[Cool TL;DR Intro]
Martina from South Korea but technically Canada asks:
"Jen, Jen frmheadtotoe. What's it like being Korean American?
And living in America, but then going back to Korea?"
Ah! It's so much so much in one question!
Ok, so when you were growing up, were you born here?
Or did you move here actually?
I was actually born in a suburb of Cansas city so
It was very, ok honestly they were a lot of Caucasians
So I basically grew up in a very not a lot of diversity
Not a lot of minorities area where there
were mostly no Koreans at all.
Ok, so your house wasn't like Korean style house
Or was it American or combination?
Like if your friends came over, did they have anything
Noticeable like "Oh this isn't my culture,"?
I would say our homelife was mostly Korean,
Both of my parents immigrated from Korea. [M: mhm]
So, a lot of the food that we ate were very Korean food
My mom cooked all the time.
I would've liked to have been your friend and eaten
All of your mum's homemade Korean food.
We were very very blessed,
she's an amazing, amazing cook!
Ok, I have a weird question for you.
When I watch American dramas I noticed that
Americans walk around inside with shoes on
But in Canada you take your shoes off,
And in Korea you DEFINITELY take your shoes off
So did you wear shoes on house or shoes off house?
Definitely shoes off, I actually feel really uncomfortable
When I go to my friend's houses and like
Leaving my own shoes on.
So people do leave their shoes on in the states?
Yes! [M:] Really? Everyone you know or just like some people?
All the people that I know that aren't Asian, I would say 90%
Wear their shoes on.
REALLY? Ok, you guys will have to tell me if
You leave your shoes on or not, because
I thought it was like in a drama.
So when I watch Korean dramas and
I see people in the house with shoes,
I'm like [Jen:] THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN
Like you can be in the middle of a kidnapping and
you'd be like [running sounds] and you stop
And take your shoes of and then you like run into the house.
That is so fake.. [M:] Right?
Even if I'm about to leave and I realize that I have to run
Into the bathroom real quick, it's like 5 ft away, you still
like hurry and take your shoes of and run to the bathroom.
And then come back and take your shoes back on.
Ok! So I'm glad, I appreciate that.
What when you flew to Korea,
I know you told me before, that you visited Korea
Every so many years when you were growing up and such
But I know when you go somewhere as a child, you're kids
So you can kinda get a long with everyone right?
I know when I was in Croatia to visit my cousins
I didn't speak Croatian at all, my mom was like
"Yeah you and the neighbors chatted up the storm, full conversations."
Except I was speaking English and they were speaking Croatian.
And we were just "blah blah blah,"
So when I was little and I would go to Korea
It was so easy to integrate, I grew up bilingual so my Korean
Was just perfectly fluent, 'cause I picked it up so fast
I hung out with the other kids. Now I would say it's
Really different because as soon as you land there
There are little things that you cannot know about the culture
There. Like what the exact monthly current fashion is.
Korean fashion changes so fast!
Or how people are wearing their hair!
Everyone will do their hair in a short wavy bob at the same time.
Or long straight black hair, at the same time.
And as a westener, you kinda have your own way to dress and
Make up and doing your hair.
When you go there, you're immediately going to stand out,
there's nothing you can do about it.
So have your family in Korea been able to notice the trends?
Or is it something you've been able to observe on other people?
So, if you're not somebody who's really keen on fashion or makeup,
it might actually be more difficult to sort of adjustTo those little cultural differences.
And you might feel uncomfortable and
Not exactly know why? [M:] Yeah you can't figure out why..
Well, I can totally understand what you're saying.
Simon and I have been in Korea for just over 6 years now.
We can actually sit in a coffee shop window and I can
be like "THAT person is not a Korean," like Korean,
But they're Korean American. Like we say Kyopto.
Like there's a specific look, and you can't really pick it out
like "they're wearing a pink shirt!" it's something more like,
so for example hip hop in Korea, we've seen a lot of
Korean guys, that are into hip hop style
But they all wear like these fitted pants, like the fitted __
or jeans. Maybe there's like a baggy crotch that's quite stylish.
But the legs are very fitted.
You know what I noticed, in Korea the hip hop guys
They would wear those like, hip hop hats, they would
Wear those straight up and it says something on it.
And American hip hop they NEVER.
Never seen a Korean person 'til today wear Cardio shorts.
Never ever, never ever. Like wide baggy shorts, with pockets
[Jen] that's super American. Yeah..
It's just so small you can't explain it.
But from our perspective like that's
A North American look.
I think it's like pretty consistent that if you're
just going over there and you're a foreigner
A week or two, you can't expect to blend in.
And that can be like really actually sad and frustrating.
It's startling because you consider yourself obviously Korean.
So when Simon went to Poland he was speaking Polish
And he hadn't been in Poland for a long time
And as he was asking a security guard in a mall something
He switched to English "what is it that you wanna find?"
Oh, they definitely do the same, say even if you have
perfect Korean. Except your skin is a little bit tan because
a like LA Korean with perfect Korean.
You go over there and they will try and speak
To you in English. You're trying to haggle or something like that.
And that's the worst sometimes, like if you're trying to haggle
you're trying to convince that you're a Korean
You know what you're talking about and you know
What things are worth.
The ahjummas are totally onto you.
