living alone. It’s something I haven’t done since graduating college two and a half years ago. Clearly, it’s something that requires practice. What I mean is, as of the early afternoon, today all I’ve eaten is a pint of ice cream (to my mom who is reading this: don’t worry! I have since eaten quite well).

Luckily, eating isn’t going to be much of a problem this weekend! Somewhat out of the ordinarily my social calendar is popping. To the point that I had to turn down a tantalizing all-you-can-eat-sushi invitation! It’s at moments like these that I wonder why I’m prone to loneliness…

Here’s my meal itinerary for this weekend:

• Thursday – dinner at Shake Shake post-capoeira
• Friday – dinner + grocery-shopping trip with a friend concerned for my welfare
• Saturday – a friend’s baby shower (proof that aging isn’t a joking matter after all and I am closer to real adulthood than I realized)
• Sunday – brunch with friends, followed by a meal-prepping hangout with a friend concerned for my welfare. Very excitingly, this friend is Korean which means this is not just a meal-prepping endeavor, but an opportunity to add a couple Korean dishes to my repertoire!

Tangent Alert! Learning a Language = Learning a Culture

From Korean singers to hat wearing to food to personal color analysis, my Korean-learning journey has given me a new appreciation for how intricately language is tied to culture.

Learning a language has truly been an immersive experience. Not least because I’m learning to cook some Korean dishes this Sunday!

I never quite got this experience with French because I learned it when I was little. French was always just in my head. It was never attached to anything external. I didn’t have to look beyond myself to find French.

Korean on the other hand, only existed externally. I had to go out to find it. Where? Korean culture–and the actual country of Korea!

From Korean singers to hat wearing to food to personal color analysis, my Korean-learning journey has given me a new appreciation for how intricately language is tied to culture.

I guess you can see it in English, with how each country has their own variation of English. The British say mate, Americans say pal (or do they?). The Australian and American definition of thongs is definitely different. But if you ask me what this has to do with culture, I couldn’t tell you. It just seems like little flukes in the evolution of language. Perhaps I’m too close to English to see its implications on culture.

Hierarchy in the Korean Language

Either way, in speaking Korean, the culture imposes itself on you. Most notably the age hierarchy structure.

Not only are there different word endings depending on how polite you want to be, words are actually different depending on who you are talking about. My house vs my grandfather’s house. You can’t use the same word for “house.” There’s a more respectful word for the house of someone above you in either age or station.

I’m aware of people’s “positions” relative to me in a way that I’m not when I speak English. But it’s not necessarily a bad thing!

For example, I always thought English should have more words for “friend.” Is my friend who is 15 years older than me and was a mentor when I was an undergraduate the same as my friend who is a year or two younger than me who I lived with in a field station? Perhaps they’re the same in closeness level, but the word friend doesn’t point out the context. Korean does. There are words like “older/younger sister/brother,” “older classmate,” “aunt” that distinguish your relationship with a certain person.

Stopping this Tangent in Its Tracks

Anyways, this blog post is getting totally derailed (if there ever was a rail) and I should save this discussion for its own blog post.

What’s my point? Right, living alone.

It’s day 2 (because yes, it takes a while to write these posts) and so far so good. If I can say the same at the end of these two weeks, then operation Buy-a-Condo-as-soon-as-interest-rates-drop is a-go!

Not too sure how I’ll do that since I just quit my second job, but as my mother–who I’m sure is still worried I’m not eating well in spite of, or perhaps because of this post–always says, we’ll cross that bridge once we get there.

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