trials and errors

A few Sundays ago, we decided to go to the school to order some pizza and play some games after church. We usually have a few Korean speakers among our group when we hang out, but this time it was just a bunch of Americans. So, I was nominated to order some pizza over the phone. Normally, ordering pizza isn't a big deal because it doesn't take a very high level of vocabulary to do it and a lot of the words you use in English you can sub in and the Korean speakers still understand. Well, I had never ordered to the school address before, and since addresses don't really mean that much in Korea anyhow, you sometimes have to explain the area that you're in, too. So, I did this and finally got across where we were. To make the ordering harder, though, I had to read off a string of numbers from Jason's discount card to the lady over the phone and then I had to ask what pizzas they had since we didn't have a menu. All of this over the phone was beginning to wear me out, but I guess it was just as hard on the lady I was talking to, because she finally asked "Isn't there a person there who speaks Korean well?" I just laughed and said there wasn't, but what I really wanted to say (if I were this fluent) was "Do you think I would put myself through all this if there was a better Korean speaker here?" Anyhow, we did get the pizzas and the discount, so all was well.

I have a Happy Point card that I give the cashier at Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins, and Paris Baguette. I've been saving up my points over the past year and now I have enough to get a small ice cream cake or about five ice cream cones for free. So, I thought I would start using it a few weeks ago since I won't be in the country much longer. Well, I didn't know that you could save points on your card without it being registered. So, I tried to use it and the lady told me that first I need to call the number on the back of the card and register it. I finally got around to doing that this morning, and it was a success! I had to listen to the menu in Korean and then choose the right number twice, then I got a real person. When I got a person, I asked her if, by chance, she spoke English. She said, she didn't, so I told her I wanted to register my card. She asked for my card number, then my alien registration number, then my address, then she told me it was ready to use! Success! This time, I wasn't asked if there was someone around who could speak Korean well, so I'll chalk it up as a mark of improvement.