Intercultural Life

Tag: korea (Page 6 of 7)

Too Much Food

Too Much Food

Mr Gwon always get fat when we come to Korea! He just can’t help himself when it comes to Korean food. We are really encouraged to eat when in Korea too, friends and family are always urging us to eat.

He is a little worried about the meet up on Saturday because he has put on so much weight in the past 2 weeks. He’ll have to hit the gym hard when we get back to Australia.

By the way….. EBS is filming me right now hahaha.

 

Korea Vlog 1

So we haven’t done much today. We are just relaxing. Helped my husband’s parents with their farm work. I was on box making duty. They are packing up the strawberries to be taken to market.

My husband’s home town is very small and it’s mostly just old people living here. People stare at me but I’m used to it. His parents have a tiny shop at the front of their house and high school students come to buy snacks. There is a high school near by because there are a bunch of small towns in this area. But really, there is not much here in this village. But there are supermarkets one town over, which is walking distance and the city of Jinju is 20 minutes away.

We will be making small videos while we are in Korea. Our friend does most of our editing so she will edit bigger videos when we get back to Australia but we’ll just do some small vlogs like this. If there is something you’d like to see in particular, let us know.

Off to Korea!

We are heading to the airport soon and will be in Korea tomorrow morning. We have a stopover, so not directly to Korea 🙁

We will fly into Busan and then catch a bus to Jinju. From there Mr Gwon’s aunt will drive us to his tiny home town. So next time you see our faces we will be in very rural Korea!

Fashion Post

Puji asks

i wanna ask about how korean people think about fashion and where they usually buy their clothes, because i am impressed by their fashion style, kekeke. thanks 🙂

 

Okay I’m going to open this up to everyone, so please share your opinions in the comment sections. If you live in Korea where do you buy your clothes?

I really like Korean fashion and a lot of my clothes are actually Korean but I think I still wear them in my own style.

Australian fashion can be anything really, it depends on who you are, where you are, personal taste etc. There is definitely a more distinctive Korean style. We can tell who is Korean in Sydney a long way off simply because we recognise the brands and styles that Koreans wear.

One of the bigger differences between Australian fashion and Korean fashion is what skin is shown. Korean girls will easily show all their legs but usually keep their chest area, shoulders and backs covered. While Australian women may show their legs (just not as much as Korean girls) we have no problem with showing cleavage and chest area, shoulders and back. I’ve heard that the back is seen as particularly sexy by Koreans but for Australian women, a lot of our summer dresses are maxi dresses that reveal a lot of the back.

Another difference is the way Korean girls wear baseball caps. Here, if we are wearing a baseball cap like that it’s because we are going to exercise or do something sporty. But Korean girls will wear huge heels, a short skirt and nice blouse, do their hair and makeup and plonk a cap on. It took me a while to work out that this was just Korean style (and sometimes girls want to hide their faces).

I remember when I first had Korean friends and I’d arranged to go shopping with a friend. She’d answer the door wearing a cap like that and I’d be like, “…..Are you not ready? Do you need more time to get ready?” To me the cap was just too informal to go out in. It’s still sometimes strange to me to see girls wearing beautiful clothes with a cap like that.

My sister-in-law sent me some Korean clothes and accessories recently. Here are two photos of me trying them out.

Korean FashionKorean Fashion 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you think? Do you like Korean fashion?

Stoic?

Today I have a question from Paul:

I was born in Korea, but came to the US when I was 2. In 1978, I was 8 years old and my parents bought a leather bound set of the World Book Encyclopedia. I turned to Korea and the first sentence read, “The Koreans are a stoic people.”

Do you find your husband or his parents to be stoic at all?

I found this to be true of the immigrants to the US from my parent’s generation.

So the modern meaning of stoic is something like being indifferent, detached and calm, or unaffected by adversity. So I’m guessing that Encyclopedia meant that Koreans had remained strong and seemingly unemotional through much adversity. There is also the meaning relating to a school of philosophy where people should be unmoved by passions and emotions and submit without complaint. There are definitely elements of this “submit without complaint” through Korea’s history as they endured many many wars over the centuries. Both Japan and China invaded them many times, sometimes even had wars against each other IN Korea. Korea, being the smaller country learned how to endure this and just carry on.

If we look at the time period, the 1960’s and 1970’s, it’s actually not that long after the Korean War. And before the Korean War was World War II and the Japanese occupation. Koreans had endured a lot! I’m sure being stoic was a way of coping with the hardships they faced, especially during this time. Any Koreans leaving Korea around that time would have taken those values with them.

