Shine Seoul City Lights~ A BTS Encounter

Um, Yes, I Don't Speak Korean.

    Namjoon came to my room about twenty minutes after my dance session with Jungkook and Hoseok.  He knocked softly, and I looked up from my phone, which I was using and charging at the same time.  I walked over and opened the door, smiling when I saw him.

    "Annyeong-haseyo!"  I said happily.  

    "How was your dance lesson?"  He asked.  Oh my lord, it felt soo good to have someone speak proper english to me.  I didn't have to spend an extra ten seconds trying to figure out what the heck they were trying to say.  

    "Great!"  I answered.  "I learned part of Boy in Luv."

    "Nice."

    I stood and waited for him to deliver whatever news he came to deliver.  He thought for a second, and then gestured out in the hallway behind him.  "I'm gonna teach you some Korean.  The boys and I thought it would be the best if I did, since I can speak fluent English too."

    "Okay."  I said, grabbing my phone and following him out of the room.

    We walked into the kitchen and sat down next to each other on two of the chairs around the table.  Namjoon had carried some things I hadn't noticed before; a small whiteboard and two Expo markers, a notebook, and another book, whose cover was filled with Korean letters.  He put these on the table and began to write some Korean letters on the board.  He pointed to what looked like the left half of an A.  

    Now I noticed that there were two cameras facing towards us, one on the table in front of me, which I'd seen before, and one on the counter of the kitchen.  Both were on.  Farther away, there were more cameras pointing towards the kitchen.  Man, they had a lot of cameras here.

    "This makes an 'ah' sound."  he said.  

    We went through the rest of the vowel alphabet; ah, yah, aoh, yaoh, oh, yoh, oo, yoo, ee, and eu.  I learned that whenever there was a vowel by itself on a character, it came after a circle, which was silent.  When the circle was underneath a vowel, it became a 'ng' sound.  Korean had two different alphabets, called Hangul.  You needed a part of both alphabets to create an actual word.  It basically took me an hour to remember all of the vowel characters.  I also learned that -ah and -ee put together made the ae sound.  -oh and -ee put together made an eh sound.  This was all really fascinating.

    Namjoon and I spent half an hour reviewing, and he decided to move onto the consonant alphabet.  I practiced writing each character carefully in the notebook, labeling it, and then repeating.  Namjoon watched me, saying that my handwriting was pretty decent.  Then he said the thing that I had been waiting for during the past hour and a half.  

    "I'm gonna teach you some words now."

    I didn't even conceal my excitement.  "Yah!"  I said, punching my fist into the air.  "Lesgo!"

    He taught me how to write annyeong-haseyo.  I learned that annyeong was just used for familiar, or people younger than me.  In a lot of words, you added -yo to make it formal.  For example, saranghae (I love you) would be saranghae-yo.  I would use saranghae-yo if I was talking to my parents or someone maybe five years older than me.

    "A lot of the time though," Namjoon added, "If you're gonna say 'I love you' to someone, other than your parents, you don't have to add the -yo at the end.  You probably wouldn't be saying 'I love you' to a stranger.  At least I hope so."

    I laughed, and motioned for him to continue.  "I'll teach you how to say: 'I don't know Korean very well."  He said.  "Hanguk mal chael mothhaeo."  He taught me how to write this.

    "Hangul is the written language.  Hanguk is what we call the spoken language.  Mothhaeo is saying that you don't know how to do something.  Therefore, Hanguk mal chal mothhaeo."

    "Got it."  I practiced this until I could remember how to write it properly.

    Namjoon showed me the little book he had brought.  "Korean Basics."  It said.  He told me that I should maybe do about five pages every night, if not more, but no less.  I nodded.  Okay.  I could do that.  Then he gave me a printed page of korean words.  Lyrics?

    "This is a song that Jungkook sang for a performance once.  I don't know if you like to sing, or what, but I want you to try reading the lyrics."  I took it from him.

    "Yeah, I like singing."  I said.

    Then I read down the page.  그녀가 떠나가요.  It read.  

    "G..." I started.  "Geunyeoga ttonagayo."  I said, looking up at Namjoon.

    He was smiling happily.  "It means, 'she is leaving'."

    I grinned back at him.  This was absolutely amazing.  I could actually read korean now.  It took me three hours of immense concentration, but I could do it!  I read the title, which was in English.  

"If you?"  I asked.  He nodded.  "Cool."

나는 아무것도 할 수 없어요.  "Naneun amugeotdo hal su eopsoyo?"

"-O!"  Namjoon said.  "You're doing really well.  I guess it helped that you had some Korean friends?"

"Neh."  I answered.  "They taught me some random things."

"Like what?"  he asked.

"Isaramdeul ishanghae."  Namjoon barked a laugh that startled me so much I jumped two inches off my chair.

"Your friends taught you how to say: 'those people are weird?'"

"Yeah."  I said, a little sheepishly.  "I mean," I continued, growing defensive.  "Who knows when I would need it?  There are a few situations where I would!"

"I guess that's true.  I'll teach you another one."  Namjoon said.  "This is one that Taehyung usually likes teaching people, but I'll show it to you."

He wrote some korean letters in my notebook and I read it out loud slowly.  "Ji-min-ie pa-bo-- ah!"

"What?"

"I know what that means, Namjoon!  You can't trick me into saying that to Jimin."

"What does it mean then?"

"It means that Jimin is stupid or dumb.  C'mon Namjoon, it's a basic thing, of course I would know it."

Namjoon laughed again, and I couldn't stop myself from grinning.  This was probably a classic thing for him to do to foreigners.  Ah, I was glad I already knew what pabo meant.  At that moment Jin walked into the kitchen, and I gave a little cough to mask my rumbling stomach.  What time was it?  Twelve?   

"Annyeong-haseyo,"  I said, standing up and bowing my head.

Mianhae for the rediculously boring update; I'm not having much time to write.  Also this is my first story, so if anyone has any suggestions for me I'll really take them into account!