A Thing Happened from the Early Morning

At the beginning of my life in Providence, I was walking my dog, Chelsea, and came across a neighbor who seemed to like my dog. She asked me a couple of questions.

"What shiny hair it has! Is it a boy or a girl?" she asked.

"Thank you!" I said. "It is a girl."

"Wow! So nice! Very cute! I have a cat but I like dogs too. Do you like cats?"

"Yes, I do," I told her, even though I don't really like cats. I didn't want to offend my neighbor.

"Don't you have a cat?" she asked.

"Yes, I don't."

"Is it a girl?"

"***???"

"How old is it?"

"***???"

I thought there was nothing to answer because I already told her that I had no cat, so I kept quiet without answering.

"Oh, it's okay. Never mind! Have a good one!" she said.

"You, too. Bye!" I told her.

At that moment, she was obviously flustered and quickly went away. A few minutes later, I realized what was wrong. It was because I answered in the wrong way to a negative question. Saying "yes, I don't" or "yes, I am not" is a Korean way to answer in the negative. I should have answered, "No, I don't." I didn't throw away my old habit of answering in a Korean way. It was a shame. I still make that kind of mistake in my English even now. How can I avoid mistakes caused by a different way of talking because of a different way of thinking?

Oh, my goodness! What a thing my English is!

~

Young - South Korea