When your parents disapprove of your international relationship

If your parents are against your international relationship,
you need to know why they are against it.

If they are against it because of their personality, then it is fine.

However, if they are against your relationship just because they are out of your race or foreigners, then I think you shouldn't care about them too much.

Your life is your life. Your marriage is your marriage. You live your life, and you and your spouse work your marriage. No one does it for you. You need to know if your girlfriend/boyfriend make you happy, that is all that matters.

One thing that you need to remember is you shouldn't date him/her just because you want to be rebellious to your parents.

You might feel that you are Romeo or Juliet since they are against you. You might think that that is more fun and exciting because they are against it so it must be forbidden love and more thrilling.

However, you need to know that when parents are against your love, there must be reasonable reasons. So, you need to think about it again.

My bottom line is "Spread LOVE and stop HATE". 

What Korean people do when they are on a date

Obviously, when Korean people go out on a date, they do the same things as other people such as going to a coffee shop, eating at a restaurant, going to the movies, going to a sport event, etc.

However, there are some places where Korean people like to go when they are hanging out with their friends or dating.

1. 노래방( Noraebang) Karaoke

Karaoke is a place where you can sing with your friends. Korean people love to sing. Even couples go to noraebang to sing together.

2. Coffee shop

As you can see, coffee shops are partitioned. They want to have private tables for them, so lots of coffee shops which are partitioned are popular among couples. 

It is like you have your own private space to drink coffee (or make out?).

3. DVD room

This is a place where you can watch movies in a very small theater. When you go inside, you choose what movie you want to watch and then watch it in a room.

Since DVD rooms can be used as hotels (some people go there to make out and more!), minors can not go there.

4. Multi room

Nowadays, there are more multi rooms in Korea. There, you can watch movies, sing songs, play games, and drink coffee. You can basically do anything there. You pay per hour and spend time there doing anything.

Even though, the rooms look bright and cute and are advertising that the rooms can be used by minors, since the rooms cannot be supervised by adults, there are rumors that minors will be prohibited to go there soon.

Anyway, Koreans usually go to these kinds of places when they are dating other than going on a picnic, swimming, hiking, driving, etc. like any other people. :)

The Special 14th Days in Korea

South Korea has very many special days. They are not really national holidays or anything like that. People just think that those special days are quite fun to celebrate.

All of a sudden, people started to say November 11th is Pepero day and started to celebrate it. Pepero is a Korean chocolate stick cookie which looks like 1.

This popular snack, pepero's company probably made November 11th as Pepero day so that they can raise their sales.

Pepero day has become extremely popular, and many friends and lovers give pepero to each other.

Korean people love to celebrate any special days.

I will go through all of special days which are popular among young people.

The14th day of each month is a special day.

January 14th – Diary Day

Couples are meant to give each other a diary or year planner in which they mark their plans, anniversaries, birthdays and other important dates. 

February 14th – Valentine’s Day

In contrast to Western society, today is traditionally when women give chocolates to their men and confess their love.

March 14th – White Day

Men give candy to the women they love (and flowers and choc and cuddly toys….in fact, anything really!)

April 14th – Black Day

A purely Korean day, for those singletons out there, who havnt received choc or candy so far, console themselves by eating ja jang myun – a black noodle soup or any black foods.

May 14th – Rose Day

Couples exchange roses.

June 14th – Kiss Day

Lovers confess their feelings to one another and kiss passionately.

July 14th – Silver Day

Couples exchange gifts made of silver, and announce their relationship to their friends.

August 14th – Green Day

Couples are supposed to dress in green, and walk outside in the woods (ooh camouflage opportunity!)
Singles drink a (green) bottle of soju to console themselves.

September 14th – Photo Day
Couples take photographs together.

October 24th – Apple Day
The Korean word for apple, sa-kwa, also means to apologize. On Apple Day, friends, family and couples give an apple to each other to apologize for past mistakes.

November 11th – Pepero Day (Ah yes, the chocolate stick day!)
A new day that has taken off in South Korea, it is named after a pencil-shaped cookie stick covered in chocolate, given mostly by young Koreans as an expression of their affection.
The 11th day of the 11th month is specifically chosen as the number looks like a Pepero stick. Students exchange the treats with one another with the thought of growing tall and thin (an obsession in Korea, tho don’t think eating choc cookies is gonna help there…!)

November 14th – Movie Day 

Couple go to watch a movie at the cinema.

December 14th – Hug Day
Couples hug each other in the winter to chase away the cold.

There are too many!! 

I personally don't care about all these days, but some young people think that they should do everything on the 14th according to the day.

There is one more!

It is 3 layered pork day, and it is March 3rd.

Every industry makes some special days for people to buy their products. 

What is your favorite day? 

What is most interesting to you?

