"Dinner"

You would think by now that I would know that when you have "dinner" with a middle aged Korean father the "dinner" is actually a code word for drinks. Last week I agreed to dinner with my student's family and it ended up being fueled by soju.

It was a little weird drinking in front of my student but he didn't seem to mind and his four year old sister didn't either, spending the night either climbing all over me or running up to me every couple of minutes wanting to know the English word for whatever object she was thinking of.

Through broken English and Korean Se Chan's father told me that with each and every shot his daily work stress was floating away. He works as an engineer at one of the city's water treatment plants. When I asked if the tap water in Seoul is safe to drink he said by the health standards it is completely fine but his wife's opinion carries more weight and she believes it to be unsafe so he doesn't drink it.

It was a good "dinner" but near the end of it Se Chan's mom asked Se Chan to recite his English speech. SeChan isn't shy but being in public he was reluctant until he came up with a plan that I buy his some Lego if he does it. I agreed but my word wasn't good enough for him. I think he knew that the soju has influencing my agreement so he came over to my chair and had me record exactly what he would get out of it into his hand phone. Smart kid. They are a very nice family and it was a fun "dinner". I have a slight hangover to prove it.