Way Back When Wednesday - Jenny

I told an abbreviated version of this story last night to our Home Teachers.  It probably wasn't the best story for me to tell them, but they are our friends and I think they thought it was funny... or they were laughing so hard because they were really embarrassed. 

We had a lot of really funny and bizarre experiences while we were teaching in Korea.  A great many of them came from our co-workers.  They had some interesting personalities.  I couldn't tell how much of it was a culture difference thing, but they definitely kept us laughing.

The story I'm about to tell you comes from a study session I had with my co-worker Jenny.  I don't remember what her Korean name was.  Maybe Jin Hyo Lee?  A lot of Koreans studying/teaching English choose an English name.  I guess it's cool.  She picked Jenny.

Anyways,  I "taught" Jenny three times a week.  Our class was more of a Q&A study session for her.  Which I didn't mind.  I didn't have to prepare anything.  Jenny would ask me all kinds of questions.  She had pretty good English, but had a lot of grammar issues.  Most of which would come up over and over.  I wasn't sure how I felt about helping an English teacher study her teaching materials, but whatever.  At least she didn't look stupid in front of her students. 

On this occasion, we were just talking.  I don't remember how we got on the topic of my bras and underwear.  Maybe we were talking about household appliances and my washer came up.  It's spin dry function was so powerful it had ruined a couple of my underwire bras. I probably should have used one of those little undergarment bags they have for washers, but I was cheap.  Jenny asked me where I bought underwear in Sokcho (the town we lived in).

I told her I hadn't bought any yet because I couldn't find any in my size.  She looked at me with a blank expression for a second, then got that I'm thinking of how to say this in English face.  We saw it all the time, and I prepped myself because often the words that come after that face are a little odd because they're usually directly translated from Korean.

She looked a little down and to the left (a normal Korean conversational thing) and started tapping just below and in front of her right shoulder with her right hand.  "My friend.... umm..... my friend has... big, umm... bumps?"

I tried really hard not to bust out laughing.  "You mean boobs.  Not bumps."

"Boobs?"  The her face was classic.  Confused and a little embarrassed all at the same time. Plus she exaggerated the shape of her lips to make the "oo" sound.  Again, it was hard to hold back laughing.

"Yes, the word you would use in this conversation is boobs.  But that's because we're both girls and we're friends.  There are lost of other words, but that's the one you want to use in this situation."  I tried not to act too embarrassed, but it was getting harder by the minute.

"Oh.  My friend has big... boobs.  I can show you where she buys her underwear."  I politely declined. Koreans shop owners and salespeople are a bit too involved when you go to buy underwear.  I would get some from the States the next time I went.

After a pause she continued, "would you teach me all the words for... boobs?"  She was completely serious.

That time I did laugh out loud.  "No," I answered with a red face.  "Most of the words people use for that area of the body aren't very nice, and most of them are boy words."  I did teach her the official anatomically correct term and then quickly ended the anatomical conversation. 

She and I had plenty of other equally awkward conversations, but none were quite that personal and embarassing.