Intercultural Life

Month: June 2013 (Page 1 of 6)

Chop Chop

Chop Chop

“Chop Chop” meaning to “hurry hurry” is something my mum says a lot. My husband picked it up from her and uses it sometimes. The funny thing is that phrase was originally in Cantonese! I didn’t know that until I did a quick search about it. It was adopted by English seaman from Chinese workers. The earliest mention of it in print is in an English newspaper in China in 1834. And the earliest mention of it outside of China was in a London newspaper in 1909. (Wikipedia).

It obviously became a part of Australian English as well and I find it funny that my husband is learning a phrase in English that was originally rooted in Cantonese. I always find the history of words and phrases really interesting.

Turning 30

Turning 30

Also my birthday is in winter! Right in the middle of winter! So hard to organise anything fun. Winter here is just cold, rainy and miserable. I always wished I had a summer birthday then I could have picnic or a pool party.

For those that don’t know about Korean age: In Korea you are 1 when you are born and then when the new year rolls around your age goes up. So Korean age can be 1 or 2 years older than your international age. It’s always good to remember that when meeting Koreans, they are more likely to say their Korean age.

Yes Sir

Yes Sir

Now your perception of what is rude in this comic might be different depending what culture you are from. You may think that him calling me a pig and making pig noises is the rude thing, or you may think me whacking him with a towel is the rudest (I changed it from hitting his head so it wouldn’t be too rude). One of the reasons why trying to understand cultural differences is important.

Mr Gwon does get into really rude and cheeky moods sometimes. He will say “Yes Sir” sometimes when I get bossy because he knows it annoys me. Then he further annoyed me by saying my pet name is pig, even though I know it’s cute in Korean, I know he is doing it to get a reaction because he added the pig noises. It’s very different from when he lovingly calls me his honey pig other times. He also knew that I was likely to whack him with something too. So I got my revenge when he cried “ouchies” like a little kid. Then we had a good laugh.

Making Music

Making Music

Always the optimist. He doesn’t play an instrument or anything… he just has a decent voice. Though… he could probably write better English lyrics than SM Entertainment…

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