Oops!!! I didn't mean to say that!

I've been working really hard lately to learn more and more Korean and use it as often as possible!

Yesterday, I learned the word for "Congratulations!" So, today, at lunch, I was in the teacher's room, eating with all the staff, and someone said that Charity (one of the teachers) had finally learned how to drive, so I got up and started clapping and said, "Charity, Chookoo hamnida!!!"... Which, I THOUGHT meant "Congratualtions", but I actually yelled with excitement, "Charity, I play soccer!" You can imagine the uproar of laughter when I said it! I won't soon forget that the word for congratulations is chooka hamnida, NOT chookoo hamnida!

A couple weeks ago, I was in class, teaching 6th grade, and asked the students to open their books to page 18. One of the stduents said, "Teacher, modugesayo" (which means: "Teacher, I don't understand.") So, I proudly and loudly announced that I knew Korean by saying, "ship pal" which means 18 in Korean... but it ALSO apparently means "f*** you" and is never used when saying the number 18!!! They actually switch over to the Chinese numbers for 18! Would have been nice to know before I shouted the equivalent of "f*** you" in class!