“When I first
saw you, I never thought that you’d be my friend like what you are right now. I
may not be expressive in what I feel but to tell you honestly, you’re one of
the best people I share my smiles with”.
Our teacher Mr. Jayson, who is
always unpredictable with his decisions of what shall we do next and has full
of surprises every time we meet for our class schedule, drop a hot potato in
front of us when he announce that we will meet 11 Korean students. Since we’re
almost half of their population, so we have to choose a partner. He explains
some rules to us to avoid negative feedback to some teachers and one of it was
not to shout or cheer when we will meet them in person. Well, I guess sir was
right when he warned us because seeing them walking from a distance was like
watching Korean actors and actresses in real life; face to face.
And so we gathered in the oval and
Mr. Jayson together with their teacher tell us to take care with them and I am
assigned to Mr. Byun-Jae-Hoon. Since they also have their own questions, they
asked us first. Their questions are common to us but not to them. Some examples
where; what is your name? Who is your mother and what she likes? Actually, I
really had a hard time understanding this question because it has another
meaning that’s why I don’t answer it. He’s having a hard time reading the
questions but he’s doing great when almost everything were answered. And so it
was my turn to ask him. Here are some of his answers and my observations about
Jay.
Byun-Jae-Hoon,
the man I met last January 7, 2012. He’s 24 years old, with one brother who is
18, parents who are both in their 50’s and he lives in Seoul
Korea.
He loves listening music and love songs in particular. His number one favorite
sport is soccer, followed by swimming and singing. To become an engineer is
really his dream and it was supported by his family.
Well, he thinks
he’s cute when I ask him about what he thinks of himself and it’s a little bit
true. His physical attributes explains everything; eyes that says, “Hey, please
stop asking me that question because I don’t know what you’re talking about,”
or “Excuse me, can you talk slowly?”, so in short, he has eyes that express
what he wants to imply. A face that will launch a thousands boats of friends.
With a skin almost as white as a snow, (well I guess it’s normal for a Korean
citizen to have a complexion like that) and he’s height, just normal for his
age.
At first,
there’s a little bit of “shyness” or “awkwardness” when we first met but later
on, we were already smiling because of his actions when he can’t recognize my
questions to him. So I have to ask him slowly until he gets what I mean. He
will act like; he looks down, smile and say, “I’m sorry, I don’t know”. But I
like him because he’s very honest.
Even though we
were given a short period of time to spend time together, asking hanging
questions but still it feels like a part of me knows almost half of him. It’s
not much but it feels good to have known a person like Jay. So, all in all, my
day at that time is kind of unique because it doesn’t follow any routine or
schedule, doesn’t track on steps that’s almost boring.
