You speak English?

Remember when I told you about the single teachers at school?  And how they don't talk to me?  Well if you've read that post then you need to know that I lied to you.  Accidentally.

The very day after I wrote and scheduled that post, I was sitting at lunch next to one of the single teachers I told you about.  I had bowed and smiled before I sat down and he did the same but then I got to the business of eating in silence.  Don't get me wrong, people are nice to me at lunch, but since I don't speak Korean I just sit there and enjoy my food while everyone around me talks.

I was eating the protein of the day, which I thought was beef, when the Woman Who Is Obsessed With Me said something to the single teacher next to me.  I figured it was something about how I like eating meat (this has been discussed at lunch before and my eating preferences are a hot topic of conversation) so I ignored it.

Then all of a sudden he turned to me and said while pointing to the meat, "What do you think this is?  You think it is meat?"

Taleen:  "Yes."  (nodding eyes open wide in shock)

Single Teacher:  "It is tofu.  You know tofu?"

Taleen:  "Yes."  (eyes open even wider in shock)

Single Teacher:  "You think it is good?"

Taleen:  "Yes."  (blinking a lot starting to look a little confused)

(Pause in conversation)

Taleen:  "You speak English?!"  (eyes gigantic now, looking incredibly confused and bewildered)

He then explained that yes, he speaks English because he likes to travel a lot and it comes in handy.  I paraphrased.  He didn't say it comes in handy.  But that's what he meant and his English isn't perfect so it's easier for me to paraphrase what he says than to type out his broken English.

We ended up spending the rest of the lunch period (the lunch period is an hour long in total) talking about travel, math (he teaches math, I will someday teach math), Danyang, Korea, the weather, just small talk stuff.  And the entire time I was in shock that his English was good enough to be having this conversation.

When I asked why he never spoke English before he said it was because he was ashamed of his English.  I asked him why he never even said hello and he told me that he did but that maybe I forgot.  That's very possible.  But I definitely remember that nearly 100% of our interactions over the last six weeks did not include English.  In any case, I know he speaks English now and will likely speak English to him way more than he really wants me to.  Because that is the consequence of speaking to me.