this is my favorite korean word. it means "ALRIGHT!!! WOHOOO!!! HOORAY!!!" and i made great use of it this weekend. i spent my entire sunday at a tennis tournament with my friend lucy watching her friends' team compete. it was so cool! a big group of korean men re-living their glory days of university (some members are still living those days as the team was really diverse in age) and we cheered them on from 9:30 am till 7 at night! and they WON!!!! ASA!!!!!!!! i think i learned every korean cheering word this language has to offer. ASA CAHYOTEE! (cahyotee means sting ray so i don't really get why this is a cheering word) and CHATTAHSAYO! (good job) and WHITING (with a strong emphasis on the "h". this is the equivalent of "let's go!" which makes no sense because it's not a korean word but they got it from the english word "fighting" and then somehow it turned into "whiting" and then it turned into meaning "let's go.") anyway, enough of the korean lesson. the point in, i cheered my little heart out and totally felt like their groupie. and i think they all very much appreciated my presence if i do say so myself.
so, a green hair update. i went to my korean friend who's a hair dresser and via my korean friend who translated (hair dresser friend speaks no english) i tried to explain highlights. for 45 minutes. yes, for 45 minutes we sat there and i tried to explain that i just wanted strips of my hair dyed (especially over the green parts) and NO not dyed, just highlighted. the next thing i know, they are fully dying my hair, brighter blonde than it's ever been. sigh. i guess this will just be my hair in korea. there's no getting around it.
4 comments:
did you learn the cheer "kwen-chan-na"? it literally means, "that's ok." it's pretty much my favorite one becaue it just doesn't translate very well, but i hear my university students using it all the time. i mean, can you imagine people at intramurals in college chanting "that's ok" when the other team is winning or scores a point?
I bet your green hair is really pretty. You can totally pull it off.
oh just i LOVE that one. but ya i never know quite how to use it so usually when i say it they laugh either at my poor attempt to speak korean or because it was completely bad timing.
and jen, thanks for the encouragement. i have to believe i can pull off green hair cuz for now, i'm stuck with it. so in good project runway fasion, i just gotta "make it work."
even brighter blonde? how did they manage that?
maybe you should try one of those funny rubber swimmers caps to keep your hair chlorine free... i have no idea if they work...
korean sounds like a funky language. any language without r would be fun to try to speak!
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