🙋‍♂️ Need Help with Korean Cultures! 🙋‍♀️

[pqstiche]

So, I’m planning to write a story about a Korean American (like half Korean half American) MC’s new life in America after moving away from South Korea. As some of the scenes would take place in South Korea, and I don’t want to misrepresent Koreans as some of my characters are Korean. I need some help with cultures, slangs, basic communication languages (like, annyeong for bye, please correct me if I’m wrong ), and some information about Korea. I’m eager to learn more about Korean culture so feel free to talk more about it!

Basically, I only know some of it, like K-Pop, hanbok, kimchi (it’s delicious ), and some basic communication languages like annyeong, yeoboseyo, and annyeonghaseyo, please correct me if I misspelled it.) And I heard that there are formal and informal languages while speaking to one, I don’t want to mess up that so please talk about this too!

A thought in my mind

Should I give an option to the readers to choose if they want to read the story with more Romaji or nah?

Example:

• If the reader chose to NOT read it with more romaji, the story would be like this:

MC and her mom, who is Korean are having a conversation in the living room.

MC (sits down and talk)
Eomma (Mom), where is she?

Mother (sits down and talk)
She’s partying with her friends.

Basically only changing some simpler words (like hi, bye, mom, and etc.) to Romanji.

• If the reader chose to read the story with more Romaji:

MC (sits down and talk)
Eomma, eodi gass-eoyo? (This is Google translation of “Mom, where is she?”, I won’t use Google Translation for my dialogues that have more Romaji.)

Mother (sits down and talk)
Geunyeoneun chingudeulgwa patileulhago issseubnida.
(Google Translation of “She’s partying with her friends.”)

The MC would only have full Romaji dialogues with a Korean character. But the choices (the choice box) would be still in English, or should I change it to Romaji as well?

Please leave your feedback/opinions about it!

by .

[Ash8]

I can tell you a bit about Korean culture! This can help shape the character of your Korean American girl! I’m not a Korean American but I’ve lived in a different country before, so I sort of know what it feels like to be a Korean American.

The ‘Fast’ Culture
People in Korea want everything fast/faster. That is why the delivery system or the wifi is really fast here. As I got used to living in Korea, I started to get more and more impatient if someone in line didn’t go forward fast enough or when people started driving a bit later after the light turned green.

Self-consciousness
People are very aware of blending in, not wanting to stand out. This is because Koreans take other people’s judgments crucially. This is part of the reason why the colors of the cars here are mostly white, grey, and black. And also the reason why teens follow trends a lot - to be able to blend in, to be part of the “crowd”. Also the reason why Koreans care about appearances a lot…

Saying No
Because of how important we think of other people’s judgments, it is harder for Koreans to say no. (especially me…) Because of the worry that saying no might make the other person feel hurt, mostly we agree/say yes even though we do not want to.

Academics
Studying is extremely crucial in Korea Not that it’s not important in other countries… But most of the students here, their main goals are going to a college/university with a great reputation, not a dream job. Some of the Korean friends I know don’t have a dream job, or haven’t thought about what to do next after they got into the universities they’ve wanted. But there isn’t time to really deeply ponder about dreams, because we need to study, get into college…etc.

Passion
But I can really say that Koreans have grit and perseverance. Koreans are able to sacrifice their time and energy to earn what they want. People work hard and try their best.

Singing~~
Because of lots of pressures on academics or work, people usually release stress by singing. There’s a lot of places called ‘Noraebang’ which is literally the Karaoke place. But in Korea, there are tons of those places. Sometimes after a long time of studying/working, people would just sing in the Karaoke place until their neck goes sore and they can’t sing anymore.

Konglish
Just like any other country, Korean Americans or Koreans that live outside of Korea tend to say both Korean and English when speaking to their family. Just like what you did. It’s more comfortable to say that way because sometimes I don’t remember how to say the word in the other language

Traditional Korean Food

-> Bibimbab - It’s all kinds of veggies with meat and rice. You eat it by mixing them altogether. It tastes pretty good!

-> Gimbab - (NOT SUSHI:rage:) it has a lot more inside the roll than sushi, and is one of the most famous traditional food in Korea.

-> Japchae - It’s noodles with veggies in it

Popular Korean Food

Tteokbokki - Korean people like to release stress by eating spicy food (I dare you to try it!)

Tigim - Ppl usually eat this with tteokbokki, it’s a set of fried squid/shrimp/veggies/sweet potato…etc
(Squids are actually not that bad!)

->Samgyeopsal - It’s pork and you cook it on a hot platter like this (underneath there’s fire to make a smokey taste and it’s delicious:yum:)

I thought these were a few things you could put inside the Korean friend’s characteristics.
**Bear in mind that these are based on my observation and that they are just general features about Korea. They do not apply to every single person in Korea, just overall facts.

Also, I do not think you should put a lot of Romaji because I do think that it’s going to be hard to read, even for Koreans. In my opinion, just writing eomma(mom) or appa(dad) etc when calling someone would be good. (But this is just my opinion no pressure. :])

Hope this helped!

[pqstiche]

I did think that putting a lot of Romaji would be a little tough for the readers to read and understand (and it needs extra coding as well ), so I was rethinking it, and thank you for telling me about Korean culture!

[Ash8]

Np! I’m always here if you have more questions

[pqstiche]

Bump!

[K-popcorn]

ik this probably doesn’t even matter, but “annyeong” means “hi”, not “bye”

[pqstiche]

Thank you for correcting me (or else I’ll really going to be mistaken forever lol), I was really confused between annyeong and annyeonghaseyo.

[K-popcorn]

ㅋ, “annyeonghaseyo” is “hello” and “annyeong” is shorter so that’s why it means “hi”

[pqstiche]

Oh (so that’s why ) , what about “bye” in Korean?

[K-popcorn]

annyeonghi kyeseyo in romaji and 안녕히 계세요 in hangul

[pqstiche]

There’s no shorter way to say it?

[K-popcorn]

well, korean isn’t my very first language so i’m not that sure

[pqstiche]

Ohhh okay

[Ash8]

Actually you can say annyeong for both “hello” and “goodbye”

[pqstiche]

Oh okay

[pqstiche]

Bumpy bump!