Korea, like most of the world outside the United States, and (I think) the UK, uses the Metric System. So in addition to learning Korean at a deeper level, I will need to familiarize myself with another foreign language. Whatever I learned of the Metric System in elementary school (thank you, President Carter) was lost along with my Rubik's Cube and orthodontic retainer.
Let's attempt some basic conversions from Metric to English and vice versa. For the last few weeks Korea has been in the midst of a heat wave, with temperatures getting up into the mid 30s--Celsius, that is (~95 F). To walk a mile in another person's shoes is to walk 1.60934 kilometers, which seems more understanding but less poetic. An ounce of prevention is worth only 0.453592 kilograms of cure, which leaves me feeling sick.
And then there's currency (not Metric, I know). One dollar is worth roughly 1100 Korean Won, which given my monthly salary, makes me a millionaire. Bartender, a round for the house!
Let's attempt some basic conversions from Metric to English and vice versa. For the last few weeks Korea has been in the midst of a heat wave, with temperatures getting up into the mid 30s--Celsius, that is (~95 F). To walk a mile in another person's shoes is to walk 1.60934 kilometers, which seems more understanding but less poetic. An ounce of prevention is worth only 0.453592 kilograms of cure, which leaves me feeling sick.
And then there's currency (not Metric, I know). One dollar is worth roughly 1100 Korean Won, which given my monthly salary, makes me a millionaire. Bartender, a round for the house!
I tried embedding this Seinfeld video in the original post, but Blogger wouldn't let me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtsOQz2I09g
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