What do you suppose that above quote is referring to? A coworker said "it's really cute." What was she talking about? Lo and behold: she was referring to the way that I sound when I try to speak Korean. This is so much more positive and pleasant than the occasional mockings and put-downs that I have to tolerate in my efforts to learn the language.
I won't go so far as to read anything into it except just that it probably does sound quite novel and entertaining to hear a foreigner trying to speak the language – it's something even more rare, in most Koreans' day-to-day experiences, than hearing English or seeing foreigners at all. In any event, the semantic range of "cute" (귀엽다) is much wider in Korean, and generally speaking less ironic and/or flirtatious in the way it's deployed by adults.
Anyway, a little bit of positive (or at least non-negative) feedback can go a long way, in my soul (or whatever it is that I have that passes for a soul). I'm feeling pretty happy about my language-learning efforts, for once.
We'll see how things go, over the weekend – I'm committed to spending the whole weekend with Mr Kim, in a little odyssey to Ulsan. I may not be updating my blog until Monday morning.