Intercultural Life
Don’t under estimate the power of a single look.
I don’t even know what he thought I could do. It’s like he was expecting some major revenge for whacking me on the backside. But I didn’t do anything!
This makes me look like the calm and in control one but actually he is the calm one and I’m the one that stresses and cries and gets overemotional. Like the one time I threw my umbrella at Central Station because I was upset that we missed our train. Oh… maybe that is why he is scared of me!
I’ve been learning Korean for about a year and a half but I’m not doing classes at the moment. I learn the most being forced to study in a class and through homework. Now I’m on my own until I start classes again either later this year or next year. I aim to be somewhat fluent eventually but at the moment still at a beginner level as taking it slowly.
If my husband speaks slowly to me I can often understand but when he is chatting away I really only understand a few words. Of course he is speaking at a native speaker pace and it’s much harder to understand that and dialect. I listen a lot though and can recognise some words.
If we are with a group of people and everyone is speaking Korean he will translate things but often I don’t need him to because I understand enough words, look at expression and body language and fill in the blanks myself. There is always the risk of completely misunderstanding though.
My husband and I have different reactions to saving money. He gets quite excited about saving money whereas I’m more like…’whatever’. For example if we save 30 cents on our groceries I will say “We only saved 30 cents” but he’ll say “Wow we saved 30 cents!” and then he will then proceed to explain to me that is we save 30 cents this amount of times we will save this amount of money blah blah blah.
He gave me this money box, well more like money teddy bear, and explained to me that if I put my extra coins in there I can save up a lot of money and then when there is enough money I can buy something nice, and isn’t that good? I was flippant about it because it was like he was explaining it to a child! I may not be the best at saving money but I know how a money box works!
Anyway he did make me laugh and was so cute about it and the money box is adorable. Here is a photo of it:
We had dinner in the city last night then he had to go to work. He gave me some coins and said “Put these in the money box when you get home”. Then when I was home he called to check I got home safely and then said, “Did you put the coins in the money box?” I replied, “No… not yet. Okay fine I’m doing it now!”
Actually you can save up a lot of money with Australian coins because our $1 and $2 are coins.
Hehe…They were supposed to be full length and on most Korean girls they probably are. As a western woman I’m not very very tall, my height is only very slightly above what would be considered average. When I go to Korea though, everyone comments on how tall I am. While a lot of Korean women are shorter than me, many seem to be about my height so I don’t see a huge difference. I suspect that I just look taller to them.
What is one of the biggest differences between my body shape and the average Korean woman? Leg length. Koreans tend to have longer torsos which means in comparison their legs are a bit shorter. As I’m a completely Caucasian woman my legs are longer. My legs are longer than my husband’s as well, even though he is taller than me!
So even though my husband asked in the Korean shop if these PJ pants were definitely adult size… when I tried them on they were about 10 cm too short for me.
I’ll still wear them though! They are nice and fluffy, it’s just that my ankles are cold…
When the South Korean soccer/football team lost to Brazil in The Olympics I felt a bit sad, but oh well… Brazil is a strong team. But then I realised what team they have to play for the bronze medal…. Japan. My heart sank when I realised this because I knew how important this match would be. South Korea has a very complicated relationship with Japan. History is not just history to Koreans, it’s an ongoing thing and there are still political issues that drive a wedge between the two countries. This can be difficult to understand unless you understand both the history and the Korean mentality. I’ve read at length to try and understand the Korean way of thinking and I do mostly understand. I understand my husband’s way of thinking anyway.
HOWEVER, my blog is mostly lighthearted and I don’t want to delve into serious political issues. So this post is about my husband’s emotional reaction to this game. Koreans can love Japan, have many Japanese friends, but there will still be things that upset them. If you have a Korean partner it is likely you understand the way Koreans react to things like this. But others may not.
For example, Australia has a rivalry with Great Britain and often New Zealand, but they are always friendly rivalries. It is different for South Korea when they play against Japan. It’s… complicated. So hopefully you can understand why I was so apprehensive about this game. I didn’t want my husband to be really upset. I tried to prepare him in case Korea did lose.
Because of the time difference the soccer game was on early in the morning in Australia.
Luckily he was sighing with happiness. Also Korea won that taekwondo match too so he was extra happy. So of course I was happy.
Question: Do you call it soccer or football in your country? We say soccer in Australia.
My husband and I have been apart for a few weeks because he has been working in Sydney and I’ve been staying with my parents waiting until we had somewhere to live in Sydney. Even though we could talk every day, it is difficult to be apart.
He really does. He usually will take two and because I don’t usually want a sample he will make me go back and take two, pretending they are for me, and then make me give them to him. Greedy!
Anyway, I arrived in Sydney last night (what shocking weather there is at the moment!) so we are both now together. We are sharing an apartment with another Korean couple until we get our own apartment. Renting in Sydney is expensive! Especially the area we are in as it’s walking distance to the city. It is difficult for my husband, he is basically starting his life again in another country, so we are quite poor at the moment. Oh well at least we have our own bedroom and bathroom and we are together.
When I arrived last night these were waiting for me on the bed:
The bear has a cute hood on, and when trying to explain it, my husband said “You can take it’s head off!”
I have 1 Harper’s Bazaar Korea magazine to give away which has the G-Dragon Paris photo shoot in it. It is the August 2012 Edition.
To be in the running to win this prize simply leave your name in the comments section and a winner be selected randomly in about 1 week.
Congratulations CatvnloveTOP! Please contact me ASAP.
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