I was late to work today (not that it matters: I literally have nothing to do, these days, as I wait for my boss and coworkers to catch up with their duties and pass some work along to me). I stopped in our building's convenience store to pick up some omija-cha (surprisingly low-carb!), then began walking along the first floor toward the stairs that lead to my second-floor office. A kid on a scooter* suddenly bumped into me from behind, and he said "죄송합니다" ("I'm sorry") in Korean. I thought nothing of it and kept on walking, but the kid must've realized this was a chance to use what little English he had learned, so he scooted back up to me, calling out, "Hi! Hi!" in English, and when he caught up with me, he grabbed my hand in an "I'm sorry; please forgive me" gesture while saying "Sorry! Sorry!" in English. As he scooted out ahead of me, he called back over his shoulder, "Nice to meet you!" I'm pretty sure that, after years of English study in a hagweon, that's about all the English he could muster: greetings. It was a cute little incident, worthy of a grin.
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*Scooters, both the electric ones and the foot-propelled ones, can also be called "kickboards," and that's the preferred Korean term for them: kikbodeu/킥보드.
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