They're just like "Uh-uh" I know they're gonna be like
"How long are you staying?"
Can you like deny it, can you be like "No I totally live here,"?
[J:]I CAN'T [M:] You're like hmm...
No, I'm a terrible liar. [M:] As soon as they're onto you
Especially if it's like not in English I just like
I get so embarrassed.
If I know I'm going to be like, "the foreigner"
Even if I don't like sometimes I'll look and dress
and do my makeup like a Korean Korean,
You go with a Korean friend, and just let them haggle
and I'm just the shy one instead of being the foreigner,
Because that helps a lot.
Like it's a lot more convincing if I just don't wanna talk
I' being like shy. Yeah.
The makeup in Korea tends to be really simple,
even if it changes throughout the season like
Oh, peachy lips are in or like radiant lips are in but like
there's always a really simple look, it's not very colourful?So when I look at foreign makeup artists like youtube
like stuff that you're doing you'll be like
"Oh it's the summertime, let's do a summer look with
different colors and you'll experiment with different
Kind of looks but I often find that the Korean look is very simple.
You know it's funny because Korean makeup isn't
wearing less makeup, it's just wearing the same amount
Of makeup in a different way. [M:] yeah, yeah.
Korean style eyeliner is sometimes even heavier than
How a lot of American girls would wear it.
Especially if they're into like lighter makeup.
A lot of times the bb cream, I've seen it be like quite thick.
Oh yeah! But the idea of it is to look natural and dewy.
Dewy is a word that I hear all the time.
That's a very Korean trend thing.
I have to say, I like my face to look glowing, but
not as dewy as Koreans like it.
I'm on the same page because, dewy to me
Looks oily and shiny. [J:] Right?
And like in the pictures.
Like someone needs to powder that girl's nose. It stresses me out.
So some of my Korean American friends said that
When they come back to Korea, they speak Korean
And they speak English, and on one hand
From my perspective as well, people
Really look up to people speaking English
'Cause they send their kids to English Hagwons after school
And they go to English class, and I was an English teacher.
But then there seems to be this level that you're
Doing TOO much English and you're forgetting
About you Koreanness. So there has to be this
balance between respecting the fact that, you know
You're Korean and you speak Korean and then
Yes you're American and you speak English but you can't
Flaunt one, do you get what I mean?
Yeah I think that there's definitely a difference
In perception, especially if you're a Korean
From Korea, going for instance America or Canada
To learn English. I feel like they don't want you to
Over expose to a different culture so that you're
Out of touch of being Korean.
So there's this thing we heard of that
people want to go overseas for one year,
But you don't go over that mark, because
that's apparently when you start meeting people,
Dating people and losing your Koreanness.
So you're way over that young lady.
Omg are you dating a foreigner?
Did you marry a foreigner?
It's not a foreigner because I'm American.
[sassy Martina snaps fingers sassily]
But I will say, it's different with Koreans
Among each other, I feel like there's a
Sense of national pride where they
do want other Koreans to date other Koreans
And marry other Koreans.
And it's definitely something I've experienced in
Not the nicest of ways sometimes on the internet.Because my husband's an American guy and
Sometimes people on the internet, will just
Make snap judgements and be really critical
Of that fact, when [M:] Oh the internet..
[laughter]
They want to reflect their own experiences on other people's lives
Without actually knowing the individual story.
And so in my case, I dated my husband for like 7 years,
before we got married, we've been married for another 6 years.
So it's definitely not a quicky flash in the pan.
I really like that phrase, omg a quicky flash in the pan!AHAHAHA! I'm gonna use this every time for everything.
It's hard for foreigners sometime to be in Korea but
I always say it's harder for Korean Americans
or Korean Europeans, because there's a perception
At a time, that you're Korean, why don't youUnderstand the culture? Why aren't you drinking with me
How come your Korean's not perfect so
It can be that pressure like
"I'm really sorry, I'm trying my hardest" kind of feeling.
I think as a Kyopto it can be hard like you said,
You feel that pressure, so you don't know
what to do in those situations..
You just go "Eeeehm..."
Ok, so that's it for our TL;DR for today
I think we've covered a lot of topics
But we still have some more to talk about,
We're gonna talk more about it on our blog post a
Little bit. So you can click on this link to
Read more about it and a little bit of more
of Simon's story about visiting Poland as a Polish
Person but not a Polish person.
Difficult thing. There's a phrase for you being Gyopto
But there's no phrase for you- unless
Simon is there like a phrase for being Polish Canadian?
[S:] POLAK!! Ok so there's nothing [J:] POLAK!
If you're a Gyopto or any other person living
Outside of your mother land, what was your experience
Like, did your relate to anything we talked about?
Have you ever have family visit you that was from another country
what was your experience like?
Let us know down in the comment!
Yay Jen!!
And if by case you're wondering, how I got this
fabolous look, this isn't even the entire look here
Ok, I had circle lenses and crazy brown hair because
Jen did me as Park Bom. You can click on the video here
To check out Jen's amazing Park Bom look, look at me right
[Martina singing]
What is it boy, Spudgy needs your help?
What's that Spudgy wants me to come home and touch his tummy?
How 'bout a high five? High five!
Oh, nailed it! [J]Nailed it!
Smarter than my dog!
[Spudgy voice] Whaaaaaat?