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Korean Friends

AsianCooking101December 29, 2018

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Traditional Korean Dress (Hanbok)

Six (6) years ago I moved here in the United States and took some ESL (English as a Second Learning) class at Belhaven University, where I met all my most trusted, cute, sweet and lovable Korean friends.

Though, I am not a Korean, I feel like I am one of them as we laughed together, cried together do crazy stuff together and always eat lunch together at the cafeteria and do things together as one group. We are basically like siblings from different parents.

For me happiness is having a funny and crazy friends, so I enjoyed being around with my Korean friends, they are naturally “goofy” in a good way. They said, once you have found a crazy and silly friends then, you have everything a friend could ever as for.

Asian Culture:

Asian culture is very unique in all aspects especially, in making Jokes. Yes you read it correctly. We love to joke around all the time. For us, saying silly and bloody jokes or verbally making fun of a friend is pretty normal. There are times that we do some physical jokes and it is pretty normal for us but, not to some of our western friends.

Here are some weird thing Asian do with friends:

Asian and western culture are very different. Asian are so attached to each other and bluntly honest when a friend ask them something negative and will tell you what they really think weather you like it or not. We always answer like an open book. On the other hand, it is completely different in western culture. They are more on feelings and privacy.

Flicking a friends forehead
Hitting each others arms for no reason.
Touching body parts (holding hands while walking is the most common one. I will not mention the rest, as you already get the point). Now this is strictly on the same gender only!
Smelling each other’s body scent (mostly hair and neck)
Petting a friend.
Use one restroom together. Now Western people will only wait outside and take turn when the other party is done. Asian, has no privacy limit, we will wait inside while you pee and still keep the conversation going until, it is their turn to use the restroom.
In direct conversation (like,talking without looking straight to your eyes.) This is very prostrated for western people as they relay on reading your lips while you are talking with them.
Most of all, we love to eat like 4 to 5 times a day without gaining weight. For me, this is the best part to be with your friends. Eating food is like our therapy. 🙂

This is how we show concern, care and closeness to a friend. We don’t take things seriously and most of all we are not so sensitive on how we handle jokes. That is the main reason we always stick together where ever we go.

Western cultures are very different. This type of jokes are always being miss-interpret, because of the cultural barriers. Only people that been with Asians, can understand and appreciate these type of jokes. This is basically our way of telling our friend how much we care for them, that we can be ourselves and show our childish side. Of course, not all are like this. There are few that has this sensitive personality and want to be alone. But, you will rarely see an Asian alone, I believe most Asian are includers.

Eating & Cooking:

As, I mentioned on my previous post, Asian loves to eat good food and we eat a lot for our size. We enjoy eating, while chatting with friends. This makes us build, a true friendship relationship. As they say, You will never get full eating if you are sitting with big group friends. We spend a lot of time cooking and perfecting a dish, why? because food is the most precious gift we can give to a friend. This is higher than giving the most expensive gift you can find in the world.

Korean and Chinese dishes are more popular around the world, than any other Asian dishes. Most of my friends here in the US are either Koreans or Chinese, we always gather together and cook Korean, Chinese and Filipino dishes together. Cooking is my passion and I love that I can learn a lot from them.