Chicken Fighting (닭싸움)

One day all the boys in my class began calling for a “chicken fight”. I correctly assumed that there would be no real chickens involved, but without knowing further what this was I, for some reason, obliged Continue reading →

Understanding Each Other: Untranslatable Korean

One of the natural results of a Korean and a Brit living together is that we often run into communication problems. My wife’s English is very good, and though my Korean is slowly getting better there are still many times when we find that one of us just can’t understand exactly what the other means. … Continue reading →

Family Bonding at the Public Baths

Recently my father-in-law’s most constant and least fulfilled request is for Emjay and I to join him and his wife on one of their overnight trip to the mountains, or to the sea, or somewhere a decent distance from home. Since we  just don’t have time for this at the moment we eventually decided to … Continue reading →

Under Pressure

The assumption that my wife and I will soon have a baby follows us everywhere these days. It began even before we were married as our friends speculated pregnancy as the reason for our early marriage… Continue reading →

Sharpening the Image

I’ve realised recently that I’ve written a scarce amount about the most interesting thing in my life and the very reason I started this blog: my experiences of international marriage. Granted I’ve gone over various things relating to weddings and have even ventured into talking about the vastly complicated area of Korean culture. But this… Continue reading →

Second Weddings and Blessings

As my wife and I had promised we headed back to the UK for our second wedding last January. Actually, it’s illegal to get married twice even to the same person in a different country, so we decided to have a blessing ceremony. It’s all the same but you do everything in the past tense … Continue reading →

Party Noodles (잔치국수)

Plain but refreshing, these warm noodles easily fall apart in your mouth. A great snack but not quite enough to fill you up. Price: 3000 – 6000₩ Contents Janchi Guksu is based on very soft wheat noodles placed in a warm beef or anchovy broth. You might find the flavour enhanced with sesame oil, soy … Continue reading →

M Palace Wedding Hall – A Korean Wedding, An International Feel

There were two things that my wife and I looked for when we were searching Seoul for wedding halls: an easy to reach location, and an International feel, in the Korean style. When we found M Palace, we thought we had found exactly that, and were largely right. But were slightly wrong. Here are our thoughts on … Continue reading →

Korean Weddings 2: What to Give

At a Korean wedding… “It is usual to give at least 30,000W (which may cover the cost of your meal, about £15). Then, going up in steps, you could give 50, 100, 150 thousand Won, and so on. This is all very specific and impersonal, but it is seen as acceptable for two reasons.” …Read on to … Continue reading →