Intercultural Life
This giveaway is now closed.
This giveaway its kinda funny… it’s a towel!
It’s unopened and sealed in plastic. It’s a light blue towel with Lee Min Ho photos on it. It is not a Western size bath towel, it’s Korean size ^_^
If you would like to rub Lee Min Ho’s face all over your body after a shower, enter this giveaway! Just leave a comment in the comment section and a winner will be picked at random in about 2 weeks time.
This was something that confused me. South Korea is so technologically advanced and internet savvy, I couldn’t work out why every Korean I knew was using IE. Not only the fact that IE is acknowledged to be the worst browser, but also that Koreans seemed to have no variety when it came to browsers.
I realise why now, thanks to a friend who sent me this article. Internet Explorer becomes Korean election issue by Phil Muncaster.
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer market share may soon take a tumble in South Korea if presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo wins looming elections. The hot seat hopeful plans to abolish an anachronistic government crypto standard which has effectively locked users into Internet Explorer for over a decade.
At the tail end of the 1990s, the Korean government decided in its wisdom to develop a home-grown 128-bit SSL encryption standard to increase security around e-commerce.
SEED, as it was known, was then mandated for all online transactions.
The only problem with this new system was that it requires users to install Microsoft ActiveX plug-in to work and therefore needs Internet Explorer.
The result: a decade-long monopoly for IE as banking, shopping and other transactional sites were optimised specifically and exclusively for the Microsoft browser.
Now it makes sense! Koreans have been forced into using IE and because of that, many do not know that there are much better browsers to use when they are outside of Korea. Which is why many Koreans will still use IE even when in places like Australia, because they just haven’t thought about using a different one.
Well you learn something new every day.
(By the way, the first panel in the comic is a lie. Korean boys in internet cafes in Korea never look at me. While I might get stared at a lot walking on the streets, inside the hazy, smokey internet cafes no one even notices the tall blonde Caucasian woman cursing at IE, because they are so focused on gaming).
When he is a bit loopy from cold medicine it’s like dealing with a very big, very loud and very strong two-year-old. He has a bad cold again, so hasn’t been very happy. We went out last Sunday for some fresh air but he was a little bit…… not alright. My friend was like, “He’s a bit off today isn’t he?” Um….yes. It’s funny, but I do feel like I have to watch him carefully. I think it’s not just the medicine but also being light headed and sick just makes him do silly things.
Hopefully he’ll be feeling better soon and back to normal.
Marie asks:
So does your husband have a Aussie Accent when he speaks English?”
Hehe.. Good question.
He doesn’t, he has a Korean accent and I actually hope he always has it. He does sometimes attempt saying very Aussie things but I don’t like it.
Why don’t I like it? I just really prefer the Korean accent to the Aussie accent. Even though I’m Australian myself, I find some Aussie accents so grating. I’m sure many of you might be thinking “But Aussie accents are so hot! I love *insert popular Australian male actor here*!” Who is hot at the moment? Chris Hemsworth? Yes, but those types usually have a milder Australian accent. I’m from a rural area where the Australian accent can be really really strong, especially for men. It is a mumbling nasal sound with a tendency to go up at the end of every sentence, whether it’s a question or not. Just not my cup of tea. Although I’m originally from an area with very strong rural accents, my parents were originally from Sydney and I just never picked up the rural accent. I have a milder accent and only slip up on a few words that may betray where I’m from.
I just really love the Korean accent so I don’t want my husband to even have a slight Aussie accent. We know Korean guys that do though, or almost have an Australian accent. They usually practice copying the way Australians speak. Even though in Korea they are taught American English (which causes some problems when they come to Australia) some can adjust their accent quite quickly. If they know enough English before they come to Australia, within a year they may have an Australian accent.
My husband however…. he just lives in his own little world. He just doesn’t really pick up the accent. I think there are a few reasons for this. One being that my husband speaks quite slowly and softly. This doesn’t lend itself well to the faster Australian way of speaking. Another reason I think, is his English level. He got his English to a decent level and just kinda left it there. Other Korean guys we know are continually striving to perfect their English and mimic native speakers.
He does pick up things I say, and I pick up things he says (What a nice!) but I don’t think my accent is strong enough to make a big influence on him.
Who knows though. Maybe in 10 years he will be speaking like an Aussie bloke. Streuth!
When I first joined Pottermore… (The Harry Potter website).
And then later…
I went back on Pottermore again last night. I still fail at potions. Have you seen the inside of the Slytherin common room? I haven’t. How am I supposed to make the Polyjuice potion? It’s so hard!
As much a J.K. Rowling says stuff like “It’s not that Hufflepuffs are dumb, they are just as smart, it’s just they don’t boast about their achievements.” Well, whatever she said…. It doesn’t stop other people from making fun!
Where are all the Hufflepuffs? I have cookies, let’s go eat our feelings.
Ally asks:
“What is “fat” in Korea? Do you have stories about any shopping experiences when you went there (regarding the size or clothes they offer, culture shock, etc)? From what I’ve heard, they have clothing sizes that are quite different from US/UK sizes which my friend tells me is due to there being a little amount of “fat” people in Korea.”
Since I’ve only visited Korea and not lived there for longer than 1 month I’m opening up this question to those who are from other countries and living in Korea right now. Please share your experiences of shopping in Korea in the comment section and people can discuss it and vote up good answers.
There is a different idea of what is fat in Korea. As with most first world countries: skinny is in. But Koreans in general are smaller than Western people so when they are trying to achieve an even smaller size it is really small for us. Korean society is also very focused on looks so there is even more pressure to be skinny. Whereas Western societies tend to embrace differences more, Korea has a mono culture so those that are different can have a difficult time.
When Korean girls in particular come to Australia they often feel like they can relax a lot more here, they’ll eat more and not worry so much about being skinny. Australia has a lot more delicious sweet food and they’ll often take a liking to it (especially Tim Tams). But, as their working holiday or student visas comes to a close they will start to panic about their weight. Of course to Australians it’s not like they even look fat, but they start to worry about what everyone will say when they get back to Korea about their weight gain.
One of my friends had her mother say to her “If you are fat, don’t come home.” The things that are said, and the high standard can be quite shocking to me. If I stacked on the weight while overseas my friends wouldn’t even really mention it, but for Korean girls they know when they go back to Korea their friends and family will say directly to them “You are fat.” So much more pressure.
Okay, so what about shopping? I haven’t done much clothes shopping in Korea but I remember going shopping in Busan where there were lots of tiny and crowded clothes shops.
I felt overwhelmed and awkward. Luckily I can fit into Korean sizes mostly, which is good because sizes seem to be something like ‘Small’ and ‘Even Smaller’. And there is something called ‘Free size’ which I think is supposed to be one size fits all? In these type of clothes shops you pick out what you want and when you are at the counter they go get a plastic sealed one for you. Mostly here in Australia we will pick something from the racks, try it on and buy that exact item.
Once we live in Korea for a few years I’m sure I’ll have more stories about shopping in Korea.
Speaking of being overweight or a bigger size again, don’t think that every single person is really skinny. There are people who are overweight, there are people who are just naturally very big, just not as much as somewhere like Australia. I asked my husband where bigger people buy their clothes from, and he said, “The internet. You can buy everything on the internet.”
So there you go…
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