I asked on Facebook what I should do for this post and Mark said:
Something about the (not) end of the world.
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Today Mr Gwon recommends G.O.D ‘To My Mother’.
He says:
Beginning of song the lyric is a bit funny because eating Jajangmyeon (black noodle) but it’s actually a really sad story. Lots of people had similar problem in the school because they were poor. It happens a lot, we have meal together in the school, many times lots of students just have kimchi, and some vegetables but when someone has meat type of thing for their lunch box they bully the other students, “Oh why you only have kimchi!”
One time my mother cooked for us and there was no meat on the table so I complained to mum “What should I eat? There is nothing I can eat!” and now I realise I was a rude and stupid kid.
Lots of people, they cried when they listen to the end of this song because the guy didn’t say ‘I love you’ to his mother but she died. It’s really hard to say ‘I love you’, I don’t know about these days, but when I was growing up, it was really hard to say I love you to your parents. I didn’t say ‘I love you’ to my parents for 25 years and when I was in Australia I called my mother and I said ‘I love you’ on Korean Parents Day and they cried. And now we say ‘I love you’ to each other very often.
Every time people listen to this song it reminds us how important our mother is. I’m pretty sure there are many families that… their mother died and they never said I love you to their mother. It’s really sad.
So everyone should call their mother and say ‘I love you’, and thank you. I’m going to call my mother now…
(On a lighter note, what is different about the picture this week?)
So when I make comics they are always from my point of view and about the funny things my husband does. For this post I’ve allowed my husband to show some things from his point of view.
He drew the characters originally for me and gave me the ideas and then I put them together for him. And yes I think that’s supposed to be muscles and a six pack on him.
Okay so I like chairs! Actually this is a bit of a cultural difference. He doesn’t understand the range of furniture and the fascination with it here. His parents don’t even really own chairs. I couldn’t even see a single chair in their house in Korea. So because of sitting on the floor and those small tables that can be put away, he doesn’t understand Australians’ love of furniture and renovating and picking out things like chairs for the home… So he thinks I talk about liking chairs an awful lot.
I always feel so bad for the fish and stuff on the ice at the fish markets! And when seafood hotpot is ordered I can’t eating anything that looks like an animal, especially the baby octopuses and prawns.
Yup… well can’t explain that one…
Juno Marie asked me to do a blog post on if we get stared at in Korea or Australia and if we find it awkward.
I was trying to think of a comic to do for this, or at least a picture but all it would consist of is a drawing of people staring at us… so not that interesting. So this blog post will just be an extra one instead and there will still be a normal comic on schedule.
We do get stared at in Korea and Australia. In Korea we get stared at by Koreans and in Australia we get stared at by……….Koreans. Okay, sometimes it’s other people but the majority of stares are from Koreans. I understand why though. In Australia an interracial couple isn’t that unusual, an Asian man with a Western woman is a little bit different but it’s not enough for Australians to blatantly stare (unless it’s a really rural white area).
However, in Korea it’s a very homogenous population so they are just not used to seeing a relationship that is a bit different. I feel more uncomfortable in Korea, because it’s not my home country and I get stared at even without my husband. Sometimes the way people stare feels a bit like being famous without any of the perks of being famous. In Australia, no matter who is doing the staring, I don’t care, because it’s my country.
When we meet Koreans in Australia (and I mean Koreans IN Australia, not Korean Australians) they usually comment on our relationship with something like, “You are an unusual couple!” They can be quite shocked (not necessarily in a bad way) that I’m Australian and married to a Korean man. Australians may find it interesting that my husband is Korean but it’s hardly shocking to them.
Korean guys stare at us the most I think. What they are thinking about, I can only guess at though. Koreans on student visas and working holiday visas tend to just live and work with other Koreans and stay in the Korean community so even while they are here in Australia, it’s unusual for them to see a Korean guy with a non-Korean.
So in conclusion, yes we do get stared at a bit in Australia. In Korea we definitely get stared at, but a lot of my time in Korea has been spent in my husband’s home town which is very rural area with no white people. When we live in Korea for a few years I’ll see what the difference is between the more rural areas and the cities.
I just try to brush it off and ignore it for the most part, especially when I realise most times people aren’t doing it to be rude, but are just a bit curious.
After Christmas will we go down the coast to my uncle’s holiday house for 2 days.
We are way too south for there to be any crocodiles around here. Doesn’t matter to him though, as he has his attack strategy all worked out. His logic about the lake and ocean is a bit flawed too as Australia has saltwater crocodiles as well as fresh water crocodiles.
Anyway, there aren’t crocodiles in this part of Australia!
Not sure why he thinks listening to comedy is a good thing to try and fall asleep to. He listens to something called ‘Cul2’ and it makes him laugh hysterically. But you know when you can’t hear what someone is laughing at, only the laughing, and it makes them sound like a maniac? Even worse is that he always sleeps with a cotton blanket over his head, so it’s just this weird mound laughing loudly.
I was asked if there was any food from my country that I dislike, but my husband likes, and if there any Korean food that I like but he dislikes.
First up, let’s talk about Korean food. The answer is:
EVERYTHING! I’m much more picky about Korean food. I eat most of it but there are still things I won’t eat, like intestines, and I can be picky about how I eat things with bones. His mother makes amazing fried chicken but she knows I don’t like eating chicken right off the bones, so she’ll make sure I get all the boneless or near boneless bits. It’s really sweet, she puts all the good pieces directly on my plate.
So what about Australian/Western food? What does he like that I dislike? The major thing I can think of is steak.
I’m not a big meat eater (and slip in and out of vegetarianism) and prefer my portion of meat to be small with lots of vegetables. What I love about Korean food is the smaller and thinner meat portions and the way it’s integrated into the food, instead of just a slab of meat as in a lot of Australian cooking.
However, because Koreans in general are used to smaller portions of meat in Korea, they can get quite excited about the large and cheap cuts of meat in Australia. Australia has a big meat industry and has the space to pasture feed livestock. So my husband really enjoys a big steak but I cannot eat that much meat at once. And it’s pretty boring to me.
I have been disappointed a few times before, when invited to dinner by other Koreans who are living in Australia because I’ve expected to eat Korean food. Instead dinner will be just big chunks of meat barbequed or fried. While they think it’s great to be able to eat this much meat at once, for me, because I’ve grown up with Australian barbeques and an excess of meat, it’s not that great. I’d much prefer to be eating a variety of Korean dishes and have the meat much more marinated or seasoned and with vegetables. But I understand why they focus on the meat when in Australia.
In order to answer this question I was going through some of my favourite Korean foods/drinks to see if my husband dislikes any of them.
Me: “Banana Milk!”
Him: “Everyone likes that!”
Me: “The potato pancake your mother makes?”
Him: “Everyone likes that!”
And it went on…. I just like the popular food and he likes everything anyway.
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