New video! Another podcast video where we chat about some topics. These are the easiest videos to edit at the moment and luckily Yul is happy enough to be in our arms quietly while we talk.

He likes the TV show “Luke Cage” but always calls it “Lucas Cage”.

There always comes a point in multicultural marriages where you get scolded for something your partner does constantly as well. I need to try harder to remember Korean names, but Hugh also thinks so many English names are interchangeable. Luckily he has never called me “Nicole” before…

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In this video we talk about these types of messages that we get where women are asking us to help them find a Korean husband. People sometimes assume that it must be Kpop fangirls, but there is something much more serious going on. We talk about the arranged marriage industry in Korea and all the problems that have stemmed from it.

There are so many aspects of this topic that we can’t cover in one video, so please understand that if we miss something important it’s not that we aren’t aware of it, it’s just hard to cover everything. We are also aware of our own privilege, of Hugh being a Korean man and me being a western woman in Korea. We want to be as sympathetic and understanding as possible and realise this is a really complicated issue. If we offend, it’s completely unintended. We do also have more exposure to these types of situations than those living in cities. Even within Hugh’s own family there were foreign wives that ran away, some of our neighbors were those abusive families, but also some positive stories from our area as well. We know things are getting better, but still more needs to be done for multiculturalism in Korea and for families like this.

We visited this museum a few years ago but wanted to show my mum while she is visited because it’s so interesting to get a glimpse into Korea’s recent past, especially while in modern Seoul.

Korea’s modern history of development is actually pretty amazing. It is one of the only countries in the world to go from a war-torn, poverty stricken country, to a developed, technologically driven, modern country in such a short amount of time. South Korea had to receive foreign aid after the Korean war, it was poorer than North Korea at one point, but is now a country that gives aid to countries in need. It’s a pretty big deal that they were able to change and develop so quickly. This is one of the reasons why looking back into recent history is so fascinating. Hugh’s childhood differs a lot to mine. My mother is visiting and came with us and we talked about how Hugh’s childhood is actually more similar to hers in the 1960’s in Australia, than mine in the 1980’s/1990’s in Australia (because Korea was behind in so many developments compared to Australia). Many of the things from the 1960’s and 1970’s were still like that, especially in the rural areas, during a lot of Hugh’s childhood, so he could reminisce while in the museum. When people are interested in South Korea now, they see the Kpop and the Kdramas and the glamour and technology, but not that long ago things were very different. While this museum focuses mostly on how people lived, there are displays about Korea’s traumatic history last century: of course Japanese occupation and the Korean war. It’s worth the trip up to Paju to see this museum. Tourist brochures explain how to get there and their website is here.

We filmed this last year with Sara (SeoulSarang) and have only just been able to edit it because we have SO many videos to edit. Slowly working through so many videos. This was a really fun chat! I really enjoy hanging out with other Aussies, especially after I haven’t seen any for a while. I think both of our Australian accents became stronger in this video (there are English captions on the video for those that need help understanding the accent).

This was very much just a casual conversation without much preparation, so it’s just our thoughts and feelings at this time. Opinions can change! Don’t take the video too seriously.

What ‘weird’ things have you done in your own country after living in another country?

We talk with our friends Kirstin and Jerrold about what it’s like to be Korean American. What’s it like coming back to Korea? Also, what cultural aspects they keep in the USA and how different both their experiences are. You can check out their YouTube channel here.

We were hanging out with them while they had some wedding photos taken. We showed you the accommodation in this video:

We talk about Korean pet names! We cover the most basic ones (and some new funny ones) but there are more talked about on this blog here.

What are the most common pet names in your country?

This is a redo of a very very early comic, before I even had a tablet. Sometimes flight attendants can have trouble with Korean names, but it seems they have some tactics to avoid having to say the name. Fantastic!

Like in most other countries, the preparation of holiday food is done by women in Korean culture. Even in Australia there tends to be more traditional roles in a lot of families on holidays but it’s more obviously defined in Korea. With my mother-in-law and sister-in-law I helped prepare all the fried food for Chuseok. Koreans don’t mind eating fried food cold so it’s food that is supposed to last for a while. Because so much has to be prepared, it takes hours and hours and my body does not enjoy sitting on the floor for that long. So I had to roll my eyes at Hugh exclaiming his difficulty of not being able to choose what to eat.

Since we have an intercultural relationship I expressed some of my Australianess and told him that if he is not helping with the cooking and is just lazing around, he should clean up outside and make the front of the house look nice for Chuseok, which he did.

Haha… I thought there was room for some lighthearted fun at the expense of some of these sites… I still follow them and check what they report on, but I love making fun of ridiculous clickbait titles and articles.

So watch out… the next “trend in Korea” they report on, it might have been created by me!