South Korea, however, has changed incredibly since the 1960’s and 1970’s. South Korea’s economy improved dramatically. There was rapid industrialization, improved living standards, urbanization, modernization: South Korea went from being a war torn country receiving foreign aid, to a wealthy, developed country that could now give out aid to other countries. Quite a transformation. This of course affects the national character of South Koreans and how Korean express themselves now is probably quite different from how Koreans were over 50 years ago.

So what are Koreans like now? I actually find them to be very expressive in general. The relationships they have with others are extremely important, socializing is important and their friendships are expressed openly. It’s not unusual for girls to hold hands and for guys to show a lot of physical affection to male friends. They can react very outwardly emotionally to things, not hiding their feelings at all. I think that stoic character is limited to only some of older generation now and I definitely wouldn’t say all Koreans are like that now.

When people move to another country they try to take their culture with them and hold tightly onto it. Not only Koreans, but many other people from many countries do this as well. What can happen though, as the years pass, is they end up holding onto a culture that is from many years ago and meanwhile the culture in their homeland has changed a lot. Especially if they rarely visit Korea as well and are in a community of other families that all migrated at a similar time. What they view as essential Korean culture may now not be the same as what Koreans in Korea think is essential culture. There may be some views that are out-dated or emphasis on certain aspects that have since faded away in Korea.

This is why sometimes non-Koreans have more problems marrying into an American Korean family or Australian Korean family, but my husband’s family, who live in a small conservative town in rural Korea, actually had no problems with him marrying a non-Korean. But for Koreans that migrated, perhaps they place more importance on marrying only Koreans.

I do remember meeting an American guy who, when heard that my boyfriend was Korean, warned me about Korean families and how they will never accept me etc. His only experience with Koreans was Korean communities in the US, not Koreans actually living in Korea.

Korea is still changing rapidly and people who leave the country for as little as 5 years, can return and be surprised at the change. So I think the character of Korea is constantly changing and evolving.

My husband is definitely not stoic at all. It doesn’t take much to move him emotionally and he feels things deeply and has no problems with expressing it as well. Though he knows how to cope with hard times, he sees no point in bottling up feelings.

My husband’s parents are very expressive in their love for me. We always say “I love you” on the phone. They are always openly concerned about my husband and me and always express how they want us to have a happy life. They have a small farm and work very hard. Sometimes after a long day, when we talk to them on the phone, they say that even though their bodies are sore and they are tired, all the pain and tiredness goes away when they hear our voices. They are comfortable expressing themselves like that.

My husband’s parents don’t speak any English and my Korean is very basic but my father-in-law likes to try and express himself by singing. He knows some English pop songs from years ago. And tries to use them to communicate with me.

Korean Father-in-lawSo, in conclusion, while stoicism was definitely essential for Koreans in order to survive in the past, Korea and Koreans are rapidly changing and that definition may not be applicable now.

That’s just my opinion drawn from my own reading and experiences.

Olympic Opening Ceremony

I’m not especially patriotic. I love my country but never feel the need to be really patriotic during sporting events. I feel much more emotion seeing Korea win rather than seeing Australia win something. Maybe Korean patriotism is catching because I’ve heard of other non-Koreans feeling more passion for Korean victories rather than their home country. South Korea’s modern history is so inspiring that you can’t help but cheer for them.

Because I was watching the Australian coverage of the Olympic opening ceremony they spent a lot of time showing the Australian athletes. Much more than what was necessary. Showing more of Australian athletes on Australian TV is to be expected but it was really too much time on them. They didn’t even show the B countries coming out because they kept the cameras on the Australians. Then they were constantly cutting back to the Australian athletes, who weren’t doing anything that interesting, just being rowdy and taking photos and tweeting probably. I became worried that they wouldn’t show the South Korean athletes walking out. Luckily they showed both North Korea and South Korea. North Korea came out earlier with the D countries because they call themselves ‘The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’. You know a country is communist when they have to put ‘democratic’ in their title! Later The South Koreans walked out and I cheered for them.

It feels good to be passionate about a country that you can actually choose yourself. Would I like Australia if I wasn’t born here? Being patriotic about Australia just feels like an obligation, it’s not a choice. I know people who are very passionate and patriotic about Australia because they made the choice to move here. Australia gave them a chance at a new life and they are thankful. Their patriotism rings more true than an Australian who thinks Australia is the best simply because they haven’t been anywhere else. South Korea has opened up my eyes and made my life so much better and I’m grateful for that. So I’ll be cheering for South Korea these Olympics.

 

Changdeokgung Palace

Warning: don’t ask my husband questions at historical sites as he will just make shit up.

Have you visited Changdeokgung or any of the other palaces in Korea?

 

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