Lunch with a Korean Family

There are some days here in Korea when you slap yourself on the forehead and say ‘holy moly we live in Korea’. Today was one of those days. Lee teaches an English conversation class once a week to three lovely ladies and one of these ladies invited us to her house today to have lunch and meet her family.
We turned up at twelve with gifts in hand. In Korea when you go to visit someone’s house you need to take a gift. The average gifts are normally fruit, spam (?) or toilet paper and not just a little amount of toilet paper we are talking 27 rolls, a hefty supply. We took a different route and decided to bring chocolate cake. It’s always a winner.
Their house was beautiful and her family was so lovely. We got to meet all their children who were adorable in every way and basically geniuses. There was a five year old with crazy drawing skills, a 8 year old boy who can name every dinosaur at a glance , a girl who was recording music sessions in the other room and a fifteen year old boy who can speak better English than me . He also happens to play the piano at a concert pianist level. To say they’re kids were impressive was an understatement. It is the main thing you notice about Korean kids is although they are pushed to a crazy level and you sometimes feel bad for them when they are finishing school as late as ten o’clock at night they really are reaping the benefits and head to high school with two languages , two instruments and a sport under their belt. It makes you feel extremely lazy.
After a lunch of Bibimbap (mixed rice and vegetables) , which was served the traditional way , on a lowered floor table where you have to sit cross legged we chatted and played with the kids. One of my favourite parts of these meetings with Lee’s ladies (as I like to call them since they are the teachers from his English conversation class) is the language discussions. They are so eager to learn and teach us. We love teaching them little phrases and watching them try to understand and assimilate them into their vocabulary. Trying to explain to them what ‘nosey’ is and Lee acting out the direct meaning of it (sticking your nose in) was funny to watch. We also got to learn a bit of our own Daegu dialect. In Daegu only there are words you can use such as ‘pie da’ which means ‘I don’t like it’. These funny little tid-bits feel sometimes like facts you are gaining after putting in the time to know the place you live.
All of a sudden is it 5 hours later and we all moseyed our way out of there. It was a day of language exchange, good food and great people. I love Korea on these days. It really makes you feel accepted in a different land.

Have you ever had a chance to visit a Korean family? How did you find the experience? If you haven’t been to Korea do you have any questions about certain customs or etiquette? Let us know and we look forward to hearing from you.