Even after being married for so many years, we still have language communication problems. But now we argue like the old married couple that we are!
By the way, it WAS dodgeball they were playing. I had to google it to find that out though.
Author: Nic (Page 1 of 37)
We often go to the Natural History Museum near us in Seoul. It’s always fun for the kids and they enjoy the animal displays. Yul has started copying what Hugh does though, which is commenting on what animals he would like to eat. However, they are not the only ones who do it while there! I definitely hear others talking about what sea creatures, in particular, taste good. At least these just the taxidermy animals. I think it’s more annoying when it’s at a zoo or wildlife park.
There are cultural and historical reasons why Koreans seem obsessed with food. I can’t go into all the detail here, but it’s less weird to me now, after living in Korea for 10 years. But I have seen comments from those part of the Korean diaspora who can get quite angry at older relatives who make comments like this.
This comic has the English and Korean combined as that is how the moment is in real life. The bigger font is always the language that it was spoken in. This is a conversation in Korean but I am responding in English.
Also, a reminder that the majority of the conversation around my comics, now happens on social media rather than comment section here.
Yul is learning Korean reading and writing at school but I am teaching him to read English at home. I wasn’t raised bilingual so when I was learning to read as a child, I didn’t have this awareness of different languages that Yul has. The Korean language is almost completely phonetic and is quite easy to read but in comparison, English can seem like a mess. Koreans also know their history about King Sejong and the development of Hangul, so perhaps that’s why Yul was also asking about who invented English. Maybe when he is older he will learn to appreciate all the influences English has and how it grew and changed over time.
A challenge for parents raising kids to be bilingual is maintaining the interest in both language, so they continue learning both. As Yul is now in elementary school, there is a big focus on Korean, so he possibly feels like learning to read in English is much slower and more boring. I also try not to pressure too much because I want him to discover how amazing reading is for himself. I was a voracious reader as a child, and I want my children to also have that escape from the world too. We are lucky to have an English kids library close by to where we live in Seoul and Yul enjoys visiting it. Hopefully it is just a matter of time before English seems a bit less stupid.
Hugh has been out of Australia too long! He doesn’t remember the slang. He heard an Australian guy say this at a work event and then came home and repeated it to me. Unfortunately he thought it was “boom boom” instead of “whoop whoop”. Also, where I am from it’s not necessarily “out whoop whoop”. I am from a reasonably sized country city and it’s the much smaller places, that are further out, that we would say are “out whoop whoop”.
Hugh was also naked during the conversation last week but I drew some undies on him at least. (Some things never change). Yul also had no idea what we were talking about, but he still thought it was funny.
BBQ Restaurants
Living in Seoul we are surrounded by great BBQ Restaurants but as a family we don’t get to go out to them that often. It is usually a special occasion. So, Jisoo does get very excited when she sees the BBQ meat as she loves it. Already as a two-year-old she can tell the difference between cheap meat and good quality meat and can be fussy about it. Only the best meat for her apparently!
When Hugh was young and growing up in the countryside of rural South Korea, meat was still something of a luxury so he didn’t get to eat it every day. He remembers getting upset at his parents and grandparents when there was no meat in a meal. Meat was absolutely his favourite food. Yul will eat meat but doesn’t love it like that. In the comic (and in real life) he was only eating rice and the egg dish. I am also not a big meat eater and just like Korean BBQ occasionally.
I spent most of the meal having to frantically cut up the meat and cool it down for Jisoo, who spent the whole time yelling for more meat. We tend to use the Korean word “gogi” for meat at home, even when speaking in English, so Jisoo was mixing languages here too. This is her copying our examples, rather than her not knowing the difference.
These days Hugh has to be careful about eating too much meat because of health reasons, so it is still something for business meetings and special occasions. His former child self would be disappointed!
Hello! Comics are back! They will be regularly appearing here and on social media. The internet has changed so much since I first started this blog. It used to be that people would visit individual websites every day and now we all just scrolling through social media. So, I don’t know who is actually here reading this anymore. If you are, hello!
This is where I try to give more background to comics and videos. Also, videos will be coming back soon as well. Hugh and I are still in Seoul, and we have two children. A six-year-old and a two-year-old. Things have changed a lot!
We still live in the same area as the YG Entertainment building and sometimes I have to walk past it. I remember pre-children when I would walk past and would hope to see someone famous, and occasionally would. These days I am usually hurrying past in full mum mode and not wanting any Kpop star to see me like that! It has happened though. I saw and talked to an iKON member while a mess and picking up the kids from daycare. But the other thing about becoming a parent is you care a lot less about how you look. Age comes for us all! Both Hugh and I are in our 40’s now.
The past few years have been hard for a lot of reasons. It has taken me a long time to get into the mindset of even wanting to make anything. It’s been hard since my best friend Sara died. I talked about that on our YouTube channel. Possibly in the future I will talk more about grief in a video, but for now I am just finally glad to be in a head space where I can start to make some comics again.
In April, I headed back to Australia with the kids. Hugh couldn’t come because of work, but I was determined to give the kids a good holiday. While living in Korea, the kids tv show Bluey has been a vital connection to Australian English and culture for us.
For those that don’t know, Bluey is a wonderful Australian cartoon that has gained popularity worldwide. It’s heartfelt, funny and quintessentially Australian. Especially during the pandemic it was wonderful for Yul to watch something Australian and hear real Australian kids’ voices. It helped his English a lot.
Even though the characters are dogs in Bluey, the world feels very real and very Australian. There were elements of the show that I wanted my kids to experience. So while filming a bit of what we did in Australia, I tried to match up some experiences to actual Bluey episodes.
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