Intercultural Life

Category: Guest Posts

Guest Post: Chicken Soup

Hey guys, we’ve been super busy, not only on the farm, but with book stuff. I have a deadline very soon and of course I got very sick yesterday! Still not well today but trying to get things done. Leslie from Korea in my Kitchen, who has had a guest post before, made a new comic for me so I can actually post something today!

korean food

Leslie says: My yobo (husband) thinks that everything good, food or otherwise, is Korean.  Koreans also invented most things, perfected anything they didn’t invent and all things Korean are superior in quality and design. It’s amazing he married someone who wasn’t Korean.  🙂

Milo

Today’s comic is not from me, it’s from Chloe! I’m not well today so I didn’t go to Seoul, (but Mr Gwon did), so I didn’t make a comic. But Chloe made one about a KakaoTalk conversation we had. She was craving milo (a chocolate powder for milk from Australia) and I happened to have some milo so we joked about me giving her some in a back alley way like it’s drugs because there isn’t much of it in Korea.

For those that aren’t sure who Chloe is yet, she is Daniel’s girlfriend and lives in Korea. We often talk about the things we miss from Australia.

homesick

You can check out her art Instagram and Tumblr. Like Sophie, she is going to do the occasional comic for the blog. It’s kinda weird right? We all draw, we are all from the same region in Australia and we are all with Korean men. We are hoping we can do a big joint project in the future.

If you live in Korea, what do you get cravings for that is hard to get?

Say My Name

Today’s comic is from Sophie!

Say My Name

“All my inlaws are very warm and kind to me, especially my mother-in-law… but she is also very cheeky! Saying her name Like I did would sound extremely rude to a Korean! I laugh at it now, but I was so embarrassed that first time.”

Bread

Hey everyone we have landed in Korea! We got to my husband’s parents’ house last night. Since we are quite tired from travelling, Sophie made me a comic for today! Most of you would have seen Sophie and her husband Han feature in some comics and videos before.

Bread

So some Koreans really adapt to an international diet when they move to a foreign country.

Not my husband.

Han wont eat more than one of what he describes as ‘bread’ in a day (sometimes in a month!) and if cake is bread, you might be wondering what else is bread. I asked Han for a few examples, he told me the following are all bread:
Donuts, pancakes, croissants, cereal, cake, biscuits, pizza, pasta, ..and the list goes on and on..

Anyway, Han looked after our little Alice for HOURS so I could draw this and at times got photoshop rage and wacom rage, haha, I don’t know how you do it every day, Nic!

Han, Alice and I want to wish you all the best on the beginning of your big Korean adventure and hope you have a good day off today (since I have made this comic for you!)

-Sophie

You can follow Han on Instagram HERE.

Mr Gwon also got an Instagram recently too. Follow him HERE.

Guest Post: Korea in my Kitchen

Today we have a guest post from Korea in my Kitchen!

I am Leslie from koreainmykitchen.com I went to Korea to teach English and came home with a husband! Fast forward 14 years, we now have four kids, a house in the ‘burbs of Vancouver, Canada and a dozen chickens. My blog covers all things Korean in our home, from recipes to culture with lots of pictures of our kids thrown in!

As a teacher, I often use these comic people to illustrate ideas and I have fun telling stories about our family in the same way.  I love reading Nichola’s comics… they often remind me of when my yobo and I were first married! So Nichola and Hugh, my comics might give you a glance into your future!

Pork... fork


A day off

 

Thank you Leslie!

Mr Gwon will definitely be telling our kids to use the pork. Even after speaking English for years it seems to be a reoccurring thing – the tricky F sound! And speaking of having no down time when you have kids – my friends with kids all urge me to have kids soon but at the same time say, “But you’ll have no time ever!” haha

LOVE STORY GUEST POST: Y & J

Today’s post is written by J (but the comic was drawn by me).

I met my husband, Y, in the summer of 2007 in China. He was attending university there and I was on a semester abroad. Through a series of events we met and started hanging out, texting, and getting to know each other better.

