Pusanweb Writing Contest 2002 - Non Native Speaker

Non-native speaker contribution. Pieces in this section may range from near standard English to some with non-standard features in grammar or style. In general the editor has not tried to amend such writing. Note that learning to write perfect grammar in another language is much more difficult than speaking well, and for most people is never quite mastered. We ask readers to enjoy the writing for its fresh viewpoints and insights.

 

The Last Night In Paris
by Han, You Hee

7 November, 2002

 

It's been already 3 years since I went to Europe. It was my one and only backpack trip to foreign countries so I was really excited from the start to the last moment during the whole trip. I don't want to write down all the details of the journey, so that all the readers fall asleep. I'll only focus on the last destination of my trip, France.

The reason I chose it as the last spot was just due to an economic reason. I travelled several countries in Europe clockwise and it's the most efficient way to look through Europe continent from UK to France or vice versa.

France!
It's a country of romance and art. It was one of the countries that I expected the most of. Finally I was there.

My friend and I (2 females) went to Versailles first which was 20 km southwest from Paris. There were not many things that we expected to see because it was winter and the garden which was written as a must-see in a guide book was nothing but a wilderness, and the famous Mirror room was not that impressive to me. The next day, we went to see the Eiffel tower, Montmartre, etc. and the Eiffel tower was magnificent and breathtaking.

After we got back to the youth hostel, we prepared for dinner and met a guy from America. He was quite sociable and made a joke out of what we ate. It was instant 'jook' (Korean style soup) which we brought all the way from Korea. Talking with him was quite interesting because during the whole trip we were too nervous to make friends on top of it. We made a company with just two of us so we didn't need to take chances to mingle with foreign backpackers deliberately. I wanted to compliment him by saying a word of praise and have a chance to use the sentence that I learned right before I left for Europe in a language institute. I said to him 'YOU ARE WELL-BUILT. Are you an athlete or something?' In fact he really was a well-built guy and he seemed to like that comment and he asked which room we stayed as so to come by later. Of course I guessed it was a joke and answered on the spot.
That night we were exhausted and were sleeping like a log. At around 2 A.M noise made us wake up. It was from next door which was a dormitory for males. They(4-5guys, wild guess) were drunk for sure and slammed the wall and door as well. It was like they were about to break the wall and break into our room which was a double bedroom and located on the most corner spot in the youth hostel. We were just stuck in the room and couldn't move a step outside.

I remembered the guy to whom I told our room number and guessed the guy was there. Their voices were getting louder and we could listen to this, "Blah, blah, blah, I wanna fuck." They used spanish, I guess but only one sentence in English that we could understand. I was really frightened and panicked. I imagined the worst scenario which could happen. I murmured 'Oh, I'll be raped and even murdered tonight in this room miles and miles away from home. I should have gone to a luxurious, fancy hotel which has tight security even if it cost me an arm and a leg. I shouldn't have let the guy know my room number because he might have thought I lured him by that compliment. If I jump down to the ground from here(we were on the second floor) is it OK or am I gonna be hurt?' I wore sneakers and packed my backpack and took out an army knife just in case.

About a couple of hours later, they fell asleep fortunately and we could go to sleep as well still half being awake.

Well, whenever I think of my first trip to Europe or Paris, that nightmare comes across my mind first rather than many other good memories.

People often talk about 'Ugly Koreans' who do some crazy things while they are travelling abroad such as drinking at the hotel and then yelling, fighting, making a scene etc. but people are all the same wherever you go, I found. Especially when they are in other countries, they are treated in a special way by the locals just because they are foreigners and it makes them feel in high spirits, and even further they can count on anonymity whatever they do.

By the way, why did they say only that sentence in English, I'm still wondering.

 

 

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