My Koreanization Progress

As promised, this post is pretty much dedicated to my beloved ex-roomie Myunnie. ^-^

I was born in Canada, and my parents spoke English around me as I was growing up. Naturally, that became the ONE language I could speak fluently. From first glance/impression, most people assume I'm Chinese, even other Koreans. It's a little sad, especially when I have to tell them I'm Korean but I have no proof other than the fact that I have kimchi in my fridge. In fact, my last name is the name of one of the first Chinese dynasties.

As stated in my profile description, I am pretty much the fakest Korean possible. I can't speak or understand it, and I can read the characters and sounds but not understand what it means. Pretty useful huh? At least I could read a Korean book to a blind Korean person...-_-" I have also never visited Korea--or any Asian country for that matter. My parents tried sending me to Saturday Korean school around grade 3 or something. Unfortunately, the other kids knew how to communicate in Korean pretty fluently already, so it was just to maintain their cultural connection and fluency. It wasn't really useful for people with zero Korean fluency like myself. In fact, there were some pretty scarring moments where we had to go up in front of the class and introduce ourselves in Korean. I pretty much said something really fast in English then sat down crying at my desk. Luckily, my mom let me quit by the end of grade 6. Good memories...-_-" Any of the reading/writing I currently know was taught at home by my grandma.

Another sad thing about not knowing Korean is that I can hardly communicate with my grandparents. Sure, I can understand basic things such as "eat lots" or "sit here", and they know bits of English, but that hardly constitutes a deep conversation. As far as I know, my family is almost entirely Korean. The only non-Korean I know of is the aunt that my uncle married. She is a happy, blonde German lady. In fact, they're having a baby in October, which I'm pretty excited about--I love children...in a non-pedophilic way.

I don't really know much about the Korean culture or language at all, except for some food dishes that are homemade or offered at restaurants. My Chinese friends seem to know more about the overall culture, especially since Korean music and media are pretty popular to people of the other Asian cultures (e.g. Big Bang, Wonder girls, after school, kkotboda namja, coffee prince, etc). For example, Myunnie taught me that Koreans have a plastic surgery fund saved up by their parents. When they reach a certain age, they can choose to either use it to alter their appearance or buy clothes for themselves. Apparently, a small face is also considered a standard of beauty in the Korean culture. I have no idea why...doesn't this also reduce the amount of space for (Asian-envied) big eyes to fit on one's head?

Anyways, thanks to my roomie, I got a chance to get a bit more in touch with my cultural roots simply by listening more to the music and experiencing the infamously addictive Korean dramas. We used to eagerly await the release of the latest BOF episode every Monday and Tuesday night. I pretty much gave up trying to get any work done on such distracting days of the week. Depending on our class schedules, we would race each other to watch the episode first, which I usually ended up winning (except when I had scibus group project meetings). There were also times where we both promised to wait for the other person's major summatives or projects to be finished before we watched an episode together. Good memories :) Admittedly, the season finale was kind of disappointing, but the real life memories that BOF brought me in residence will be cherished forever.

Even after the BOF craze, Myunnie convinced me to watch "My Name is Kim Sam Soon". Entertaining drama about a middle-aged, chubby baker who hopelessly pursues the restaurant owner. I couldn't help but to pull an all-nighter for that series and watch it all within...36 hours maybe? It's quite amazing how people can become such huge fans of Korean celebrities that they start to pick up literacy for the linguistic characters and understand small expressional phrases. Unfortunately for me, it means some of my Chinese friends know more Korean than I do, and they end up being the ones teaching me.

Sometimes it's convenient for me to include myself in the Korean culture, so I can reap the food benefits, distinguish myself from the large Chinese population, and carry on a fake Chinese-Korean rivalry with my friends. However, I am actually content to remain distant from my cultural roots and claim myself as a guiltless CBK.