The first and perhaps most important step towards becoming a Korean

...is having a cell phone on your person at all times.

(I once saw an old woman begging in the subway in Seoul pause to take a call.)

It started off smoothly enough. I couldn’t find the door. It was a big glass wall glowing from the rows of white flourescent lights lining the ceiling inside. I pushed at different panes but nothing budged. I began to think they closed early. A man inside talking on his cell phone saw my plight and smiling pointed me towards the door. It was obvious enough... Stupid wagook can’t even open a door.

I realized even before I entered that my limited Korean was much better adapted to ordering food at a restaurant than registering a cell phone and setting up a contract. I fully expected them not to speak English (for a country that spends so much time and money learning the language it is curiously scarce). However, living in a foreign country, you soon realize that language is expendable in most situations.

Even my immediate request I could not verbalize. I pulled the light blue and silver phone from my pocket and pointed to it. I could not think of a single word that he might know.

“Uh... activate? Set up?”

He nodded, took my phone and turned it on. He seemed to know what I wanted.

Of course no one spoke English, except for a few words. After a couple of minutes of failed conversation, they told me they could not help. But then the man had an idea. He called someone on his phone, spoke a few words, and then handed me the phone. A makeshift translator.

To avoid making a long and boring story any longer, mostly I sat in the chair wondering if they were still working on my account or if they had moved on to more important things. But in the end, I walked out of there with a operational cell phone in my hands.

I’m quite proud of myself.

(I forgot to mention the best part. All told it only cost me $14. Someone gave me his old phone. It cost me $10 for prepay and $4 for a charger.)