Getting Away with Stuff

I am Half-Korean (or sometimes Double as some Halfies like to say), but I realy don't look all that Asian so being able to speak another language while looking completely foreign offers all sorts of conveniences. The most useful? Definitely being able to feign ignorance. I jumped on a bus in Korea and was 500won short. I paid what I had and pretended not to understand the driver telling me I needed to put in more. He took a look at my face, assumed I didn't speak Korean, and gave up. All was good in the world.

Sometimes, in more serious matters like dealing with immigration, telephone services, banks, contracts, etc. I will purposely pretend not to speak the language and bring it all to English. It gives me the edge and the advantage. And if things go wrong, I can blame it on them not being able to clearly communicate with me. And if someone tries to pull something sneaky (it's happened), I can cut them off at the pass since they don't mind saying it right in front of me. It is kinda dirty, but I'm sure everyone who could, would.

It also provides for entertainment. Some friends of mine in Korea asked me to go with them on a group blind date since I was the only one who could speak Korean. I said sure, but the girls were definitely of the blind date variety, as in I would rather stick needles in my eyes than date them. So I did what anyone else would do; pretended not to speak Korean. It was actually pretty funny as they were trying to teach me the word for 'apple' and 'hello' in Korean. I do feel a little bad about it...but not too much.

There you have it, folks. Another benefit of learning a foreign language is being able to pretend you don't speak said language.