MSUTKD said:
Last Fearner I will pm you a direct translation, with annotations when I have time. Cool story. ron
Thank you carol, if your colleague wants to give it a shot, it would be interesting to compare translations.
Ron, thanks so much! Your translation skills are awesome! :asian:
I had figured out that it was from top to bottom, and I used my Korean/English Dictionary to translate several words, but I did not know it was from
right to
left! That's good to know!
lol
I would very much like to have a word for word translation if you could.
Here is the background on this story.
In December of 1996, I finally got the chance to visit Korea. The Korean Jidokwan Taekwondo instructor that I was working with at that time, was taking his wife and two small children back to visit family in Korea. He invited me to go, and I brought my Senior Assistant Instructor, a 3rd Degree Black Belt Female (We are now married with three young boys).
When we first got to Korea, my assistant and I stayed in the high-rise apartment of one of the Korean Masters who owned a dojang where I was to teach classes. After a few days of teaching and learning from the Grandmasters, my assistant and I moved into the Mirabeau Hotel in downtown Seoul. While touring the city, and walking through the little shops, and alley ways in Irondong Town, I noticed how shop owners left tables and racks of products outside their front doors. They set up displays on the sidewalks and left them unguarded; trusting the customers to bring an item in and pay for it, and trusting that no one would grab some items and run.
We quickly became aware of the night-life, and saw the local street gang members walking from club to club. However, to me they looked a lot like young thugs from the 1950s in America (James Dean type bad boys). They wore jeans, t-shirts, and would often have a cigarette hanging loosely from their lips.
On the morning of December 26, my assistant and I were sitting in a side hallway of the Hotel, near the front desk, waiting for the Korean Grandmasters to show up. We had seen the same desk clerks, and bell hop for several days, and began to know each other in passing. The hallway led to a back door which exited onto a side street. Near this exit was a staircase that led up to the various floors where the guest rooms were located.
As we sat there waiting, I heard some shouting coming from the stairway, and the sound of feet running rapidly down the steps. Suddenly, a young man dressed in black pants, black t-shirt, and wearing a black leather jacket jumped off of the stairs and stopped by the back exit. Right behind him was the familiar bell hop - a young slender boy with glasses.
The two struggled and shouted for a moment, and exchanged heated words (in Korean, of course). I guess my Martial Art/police officer instincts kicked in, and I hurried down the hall to assist the bell boy. The man then punched the bell boy in the face and his glasses were almost knocked off. Not knowing much Korean, I relied on Taekwondo terms and the few words I did know. I shouted to the man, "Geuman," and "Hajima," which meant to "stop" or "do not do that."
As the man saw me approaching he pulled a medium size black purse out of his jacket, and shoved it at the bell boy. The bell hop tried to restrain the man, but he broke free, and ran out of the door. I verified that the bell hop wanted to capture this apparent hotel thief, so I dashed out the door with the bell hop right behind me. I chased the thief down the sidewalk, around the corner, through some alleys, and around parked cars.
The bell boy and I almost had him cornered, then he dashed out into a two lane street with me right behind. I grabbed his shoulders and brought him tumbling to the pavement. I put a wrist-lock restraint on him and brought him up, face down on the trunk of a parked car. The Bell hop pulled out his cell phone, and called the police.
Apparently, this guy had obtained a stolen pass key to the hotel rooms, and had been stealing money and items from guests for awhile. As we waited for the police, four older Korean men stopped their car and asked the bell hop what was going on. After he told them, they began to verbally chastise the man while slapping him on the back of the head as I held him on the trunk. I felt uncomfortable with this, but it was a different culture, and I was a lone American holding a Korean - I thought it best to keep my mouth shut since I do not speak fluent Korean anyhow.
When the police arrived, they took the thief into custody, and the bell boy explained what happened. They asked me a few questions in English, and the next day, the above article appeared in the Seoul paper. The Korean Master that I was traveling with said that the Mayor of the city of Seoul had a commendation award to present to me, but for some reason, he never took me there to receive it. Oh well, it was quite an experience, and I just thought I would share it with all of you here at MT.
CM D. J. Eisenhart
