[music]
luvlipanda21 asks
Do Koreans like it when foreigners speak Korean or participate in Korean culture,
or do they find it annoying/insulting?
Now, I just want to make it clear, that we're not speaking for every Korean person on the planet
Because there are a lot of them, and we cannot know what every one of them is thinking,
And I feel like we don't have to say this, but, apparently,
we do have to say this, because some people don't understand that.
It's just our personal experience.
We're just talking about our experience:
your experience might be different from our experience.
We're just trying to tell you our stories.
Or maybe, we're wizards.
!!! Do you think we're wizards?
Do you think we have magic powers?
Yer a wizard Martina!
Yer a wizard Harry!
It's because of your fat head.
!!!
Any hoodle-doodle-poodle,
basically, when it comes to cultural events, like sports or holidays
they are SO SO SUPER ACCEPTING!
Oh yes. Every experience that we've had
in which we've participated in Korean culture or events
have been some of the best memories of our lives.
Oh yeah, like World Cup.
OH YES! World Cup Soccer was one of my favorite memories ever in Korea.
I remember when we were watching it:
we dressed up in Korean uniform,
we had the little devil horns, we had the paint under our eyes,
we had our pitchforks, and we screamed, and we cheered with everyone at the bar,
OH SOMETHING SOMETHING!
It was...we felt such a sense of unity and community,
and it was wonderful, because when Korea scored and we cheered our guts out,
people actually bought us chicken and beer and thanked us for cheering.
It was so touching and, I swear, it was a wonderful, wonderful experience.
Yeah, it's the same if we watch any team event.
Like, we went to Suwon and we watched them play,
We didn't know the cheers but we tried to join in
and everybody was really encouraging.
So yes, when it comes to cultural events,
they're really happy when someone participates or wants to learn about their culture,
So they will definitely hold you in their fuzzy warm arms
and embrace you lovingly.
But when it comes to learning Korean and speaking Korean,
we've experienced a couple of different attitudes towards it.
Ok, so from my experience, I speak Korean KIND OF ok,
I can get by in restaurants and taxis and directions
I can have very basic conversation, but I'm not fluent in Korean.
But, whenever I speak Korean, I find that people are very encouraging,
except in an awkward way.
So, if I say something like "oh my dog doesn't bite"
or "where is the location of this"
They'll say "OH! Your Korean is very good"
and I'll say, Oh, thank you, but, err, where is the location of this.
and they'll say "it's over there. By the way your Korean is very good"
And at first I found it encouraging, but after a while I found it a bit awkward.
You don't always have to tell me that my Korean is good.
Whenever I speak to one of my friends I don't say
"Hay! Your English is great!"
I'd like to be able to have a decent conversation
in which I'm not reminded that, hey, I'm not Korean and I'm speaking Korean
I'd like to be able to get the information across
without constantly being reminded that I'm an outsider
Now, I know some of you are thinking "Oh! Korean people are just trying to encourage you"
"they're just trying to be nice. They're not trying to be malicious"
And we totally know that, but we want to give you an example
as to why it can be frustrating.
We have a really good friend, and she speaks Korean beyond fluently.
She's been studying it in North America and here,
and she's also a food critic.
and whenever she gives an example of "oh, this food wasn't quite cooked right"
and she has a really intelligent comment
people will stare at her with their jaws dropped
and say "wow your Korean's really good!"
Instead of actually acknowledging the intelligent point that she raised,
The conversation is cut off with them saying
"Oh your Korean is really great"
And she'd want to be like "oh, but what about my point?"
"How about we talk about my point instead of how good my Korean is?"
So for her, she seems really upset,
because it seems like they can never get back to the point
of her being intelligent or having an intelligent comment.
Instead the focus is on that she speaks Korean.
And so in that sense, people feel that it's a little bit patronizing.
Almost like we're little children that can kick a soccer ball into the goal
and everyone's like "Good job, Timmy!"
Like, "Wow, Timmy! You know how to tie your shoes! Good for you!"
And, once again, we know that it's not malicious,
but it is pretty annoying, especially considering the fact that
there are many foreigners that are now living in Korea permanently.
and the second attitude we came across is kind of
the opposite of the first one we were talking about.
There's a bar that's set really high for learning Korean.
So, for example, you might speak Korean to somebody,
and in Korean they'll say to us,
"Your Korean's really good, but why don't you speak MORE Korean?"
and, in Korean, we'll answer "oh, we speak enough Korean to live"
From our experience, for people that scold us for not speaking enough Korean,
we don't think that they really understand
what a lot of people come here to Korea for,
Some people do come here to start a new life
and fully immerse themselves in Korea,
and some people come here just to experience it briefly
and then move on to a different country.
It's not like everybody has the exact same drive to learn languages,
some people are very passionate about learning languages and some people aren't.
Some people want to just experience the culture from a foreigner's perspective
and other people want to fully immerse themselves into the culture.
Can I just mention: I suck HARDCORE at learning languages.
SO HARDCORE!
She can barely even speak English
[Martina bleats like an angry goat]
So, long story short, Korean people aren't ever insulted in us
trying to participate in the culture or language,
but sometimes they're a little culturally insensitive.
So that's it for this week's TL;DR,
if there's a question you want us to answer for next week's TL;DR
leave your question in the Google Moderator page.
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And don't forget to subscribe for some more TL;DRs.
Also, a lot of people have been emailing us and leaving comments
that they want to see us doing more adventure videos outside of our apartment.
So, we thought a lot about it, and we agree with you guise,
So, what we're gonna do, is we're gonna do TL;DR's every second week,
and between that we're gonna put up videos of something adventurous in Korea.
Outside. Yay!
In the sun where I can burn!
HEEEE!
Did I mention that I'm a vampire.
A sexy vampire.
with the dullest teeth ever!
I just punch you, and then I use a knife, and then I suck the blood!
also known as a psychopath!
GONG!