Laughing or Clapping

I eat lunch and dinner everyday in the cafeteria in the basement at work. There are three women in the cafeteria who cook and serve the meals. They are very protective of me and are always trying to warn me if they think the food is too spicy for me. They often make me special food when everyone else has to eat the same thing. Anyway, they told Master Choi that I need to learn Korean--what I know how to say in Korean isn't so helpful with them as most of my Korean is useful only for teaching TKD class. So Master Choi has been teaching me some phrases to say to the ladies in the cafeteria. If I say the new phrase properly, they clap for me. If I get it wrong, they laugh and then tell Master Choi that I need more practice. So far they have spent many days laughing, but I am slowly getting better. I am hoping that I start getting more clapping than laughing soon. My new phrase for today was 잘먹었 습니다 (jalmeukeot seomnida) which roughly translate to thank you it (the food) was good. I got it right today so they clapped for me.


Also, for every meal we have to write our names down on the sign-in sheet. I don't often write my name down as one of the masters will do it for me and when I do write my name down I write it in English. Master Choi decided that I can only write my name down in Korean now. It just makes me laugh because I can actually write the masters' names faster than I can write my own. Thankfully, I only have to write my first name. My full name would not fit in the space provided. Written in Korean my first name is longer than almost every Korean person's first, middle and last name. My name written in Korean is 스테파니 which sounded out is Seu-Te-Pa-Ni which is why many of my co-workers and almost all of my students have trouble pronouncing my name.