-“Ok, yeah-,” “Yeah, ok,” “Yeah right-,” “Right-, yeah.” The interjections come at mixed pace and sometimes at odd moments. They think they’re using discourse markers but it’s more like discourse confusers. I’ve had three of these conversations now, they leave me giggling, but they leave my friend with his head reeling trying to understand some part of the bending winding conversation. They don’t mean to sound condescending, they really don’t. It’s just the difficulty with the language. It always leaves a humor impression.
Like the previous conversation, I had with them, where they explained a single occupancy apartment would be too small for two people, yet a two bedroom apartment would be too big. You could almost hear them saying, ‘yeah, don’t get too comfortable, we wouldn’t want you to feel at home now.’ But the truth is, it’s the communication barrier. I don’t think they mean 40% of what they say or at least not the way it’s said.
Nonetheless, “yeah, ok,” it’s set, Daejeon it is. A city of about 1.5 million in central southern Korea. I leave soon. Three weeks or so is the count, “right-,yeah.” I really have no idea what awaits me, I mean, if this is a precursor to the world of misunderstanding there, I may become a mute. I was talking with my friend who is also going to the small city of misunderstanding, he pointed out that ‘ebullient’ is out the window. “We can’t use any big words,” he said. I thought about. It’s the one thing I’ve been accused of since middle school, so it’s part of me I have to leave behind. Then I had an epiphany. Maybe, I thought, once I’m there in the city of misunderstanding, and to aid my transition from here to there, I start using nickel words instead of twenty-five cent ones, I’ll come to that certain clarity of a child, and perhaps I’ll come to understand myself, or least what comes out of my mouth. “Yeah, right,” that would never happen, “yeah, ok.”
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