“An nyong ha sye yo?”, “kam sa ham ni da”, “chung ha, joo sae oh” are perhaps the only phrases I know in Korean. The first two meant “Hello, how are you?” and “thank you,” while the last one was a title of a poem which, according to a good friend of mine, talks about wine and something else.
Attached to these Korean words are big parts of me. One of these is a treasured friendship with the first Korean lady who gave friendship a true name more than a decade ago. I’m talking about my good friend Seung Min Hong, whom I fondly call on her English name, Carol.
We met at Wesley Dorm, a student’s dormitory at Wesleyan University-Philippines, way back in 1999. There we shared really great times together — praying, teaching and learning Korean and English, singing songs and sharing stories only we could talk about. And like other genuine friends do, we had shared both joys and tears, too.
Eleven years later, after losing each other, I found dear Seung Min at David’s House in Mall of Asia. My husband, my cousin and I were on our way to the theater to watch “No Other Woman” when we passed by the children’s center. Nick said he thought he saw Seung Min and when I turned to look her way, I saw her back, just her back, and realized that it really was her! We hugged more than once, exchanged numbers and promised that we’d get reconnected through Facebook — and so we did! I’m happy to have you back, Seung Min!
“It’s a small world after all” What a happy meeting you had with your Korean friend Carol! I could imagine that both of you were so excited to see each other after 12 years. Now, another journey of friendship will start..thanks to FB ..
Is Carol a graduate of Wesley Divinity? Her name seems familiar to me. So, is she here in the Philippines?
The Korean phrase..We usually say “An nyong ha se yo ” “Anong sa yo?” LOL!