Tag: my korean husband (Page 35 of 128)

Korean Tutor

2015/06/17 / Nic / 24 Comments

You know the feeling of being a student again and it’s terrifying??? Traumatic school flashbacks haha.

Since I’m married to a Korean man I’m allowed a free Korean tutor through government services. Unfortunately we had to wait a year or so before one was available for me. Being in the countryside it’s a tutor that comes to people’s houses, which is good for me because I don’t have time to travel to a class twice a week.

Yesterday was the first evaluation to see where my Korean level is. My Korean is very basic and although I can follow some conversations, my speaking level is very low. People mistakenly think that by simply being in Korea that it should be very easy to learn Korean, but it’s not at all. Everyone has different skills and experiences. For example, someone who has already learned another language will likely learn faster, whereas I have never learned another language before. Also whether your relationship developed in English or Korean or a bit of both will affect it. When I first met Hugh, I couldn’t even read Korean.

Another aspect is what language who have to work in, and of course our work is mostly in English. Teachers, full-time bloggers and others working in English environments in Korea have this problem, and it’s a very different experience to someone who is learning Korean in a Korean university for example. What type of work or study you are doing in Korea will really influence the opportunities you have for learning Korean. (Not to mention extra things like dialect!)

Due to time limitations and knowing that I’d be getting a tutor later anyway, my Korean study stalled a lot. But now I’ll be learning Korean in Korean, which the tutor said is the hardest but fastest way. It’s kinda terrifying but I’m really glad as well.

STUFF YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT US

2015/06/16 / Nic / 11 Comments

I kinda briefly explain what has been up with my body lately. This is on top of me already having mild Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. There must be something with female bloggers always having health problems (EYK’s Martina with EDS and Grace from Texan in Tokyo has health problems as well). It sucks!

Besides from the sickness update we tell you some more stuff about us!

Kimchi Jjigae

2015/06/15 / Nic / 12 Comments

The thing is, he learned how to make kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew) from me, and I learned from Maangchi!

When we lived in Sydney there were times that we’d eat kimchi jjigae for a week because we were so obsessed with it. We’d get really good quality pork and add in extra stuff. I think the good memories we have for that time make us long for that type of kimchi jjigae too.

My mother in law (and so then my sister-in-law) make a simpler, thinner, healthier kimchi jjigae and cut all the fat off the pork and don’t add any sugar or much sesame oil. While it’s better for us health-wise, we do miss the way we make it. Hugh is going to make it sometime because he is longing for that taste.

Also, because he can make kimchi jjigae well, Hugh is convinced he is a “master chef”, although he can barely make anything else…

Pics from Seoul

2015/06/14 / Nic / 1 Comment

We had a whirlwind trip to Seoul. SBS PopAsia were in town secretly filming stuff so we caught up with them. Hugh went a day before me because I still had some work to do.

Here are the pics that we posted on social media:

Hugh caught up with the JJCC boys:

We met Sam Hammington (Aussie comedian famous in Korea) at his awesome cafe.

All the guys that do stuff on SBS PopAsia: Hugh with Andy (Host) and Prince Mak and Peter who both do radio shows.

SBS PopAsia are based in Australia and are the best digital radio station for Asian pop internationally (and of course if you live in Australia there is the TV show). You can download the app! They call me once a week to chat about Kpop and Korea. You may remember the vlog where we visited them in Australia.

Comments, Chopsticks and Cafes

2015/06/08 / Nic / 14 Comments

Photography

2015/06/08 / Nic / 19 Comments

Here is one difference between how Hugh and I take photos of ourselves for Instagram. I take a photo, might put a filter on it and add some stickers… that’s it (occasionally I might just erase a blemish). Hugh takes lots and lots of photos and then picks the best one. He goes to the beauty editor in an app and fiddles with it, turning up the brightness and smoothing everything out. He goes through with the concealer brush tool as well. He sometimes even slims down his face and makes his eyes bigger. THEN he’ll put a filter on it. Yes he is more of a teenage girl than me. I know it’s common all around the world to change how you look in photos, but it’s a big thing in Korea.

I’m always surprised at how photoshopped many Koreans’ passport photos are. We don’t even really have that option in Australia if you do it the normal way. You go to the post office, they take your photo. It looks terrible, but that’s normal, and then you put it into your application right away. When you get your passport the photo now looks even more terrible, but is probably an accurate representation of how you look getting off a 10 hour flight anyway.

I’ve heard that some Korean people have actually had trouble getting through customs because their passport photo had been photoshopped too much.

Do you think people just expect online photos to be photoshopped now? And that of course people look great online and it’s not surprising when you meet people in real life and they don’t look anywhere near as good? Will our minds just adjust to that?

Mountain Stream

2015/06/04 / Nic / 10 Comments

He also didn’t want to go swimming because the water was cold and he is a baby. It was nice and refreshing for me though! Nice fresh mountain water. I need swimming buddies.

(If you are wondering why he didn’t just go naked, we were with his sister and friends).