Handy Christmas bonus

New Years Eve and it's going to be a busy day at work. Next Monday it's the start of a new month's session, new students and new classes for me with significant changes to Middle school curriculum. Also we're moving to a new building and we have a new manager. We have to move some of our stuff out of the old building into the new one tonight after work. My co-workers are very unhappy about this as none of us can figure out why we couldn't just do this before work today and not after.

Still, I'm in a very good mood - despite almost everyone at work being sick now, including me. Tomorrow is the start of a new year and I've enjoyed 2010 a lot. On reflection I didn't do too many things but I've had fun in my own way. I know that time is winding down for me in Korea but I don't feel in any great rush to do anything or see anywhere. I've had my chance to do and go to the things I've wanted and now my focus is on finalising our exit and saving as much money as we can.

And work gave me a great boost last weekend. At the Christmas Party the owner handed out a lot of cash prizes. Myself and a few others who have worked at the company for three years or more were given one million won. that works out at just over £550 at the moment. I'm very thankful because it has come at a great time. My wife is leaving her job at the end of January so that will be one less income for the remaining months left. She's had a lot of stress this year at work so it will be good for her to have a change of pace. The money comes in very handy right now. I feel lucky to have a stable job at this moment and will miss the relative ease of it and the money when I am back home.

So what have we done this year? We had our 'wedding' in May, managed to save a decent amount of money and I got to know my Korean mother in-law a lot more, I passed my taekwondo black belt test after taking it up only seven months before, went home to visit family and friends for a week. I kept my sanity and had a lot of fun in a job that is mentally tiring and felt a lucky man being married to my wonderful wife. I missed some of my targets for the year though but that means I have so many for next year, a huge year for my wife and I.

My wedding day in pictures

Our 'wedding lunch celebration' day turned out to be great. A special day for my wife and I to remember always. Here are some pictures taken of us, my new family and our friends.

After being introduced I was asked to say a few words

I had to write down my thoughts because I didn't want to make any mistakes

Here we are waiting for my wife's mother to say a few words

My mother in-law said very little but was very, very happy

The cake arrives and we have to blow out the candle

The cake was still defrosting so it was difficult to cut it, despite them giving us a sword

My wife and I amazed that the cake was so rock hard

My co-workers, Sang Hee, Sung Young and Nick

My wife and I enjoying the day immensely

Another co-worker shot of Sung Yong, Nick, Ivan and Jong Bae

Jong Bae, Diana and Sung Yong

Our friends, Hannah and Mark who are also set to get married

Big assembled family shot. Can you spot me?

My wife and I, with her mother and her brother

Another picture of my wife and I with her mother

Here is my mother in-laws sister and husband, and her children and their spouses

At this point my jaw was starting to ache a little but we continued - those are genuine happy smiles though!

More photos? OK, just one more

My wife really wanted to throw her bouquet and her friend caught it

Now we could sit down. Next to my co-worker, Jong Bae

Here I am with my partner teacher, Sung Yong

My mother in-law starting to relax a little

Baby loves oranges?

Baby doesn't love oranges

Two of my wife's cousins. The one on the left speaks a little English

Now my mother in-law really starting to enjoy the occasion

Cheers to a successful day!

Special thanks go out to my co-worker and friend, Ivan who took most of these pictures and of course to all those who helped make our day so memorable.

My wedding day in Korea

I've been a little slow in writing this up, not because I didn't want to but because I've been knackered with the lead up to it, the actual day and a genuine lack of sleep afterwards so I'll try to describe things as best as I can now.

Last Saturday I had a 'Wedding celebration lunch', which ended up being basically just a wedding but without any of the vows. To explain further, my wife and I married some seven months ago but didn't have an actual wedding. Things have been great since then but at times I think my wife felt a little incomplete, like we weren't properly married so we knew we had to sort something out. In the end we decided to have lunch with some family and friends to celebrate our marriage.

In the lead up to last weekend I started to get a little nervous, which was very irrational because we've been married for so long but in truth I am a little uncomfortable dealing with crowds of people I don't know or don't know very well. I was a bit anxious and didn't sleep much and spent too much time thinking what would happen. I needn't have worried because we had such a great day.

Preparation for this didn't take as long as many weddings do but there were things to sort out which we managed to do quite easily and my wife deserves credit for all the hard work she put in. The day started at the wedding shop (don't know the technical name). The make up and hair for my wife and her immediate family took over two hours. Myself, they did put some stuff on my hair and I got dressed up in a suit which was bought a few weeks prior and then we were off to the hotel where we were maving the lunch.