Have a great day, everyone!!! :)

How my Korean parents accepted my black boyfriend

My parents were never conservative people. They were quite open-minded.
Especially, my mom had been to many different countries, so she had met many different people from different cultures.

However, it must have been really hard for my parents to accept James as my boyfriend.

There were many different reasons, but one of them was the language.

My mom always dreamed that she and her son-in-law can be good friends and she can treat him as her son since she doesn't have a son. Being able to communicate with each other was quite important for my mom when it comes to a son-in-law.

My mom knew that I don't date someone I would not think about marrying, so she must have not liked the fact that James couldn't speak good Korean and she couldn't speak good English.

Things were not easy.

I uploaded a video on youtube one day for a video response to a video asking if all asians parents are quite against international relationships. The girl who uploaded the video deleted it after some time, but she was in an interracial relationship and was not accepted as her boyfriend's girlfriend by his parents.

This video started to get views and got popular. I started to get some subscribers.

Things got worse, and I even thought about giving up. However, people started supporting us and rooting for us. 

Well... At the end, my parents accepted James, and we got to get married.

This is the video that I made how I persuade my parents.

I even interviewed my mom and made a video with her.

I hope you enjoy the video! :)

The bottom line is we are all equal and precious.

We are all beloved children of somebody.

Dating tips when you are dating a Korean girl

First of all, I am telling you that this tips and advice is a totally personal opinion of mine.
Some might think differently, but since I was born and raised in Korea, I can say I am pretty much very Korean. lol.

Let me give you some tips that you need to know when you are dating a Korean girl or when you want to make your Korean girlfriend happy.

1. Korean girls like publicity.

If you show your affection in public, she will seem shy, but she will like it. That is why Korean men are always very stressed about how they can make the woman happy by organizing some special party or proposal usually in public (or with bunch of friends).



2. Koreans like couple stuff.

Korean couples like to match together. They have couple shirts,

couple rings,

couple shoes,

couple cellphones,

couple cellphone charms,

couple bags,

even couple swimsuits!!

You might need to get prepared to do these things when you have a Korean boyfriend or girlfriend.

3. Korean girls are quite passive in relationships.

They like assertive guys. Many Korean girls say that even though they don't like a guy at first, if he keeps trying and is quite assertive, they will open up and start liking him. So, if you are assertive, she might just follow you.

I made a video on the same topic. If you didn't want to read my post, you can just watch my video.

A video : Dating and Marrying a Korean 

A video that I made a long ago. I hope this is helpful as well.

For Black men, I made this video.

Racism in Korea. I interviewed My husband.

This is one of my first videos that I uploaded on Youtube when I was still dating my husband. I hope this is helpful. :)

Korean people love 'Events.'

이벤트(Ibenteu) is basically 'Event' in Konglish.

In a dictionary, the word 'event' means

a. Something that takes place; an occurrence. b. A significant occurrence or happening. c. A social gathering or activity.

So, it is just any occurrence in English.

But, in Konglish, we use 이벤트 as a very special occurrence or some special thing that you do for somebody.

If a store holds 이벤트 an event, that means they might have some major sale for customers or bring some celebrities to the store so more customers can come to the store.

Black Friday, Black Saturday, Cyber Monday are considered 이벤트 in Korea.

This is an 이벤트 of 'Study abroad agency.'

They are saying they will give out some scholarship since they just opened a website about going to Japan.

Dunkin Donuts is doing some 이벤트 on Valentines day. If they buy something for their Valentines, they might win some prizes!

The loan company is doing some 이벤트 saying they will loan some money without interest for 7 days.

You can do some 이벤트 between couples.

If someone 이벤트하다 for her boyfriend or his girlfriend, that means they will throw some surprise party or propose with some music, songs in a nice place.

They do 이벤트 for their boyfriend or girlfriends' birthdays, anniversaries, 100 days after they became boyfriend or girlfriend, Valentine day, some special day, proposal, etc...

They light some candles and confess their love.

They reserve a coffee shop or a restaurant and decorate the place and confess their love with their friends.

They propose outside in public with strangers looking at them.

Especially women dream about romantic 이벤트 from their boyfriends, so many Korean guys are a bit pressured to do those 이벤트 since many other guys do it and their girlfriends get jealous and put some pressure to them.

이벤트 between couples takes place usually in public. They confess their love in the movie theater or they propose in a big coffee shop where there are many people.

Korea is such an 이벤트 country. If you don't do 이벤트, you are just not romantic and your girlfriend might think that you don't deserve a girlfriend. lol.

This is proposal 이벤트 which took place in Gangnam.

Here, a groom does 이벤트 at his wedding for his bride.

So... if you want a Korea girlfriend, REMEMBER! 이벤트 is very important! Especially in PUBLIC!! like in a movie!!!!

This article is from 'Let's learn Korean with Lily.' Click to visit!