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On the left of top image is the restaurant where I ran into two Vietnamese waitresses. Coming in, I asked, "Menu?" and made a gesture with my hands, as if opening a menu. There was no menu with English or photos, however. Frowning, one waitress said to the other in Vietnamese, "He wants a menu in English."

"I'm Vietnamese!" I said to them both.

If only one waitress was there, no Vietnamese would have been spoken. Unable to order and not knowing the lady was Vietnamese, I would have walked out.

She was delighted to run into a compatriot and did her best to help me out, as in the second image, by showing me the bus schedule back to Busan. She said she lived just down the street, and I was welcome to come by that evening, to meet more Vietnamese.

Her daughter came to Korea at age 11, and is now 22 and in college. The daughter wants to become a translator/interpreter for businesses.

"So her Vietnamese is still good?" I asked.

"Yes, yes, we speak Vietnamese at home."

"Coming over so young, many people forget."

The lady is only waitressing because of the coronavirus situation. Normally, she works in a school cafeteria. Furloughed, she still gets 70% of her salary.

"The first two months of this, I stayed home, because I was afraid," she said. There has been no coronavirus case in Namhae, an island off the southern coast of South Korea.

In Vietnam, her family is in Vung Tau, so she goes there episodically. "Maybe we can meet there!" I said. I plan on going back to Vung Tau, where I spent last November.

Back in Busan after my Namhae daytrip, I emailed both ladies, "I've just blundered back to my room in Busan. To meet you two by chance today made me very happy. Namhae is very idyllic and peaceful. You two ladies are truly very lucky to live there!" ["Tôi mới lò mò về tới phòng ở Busan. Hôm nay tình cờ gặp được hai cô, tôi vui lắm. Namhae rất thơ mộng và êm đềm. Vậy là hai cô rất có phước, được ở chỗ đó!"]

I was responding to their emails wishing me much health and many discoveries in Korea.



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