To have another language is to possess a second soul. Charlemagne

I received an e-mail this morning from a shiny, new friend, who shared something hugely and incredibly significant. (No, I'm not going to tell you what it was!) With just three short sentences I was left feeling impressed, awed, humbled and honoured.
It got me to thinking yet again, about that subject which is closest to every writer's heart - communication.

We writers have this foolish conviction, this hope masquerading as arrogance, that we have something worth saying. Something that someone out there will respond to. So we hone our skills and polish our words, before hurtling them into cyberspace. It's why every single one of us update our Facebook status with everything from the mundane, the bizarre and the downright random. We hope to connect, to hear, "Really?!", or better still, "Me too!"

This morning's email brought to a head something I have been mulling over for a while now. The message was so short, yet so effective that it brought me face to face with my gnawing inability to do the same in the language of my newly adopted home. For the past week in particular I have been increasingly frustrated by my lack of Korean.
Mostly because I have been measuring myself with the wrong yardstick. By that I mean that I have been comparing my current rate of learning with previous experiences in Europe - somehow managing to completely discount the fact that having learned both French and German in school, I had a whopping great head start for assimilating any European language I found myself in need of.
Nah, that would have been far too rational. Instead I was beating myself over the head with the aforementioned yardstick, telling myself that after four and a half months in any country in Europe I would be damn near fluent, not the stuttering idiot I am over here! From that perspective, my tiny cache of Korean words looks pathetically insignificant.

To the staff at my school, and various other Koreans I converse with regularly however, I am making incredibly impressive progress. Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder!
Though I deeply suspect that they are judging me not on liguistics alone but rather on my assimilation into Korean culture as a whole,
Now on that head I do feel quite proud of myself.

I can say 'Hello' in three different levels of politeness and these days automatically bow instead of shaking hands.
I know my eating and drinking etiquette and which inoffensive Western hand gestures are considered rude here.
I watch Korean dramas (fairly obsessively it must be admitted) and listen to Korean pop music - I even have my own Korean party piece for the Norae Bang!
I have started learning Tae Kwon Do and speak of my future in Korea in terms of several years rather than the standard 12 months.

I even eat the dried squid!!

All of this seems to add up to a case of my actions speaking for me when I myself cannot.

I am grateful that I can offer these gestures of good intent to my Korean colleagues; tiny acts of gratitude for their endless warmth, grace and generosity. But for an Irish girl who fattens on conversation like it was good red meat, this is a paltry consolation.

I want to speak with the women I work with - I want harmless chats about our favourite Korean actors and singers and deep, long talks about the differences and similarities of our cultures. We both come from colonised countries which were divided in civil war: add some beer and soju to that conversation and we've got ourselves an all-nighter!

In September I will begin a four month course in Korean at Ulsan University. Boy am I ever looking forward to the competence I'll have by Christmas!

Travelling to Korea has been by far the biggest adventure of my life time. I have moved entire continents beyond my comfort zone and yet landed into a state of unremitting happiness that I have never known before. The greatest cause of wonder to me is that, as deliriously happy as I am here right now - I know, that I know, that I know, this is just the beginning.

Once I have a way to fully and meaningful communicate with everyone around me.............wow! How my world here will open up!

And since you've stayed with me for the whole post - away and make a cup of tea for yourself!