{"id":5474,"date":"2017-07-04T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-04T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-09-12T15:37:26","modified_gmt":"2020-09-12T19:37:26","slug":"so-your-character-is-from-south-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victoriagracehowell.com\/staging\/6258\/so-your-character-is-from-south-korea\/","title":{"rendered":"So Your Character is From South Korea … Featuring Lizzy @ The Bent Bookworm + Jiyeon @ JJellie’s Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"


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It’s time for this week’s So Your Character is … Post! This is a weekly segment where I interview lovely volunteers from around the world to give you a firsthand account of being a citizen of their respective country or having a disability. I’m hoping to encourage international diversity, break stereotypes, and give writers a crash course on how to write a character from these different places on our planet. If you haven’t checked out last week’s  So Your Character is from Puerto Rico … be sure to hop on over there and give it a read!<\/span>
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Happy July 4th everybody! Today I have a post about well no America. XD I’ve had South Korean friends growing up, I love shopping at the Korean franchise Hmart, there’s a large Korean population in my area, and I love Korean food, especially Korean BBQ. So I’m so happy to have Lizzy to tell me more about the country besides just the food. \ud83d\ude09<\/span>
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<\/span> Disclaimer: The content below may be culturally shocking to some. Each of these posts are as uncensored as possible to preserve the authenticity of the cultures of each of the interviewees.<\/span>
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\nHi, I\u2019m Lizzy! I live in the southern part of the Republic of Korea (South Korea), in the city of Daegu. It\u2019s about the size of Chicago and by far the biggest city I\u2019ve ever lived in! I read a lot. Not as much as some of the book bloggers I follow but more than normal people deem usual, haha. When I\u2019m not reading or writing you\u2019ll find me obsessing over my cat or some form of fiber art. I\u2019ve lived in Korea for almost three years.<\/span>
\nBlog<\/a>\/\/Twitter<\/a>\/\/Instagram<\/a>\/\/Goodreads<\/a><\/span>
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\nHello, my name is Jiyeon! I made up my English name to be Ellie, but no one seems to call me by that name, so Jiyeon it is! Back on topic, I\u2019m currently living in South Korea, in the city of Seoul. I lived in America for more than 10 years and it took me awhile to get used to the American culture. I have always missed living in Korea and wished to move back. I\u2019m currently doing an online degree program to receive my B.S. degree in early childhood development. However, I enjoy fashion, interior designing, and general art more than anything else. I love blogging and taking photos as well. <\/span>
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What do you feel is unique to your country? Landmarks? Celebrations?<\/b><\/span>
\nLizzy: <\/b>South Korea is a very old country. The name may be new but these people have lived here for centuries. When I first moved here and started exploring I was amazed when I would learn that the places we visited had been in constant use since, oh, 700 A.D. The holidays here are quite different from ours. The biggest Korean holiday is Chuseok, which takes place in the fall and is like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas all rolled into one. It\u2019s a HUGE deal. The next most important is the Lunar New Year. While they recognize the Georgian calendar new year, the Lunar one is the one they really celebrate. <\/span>
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\nJiyeon: <\/b>South Korea has a lot of small unique celebrations including Children\u2019s day, Pepero day, and celebrations dedicated to couples. Children\u2019s day is on May 5th and it is celebrated in Korea and other places around the world. Usually, schools will be closed on children\u2019s day and parents will get a day off, in most cases, to spend time with them. <\/span>
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Pepero day is on November 11th and it is similar to Valentine\u2019s Day. Pepero is a snack brand similar to Pocky in Japan. It is a biscuit stick covered in chocolate except for the ends. There\u2019s also another Valentine\u2019s Day called White Day, where it\u2019s the guy\u2019s turn to give a lady chocolate. <\/span>
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\nThere are so many couples everywhere you go in Korea, so there are a lot of celebrations dedicated to couples. For example, couples celebrate their 100th day anniversary or \u201cTwotwo Day\u201d where it\u2019s their 22nd day of dating. Korea has so many more adorable holidays like these, which can bring joy to everyone around or\u2026slowly lose change in his or her wallets. <\/span>
