Hello. 안녕하세요
I was delighted a few weeks ago to receive an email from Korea.net confirming that I had been selected as part of the 2023 cohort for Honorary Reporters. For those who know me well, know that I have, over the course of the last year or so, really found myself ever increasingly interested in South Korea, her food, her history and her culture.
As I start looking to creating content which I hope people will enjoy, I thought a good place to start would be to share with you where my interest in South Korea first began. I’ve spent most of my young adult life to date focusing on building my career, and so beyond that I have had little time to travel or look to the world outside my own. That all changed in 2020 when lockdown began. I was living by myself, and I really struggled with that. In order to combat the isolation and loneliness I felt, I decided that I would entertain myself with drawings and learning a new language. I chose Korean. I wish I could say, given how much love I have for the language and country now, that I had made the decision to learn the language for a grand and inspiring reason. The truth is I picked it on a whim with little thought beyond that it would be a challenge that would hopefully keep me interested. It did. It has. It continues to.
I learned later through reading and trying to educate myself about Korea, that the written system was created by King Sejong in 1443 to encourage literacy – something which I think is not only evidence of an incredible mind, but something that is amazing for all the people. If you click here it will take you to a really interesting article on him. If you read it, you will see why he is considered ‘Great’.
When I started to get a bit better at the language, although still trying to teach myself, I extended my interests to learning more about the history and culture. I also wanted to listen to people speaking at native speed. Enter K-dramas. Thank you, Netflix! How I made it all those years never having watched one, I don’t know. I must watch one episode a day now otherwise I am not content. I think the first one I watched was K2. My favourite so far as probably been Strong Girl Do Bong Soon which I would definitely recommend – I heard they’re making a sequel! – But, I have just started Bora! Deborah, and I think it may be good enough to knock SGDBS off the top spot. There’s something really special about Yoon In-Na. Anyway, over time I stumbled across Park Seo Joon and Fight For My Way, which led me to Hwrang, which led me to realising that by this point after I had finished the drama, I would google all the actors, which led me to…K-Pop. Shinee (Superstar). IU (Celebrity). J-Hope (Piece of Peace). He of course being 1/7 of one of my all time favourite artists – BTS. I’d never heard of them before. Again, not sure how. They’re everywhere! My life has never been more content, or happier. When I was really having a hard time during the pandemic, someone asked me if I’ve heard of Run BTS. I had not. You can find it on YouTube if you’re interested. It’s their own version of a Korean Variety show. It features the members, who are 7 incredible, talented, kind young men who are extremely likeable (they really are) just being themselves, and so funny. Watching them made me laugh, genuinely, for the first time in a while. Since then I’ve discovered a whole host of amazing artists.
More recently, I am exploring Korean Literature and Korean Arts. I have also been fortunate to have the opportunity to attend a view literary events with the Korean Culture Centre here in London, who have organised some really amazing book talks with really great authors. I am still a bit in awe of having met Yun Ko-Eun, who wrote The Disaster Tourist. She was the first person beyond my teacher that I have spoken to in Korean. The King Sejong Institute organised an amazing talk on the celadon ceramics on exhibition at the British Museum. I will touch on these in more detail in a future post.
I did start to struggle with teaching myself a language in the end, so I went in search of a Teacher. It took a little while but eventually I found someone who after a few emails I found I really liked, and now I have a teacher. She’s a great teacher. I really like her, both as a friend and a teacher, which is really cool! At the end of our weekly lessons she spends a few minutes teaching me a little bit about Korean Culture, which I have loved so much. I’ve learned a lot about how honorifcs and the different ways of communicating, how Koreans celebrate Lunar New Year and what they traditionally eat on their birthdays, and the meaning behind it. Did you know there was such thing as Konglish? Also, Koreans have really great slang words. Under her good guidance, I am starting to gain confidence and I’m starting to be able to read and write Korean, which makes me so happy I can’t properly put how it into words. All of these things will allow me to make the most of my time there when I go. I’m hoping I’ll have saved up enough money to do so by the end of the year, which is so exciting!
I hope that through my articles that I can share my sincere love and interest for this incredible country. There are lots of exciting things to see and do that I am really looking forward to writing about and sharing.
Thank you for reading.
I hope you have a good day.
Best wishes,
Faye / 파예