Ordering Food in Korean

This moment deserves its own post.

Around lunchtime today at work, I successfully had my first full conversation in 한국어 outside the classroom.  I ordered 갈비탕 to go.  Not a word of English from the moment I stepped into the restaurant to the time I left.

I feel pretty proud of myself!  It's not my most confident of moments, unsure of my pronunciation and accent, wary if I read the Hangul correctly.  But I went for it and I did it.  I probably sounded strange but the lady was too kind to just get on with the program and actually spoke to me in Korean even though I obviously am not Korean.

There are two 한국 식당 - Korean restaurants - near my place of work which makes me so happy.  One of them is 양반설렁탕 (Yang Ban Sul Lung Tang).  I was in the mood for something warm so I decided to try this place out first for their soups.

As soon as I got in, I had second thoughts whether to practice my Korean or not.  The place was filled with ahjussis having lunch.  I stood at the door for a second and then when someone greeted me with a lively 아녕하세요, I had no second thoughts giving it back. 


Then the waitress said something in Korean.  I only picked up one word which was 여기, which means "here".  I figured she was asking me whether I'm eating "here or to go".  She repeated "여기" and I said 아니요, "No".  Therefore, I was having it to go.  ^^,

"어니, 메누는 있어요?"  (Big sister, do you have a menu?)  She smiled at my attempt and handed me the menu.  "갈비탕 주세요."  (Rib soup, please.)  She took down my order, told me how much and asked me to sit somewhere and wait.  Or at least, those were the words I picked up from what she said to me.  Then when I got it, we exchanged the one phrase I felt sure about, "감사합니다. 아녕하세요."  Bowing.

Guh, I blush whenever I recall what I did/said back there.  Aaah, I still can't believe I had the balls to do it.  Two-three months of language work and here we are!  I had a spring in my step as I made my way back to the office.  I felt really good.  The food was great also.  It had 3 kinds of 김치, which I didn't touch, some noodles to put into the soup and rice.  LOVED IT.  It is a bit pricey and there was so much food.  One day, I'll go there with a friend or my mom and we'll just share the food.

Ahhh, I just... wow.  I can see it.  I can see myself speaking the language well enough to survive going to South Korea for a holiday.  언젠가...


Song of the day: Lee Hi - It's Over.