Ok-Su-Su

"Turbo Man"

After 9 months here I've finally decided on a Korean name: "Ok-Su-Su." It means corn, and it's fitting because an Englishman in town named Jack wrongly assumed I'm from a corn farm in Iowa and constantly calls me "Corn Fed Erik."

Jack, my name is not corn fed Erik. My name is Ok-Su-Su. So why do I need a Korean name? Because I'm jealous my students get English names. Even the guy who helps people cross the street is known as "Turbo Man." I also needed a Korean name for the recently founded Uljin Korean Club. K-Club is a secret off-shoot of the already well established English Club. It's so secretive that I'm putting it on the internet. 

To gauge interest for K-Club, I sent out an email to a few friends in town, but after pressing "K" too many times I accidentally invited them to "KKK-Club." To my delight a few people responded, but it was bittersweet because they might be racist.

K-Club's few members are named Jack, Vinny, and Nashwin. Oh and Ok-Su-Su.

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The best way I can describe Jack is by summarizing our last basketball game together. We were casually playing when two young Korean kids asked to join us. The game was running smoothly, until Jack scored and punched the basketball towards one of the kids, hitting him in the face and knocking his glasses off. Jack gave the ball back to the boy, then immediately proceeded to steal it from him and drive in for another lay-up. After scoring again, he tossed the ball in the same boy's direction and again hit him in the head. The Korean boy surprisingly recovered and tried to take a shot, but Jack used his 2-foot height advantage to reject him. A celebratory fist pump followed. All of this happened in less than a minute. The kids were maybe 14? Jack is 28.

I wish I took this photo. At least I get to look at that face on a weekly basis.

The best way I can describe Vinny is that his business email address is "HongKongFury."

Vinny. Or "Binny" as most Koreans call him.

The best way I can describe Nashwin is by instead describing professional golfer Vijay Singh.

Nash also has an affinity for bad ideas. In the last two months he's been escorted out of a South Korean military base for trespassing, and stranded overnight on a mountain.

It wasn't on purpose, but Korean Club is turning out to be the exact opposite of English Club. We meet on Thursday mornings, English club meets on Thursday nights. Korean Club meets at 1st Coffee, English Club meets one building away at Uljin's other popular coffee shop, ToPresso.

ToPresso's owner Danny is a very friendly man, but I also love the hard working ladies of 1st Coffee. My only complaint is their unusually small toilet. 

Actual Size.

It's my hope that K-Club pushes me to learn more about the culture and language driving my experience here. In attempt to get more in touch with the culture, I self-assigned some homework: go to more public bath houses. On my last visit I was surrounded by men reading laminated, water-proof newspapers. In attempt to further grasp the language, Vinny and I stopped speaking English to each other. It's improving our lingual skills but our friendship is deteriorating.

I'm not sure what will happen when English Club and Korean Club find out about each other, but I'm curious to see which language is exchanged.