Intercultural Life
Hugh can laugh at his mistakes in English, but even more now that I speak some Korean and my mistakes are way worse than his. Actually if my Korean was a good as his English I would be very happy. If he makes a funny mistake in English he is very quick to point out where my Korean is in comparison to his English. But one day it will be more even!
I’m still curious about this public potato…
Slang can be totes hard!
That’s his joke at the moment! Most of the English my father-in-law knows he learnt from old pop songs but I’ve noticed his vocabulary has increased recently.
Those that follow him on Instagram might have noticed his interesting ways of spelling of “sauce”. I can’t talk though, my spelling in Korean is atrocious.
Although he doesn’t have perfect grammar or pronunciation in English, he is very good at expressing himself and talking about complex ideas, which I think is more important than just having perfect grammar but not being able to convey your own ideas.
What about you guys? What is a word you always get wrong?
I still haven’t paid the fine and he is still trying to make me. Seriously, the point of the rule is to help with English, but English is my first language and I’m learning Korean! It makes no sense for me to not be able to speak Korean in the kitchen. My husband is refusing to budge though. Apparently that rule is for everyone…haha.
For those that may not be aware, we are currently at my parents’ house and they have a bunch of Koreans living with them.
Luckily he did just mean from the bathroom sink. I do understand the confusion though. In Australia if it’s public toilets we can just say “toilets” and if you are “going to go fill up a bottle in the toilets” in public it’s understood that they are using the sinks, not actually filling a bottle with toilet water. So he thought he could just use the word “toilet” to mean our bathroom.
Australians tend to use the word “toilet” a lot more than Americans it seems. Often in Australia, a toilet may not actually be in the bathroom, but in a separate small toilet room often near the bathroom. I remember when I was younger and we had American visitors in our house and they asked to use the bathroom. We had to ask if they wanted to actually use the toilet or the bathroom because no point showing them the toilet-less bathroom if they actually wanted to use a toilet.
Also we can drink the water straight out of the tap in Australia. In Korea they seem to always drink bottled water. I sometimes feel a bit stressed when I’m in countries where you need to buy bottled water because I’m so used to just drinking tap water. I can sometimes panic that I don’t have enough bottles of water to last me, and I’ll die of thirst overnight haha.
What do you call the……”facilities” in your country? Bathroom? I’ve heard “Wash room” before. Australians and Brits I think, may say “loo” for toilet. So many conversations can be had about toilets! A good friend of mine gave me a book about toilets all around the world. Really interesting! Also, Australian toilets flush a different way to American toilets. Another toilet fact is in some areas of Korea, particularly rural areas, or even just some older buildings, you can’t flush the toilet paper, you have to put it into the bin next to the toilet because of the plumbing. If you are not used to that it can be hard to remember to do that….
If you have some interesting toilet facts about your own country, please share! Just don’t drink water out of the toilet….
I’ve mentioned before that I don’t always correct his English, but these days when I do he can get quite cheeky and insist he said it the right way the first time. He says, “On my purpose” all the time though! It’s one of the things I do try to correct but it’s also one of the things he insists he says right, but even when he is trying to convince me he said it right, he’ll say it wrong!
When he is in a cheeky mood he does warn me though. When I’m learning a lot more Korean he says he is going to correct me all the time…. and laugh at me. Great….
In other news, my husband’s sister and her boyfriend are arriving in Australia tomorrow to do their working holidays, so they could stay in Australia for 1 or 2 years. Back in Korea, my mother-in-law is quite sad because all her children have left 🙁 . I hope she feels a bit better when we visit soon.
© 2024 My Korean Husband
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
Recent Comments