After looking at a few places which could hold the number of people we wanted we settled on the Burgundy room at the hotel Novotel in Daegu. This is very central in Daegu and very easy to get in and out of. The choice proved to be a good one for us. The room where we had lunch was very good, with a view of the city centre that overlooked a park rather than the less salubrious parts.

When we got there we had to prepare some things and then to wait for the people to arrive. I waited with my wife, my mother in-law and my wife's brother. My mother in-law were wearing traditional Korean clothes (a hanbok) whilst my wife rented a wedding dress for the occasion. We greeted everyone who came. Invites were restricted to coming from my wife, myself or from my mother in-law. We thought we had invited around fifty people, but it turned out that sixty seven came, so they room filled out quite well. If forty people had come I'd have been happy but nearly everyone invited came which helped make the day special for all of us.

Inviting people was a little difficult for me. Firstly none of my family could make the trip and we had already decided that we would have some kind of celebration when we made our way back to the UK to live. Also being here for over four years I have made many friends and acquaintances and in normal circumstances would have liked to have invited many more people than I did. Because of the transient nature of my job I have met many people who have subsequently left and it would be impossible for them to come.

Here I must mention that my wife and I have been to many weddings here in Korea. Some good, some bad, some terrible and almost nothing we'd seen together that we wanted incorporated into any celebration of ours. That meant no kids running around, trying to get people not to wear jeans and baseballs caps, no electric violins, no smoke or dry-ice machines, no confetti throwing bazookas and no cheesy wedding pictures. Of course, some things we talked about not doing we ended up doing (cheesy pictures of us) but that ended up being OK.

When everyone had arrived and sat down we made our way into the room. My wife's cousins husband (phew) introduced us with some words that I have been told were kind. I really appreciated him doing that. One of the unfortunate things about having a poor command of the Korean language means I am restricted in my communication with my wife's family. I wish I could have heard what he said.

After being introduced the spotlight really was on us. This is what I was having a bit of stress with. I don't like being the centre of attention but, that's kind of the idea when you have a wedding. I had decided to make a quick speech about how much I love my wife. I had to write it down. After I had finished I saw my wife holding back tears - was my speech that bad? Well I knew she was emotional and it turns out she loved what I said, even though it was very simple it came from the heart.

I asked my wife is she wanted to say something but she was unable to at the time due to the situation. My wife has subsequently told me that she was so emotional that if she had said something then she would have cried (happy tears!) so she tried to keep her composure. Then my mother in-law said some words. This day was really about my wife and her mother. It was great for them both to have a day where everyone was celebrating them. I know they both had a great time and they really deserved that.

We then had to cut the cake that we ordered the previous week. However it was rock hard. They even gave us what resembled a sword to help cut it but to no avail. Luckily it thawed out as the afternoon went on. After that the pressure was off and we went round the tables and thanked everyone for coming and encouraged them to eat. The feedback we got was that the food was good for the situation although I have to say I wasn't able to eat much because I was a little busy just enjoying the day.

I managed to talk with a lot of my friends and Ivan my co-worker took several photos that we will treasure. Bright sunshine filled the room throughout and I think things couldn't really have gone any better. At the end of the day we were tired both physically and emotionally, but with a sense of satisfaction that would be hard to replicate. The day exceeded our expectations and will remain in our memory for a long time hopefully. We now truly feel like a married couple.

Being Korean for a day

On Saturday I did the most Korean thing I've ever done or probably ever will do. I had some wedding pictures taken with my wife. To explain, my wife and I have been married for seven months but had no actual wedding due to circumstances. I thought it would be a good idea for my wife to have some kind of memento to remember our 'wedding time' and she thought it was a good idea too. Yes, this was my idea.

As the time came nearer I wasn't so sure if it was a great idea mainly because of some of these kind of photos I'd seen before but on the actual day of the shoot I ended up having some fun and the most important thing was my wife who seems to be very happy with the way things went. By the way it took four and a half hours which was a relief as I was told it might take seven.

The big worry for me was that I didn't know if a) the clothes we'd be using would fit me, b) the clothes would be ridiculous and c) the pictures would be too cheesy. Well the clothes did fit me (I had to wear four outfits) and they were a bit ridiculous - let's just say that Western fashion and Korean fashion differ SIGNIFICANTLY when it comes to men - and some photos were cheesy but looking at the photos afterwards things ended up OK.

It was an experience I will never go through again but it was painless and I did it for my wife. During the day I was told I look like Mel Gibson and later on in a store, Ironman - the things people will say when they are trying to get you to buy something. Some of the photos taken that we like will be turned into a wedding picture book and also a kind of collage picture. Two days after the event I still have some hairspray in my hair but it was worth it. I'm guessing like most Korean photographs our will be Photoshopped a great deal.

