Way Back When Wednesday - I'll take size 20,045

I'm a really nervous language learner.  I think it's interesting and worthwhile to study and learn another language, but I'm really afraid to talk to anyone in the new language.  Especially native speakers.   Consequently, while we lived in Korea, I only made a couple of HUGE mistakes because I rarely ever tried Korean conversation with actual Koreans.

The huge mistake I'm thinking of this time really wasn't all that bad.   I didn't say anything rude, inappropriate, or offensive just something really, really funny.

Derek and I were at a bowling alley near our apartment.  It was owned and operated by the mother of one of my students, so we got a great discount whenever the owner was there (Thats how Korea works.  It's all about who you know!).  It must have been one of the first times we had gone because the owner was there and she was asking us our shoe size, and believe me, after hearing my answer, I don't think she will EVER forget my shoe size.  She probably still thinks about what the funny foreigner said every now and then and laughs.

I had just learned how to say my Korean shoe size in Korean.  I think it's a pretty big accomplishment because Korean shoe sizes aren't like American or even European shoe sizes.  Koreans measure by the millimeter.  The millimeter!  That means that I had to learn how to say two-hundred-forty-five instead of something simple like seven.

So needless to say, I was really excited and nervous to use this new "phrase" out in the real world.  Unfortunately, I also had just learned the vocabulary for Korean money.  I'll tell you why that knowledge is related in a minute.

So the owner asks us our shoe sizes.  Derek tells her his size perfectly.  She turns to me and asked me.  I proudly said, "이만사십오 (yi-man-sah-ship-o)."  She--and Derek for that matter, great support he was that day--immediately started laughing.  It wasn't mean spirited, but still embarassing!  And I wondered--like you are probably right now--why it was so funny; I was pretty sure I said the numbers correctly!

Then Derek turned to me and told me what I had actually said.  이만사십오 means 20,045!  What I should have said was very similar, 이백사십오 (Yi-baek-sah-ship-o).  I had used a ten thousand counter instead of a hundred counter!  Imagine a foot that was 20,045 millimeters long!  That's about 65 feet!  No wonder it was so humorous!

The most pathetic thing was I really did know the difference!  The reason why I made such a dramatic mistake was because I used the ten thousand counter with money every day.  20,045 won is approximately $20.04.

Sadly, that was not the only embarassing thing I did at that bowling alley.  I also threw my bowling ball behind me for the first and hopefully only time in my life.