Hey Peeps,
On Christmas we went to an apartment to hang out with another military family and another one of their friends. The couples were both husbands that are linguists with Korean wives. I was able to ask some language and cultural questions without seeming offensive and it was interesting to get some feedback and perspective on military, language, family life, etc.
One of things that I just had to bring up and ask about was distinguishing between the various Asian people. What traits helped them to know the difference? The husbands both said that they could only tell once a person began to speak where a person was from (one of the husbands was Japanese.) The wives however stated that they could tell by clothing and make up. That made sense to me because that is often how I can tell when traveling around the USA when people are from other countries because they often wear clothing and shoe brands/styles different than ours. Even with people within the USA sometimes based on their hairstyle I can guess at what area of the country or at least whether they live in a rural area.
Another topic that came up that had me laughing was one of the husbands pointed out that when we mock what people from Asian countries sound like we often make the noises like, "ching," "chong," "chow," and you know exactly what I'm talking about so don't even try to play like you don't! Well anyway, he said that for Asian people they mock us English speaker thinking we sound like, "shalla shalla shalla." I was so confused, LOL!?! They went on to explain that many Asian languages are more vowel based, not placing consonant sounds together like we do. The opposite is true for us where we use many more consonant sounds. So where we have words with things like, sh, th, tr, br, cl... you get the point, they have words more with ou, eu, ae, ei. That makes what they say sound how it does with the addition that they have more of a singing way of saying things, carrying out the sounds and we sound how we do to them based on our consonants. Interesting right!?
In Korean culture, as with many other cultures but not so much USA, it is the norm for the wife's mother to live with or close to the family after her daughter has a child. She comes and takes care of household things such as chores, shopping, cooking and with the baby as well. Not with an expectation to receive any thanks but just because that is what they do. I know that other cultures do this as well but this is not something that we really welcome in the USA. We are more independent minded and less interdependent minded. Plus it seems that there is an ulterior motive sometimes when someone does something nice, sad but true.
Something else I found interesting when one of the husbands bringing up interpretation and how it can vary by person. He shared that given 5 different linguists and one thing to say, there will be 5 differing interpretations of that statement. Translation is word for word, not interpretation and so interpretation is left to the responsibility of the person converting the words. He explained culture plays a huge role in the interpretation as well as understanding and life experience. This reminded me of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. How they were often telling the same stories but the way that they shared different details was interesting to compare. It was really cool to ponder and consider this from a modern perspective. One example he gave was that in Korean culture people will often say to one another, "Have you had rice?" which is the literal English interpretation. However it actually means, "How are you?" There is a story to this but just consider us saying, "What's up?" That if interpreted literally would be confusing too.
So in conclusion, learning a lot but with a lot more to learn, always!
Love,
Camille (카밀)
On Christmas we went to an apartment to hang out with another military family and another one of their friends. The couples were both husbands that are linguists with Korean wives. I was able to ask some language and cultural questions without seeming offensive and it was interesting to get some feedback and perspective on military, language, family life, etc.
One of things that I just had to bring up and ask about was distinguishing between the various Asian people. What traits helped them to know the difference? The husbands both said that they could only tell once a person began to speak where a person was from (one of the husbands was Japanese.) The wives however stated that they could tell by clothing and make up. That made sense to me because that is often how I can tell when traveling around the USA when people are from other countries because they often wear clothing and shoe brands/styles different than ours. Even with people within the USA sometimes based on their hairstyle I can guess at what area of the country or at least whether they live in a rural area.
Another topic that came up that had me laughing was one of the husbands pointed out that when we mock what people from Asian countries sound like we often make the noises like, "ching," "chong," "chow," and you know exactly what I'm talking about so don't even try to play like you don't! Well anyway, he said that for Asian people they mock us English speaker thinking we sound like, "shalla shalla shalla." I was so confused, LOL!?! They went on to explain that many Asian languages are more vowel based, not placing consonant sounds together like we do. The opposite is true for us where we use many more consonant sounds. So where we have words with things like, sh, th, tr, br, cl... you get the point, they have words more with ou, eu, ae, ei. That makes what they say sound how it does with the addition that they have more of a singing way of saying things, carrying out the sounds and we sound how we do to them based on our consonants. Interesting right!?
In Korean culture, as with many other cultures but not so much USA, it is the norm for the wife's mother to live with or close to the family after her daughter has a child. She comes and takes care of household things such as chores, shopping, cooking and with the baby as well. Not with an expectation to receive any thanks but just because that is what they do. I know that other cultures do this as well but this is not something that we really welcome in the USA. We are more independent minded and less interdependent minded. Plus it seems that there is an ulterior motive sometimes when someone does something nice, sad but true.
Something else I found interesting when one of the husbands bringing up interpretation and how it can vary by person. He shared that given 5 different linguists and one thing to say, there will be 5 differing interpretations of that statement. Translation is word for word, not interpretation and so interpretation is left to the responsibility of the person converting the words. He explained culture plays a huge role in the interpretation as well as understanding and life experience. This reminded me of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. How they were often telling the same stories but the way that they shared different details was interesting to compare. It was really cool to ponder and consider this from a modern perspective. One example he gave was that in Korean culture people will often say to one another, "Have you had rice?" which is the literal English interpretation. However it actually means, "How are you?" There is a story to this but just consider us saying, "What's up?" That if interpreted literally would be confusing too.
So in conclusion, learning a lot but with a lot more to learn, always!
Love,
Camille (카밀)
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