Last autumn we had been to Pyeongchang, the city famous for its ski-resorts, to attend the KSME- Autumn Conference. On our way back we stopped by a roadside eatery to have dinner. After dinner I was hanging around the place waiting for my colleagues, when I heard someone calling out "안녕하세요" (Anyang Haseyo) to me! I looked around in eagerness to find out who wanted to pick up a conversation with me in that strange place. But there were no one to be seen in the vicinity. A girl in a counter at a distance was spotting a naughty smile without looking at me. I heard the Korean equivalent of ‘Namasteji’ again and this time I was sure that it wasn’t the girl who was offering the salutation!
I had already noticed a bird, in a cage nearby but never believed that the birds could talk as fluently as humans. But I turned curious, as there were signs to suspect that the bird itself was attempting to start a conversation with me. I went near the cage and there was a photograph of the bird on display before the cage with some description about it in Hangukmal. As I was trying to decipher what it meant with my elementary knowledge of the Korean language, the bird repeated ‘Anyang Haseyo’ to me right in front of my eyes!!
I shouted for my friends in astonishment even as I was returning the salutation. They were not impressed and suspected me of trying to play a trick on them. But then the bird called out ‘Anyang’ to them. They came rushing towards the cage and read the information on the board and they told me that it was indeed a talking bird. But when we tried to make it talk again on the camera, it turned its back on us as it appeared to have got irritated with the actions of my colleagues who got a bit carried away by the excitement.
We succeeded in capturing it saying ‘Anyang’ on the cam though…
Take a look at the videos J
No comments:
Post a Comment