I found out today that I'm supposed to be a judge for the an English speech contest put on by several elementary schools. You know, because of my long history and recognized competence in that sort of thing.

Korean names, even almost two months in, give me trouble. You've got the last name, which you say first, and is limited to mostly Park, Kim, and Lee. Then there are the other two names. Koreans, almost without exception, have three names-just like in the United States, except in Korea you have to say all three names, unless you are speaking informally, but then you still have to say the first two. Although the names are so short, I guess it makes sense. The pronounciation has to be exact though, or no one will be able to tell who you're talking about. Case in point: the teacher who sits beside me at Yeonam Middle School is named Yun Jeong, and my co-teacher at Gangdong Middle School is named Eun Jeong. Not a whole lot of difference there.

Adding to confusion, Koreans frequently omit the subject of sentences, so you have to make sure it's well implied whether you're talking about yourself or someone else when you say, "I'm going to the store tomorrow." How you do that, I don't quite know.