A sick cat and my level of English
Recently I came back from a walk and went into my coffee shop… as usual, the cat greeted me, and I fed her some Korean shawarma… she didn’t really want to eat… then she stood up and flopped down… it was as if she was paralyzed… her breathing was fast, and I thought I had poisoned the poor cat 😢 I started petting her and calming her down… telling her, “Don’t you dare die… everything’s okay…” Then she stood up, went beyond the barrier, flopped onto her side there and started coming around… I thought maybe she simply hadn’t eaten for a long time, so I ran to the nearest store and bought her some cat pâté. I came back, fed her, and saw that she was eating it with real appetite… I calmed down.
When I got home, I started thinking… what if she had rabies? The symptoms seemed the same… I immediately messaged Taeun (he’s a regular there) and explained what had happened… because for a person it can be fatal if an animal with rabies even scratches them slightly—the point is that rabies is incurable and for a person it is almost 100% fatal. So I couldn’t get that thought out of my head, and I went back out to Coffee Corner at night…
I walked up to the coffee shop and saw a female student sitting by the entrance, with that same cat on her lap… snuggled up… keeping warm… purring… while the girl was gently petting her… I was shocked, but so I wouldn’t scare the cat, I carefully crept closer and said, “Do you speak English?” She said, “A little…” I went, “This cat… um… health… um… damn… how do I put this… not good! Not good cat health!” The student blinked at me and stayed silent… luckily, Siun showed up. This guy knows English well… I told him, “This cat… buuuueee…” and acted like a sick person, rolling my eyes… then I remembered the word: “SICK! This cat very SICK!” But that wasn’t enough… I needed to explain that she wasn’t just sick, but might have a disease that was deadly dangerous for humans—rabies! I remembered I had a properly written message that I had recently sent to Taeun in KakaoTalk, showed it to him, and he nodded and said, “Yes, I understand.” I told him, “Can you explain for she… for… for her… for him… damn… explain this…” and pointed to the message again… I left my phone in his hands and went into the coffee shop to warn the barista… Oh, I don’t know her name, but she’s very beautiful and very cheerful… a second-year student in the Department of Chinese Philosophy. Anyway, I went in, ordered French Black Tea and started explaining… Siun came inside, and I said, “Please explain it to her…” He explained… and then a thought flashed through my head… “Wait, the word ‘rabies’ is written in English… Rabies, and Siun might not know that word!” He’s not studying medicine, after all, and it’s a medical term… so I started explaining to the barista myself: “This cat very very sick! Dangerous! If cat hit human, human can die…” and again I rolled my eyes, tucked my arms in and went “buuuueee…” She could barely hold back her laughter, but tried to look serious, as if she understood everything… she nodded gratefully at my concern and kept making coffee for customers… Then I thought… 🤔 “Damn… hit means to strike… not to bite… I just said that if the cat hits a person, the person can die…” 😕 Luckily, her English was only a little better than mine… I thought, that’s it… the main thing is that I said the words “Sick”, “Dangerous” and “Die” (meaning, to die). Mission accomplished… I walked around a bit and went home to rest…
The next morning I came back to the coffee shop to warn Jihyeon… I explained everything… so that her sister’s daughter wouldn’t pet that cat… and she told me, “It’s okay, I think, this cat is pregnant, she eat and sleep now.” Well, since she can speak English, I’ll explain… basically, the cat is pregnant, which is why she kept flopping down, and now she’s sleeping on a folding bed outside. Looks like Taeun passed the message on to her.
That’s all… now you know what level of English is necessary for Koreans to understand you… Actually, my English isn’t as bad as it may seem from this story. I’ve just become lazy here and stopped paying attention to grammar. I need to improve my English while I’m learning Korean. I’m starting Korean classes soon, and I’ll have the teachers check my lessons so that I don’t lead you down the wrong path.
Oh yes… I also want to ask Jihyeon to record the texts… one thing is having them written down, but I won’t be able to reproduce how they sound.
Wow, I wrote a lot… sorry if it was a bit boring… I’m going to eat now… if you haven’t eaten yet, enjoy your meal!
Thank you for following my public page! It makes me really happy! I loooove 💖 your likes and comments! 😘
This text was translated from the original Russian version, so some wording or details may be inaccurate.
