My Korean Husband

Intercultural Life

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Uncool

It was this song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSXx7-EceBA

No surprise that it was a Eurovision winning song.

One of the many things that made me fall in love with my husband was his completely unpretentious taste in music. Perhaps it was something I was more conscious of because I have dated guys who were very critical of anyone who liked music they thought wasn’t cool enough and honestly that just becomes a bit depressing. My husband has a very broad and unashamed taste in music but what excites him the most seems to be 1980’s power ballads. His body starts twitching because he wants to “groove” to the music and then pretty soon he is singing along dramatically. It makes me smile because you can’t help but enjoy it too. He will listen to, and like, music that may be deemed a bit cooler but the next song on his playlist may be something like One Direction, and he doesn’t care.

There are times when I have had to say, “Oh geez, not this song.” But for all the times I’m annoyed there are more times where I’m thankful of how nonjudgmental he is and how he can take pleasure in the cheesy things in life.

For example, right now as I’m writing this post he has his earphones in and is singing to himself, “Last Christmas I gave you my heart…”

Dirty Jokes

This happens sometimes, and they are usually pretty mild jokes or references, nothing really really dirty. It’s not that he doesn’t understand jokes in English, usually he understand jokes fine, it’s just that he doesn’t pick up sexual innuendos as well. Sometimes when he says he doesn’t understand (usually he says “What is it?” when he doesn’t understand), I look at his innocent and trusting face and think, “I can’t explain this.”

This does not mean he is some innocent little boy – far from it – it’s just soooo many things in English can seem to mean something sexual and since it’s not his native language he can’t pick up on them all. Sometimes just completely over his head.

 

Raisin Toast

We both love sweet things but different sweet things. My tastes are more for things like chocolate and cake. My husband’s is for honey, honey, honey. In the morning if I make him breakfast he insists on toast with honey and a cup of tea with honey. I’m usually health conscious and only buy healthy bread full of grains and stuff. But I got some raisin toast bread the other day which he loved (and still slathered with honey). I’m not sure how raisin bread would taste with a chicken and avocado sandwich but I don’t doubt that he would try it. I’ve made him sandwiches before that had egg, cheese, and tomato sauce…. and he still added honey.

It is weird the difference taste in sweet things. He will complain that the caramel chocolate I’m eating is too sweet… but then goes and puts honey on everything.

(Also the nudity is an accurate representation of him these days. It’s coming into summer and the weather is very warm so he seems to have no use for clothes).

Speecher

I have to smile at some of the English he comes out with sometimes. So while his English obviously benefits from being married to a native speaker, it doesn’t mean that I can correct him constantly. It’s not good for a relationship to have one partner always correcting the other, so there are times when I have to let things go, especially if we are focused on watching a movie. There are varying levels of correction. I might not correct at all, I might subtly correct him by repeating what he said in the right way, or if there is time and it’s appropriate to, I’ll correct him and give him an explanation why.

“Speecher” does make sense though haha. I don’t know why he was concerned about whether Abraham Lincoln was good at speaking when the movie is about him fighting vampires!

Less Friends

This post is a not a funny one and is a bit sad actually. For many years my husband was in Australia on working holiday visas and student visas. With that comes a certain type of socializing. There are many other Koreans in Australia on those type of visas and they usually stay for 1 or 2 years. The usually live together in the same type of apartments and areas. It’s a chance to make a lot of friends and there is a certain type of relaxed party lifestyle.

My husband is a permanent resident now and unfortunately most of his friends have gone back to Korea. He still knows plenty of people here and we have friends but it’s hard knowing that really good friends will all leave at some point.

A few weeks ago we were at the park and we saw a bunch of Koreans having a barbeque. We knew they were working holiday visa or student visa Koreans just enjoying their time in Australia. My husband hasn’t had that type of relaxed hanging out for a long time.

I told him he could go introduce himself and maybe they’ll invite him to join them but he couldn’t do it (Koreans have a lot of trouble introducing themselves randomly to other Koreans). So instead he stood some distance away and looked over longingly at the fun time they were having. I felt really bad for him. They didn’t notice him.

While getting permanent residency comes with many benefits, there are some aspects that are a bit sad, like friends always leaving. The other problem is my husband’s work hours means he only has a few evenings a week off, so it can be hard to see friends when he wants to.

He doesn’t complain much about it but it does make me sad sometimes that there are so many friends he can’t see for a long time because of his choice to be in Australia with me.

One Photo

We’ve had this argument before. Out of many photos that were taken he’ll fixate on the one photo that doesn’t really look like him. This photo made him look like a body builder, and while he is muscular and kinda stocky, he doesn’t really look like a body builder! Other times it was photos where he looks really skinny but isn’t actually in real life. He’ll then upload to certain forums he is on and tell people he always looks like this AND will insist to me that it is a real representation.

I know it’s something that lots of people do, we all like to look good online, but I’m a bit less concerned these days. Perhaps a bit of a cultural difference: Korea is a lot more focused on looks than Australia is. Actually the first time we went to Korea, we met some friends and family that had only seen photos of me on Facebook. Many people told me I look much better in real life and that I look terrible on Facebook…..um thanks? I remember someone saying these exact words, “Real life….GOOD! Facebook…..BAD!” It’s not like all my photos are terrible! I just don’t care too much, have a lot of casual snapshots and I don’t even know how to use photoshop.

In the end I don’t think he put that photo on Facebook because his phone wasn’t working. He needs a new one. Also, he got stung by a jellyfish! When his friend was taking photos, he told him to lay on the sand in a pose but unfortunately there was a jellyfish in the sand. Makes me wonder how much frolicking and posing him and his friend were doing on the beach…. anyway he’s okay. It wasn’t a really bad sting.

 

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