Intercultural Life
We had two weddings. One in Australia and one in Korea. Here are photos from the Australian wedding. We wanted a small wedding and went for a vintage theme. My dress was originally made in the 1920’s so was 90 years old and very delicate! My veil is from here.
I’m sorry we don’t look like what we do in the comics… (I dyed my hair darker for the wedding as well).
All photos taken by Sheer Image Photography.
My husband’s Korean name is not that difficult but Australians can have some problems pronouncing it when they read it. I’ve noticed airport staff and flight attendants have interesting ways of avoiding trying to say his name.
Another letter that Koreans have trouble saying in English is V. Often they say it as a P. That’s alright it’s not different… except in some cases!
My husband was helping the Koreans next door who are in Australia on working holiday visas. They wanted to buy some cheap winter clothes so he took them to a second hand clothes shop. In Australia there is one in particular called St Vincents which we shorten to ‘Vinnes’.
Speaking of innocent words sounding really wrong… you may have seen the video of the Korean woman trying to explain how to ask about ordering a coke in Korean. Unfortunately her pronunciation of the word ‘coke’ in English turns the word into a much ruder word. I feel really bad for this woman because many people have seen this video and laughed at her. Let this be a big warning to Koreans who are going to an English speaking country: please be careful about some words.
If you are Korean and you aren’t sure why people were laughing at that video. She is just saying the word coke right? Actually the way she is saying it makes it sound like a certain man part (think of the different meaning of gochu).
This is one of the first things I correct when Korean friends come to Australia. I warn them about walking into McDonalds and asking for a large coke (not good!). It is really tricky for Koreans so I recommend saying Coca-Cola instead. It means the same and is the proper name for coke anyway. While my husband makes funny mistakes with me, it doesn’t matter because I’m his wife and in general he has good English. But you don’t want to accidentally ask for something very different to what you actually wanted!
I was in the bathroom using beauty products and stuff and didn’t realise someone was crouching outside the door.
This is a review of the restaurant that opened officially on our last day in Vanuatu (see previous post for that story).
There was a Korean restaurant here before but it shut down. A restaurant was opened again on this site (there is a hotel as well) just recently. So probably best to ignore any reviews from before May 2012.
This is the sign that we saw when driving past that sparked our curiosity.
The restaurant is situated on a hill and has a really great view.
The inside is really nice. It opens out onto a large deck where you can see those views from. A lot of care has been taken with the appearance of this restaurant. It has a good atmosphere and the staff are lovely.
There is a menu with more western style food and another menu for Asian style food. We ordered a spicy pork and rice and a bibimbap.
So how did they taste? Pretty good actually! I was curious as it’s probably more difficult to get Korean ingredients to Vanuatu – getting anything into Vanuatu is a bit difficult really. It is a tropical paradise but when you go to the grocery store anything in a packet is out of date. However, even without Korean ingredients readily available our meals were just as good as meals in Korea or Australia. The pork was delicious and the bibimbap so tasty. Even though we had a large breakfast only a short time earlier, we finished everything on our plates. It was one of the best meals we had in Vanuatu- and there are some very nice restaurants there.
What about the price? Surprisingly it was a reasonable price for Vanuatu. Eating out is expensive in Vanuatu! You can get cheap meals at the markets and local takeaway but sitting down to a meal in a restaurant will cost two or three times what you usually pay in Australia. So we were pleasantly surprised at the prices at Sky Garden.
If you are traveling to Port Vila in Vanuatu have a meal at the Sky Garden restaurant sometime. A taxi or bus driver will know if you say “Sky Garden” to them and drive you there. If you say “Korean restaurant” they may not know. It is well worth a visit.
We got back from our honeymoon last Sunday. We went to Vanuatu for about five days. As well as the traditional Vanuatu people there are also many Australians, New Zealanders, French and Chinese there. Many many Chinese owned shops. That’s not that unusual as Chinese people are spread all around the world. Koreans, less so. We were curious though. Are there any Koreans in Vanuatu?
Port Vila, where we stayed, is the capital of Vanuatu and it’s pretty small! The population is about 40 thousand. We started realising that many of the cars on the road were Korean. Not just Korean brand but second hand cars imported from Korea. Many still had the original hangul on them saying this mini bus was for children or old people. Someone must be importing Korean cars, surely they would be a Korean person?
