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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

International Words in baseball (ADULT CONTENT)

My friend YJ tells me he wants to learn "reality" English and I understand what he is saying. There is a difference between how we should talk, how we really talk and then mix in the sarcasm and many meanings of one word; it gets pretty tough to learn English. I lived in Korea and learned as much Korean as possible but wanted to learn what the common person was saying, not the business people.

He attends baseball with us and hears the guys talking to one another. He tries to learn what we are saying, not only the baseball content but the real life stories we tell and discuss while playing the game. We speak very quickly and with a lot of 'F' bombs and a few other colorful words mixed in. He loves it because its real and shows the true way men speak when men get together. I asked him what my teammates said when I played in Korea and he said "same". He said they probably talked about home life, women, baseball and work. Same old same old. Meaning they say the same things during games over there as we do here in Canada. But he didn't hear the conversations as clear in the first games as well as he does now. I asked him what he heard when he first came to the games and he smiled, he giggled and said "The words I hear are fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck". Pause " and more fucks".

I guess English is the international language but there is one word that seems to cross borders quicker than the language itself; read above.
A freind of mine, who we will call YJ, is South Korean. He answers the door at his home-stay this past week to a man selling his candy for $5 a box. The man explained to YJ that it was for charity and it was legit. YJ says in very understandable English that he has no money on him and he is sorry he can't buy some candy. The man says "ne how" and looks at my freind and smiles. My freind smiled and politely said "I am not Chinese", so the man in his wisdom and obviously confused state says "oh, I'm sorry, konichewa". My freind smiles again and says "I am not Japanese". The man turned and walked away as quick as he could. Head down. Fast. Past the car and down the road. Real fast.

YJ was laughing during this story and told me the man was very very red faced as he walked away with his head down. Thats probably the last time that guy will try to ID an Asian or try to talk a language he doesnt know.