Korean co-worker wedding

I have written about Korean weddings before so won't bother this time. However this was much the same as many of the ones I've been to previously. The bride seemed to enjoy the day though more than the previous weddings I'd been to. Congratulations to the couple.

W.C. Fields for the day

Saturday saw the wedding of one of my best friend's. The wedding took place in Seoul and as you can see it was a traditional Korean wedding with all the costume and ceremony. I had the honour of being an active participant where I had to dress up in traditional clothes to be part of a team of people who carried the groom in a wooden chair. Thankfully there were no mishaps and everything went as planned. The whole ceremony was conducted in Korean so I can't say that I understood any of it but it was enjoyable none the less.







The couple looked magnificent on the day and also at the post wedding meal in the evening. A picture of happiness. I couldn't be happier for the both of them and wish them a wonderful life together. I hope you enjoy the pictures of me in the outfit I wore (for two minutes). I felt like W.C. Fields in the straw hat and my red nose with considerable paunch in the slightly unflattering costume. This was an almost certainly never to be repeated experience and something to be remembered for a long time.

Korean Conveyor Belt

From time to time people back home have asked me what are the differences between Korea and Western countries. Of course there are many, but they have many more things in common than you may think. One big difference though has to be marriage and weddings. From what I understand, for most couples the groom will pay for their house (they usually live with their parents before marriage) and the bride buys all the furniture for the house and other things like refrigerators etc etc. None of this joint payment stuff here.

Marriage is an important part of Korean society and older generations often ask questions of people of a certain age who haven't yet tied the knot. There is a definite pressure on people especially women to marry. I have worked with so many Koreans who have had many blind dates to find a future husband and also those who, seemingly, announce an engagement out of the blue. You get the feeling that some of these couples don't know each other and have to try and love each other as time goes by. Some must be marriages of convenience.

Over the weekend my Korean partner teacher who I also sit next to at work got married. She is quite shy and modest and not the kind of person who really wants any attention, but this of course was unavoidable. I went along with all the Korean teachers who I work with but with no other foreign teachers. I went because I was asked to and also because one of my classes was desperate to see any pictures or videos I could take. It is also nice from time to time to see how the locals operate in a relaxed environment where you can see some nice Korean traditional Hanboks too.


This was my fourth Korean wedding and probably one of my last before heading home next year. Each wedding has been a little different from the previous one. I've been to traditional ones where the couple wear highly decorative Korean outfits, one in a church and one at a convention centre. This time it was at some kind of a wedding hall.


Korean weddings, as my girlfriend has told me many times are a business. Instead of giving presents, guests often give money. this can be highly lucrative especially if you have a large family, are popular or hold some kind of position where many people work with or for you.

Something you will see and not get over is some people (not the majority) arriving in jeans. One man wore jeans and a baseball cap and I wanted to punch him. Always you see people on their phones, paying absolutely no attention to the ceremony. Quite frankly the whole thing is very noisy and must be a distraction to the couple. It just wouldn't be tolerated in any Western country. Even as the wedding was taking place, several guests upped and left. I can only be described as incredibly rude but that is often the way with many Koreans - particular in my city of residence, Daegu. It would appear that many of the attendees came to show their face and eat. That's right, just to get free food from the all you can eat buffet that each wedding has. Not everyone behaves like this and the majority act accordingly, its just that you notice and remember the major differences and attitudes of some people


This type of wedding which seems to be the most common type in Korea can be equated to a conveyor belt event. The whole wedding takes around one hour, often less and is filmed by someone, in jeans and sometimes a t-shirt, who goes all around the room ducking and diving to get different camera angles. The 'event' is covered live on screens for those who are too far away to get a close up. Even as the wedding is winding down the posters (very cheesy photo-shopped pictures of the couple) plastered round the hall are taken down and replaced with more of the like from the next couple. After the vows comes the pictures of the couples families then friends/co-workers. I didn't really want to be snapped again in one of those pictures but the bride insisted.


It's easy to be cynical about things like this, but it's just the way things work here at this moment in time. It's definitely a unique event and something which you need to see if you have the chance in Korea. Everyone was happy for the couple and I hope they have a great future together. My partner teacher is a very nice person and I hope she enjoyed the day and everything else that goes with getting married. A long time friend of mine gets married here in March to a Korean girl. It should be very interesting. Meanwhile I expect some of my students to press me again on when I'm getting married.