Two days passed and no sign of any Koreans until one time we were being driven back to our resort and up on a hill, near a Thai restaurant, I saw a sign that said ‘Korean Restaurant’. Surely Koreans run that! I could see the sign but I couldn’t see exactly where the restaurant was. Every time we were driven on that road I looked for the sign but I couldn’t be sure if there was actually a restaurant there. There were buildings there but were they just a hotel? Maybe there was one that had shut down and the sign was old.
On our last afternoon there (we were flying out the next day) we found ourselves with not much to do. We’d spent the morning snorkeling and jet boat riding and we’d caught a bus instead of being driven in the resort van, so we had no driver waiting for us. We thought- let’s have an adventure! This was our last chance to find out if there really was a Korean restaurant there.
We knew the sign we saw for the Korean restaurant was quite far from the centre of town and we only had a vague idea of the direction it was in. We started in that direction anyway. We stopped and asked people on the way but they didn’t seem to know where it was- they weren’t even sure of the Thai restaurant we knew was near it. We walked for over an hour and guessed which streets to turn in to. I started giving up hope of finding it but my husband was adamant that we were going the right way. Normally I would not trust him as he has a terrible sense of direction but this time I didn’t argue. Maybe being a Korean his nose was leading him towards Korean food? haha.
Finally we saw the sign for the Thai restaurant and just a bit further along was the sign for the Korean restaurant. We couldn’t see the restaurant though, just a large parking area. We asked some people who were sitting around if there was a Korean restaurant here and they pointed us to the large newer looking building at the back of the parking area. Lots of people seemed to be going through a door. Balloons were everywhere. What was this?
We stepped inside and I saw a man I knew must be Korean. He was greeting everyone that was entering this large room where it looked like a party was being held. I asked if he was Korean and I quickly said “My husband is Korean” and pushed my husband forward. They spoke in Korean and soon we were ushered into the room and welcomed.
It turns out this was the celebration of the Korean restaurant opening (it opened officially the next day). There was food and entertainment and real Koreans! After trudging up stupid hills for the past hour it was amazing to walk into something like this. Apparently there was once a Korean restaurant here that had shut down but this man was reopening it.
The owner was really happy to have us unexpectedly arrive because apparently a honeymoon couple visiting for the opening brings good luck. That made me feel better about us gorging ourselves on all the free food!
There was a mix of people at the party but the Korean people there soon realised my husband was Korean (though some thought he might have been Japanese at first). There are only about 50 Koreans in Vanuatu so a new Korean face is a novelty. Most of the Korean men were much older than my husband but were so keen to talk to him. He collected several business cards.
The entertainment was traditional islander dances performed by dance troops that were really great. There was food in abundance- including a roast pig. It was amazing that we had stumbled across this just at the right time.
One man in particular was very keen to talk to my husband. We were introduced to his family and invited to his home. It turns out he is one of the people importing Korean cars to Vanuatu! He’d come here and built up his business which was so successful he had recently built a large house. They have two young daughters who speak both English and Korean but also that night two other young Korean girls were staying so we were confronted with four very loud bilingual children! I went swimming with them while my husband retreated to the kitchen to talk with the father.
We had a really nice time with this family and were invited to stay with them next time we come back to Vanuatu. I have no idea how we managed to arrive at exactly the right time for the celebrations and then meet such lovely welcoming people. I would have given up half way but my husband insisted we were walking up the right hill. I’m guessing it really was his nose leading him towards the smell of food. Or maybe there was something more innate and he could sense where fellow Koreans were?
The next morning before our flight out we went back to the restaurant (this time we told a bus driver exactly where to go) and had a meal (will post review of it.) We talked again to some people we had met the night before- including the very kind owner. All too soon we had to leave.
Vanuatu is a really great country to visit. It is beautiful and the people there are so lovely. We had an awesome time and we did some amazing things and saw some amazing things. What happened on the last night was the least expected thing though!
As an Australian, it’s always strange to me how many Koreans can’t swim well or can’t swim at all. Many just don’t have any opportunity to learn, where as in Australia even if we don’t learn from our parents we usually learn at school.
So yes, you can be in the Korean Navy and be scared of water.
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