.. to omoimasu

Have you ever thought of what you would do if someone near to  you was being a victim of some kind of a violence (being robbed or attacked..)?  I never thought of it but recently I found out the answer for me.  And I must say that I’m ashamed of the answer.

Several nights ago, a man forced entry to the room next to mine. It was around 2 a.m and I was woken up by loud voices outside my room. When I listened, it turned out that some kind of struggle was going on. A woman (or is it a girl?) was trying to get away from a man. From the way he spoke I guessed that he was drunk. The girl screamed for help. At first only softly but gradually her scream became louder and louder.

I froze. I couldn’t do a thing. My heart was beating very fast. I didn’t even dare to move an inch since my bed creaks. I thought of grabbing the cooking knife, going outside and tried to scare him with the knife.  But then I thought against it. I was afraid that the act might drive him to be even more violent. But maybe that’s just me making up excuses to defend myself..

Well now I’m haunted by guilty feeling for having done nothing. Also, whenever I’m in my room the tiniest sound would make me jerk and be on alert. Even though the sound was only caused by someone passing my door and her bag happens to touch my door. And especially when a girl speaks with a higher tone. Because it reminds me of the scream. It was even worse several days before. Hearing a Korean man, whose voice resembles the attacker, speaks would unsettle me. I can only imagine how traumatized the poor girl is.. >_<

In Korea, other than the Korean course I also have to attend the English conversation class. And I have to say, I reaaally love this class. I always look forward to it. One of the reasons is because the teacher is my favorite type of teacher. I have to admit that I’m a fervent admirer of the American way of teaching, where the teachers encourage the students to be critical of anything they are told. Where “the only dumb question is the one unasked”. They never say or do anything that discourage the student. And he is exactly that kind of teacher (he’s Canadian, by the way, not an American).

I mean, there is this guy in class who is very very quiet (Hellooo this is a conversation class. What are you here for??). He never volunteers to speak unless you ask him directly. And when he does talk, his voice is very very, and did I say very? soft we can barely hear what he’s saying. And Michael (he’s the teacher) never ever told him to speak faster. He always let him take his time to think and speak. He always has this interested expression on his face. Like he really wants to know your opinion. Michael waits patiently for him to speak even though the rest of us (or is it just me? ) have lost interest when we realize he needs like, five minutes, to say just one sentence (okay, maybe I’m exaggerating, a bit).

Another reason why I love this class is due to the diversity of the nationals in the class. Well actually not THAT diverse. There are only three nationals (four if you count Michael). But it’s good enough for me . Through the class I gain insights (caila bahasakuu ) on what’s it like in other countries. And they are all very interesting. And I will tell them on another posting.