Intercultural Life
So I only just learnt that Koreans give toilet paper or laundry detergent as housewarming gifts. Apparently this tradition started when Korea was still a poor country and these items were too expensive as well as there being some symbolism to it.
Are you looking forward to receiving lots of toilet paper Han and Sophie??
Yeah real smooth Nichola! Sometimes I’m not good at the romance stuff.
Lately, I am getting asked more if I do get jealous. Mr Gwon obviously has a G-Dragon jealously problem but am I jealous of any famous people he likes? Not really, and he doesn’t like anyone the way that I like GD.
I’m not a really jealous person anyway and have never felt the need to check up on him. For example, he chats with blog readers constantly, the majority are girls, but it doesn’t bother me.
The one time recently that I got very slightly jealous was after meeting Eat Your Kimchi. Later he was like, “Wow, Soo Zee is sooo pretty! Soo Zee is sooooo smart! Soo Zee is sooooo great!” Eventually I was like, “Okay could we talk about something else now?” haha.
Koreans seem to have this open dialogue about people’s looks that I’m not that used to. As a society they tend to be image focused and people’s attractiveness comes up a lot in normal conversations. I think my husband has unnerved some Australian guys more than once by leaning in and saying, “You are very handsome” to them. That is completely normal for Korean guys though.
So pretty much every time I’m hanging out with a group of Korean guys, particularly if we have first met, they’ll ask me to choose who I think is the most attractive. It makes me so uncomfortable! They’ll keep asking me to do it though, so usually I will finally choose. My choice often surprises them because I have different taste in guys than Korean girls usually. At that point I hope it’s all over but then they want me to choose the next best guy and so on. I flat out refuse at that point because someone has to be last right? I don’t want to hurt any feelings.
I’m not sure if they get me to do this because I’m a married woman and it’s safe to do without any misunderstanding or if since I met my husband I’ve just been around Korean men a lot more. I knew Korean guys before I met my husband but I hadn’t had this situation happen that much. Now I always expect it but I’m no better at dealing with the situation. (Just asked my husband and he seems to think it happens a lot to me because I’m a married woman).
The funny thing is my husband knows me so well that he can easily predict which guy I think is most handsome.
So I hope that explains a bit more about working holidays in Australia. If you have a question you can leave it in the comment section and we’ll try to answer it!
Guys… it used to just be that he’d be in his underwear but lately it’s been a t-shirt and nothing else. I think that’s worse!
I just asked him, “Why do you hate pants so much?” and he said, “Not only me! All Korean guys!…………. and not wearing pants is comfortable.”
Yes…. but…… sigh….
We made this video because I randomly filmed something that showed the different experiences my husband has in Australia. As we said in the video this wouldn’t happen this way in Korea due to the big age differences between. We always say that neither country is right or wrong, it’s just different. So in Korea you can really only be close friends with someone who is the same age as you.
I’ve seen the problems arise when Koreans aren’t respectful enough to those older than them a lot in Australia. Possibly it happens more than in Korea because it can be difficult for Koreans who come out on working holiday visas. If they are around Australians a lot they may adopt a more Australian way and then accidentally offend a lot of other Koreans. You also get Koreans interacting in Australia who would have never met in Korea, from different regions in Korea, but here in Australia they may be working together or living together and there are some clashes.
As an Australian it is difficult for me to understand why it’s such a big deal sometimes. If someone has no malicious intent surely they can joke around a bit? The word ‘larrikin’ is often used to describe some elements of Australian culture, but it just doesn’t transfer well to Korean culture. Many times I’ve seen Korean people in Australia get very upset because someone Korean and younger than them didn’t use the correct level of speech with them, asked something too directly, made a joke that they thought was too disrespectful. For me as an Australian, if the person who was ‘disrespectful’ is overall a good person, I don’t worry about it much, but for many Koreans it’s something they can get very upset about and there have been huge problems arising from these mistakes.
Those who watch some Korean TV shows may have seen some incidents like that. The YG reality show ‘WIN Who is Next’ had an incident in one of the episodes. YG boss appointed someone whose age was in the middle as the group leader and this guy then spoke very directly to one of the older guys. That guy didn’t take it well at all and stormed out of the room. You may think that’s just made more dramatic for TV but it’s something that happens. People can find it very offensive. My husband, understanding how Australian culture is different, doesn’t ever get really upset about it and especially because he knows my brother is poking fun because he likes him, but it’s something I will have to be careful of in Korea.
5 points to anyone who recognises who my brother is…. some Sydney-siders might have seen him around.
When you think it’s going to be a romantic moment like in a Korean drama and then it ends up like this…
But actually it’s a running joke because I get called “lucky pig” by his family because pigs are lucky in Korean culture. He is completely aware of the negative meaning in Western culture though so I’m sure he does stuff like this to annoy me.
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