My Korean Husband

Intercultural Life

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Maintaining Relationships with Family and Friends

Maintaining Relationships with Family and Friends When Living in Another Country.

This is one of the hardest things about living in another country, especially for international couples. Someone will always be apart from their friends and family. People have different ways of dealing it, some people find thinking about family too much can wear them down so they can’t handle every day contact, while others manage by talking almost single day on Skype. I’m somewhere in the middle where it’s mostly some messaging and a few phone calls.

Luckily, I also have many friends in Korea and it’s easier as a couple to make new friends. It can be a lot harder for single people to make those connections. I know living in another country can be a very lonely experience sometimes. Hugh had a lot of hard times in the first few years of living in Australia. It’s always weird to think back and know in hindsight know that he was already in Australia but that we wouldn’t meet until several years later.

Sometimes it’s hard to maintain relationships when your friends or family aren’t embracing technology the same way that you might be. Messaging services and Skype can be a lifeline for those in a foreign country but sometimes those back home don’t understand how important they are. There can also be a feeling of disconnect when your experiences are now so different from other friends and they can’t understand how you have changed. Like Hugh mentioned in the video, he has nothing in common with the people he was friends with before he went to Australia.

Thankfully with modern technology it’s a lot easier to maintain those relationships most of the time and even though I miss my family, it’s very easy to contact them.

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Dropping

This happened this morning…. Thanks Hugh! He says he always drops his phone on his face. Unfortunately today he dropped it on my face. Actually my nose still feels a little bit sore!

Do you drop your phone on your face a lot? I know a lot of people do but I have rarely done it since I tend to lay on my side when looking at my phone. Or have you done this to a partner?

What is the worst thing you’ve accidentally done to a partner when they were trying to sleep? Most people tend to reply and answer on Facebook. So join the conversation over there!

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Alice walks into YG Entertainment to ask if Bigbang is there

4 year old walks into YG Entertainment to ask if BIGBANG is there.

Most people will know Sophie and Han’s daughter Alice from several of our videos. The other week Sophie, Alice and baby Gyo were visiting us and the walk from the bus stop goes past YG Entertainment. Alice likes Bigbang and has even been to a Bigbang concert before so she knows the YG building as “Bigbang’s house”. As we were walking back from the shops and passing YG, Alice was asking about Bigbang. We told her that as it’s a Sunday they won’t be there (which is usually true). Since she is so confident she decided to walk right into the YG driveway and ask the security guard if they were there. The security guard was very nice to her but told her they aren’t there. Usually fans are stopped before getting that far but they let her in and the security guard had a smile on his face. Alice speaks more Korean than English so the whole exchange was in Korean.

I posted this video on Instagram and it got a great response so decided to post it on YouTube too. So many people relate to Alice wanting to see Bigbang. Even some Kpop news sites picked up the story.

Thank you to everyone for all the positive comments across social media. Her mother’s Instagram is here.

Here is a photo of Alice earlier in the day:

 

How much do you wish that you had the confidence of a 4 year old? haha

Being naked in Korea?

Korea has a culture where people go to public baths and are very comfortable to be naked around other people (though usually the same sex). There also isn’t any shame in undressing and changing clothes in front of friends, whereas many Western cultures have issues with that and there is a lot more ingrained shame when it comes to bodies.

Hugh does tend to be quite the nudist (maybe more than others) and once the weather is warm enough he doesn’t see the point of wearing clothes at home. Currently he is always exercising naked too. I’m sorry neighbours. But after I started talking about this on the blog, and with friends who also married into Korean families, I’ve heard that many Koreans can be quite similar in stripping off in their own home, at least down to just underwear.

I think men possibly have more freedom than women in traditional homes. Traditionally the parents’ room is also the living room which means a lack of privacy. When we lived in the countryside I never walked in on my sister in law or mother in law changing but constantly saw Hugh and my father in law in just their underwear. As a westerner who is used to parents’ rooms to be very separate and very private it was quite confronting and a big cultural difference.

Another contrast is that in Australia showing cleavage is okay and men often exercise without a shirt in public which just isn’t seen in Korea. Every country has a different expectation of what is acceptable and how much of the body is shown and where it can be shown.

I definitely think ondol heating (underfloor heating) has something to do with it. As Hugh mentioned, when there is ondol heating anywhere can be your bed because Koreans don’t usually have problems with sleeping directly on the floor. When the floor is warm and comfortable it makes sense to strip down and be the most comfortable possible. Also many Korean homes don’t have sofas or that type of furniture so everything is done down on the floor. It can be very relaxing, but I find it hard to be motivated when laying on a heated floor!

Original comic can be found here.

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