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.

My husband did not realise that she’d said thank you in Korean when she’d handed our passports back. She saw he was Korean and so had used Korean and he just took his passport and walked away! Well it was about 4am.

It is funny when people don’t realise their native language is being spoken. My brother was asked directions by a Japanese student in Sydney one time. My brother speaks fluent Japanese and realised this guy was Japanese so gave detailed directions in Japanese. The guy made no acknowledge of my brother speaking his native language and went on his way. I wonder if it hit him later that a random Australian guy had spoken Japanese or if he was thinking, “Wow I can understand English really well!”

Sometimes I think I can understand Korean well but then I realise it’s because I’m just understanding all the loan words from English.

I’ve been learning Korean for about a year and a half but I’m not doing classes at the moment. I learn the most being forced to study in a class and through homework. Now I’m on my own until I start classes again either later this year or next year. I aim to be somewhat fluent eventually but at the moment still at a beginner level as taking it slowly.

If my husband speaks slowly to me I can often understand but when he is chatting away I really only understand a few words. Of course he is speaking at a native speaker pace and it’s much harder to understand that and dialect. I listen a lot though and can recognise some words.

If we are with a group of people and everyone is speaking Korean he will translate things but often I don’t need him to because I understand enough words, look at expression and body language and fill in the blanks myself. There is always the risk of completely misunderstanding though.