Lost in Translation

Sorry it took so long to post again. It’s much more complicated than you can imagine. So it’s very hard and sometimes very frustrating communicating with people here. A friend of mine called Sang Mi said to me that I look like Santa Clause. When I asked her to explain, she rubbed her stomach laughed and said “baby.” So I was like, “is that a fat joke?” And she said “where’s your reindeer? I think you eat it! Ha ha ha!” From what Howie tells me, calling someone fat is indeed not an insult here, but merely an observation.
I was hanging out with another Korean kid and he rubbed MY stomach and said “MMM…Faaat!” I had no idea how to say that that could be construed by “some” as offensive so I just said “Yea. You’re right.” and walked away.
There’s a kid in my Chinese class who makes STUPID jokes throughout class. In America, he would sound like a real D-bag and everyone would tell him to shut up, but here, everyone thinks he’s hilarious. It doesn’t make sense to me. I still think he’s a D-bag.
The other night when I was out with Sang Mi, she said, “My God, your eyes are SO BEAUTIFUL!” So I said that made up for the Santa comment. She said again, “YOU’RE SO BEAUTIFUL!” That made up for baby. She has yet to make up for Reindeer. I’ll think of something.