Intercultural Life

Tag: korean parents

Will a Korean’s parents accept me?

We get asked a lot about how Hugh’s parents reacted to him bringing home an Australian girlfriend. We also get asked whether Korean parents are likely to accept a foreigner son or daughter in law and what can be done to make things go smoothly. We talk about the stereotype of Korean parents refusing to accept foreigners, hypothetical situations versus reality and some warning signs.

As with any video, there are many things we can’t cover. For example, we didn’t talk about incidences of Korean parents completely refusing to accept a foreigner (of course that can happen but we just don’t know anyone who has had that experience personally). We also didn’t comment on Korean American situations or Koreans who grew up in countries other than Korea. The stigma of single mothers is another serious topic and how that will affect acceptance from Korean parents is another topic that we weren’t able to cover this time.

Naughty Boy

Naughty Boy

Naughty boy! He loves meat too much. One day when my Korean is good enough and I can communicate directly with his parents it’s all going to change!

Seriously though, we do worry about his parents working on the farm as they get older. We wish we could help them so they don’t have to work any more but we just aren’t in a position to do that yet.

His parents are really excited to see us again, especially because his sister is now in Australia too, so they are all alone on the farm. Apparently every day they mark off another day on the calender as they count down to when we are going there. They want to pick more strawberries so they have more money to buy us good food, and especially lots of good meat.

Usually my husband worries a lot about his parents but this time all he is thinking about is meat!

Talking to his parents

Oh boy…. I don’t like it when people hold a phone up to me and tell me to talk when I only have to speak in English… so having a phone held up to me and being told to speak in Korean is way worse! PANIC MODE!

I get blackmailed into it. It’s hard backing out of things in Korean culture! My husband will say things like “They just want to hear your voice. They miss you. My mother says that when she hears your voice all her aches and pains from working on the farm go away.”

How can I say no to that? Speaking shyly and softly hasn’t worked so well in the past because I end up having to repeat myself. So now I just panic and speak really loudly and just say a bunch of stuff. Luckily they don’t care and just like that I’m trying. Also they have the phone on speaker so I’m not damaging anyone’s ears… hopefully. But yes, his family is really really sweet.

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