either or

once upon a time, i heard of a chinese immigrant to the united states of america failing his citizenship application because of a small linguistic error. as it turns out, in mandarin, there are two different words for two different kinds of "or:"

"or" 1 = inclusive (i don't know the actual terms. i'm making this up) where the two options are presented as a unit

EXAMPLE: you can't blow your nose or kiss your boyfriend in public in korea.
i just found this out, but it's true. you can be fined for kissing someone on the street in korea. good thing i was inside my school . . .


"or" 2 = exclusive (again, made up term) where you MUST choose one option or the other

EXAMPLE: do you want your kimchi bokembap spicy or not spicy?

the poor chinese fellow understood the wrong "or" on his application in the question:

Do you support the overthrow of the United States by subversion or treason?

he chose treason, as it seemed like the much less offensive offense. needless to say, that didn't go over very well with the citizenship office.

i think the same "or" problem may exist in korean.
there's a little girl in one of my louder classes who is always either singing or humming or talking. not to kill her spirit, and music is good, and i'm glad that she is talking in english, but it really distracts me sometimes and adds to the general noise level in the classroom. so i took her into the hall and asked her to stop. when i was done with my little schpeel, i asked her if she was going to sing or talk in class anymore. she was really quiet for a while.

"well?" i said . . .

her response:

"i think sing."