My Korean Husband

Intercultural Life

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Vote For Me Please

Hey guys I’ve entered the Big Bang Design Contest. I’d really really love it if you could vote for my design here: https://apps.facebook.com/bigbangdesigncontest/?idx=4169

I drew my design from scratch and went for an old school game vibe.

Here is my design:

Actually I’d really like to win the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 for my husband. Of course winning tickets to a Big Bang concert would be awesome, but I have seen them in a mini concert in Korea before, so it would be cool if a fan who had never seen them won that. So please please vote for my design so I can try and get third place haha. I realise the designs that were entered earlier have already got so many votes, I should have entered earlier but I was drawing by hand so it just took so long and been so busy…

Thanks everyone!

The Slow Invasion

I mentioned the first cube in this previous post.

If you don’t watch Doctor Who this is a reference to an episode called ‘The Power of Three’ where cubes start appearing all over the world.

Thankfully, besides from flashing under the bed, the cubes have not done anything else to us…..yet.

Team America

Warning: this post contains some bad language.

(Only the green bins were supposed to go out, not the yellow ones haha).

So not only does he copy Kim Jong Il’s lines, but he’ll do it in that voice. Sometimes he may continue the dialogue and start singing the ‘I’m so Ronery” song. Of course this sounds so funny because he has a real Korean accent and it makes it so much better.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, this is the clip from the movie Team America:

I’ve found South Koreans tend to have the same reaction to these parts of the movie- they laugh a lot. Especially before Kim Jong Il died, because while in South Korea, North Korea is something scary- it’s a problem and a danger – but when they watch things like this making fun of Kim Jong Il and showing him as ridiculous it was something like a relief for them. That was my friends reactions anyway. And they thought puppet Kim Jong Il looked exactly like him.

Now with Kim Jong Un, most humor about him seems to be focused on his weight, whereas Kim Jong Il was a goldmine for humor, but perhaps we just don’t know enough about Jong Un yet. Who do you think is scarier?

Other parts of this movie are really rude so if you are really young or easily offended, probably best not to watch the whole movie, though I think it’s more censored in the U.S. We have the uncensored version here and it gets very……bad. haha.

Matt Damon!

Questions and Epik High

No comic today because it’s Sunday! It is the time to suggest post subjects or ask questions though!

Also instead of reading a comic today why don’t you watch Epik High instead? I love love love their new music video.

This video has even more meaning if you know what happened to Tablo, but if not, it’s still awesome, so enjoy!

Custard

Natalie asks:

Do you have any more Konglish experiences you could write about? Or is does this not happen too often anymore?

It still happens, but not as much with my husband. My husband is really aware of what is Konglish and what is English. This happened earlier in the relationship though:

So when I think of custard I think of delicious custard that is a LIQUID usually to be poured over desserts, but I do enjoy it by itself too. Home made or store bought- I don’t care, I love it all. I do not love what Koreans consider to be custard though. Technically on the box it says something like “custard cream cakes” and they are cakes with some vague resemblance of custard in the centre but my husband called it just ‘custard’. Custard is one of my all time favourite foods so needless to say I was a bit disappointed when he showed up with that. It’s the thought that counts though.

It does happen a bit where an English name for a food is used in Korea and the meaning changes a bit. Like the way Koreans use the name “Cream Pasta” instead of having specific names for pasta. It’s not exactly wrong, but not exactly right either.

So while my husband doesn’t have much trouble with Konglish now, it still comes up all the time with Korean friends. I think a big reason why this is a problem is because in Korea English is just not taught well in most schools in Korea. They should spend more time teaching the difference between English and Konglish instead of just getting students cramming for exams. There is nothing wrong with Konglish- some of it is so inventive – but unfortunately it can cause problems for Koreans tying to speak English to native English speakers.

Adele, who was in the previous comic, was asking me for something today. She kept saying, “Name pen! Name pen!” I had a vague idea of what she wanted but wasn’t exactly sure and I knew she didn’t just want a normal pen. Turns out she wanted a permanent marker. But she didn’t know that name, only the Konglish one and she got more and more frustrated when I couldn’t understand exactly. There are different names for a permanent marker in English, here in Australia we might say ‘texta’ or ‘laundry marker’ or variations, but I’d also understand American names like the brand name ‘Sharpie’ as well. But Adele’s attempts were just too far from one of the real English names. The funny thing is I actually found a Korean permanent marker in our apartment AND it actually says “Name pen” on it. No wonder Adele thought that was the right English.

Other Konglish that has popped up lately is ‘one piece’ which in Konglish means a dress, but would probably refer to the full piece swimsuit in English.

Skinship is another one and it usually needs a longer explanation. In Korea skinship refers to the point in a relationship where there is physical contact (hand holding etc). Most Koreans I’ve met (and I mean Koreans who have spent all their life in Korea) assume skinship is English and will use it in English conversation which no doubt confuses people who don’t know any Konglish. When they discover it’s not English they ask what the word is in English… but there isn’t really one. Some type of physical contact early in a relationship in Western culture isn’t a big deal and it’s normal to hold hands or kiss before actually officially being in a relationship so I guess we don’t need to label that.

I don’t mean to be too critical about Konglish. I love a lot of Konglish and use a bit myself. It just causes some confusion sometimes.

 

Blister

 

Apparently ‘blister’ in Korean is ‘muljib’. Which does actually translate as ‘waterhouse’. Of course it would be unlikely that someone would guess that she was trying to say blister in English which is why my husband was in hysterics laughing at it.

This friend is the friend I went to see Psy with. She is from the same area my husband is from in Korea and is in Australia for her working holiday visa. She is likely to pop up in some other comics too (her English name is Adele).

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