Journal Entry #2: Cafe and Menu Practice
Date: 2/22/26
Task(s): Learning technical café and baking vocabulary; practicing taking orders and menu navigation.
Objectives: To acquire the specific technical terms needed to work in a kitchen and handle the register.
This month was all about learning the vocabulary of a café. Professional Korean in a kitchen is a mix of traditional words and "Konglish." I had to memorize words like bal-hyo (발효—fermentation) and ban-juk (반죽—dough) so I can follow instructions as a baker. I also learned that customers use a lot of slang, like ah-ah (아아) for an iced americano. Knowing these terms is essential so I don't look confused when a customer orders quickly.
David and I did a "speed round" where he acted like a customer and I had to take his order. I practiced phrases like jumun dowadeurilgeyo (주문 도와드릴게요—"I will help you with your order") and double-checking what people wanted by saying tteugeoun geo matchuseyo? (뜨거운 거 맞으세요?—"Is 'hot' correct?"). We also looked at menus from popular Seoul shops to see how they describe their bread and coffee. I realized that I need to be able to explain the menu to customers using very polite language, which adds another layer of difficulty to the task.
Reflection: Learning the words is the easy part. The hard part is the math. Switching between the two different Korean number systems while trying to be fast at the kyesean-won (계산원—cashier) station is very stressful. I realized that if I want to work in a busy Seoul café, I can't be slow when telling a customer how much they owe or how many minutes their bread will take. I need to keep practicing my numbers until I don't have to think about them anymore. Efficiency is just as important as politeness in a city like Seoul where everyone is in a hurry. I want to get to the point where I can handle a rush without losing my formal speech patterns.
Date: 2/22/26
Task(s): Learning technical café and baking vocabulary; practicing taking orders and menu navigation.
Objectives: To acquire the specific technical terms needed to work in a kitchen and handle the register.
This month was all about learning the vocabulary of a café. Professional Korean in a kitchen is a mix of traditional words and "Konglish." I had to memorize words like bal-hyo (발효—fermentation) and ban-juk (반죽—dough) so I can follow instructions as a baker. I also learned that customers use a lot of slang, like ah-ah (아아) for an iced americano. Knowing these terms is essential so I don't look confused when a customer orders quickly.
David and I did a "speed round" where he acted like a customer and I had to take his order. I practiced phrases like jumun dowadeurilgeyo (주문 도와드릴게요—"I will help you with your order") and double-checking what people wanted by saying tteugeoun geo matchuseyo? (뜨거운 거 맞으세요?—"Is 'hot' correct?"). We also looked at menus from popular Seoul shops to see how they describe their bread and coffee. I realized that I need to be able to explain the menu to customers using very polite language, which adds another layer of difficulty to the task.
Reflection: Learning the words is the easy part. The hard part is the math. Switching between the two different Korean number systems while trying to be fast at the kyesean-won (계산원—cashier) station is very stressful. I realized that if I want to work in a busy Seoul café, I can't be slow when telling a customer how much they owe or how many minutes their bread will take. I need to keep practicing my numbers until I don't have to think about them anymore. Efficiency is just as important as politeness in a city like Seoul where everyone is in a hurry. I want to get to the point where I can handle a rush without losing my formal speech patterns.
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