Job-sayo!

That’s what Koreans say when they answer the phone. A few weeks ago, when I went to Seoul for the evening, I met a Korean man at a dance club. He introduced himself by coming up to me, taking my gin and tonic out of my hand, and replacing it with a beer. Our language abilities (his English, my Korean) were probably about equal. We had a fun night dancing. Our conversation, however, was somewhat limited. This is what I learned. I’m American, he’s Korean. He lives in Seoul, I live in Daegu. He’s 36, I’m 33. That’s about it. But, at the end of the night, he asked for my phone number. I kept telling him I live in Daegu (3 hours from Seoul). But he wanted my phone number anyway. So I wrote it down on a book of matches. How cliche, right?

So today, as I’m returning home from the gym, the phone rings. I hurry to take off my shoes and rush to answer the phone (no answering machine). Hello? Hello? “Jobsayo . . .” Oh, jobsayo . . . “[very fast Korean phrase] Lori?” Lori immnida. . . This is Lori. I recognized his voice. And thought to myself, “This is going to be interesting.” I give him credit, though. He was very patient. He repeated his phrases many times. The only one I understood was “Where are you?” At home. In Daegu. To everything else, I responded in Korean, “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand.” Yet, at the end of the conversation, he said, “Call again?” Sure. Yes. Though I thought to myself, “Only, I hope you wait a month or two so maybe I’ll have a chance of understanding anything that you say to me. . . .”