Ever since I was a little kid, I'd liked Korean culture, when I was about 10 years old I watched a "Dorama", at first I thought it was Japanese so I started to research the culture and even learn the language, but when I went to search the program I found that it was a Korean "dorama, so I left everything I learned of Japan and started searching for Korean classes.
At first I was self-taught, I searched on the internet for the alphabet but everything was in English which I didn't understood that well, I learned some words but I didn't knew how to pronounce them.
One day while walking through the street I saw a poster of Korean classes, at first what caught my attention was that the poster had the picture of the dorama I first watched, the one that made me want to learn Korean, I called and met my soon to be teacher on his apartment.
I formally started my courses when I was 14, I was always the youngest one and the only male in the class, I met a lot of friends in that group, two of them had to leave the course after a few classes. I got into an intermediate level when I changed high schools, with this I didn't had time to go to any of my classes.
I was still hanging out with one of the girls that dropped out, she told me that through her job, she had the opportunity to meet a Korean sir that could teach us because he spoke Spanish really well, she invited me to take the classes with her along with another friend that was in those classes too.
He invited us to the guesthouse where he was living, they had a yard that was empty on the weekends and was available for us to study, he noticed right away that I had a different level than my friends so he asked me to teach them until all of us were on the same level.
One day my friend, the one that got us in, missed class, our teacher and the owner of the house invited us to eat some of their traditional food, we had a good time and promised that the next time we were going to take Mexican food for them to try.
The next weekend I was running late to class when my friend text me that neither the teacher, nor she were going to go to class, once I got there I found my other friend with two very attractive guys, the first thing on my mind was "Lord, pinch me, I must be dreaming", both of them were really nice with me, they even hugged me, they wanted to learn Spanish, so we made a deal, we were going to teach them and they were going to teach us. We ate together and started learning.
They asked me to meet them on Thursday, that was the day I had more free time, they wanted to go out and eat, but they never invited my friend. When i arrived on Thursday I ran into my teacher that didn't talked to me, we studied a little bit and went to eat, we had a good time and they asked me to meet them every weekend.
The next weekend when I met them, my teacher and the boys were exchanging dirty looks and I got a really bad vibe of the whole situation, I talked with my friend and she told me that our teacher was upset because he was the one that took us there, she told me to meet them there on Sunday.
Sunday came and I found out that the boys were moving out of that place, my teacher was upset because I was talking with them, my friends were mad because they felt left out and by the end I was told to never come back there. When I left, I remember that the "Feria de las Culturas Amigas" had started so I went to see the stand that Korea had, I found the boys in there and they gave me their new address.
I went to see them every Tuesday and Thursday as I had free time, the classes became more of like friends hanging out, one of the boys moved out of there, and as I changed from semester and had different schedules I started to see one of the boys every morning, we ate together, watched movies and studied. He had really strange attitudes with me, I didn't wanted to feel in love, ever since the beginning I denied my homosexuality, because I didn't wanted them to get the wrong impression.
After a year he told me he was going back to Korea, he started to act distant and weird on the phone but when we were together he was lovely like always. Before he left he introduced me some other people that needed help with their Spanish and as my Korean had improved by spending time with them I said yes. I lost communication with him when I lost my cell phone, he called me brother, I learned a lot from him, from his culture, I learned that if you follow your dreams, you can do whatever you want.
My story hasn't finished and it won't finish in a long time but I think that there's a part were your past collides with your present, in my case was me studying Korean since I was a little kid by myself for the love I had to the culture that got me the opportunity this many people .
If you do what you love and love what you do, you can go very far, you are your only limit, thanks to my teachers and everyone that I ever me, I have learned to love my culture, my language and every one that's around me.