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Tell me about your country’s environment. What are some of your favorite places?<\/b>
\nLizzy: <\/b>While I\u2019ve only lived in the big city – well, big is relative. Daegu is small compared to Seoul (almost 10 million as opposed to 2.5 million), but considering there are only a few U.S. cities that are larger…it\u2019s the big city. And it\u2019s PACKED. Everything in Korea is built UP, not out like in many U.S. cities. I lived in Dallas\/Ft.Worth before, but because it sprawls out and out it doesn\u2019t feel nearly as crowded. My favorite places here are all the coffee shops and stationery stores! They are everywhere, especially the coffee shops. <\/span>
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Jiyeon: <\/b>South Korea has one of the most unique cafes ever! These are only few cafes I will mention, but every caf\u00e9 in Korea are aesthetically pleasing.  <\/span>There\u2019s a caf\u00e9 called, <\/span>Thanks Nature Caf\u00e9, where you can pet a sheep! <\/span>
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\nAnother caf\u00e9 that\u2019s interesting is the Board Game<\/span> caf\u00e9, where you can sit down to play different unique board games they have in Korea. <\/span>“<\/span>Board Game Cafe!<\/a>“. If you skip to the middle of this video, you can see the different types of board games you can play!<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nThe peach-gray caf\u00e9 is a caf\u00e9 where you can sit and paint while enjoying a drink or dessert! <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nEven their menus are so aesthetically pleasing! Korean cafes being aesthetically pleasing is very common and can be found almost anywhere in Seoul. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Tell me about your country’s food. What are some of your favorite dishes?<\/b>
\nLizzy: <\/b>Food is a struggle for me! Obviously, seafood plays a big part in the traditional food here – and I don\u2019t like most seafood. \ud83d\ude41 However, if you DO, you would love it here. Most restaurants have fresh tanks where you can literally pick your food. There is, of course, lots of kimchi, and in this part of the country, most of the food is VERY spicy. I\u2019m told further north of Seoul that they don\u2019t season things quite as spicy, but I\u2019m not sure. My absolute FAVORITE food tradition here is the Korean BBQ or what most Americans call the \u201cbeef and leaf\u201d style restaurants. It\u2019s amazing! Most places serve it with all kinds of side dishes, and different restaurants offer different marinades. It\u2019s brought out to you raw and you cook it over a small grill set into your table. I am really going to miss it when I move back to the States!<\/span>
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\nJiyeon: <\/b>In South Korea, we like to eat our meals with side dishes, soup, and rice.  <\/span>My most favorite food on the Earth is called <\/span>ddukbokgi. It\u2019s a plate of deliciousness with rice cakes, fish cake, red paste, and etc. The real tasty ones are the <\/span>ones in the street food <\/span>vendors where the sauce mixes very well with the <\/span>rice cakes. <\/span>
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\nI love street foods in general and I would recommend Myeondong where there are so many interesting streets foods to try! <\/span>
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\nChicken is a must try in Korea! They have so many different flavors, but my favorite is seasoned chicken! Like pizza with coke, in Korea, it\u2019s Chicken with beer and pickled radish. <\/span>
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\nTell me about any different speech patterns in your country. Slang? Idioms? Words for things such as \u201cbiscuits\u201d instead of \u201ccookies\u201d?<\/b>
\nLizzy: <\/b>Unfortunately, I can\u2019t really comment much on this as the Korean language, both spoken and the written (Hangul) form, has proved to be beyond me. I know a few basic phrases but the nuances are completely lost on me. However, since English is taught to all Korean students in school, communication here is usually somewhat possible. Most people understand English even if they are too shy to speak it back. But in the biggest cities like Seoul and Busan, even if you try to speak Korean to someone they are likely to just speak English back! I did recently have an experience in a small Korean town though, where absolutely NO ONE spoke English AT ALL and no signs or anything was in English! <\/span>
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\nJiyeon: <\/b>There are many words that are shortened or added to Korean words. In this video, “Common Korean Words\/Phrases That Sound Strange in English lol – Edward Avila<\/a>“, he explains how words are used in Korean but could sound strange in English. <\/span>
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