I’d like to start the first post of my blog about me.
So, here’s a little intro.
Name: Hollow
Age: Early 30’s
Relationship status: Single
Ethnicity: Asian- Korean
Grew up: New Zealand
Now living: Korea (South…. obviously- and for those of you who don’t know why it’s obvious, we cannot be friends)
Personality: Naturally pessimistic, sarcastic, introvert
Selectively optimistic, kind, extrovert <- this really depends on how much I like you (lol)
Hollow, is not my real name- I’ve decided that it would be the most suitable pen name I could give myself because, well.. quite frankly I am a little dead inside.
This year marks my 8th year living in Seoul- South Korea and even though my roots make me Korean, I wasn’t raised here. Of course there are so many upsides to living in this extraordinary country but I can’t help but feel lost and out of place from time to time.
I’m sure a lot of immigrants often get this sensation of not knowing where you belong. I mean, when I lived in New Zealand, the color of my skin was obviously different to my friends, and I thought that moving to Korea would solve that problem but then other differences pop-up.
I speak Korean fluently and never faced any judgement or raciscm here however when I meet new people nowadays, I find it difficult to hold a conversation because they just don’t see eye-to-eye from me. I think a lot of that has to do with being brought up in completely different environments.
Working in Korea is a whole different level on culture shock.
Cost of living skyrockets every year while salaries remain noticabely unchanged.
The whole concept of ‘respecting your elders’ sounds nice in general, but when applied in the workplace you have to face a totally new ‘꼰대 Kkondae’ culture.
(Kkondae is an expression used in South Korea to describe a condescending person. The slang noun kkondae was originally used by students and teenagers to refer to older people such as fathers and teachers- Wikipedia)
The list of my frustrations goes on and on and I will be writing about a lot of them but I won’t just be nagging on with how miserable I consider my life to be- I’ll also try to cover informational content so that other people in the same situation might have some sort of reference to help them to keep calm and carry on.
