Glad the blog helps 🙂

I just read this post with the title ‘why this blog’ and I agree with it!

I feel so offended when ppl start judging my bf because he’s korean and talks bad about it ‘oh if you having a relationship with korean, you are gonna have trouble’. 🙁

Just because I had a bad experience with my previous bf which is also a korean, doesn’t mean all korean guys are bad right??

Anyway I just wanna thank you for having this blog for us to read. I felt i wasn’t alone and lots of encouragement from you too. Would love to msg you earlier as Im having vacation at korea but I was too shy.

Thank you!!

From Noelle

Note: so sad i can't open the video because our not-that-good-internet-connection. -____-"!!

I'll read more of your comic. 😀 😀

Thank you!!!! 🙂

You guys are adorable together and I hope you never stop sharing your stories! They are so fun to read.

http://alonetog3ther.wordpress.com

awww thank you for your lovely comment 🙂

Hi, thanks for commenting 🙂
I do worry about that sometimes and have experienced people not understanding that cultural differences is just part of our relationship and can be something funny or interesting. I’ve realised some people have been taught not to be “racist” but then have almost no experience with another culture, so they think if you are emphasising or just talking about a difference, it’s “racism”. They have this idea that to not be racist is to treat everyone the same – but actually that can end up being more offensive because their way of treating everyone the same is still culturally influenced. For example, I’ve seen people criticise talking about characteristics of a nationality because they “judge everyone individually and on who they are”, which on the surface seems noble and righteous but actually they are still judging someone from their own cultural perception which could mean they negatively judge someone because they don’t realise something about that culture. But if someone does take an effort to look at cultural differences they are in a better position to understand what that other person is really like. Does that make sense? I also find that there are people who think any general statement about another culture is “racist”. Like I could say, “Koreans love kimchi” and they’d say, “omg how can you say that? That’s racist!” Those type of people actually have little experience with other cultures I’ve found.

I’m also Australian, living in Sydney. My boyfriend of two years is a Korean who was raised in Japan but moved to Germany due to his mothers remarriage to a German man. It’s funny but I can relate to a lot of your posts about Korean romance, I think due to his mothers (and other family members) influence on him. I too have experienced the arm grab on several occasions (not always romantically but sometimes…). I also really related to the part when you mentioned how Korean culture can be very ‘looks’ focused (Japan is similar in that respect I think…) as I find the fact that my boyfriend is concerned about looks a lot more than me quite challenging (although he is not as extreme as many of my Korean and Japanese friends). I think it’s because we are taught so strongly here not to judge people by their looks (or at least not to say or act like we do, even if we do, haha). I remember being so surprised when I heard someone casually refer to someone else as ‘fat’ in Japan, cause it is basically like a swear word here.

I speak Japanese with my boyfriend as my Japanese is better than his spoken English so there are some language barriers as well. I do love the way that his multi-nationality makes him so unexpected though. He is quite ‘westernised’ (I use that term loosely as I think European westernisation, American westernisation and Australian westernisation are all quite different) due to his time in Germany- he is much more domesticated than most Japanese/ Korean guys I know (he’s a great cook and cleaner etc.). Yet he still gets annoyed at me when I don’t finish every grain of rice in my bowl! lol.

It’s also quite funny when people in Australia, who at times have a very generalised idea of ‘Asia’ in general rather than knowing about specific cultures within Asia are really shocked that I seem to be ‘more Asian’ than he is. Growing up in Australia I actually learnt a lot more about other Asian cultures such as China, Indonesia, Vietnam etc than he was exposed to in Japan and Germany. So when he doesn’t know what ‘yam cha’ or ‘pearl/ bubble tea’ is, people are really confused, haha!

Anyway, to finish my rant (sorry this is so long)- the thing I find REALLY hard though is when people insinuate that we are interested in each other because of the cultural differences and the novelty of it rather than being in love with who the other person is. Of cause, as you mentioned, being Korean/Japanese/German is part of who he is and I love that but it isn’t the only reason. I love telling people the funny things that happen between us because of language or cultural barriers but I sometimes get worried that people will think I am hyping up my relationship based on these things. Have you ever experienced that?