First Things First . . .

Chanta and I had another session with Chairman Kim. He, trying to teach us Korean, us, trying to teach him English. He was explaining which system of numbers to use for counting. We were counting items in the room. One table. Two pens. Three people. Four chairs. He then pulled out money from his pocket. First, the bills. 1,000 won. 10,000 won. Then the coins. He would place various combinations on the table. Chanta was busting out with some serious figures! As soon as he would put the coins on the table, she said the number. I was still trying to count in English, then convert to Korean. I finally asked her how she knew the answer so quickly. “You always learn the words for what is most important to you. For me, that’s money.” Hmmmmm. Almost my entire vocabulary consists of food items . . .