Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Kennyftw]

I imagine most of you are not fluent in Korean.
How do you communicate with her/his family/parents?

I'm getting married soon and my soon to be's mother doesn't speak a word of English. She doesn't have a father anymore--he died.

Anyway, I can already feel the awkward moments when my wife will leave the room to go to the bathroom or something, and her mom and I are left in the room staring at each other. We can't communicate. I hate these types of moments because I've been through them more times than I like to admit with my girlfriend's friends. It's just torture.

This is going to be hell for me, I can already see it.

[hapkido1996]

In my experience, silence isn't nearly so awkward for Koreans as it is for us unless you show signs of being uncomfortable. Then that makes them uncomfortable. Just sit there and munch on something, stare at the TV or play with your phone until your fiancee gets back. Silence is not a bad thing here, really. Best of luck to you.

[litebear]

I agree with the advice above but I'd also suggest you try and learn a little bit of Korean, just enough to make a few basic convos to last the 2-3 minutes your missus is out the room. Simple topics like weather and work would be fine.

[tiger fancini]

Learn Korean. Achieving fluency is not going to be easy, but learning enough to eliminate those uncomfortable silences shouldn't be too difficult. Surely you've taken this into consideration as part of your getting-married plans?

[EvilGiraffe]

Learn some magic tricks and perform for her until your gf gets back from the toilet.

[jonpurdy]

You've been there long enough to be engaged to a Korean girl. Surely you've learned enough Korean to engage in a very basic conversation with someone. No?

[GoldMember]

Personally for me. The language barrier is not a big problem, as I've learned enough for small tall. The big barrier is the food barrier. Not too keen on the food, and the lack of hygiene. Then there are the eating sounds, slurping, loud chewing, talking with mouths full.
It's not pretty.

[politica]

I'm assuming you've studied or are studying Korean and can at least manage small talk.

If that's the case and you still end up with loads of awkward moments, something I used to do with my girlfriend's mom was carry around a bunch of photos of us (all clean, cutesy stuff) on my cell phone. Then I could whip it out and somethng like this would follow:

Me: Ji Sun wa na
Her: Ahh, kweyopda! Odi?
Me: Busan
Her: continues to browse all photos, commenting on each

This also works well with pictures of your students.

[dgove]

I love when people lecture other people on Korean and don't use it right. The last is using informal talk to his girl friend's mom. Nice.

[DaHu]

Do not learn Korean. Most things you will need to communicate with her don't need language anyway.

As for your girlfriend's friends, I find it hard to believe that NONE of them understand English. They're just being rude to you.

[tiger fancini]

[crescent]

[eamo]

At least learn a few stock phrases to do with your MIL's well being, the weather, the correct greeting if it's her birthday, or new years or whatever...

Food is a great subject to talk to ajumma about. They love to talk about food.

My MIL was pleased all day Monday just because I said in Korean several times that her kimchi was delicious......it doesn't take much. My Korean is terrible but a few words here and there can appease your in-laws that at least you're trying.

Not being able to say a single word of the language of you wife, your in-laws and your host country would be seen as churlish on your part.

You don't need to get fluent this month, or ever IMO, but a few words and phrases will go a long way.

[wishfullthinkng]

[giraffe]

As others pointed out, Just learn korean! If you dont, your wife will eventually get sick of translating everything and you're bound to live relatively clueless in this country. There's so many advantages for you to learn korean ESPECIALLY if you're marrying into a korean family... Not learning is asking for trouble I say...

By learning korean, I dont mean you should become fluent in the language. Although that would be good too... At least put an effort into learning some basic sentences so that you can communicate your basic needs and make small talk. That alone will go a long way even if you're not interested in learning the language .... It would take minimal effort.

this is coming from a guy who lives with his korean parent in law =).