The first Korean words I ever learned, I said to him: “당신을 사랑합니다!” (I love you!) I was just practicing my newly learned Korean but maybe he thought I was serious!

Not long after that, we had this conversation over text message:

Cheesy, right? Well we had a flirty conversation planning our wedding and decided we needed five years to get stuff done and be ready to get married, so we would get married in 2012. [hmm] I was totally not taking this seriously at this point.

Photo from 2007

After I left China we kept in touch through email, IM and Skype. We didn’t know when we’d see each other again but we kept talking for two years! Then I decided to move to Thailand in 2009 and on my way there, I stopped in China to visit my friends. That’s when we really officially started dating although we’d liked each other for years.

2009

Unfortunately the relationship continued to be long-distance, which was really difficult. We hadn’t really had a period of dating for a continued amount of time in which to get to know each other. He came and visited me in Thailand but we were both unsure about the future and when we’d see each other after that. Eventually we decided to go our separate ways and see what the future held for each of us.

We didn’t talk for months, and I got a job in Korea and moved there in March 2011. Little did I know Y was joining the military in Korea and moved there in March 2011 also! We didn’t know the other was in Korea for a few months until a mutual friend told us that summer.

Once Y found out I was in Korea, he contacted me constantly and convinced me to give him another chance. This time around everything was different – we were sure of ourselves and our lives and each other, and we knew we wanted to be together. He is a very caring person and showed me how much he cared about me, and made it clear that he wanted to keep me by his side for the rest of our lives!

My parents came and visited and we had a lovely time getting to know each others’ families. After that, Y proposed [again] (twice actually) in January 2012 and we began planning the wedding! In Korea we officially got married February 1st in order to change my visa quickly while I still had my work visa. It doesn’t take a lot to be officially married there – just signed a few documents and was added to Y’s family register, and we got our Korean marriage certificate.

Engagement Photo

I moved in with his family for a few months before the wedding and really got to experience Korean family life! It helped me a lot to prepare for everything and anticipate what some of my new husband’s habits might be like ^^. Wedding planning in Korea was super stressful, especially the week of the wedding (July 7, 2012 – five years after the original “proposal”!)  However, I had amazing friends and family that came all the way across the world to support us, and Y has wonderful friends and family here and they all helped us so much! Our wedding turned out to be a beautiful event and an awesome start to a fun and happy marriage!

Wedding Ceremony

Pyebaek Ceremony

And thanks to my family and friends who helped us get our apartment ready, we have a lovely relaxing place that has become home for us. We’re now living in a small town in Korea while Y performs his military duties as a Marine officer (first lieutenant). We love talking and sharing together, reading the same books in Korean/English, and watching movies – we see movies nearly every weekend! We’re enjoying life together and can’t wait to see what the future holds. We hope to travel a lot and live in different countries, as well as study more and adopt children.

I think some of the most difficult cultural experiences I’ve had in Korea stem from the communication differences from Korean and American English. I feel pressure every time I speak Korean to make sure I am speaking it respectfully to the person I am speaking to. Because of that, I often accidentally speak “too” respectfully to kids or people younger than me! I have also had to try to adjust to indirect communication, which is really difficult for me. However it makes marriage interesting – normally men aren’t known for understanding subtlety as well as women, but because my husband is Asian he tends to understand it better than I do! I find it difficult not to say what I think or what I want, because I grew up in a culture that values openness and honesty and “being real.” I have to train my mind not to relate indirect communication to a lack of honesty or integrity, but try to see it for what it really is, which is usually an attempt to be respectful of another person’s thoughts and feelings.

Here I am referring to my dealings with people outside my home, out in the day to day interactions with people and the culture here. In our home my husband understands me and wants me to tell him how I really feel! I think it’s another example of how each family’s culture is different, no matter where you live or what your nationality is. We’re creating a new culture together that will change and develop as we grow older and have children and interact with different cultures and people around the world.

 You can check out our newlywed blog at themixedupfiles.posterous.com, where we’ll post more about our experiences! I also run a blog at thesubtlepanda.tumblr.com with a close friend who’s married to a guy from Thailand.

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