Christmas in the United States

Christmas

WOW. It takes lots of time to finish a post in English, and to be honest I'm not sure that I'm using a right term and phrase..And it is inevitable to face lots of problems during translating sentences from Korean to English through my brain.. But at the same time I believe that it will be better and better and someday I can speak and write English as a pre-native English speaker..

Christmas in Korea and America

Christmas is not a big deal in Korea

I still remember the Christmas in 2009. One of my best friend asked me to go to the movie theater to watch "Avatar" in 3D! It sounded great to me, as Avatar was a renowned movie with a lot of praises and nice comments at that time, and someone even started to compare this movie with the great masterpiece "Titanic". (Later, Avatar broke the record of Titanic in the number of audience as a result.... Well... both of them were tremendous movie, but I think Titanic is a little bit better..)

So, I enjoyed the best movie in the world with friends in 3D, and.... that was it! I even cannot remember when was the last time that I got the presents on the day of Christmas....Yes.. Christmas is not a big deal in S.Korea.. Well, I mean it might be a pretty big deal to Christians or some couples,,, but it wasn't to me,, and I think my parents started to think that I'm too old to get a present in Christmas since my middle school years..

And I could communicate with my friends through Facebook during this Christmas break, and the funniest thing was..... They should took the final semester test until this Christmas Eve!!! Even though Korean high schools are pretty challenging and getting a lot of bad reputations from their students, they are not that much cruel not to let their students take a rest during the big holiday like Chuseok( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuseok) or Lunar new year ... So it means.... Yes! Christmas is not that much a big holiday in Korea!....

My first Christmas in MN

This week was my first Christmas holiday in the United States. Of course even before this week I could find many ceremonies and decoratings  for being ready for the Christmas such as choosing and and cutting down the Christmas trees and decorating them. Oh, I could find the difference even in the way of treating trees, as people usually cut down the trees and put them in their own house in the US while I've never seen a person to cut down the trees just for the Christmas in Korea.

Well anyway the first impressive thing was that there are almost several weeks of break not only in school but also in some firms(But I was depressed after I heard that there are no winter vacation in school after this), as most of school vacation in winter start after Christmas and before New year in Korea.

And the second one was that all family members celebrate Christmas all together! All 3 generations from grandparents to their grandchildren  spend their time together on the day of Christmas Eve and Christmas, eating meals and saying hello to each other. Not only embracing and kissing each other with lots of happiness, they also spend their time for the "best moment" in Christmas, opening the Christmas gift that they got! Waiting for my turn to open the box, guessing what I got as a present by touching to feel the texture of the inside of the box was really fun.

And the last one was the church and the Christmas, even though all my dad's siblings are all Christians, my parents don't have their own religion at all, so I didn't have chance to go to church on Christmas Day. But as my host family Finks are Christian, I could go to church on Christmas Day for the first time in my life. It was holy,solemn and beautiful.

With these new impressive experiences, I also meet new nice people during the Christmas, and it was really amazing to meet them and spend terrific time celebrating the Christmas. I just want to say thank you to all of them.

Oh. I almost forgot to write this! What I got as presents were Minnesota sweater, headband, warm fluffy shoes, a lot of Korean foods, cute screen wiper, glass with Christmas decoration, card game, hand warmers and 10 bucks. I just appreciate to giving me these amazing and lovely gifts, and at the same time, an amazing memorials about my Christmas in Minnesota.

Gunho Park

The sports

The sports, and the people

Girls' participating, and people's cheering for their hometown team.

1. girls' participating

I still remember the game that I watched pretty long time ago, and it was the women's soccer game, S. Korea vs. U.S.It was pretty shocking to me, as the result was 4:0. What the hell is happening! I was yelling,  thinking that U.S isn't that much good at soccer. But I realized that it was just my stupid stereotype right after I participated to the soccer season of high school in Minnesota.
I had some opportunities to watch the games of girl's varsity or JV soccer team, and I still had a stereotype that girl's might be "suck" at soccer.. But my opinion just shifted dramatically right after I watched the girl's varsity game. It was so awesome that they seemed to understand the strategy far better than me, and their sights were terrific that they were used to make some amazing vertical long-pass to each other. And girls in my high school in Minnesota are participating not only soccer but also a lot of different sports in all seasons.

These are  not common in S. Korea, as there are still traditional stereotypes remained that sports are only for males. Even though the social status between males and females has been developing horizontally , it is still hard to find women participating to some sports.
Actually I think some of them even have negative opinions about sports, I still remember one of my anonymous girl-friend's(the friend who is a girl :D) reaction after listening to the result of Olympic soccer qualifying game in 2011 on TV, she asked me "Why are you guys crazy at those stupid balls! And Korean soccer is suck nowadays!".. Well I couldn't deny her last phrase :( ..But it was pretty sad to hear her voices that sports are not fun, even before she participated..


So,, it is not that much weird to see the result of friendly match of women's soccer team between Korea vs. U.S, as the demands and interests of women at the sports are TOTALLY different..

2. Why so many people are cheering for the "highschool game" !!

2002 World Cup was a amazing national event in S.Korea. Nobody expected that Korea would beat Poland, Portugal, Italy, and Spain and go to the semi-final game in the World Cup. Millions and Millions of people went out to the street just for cheering the national team in the World Cup. (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HliB9VSxU28&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DHliB9VSxU28 )

Not only the World Cup game in 2002, people have been crazy at the fascinating games of the national sports teams and players, including the figure skating games of Kim Yuna.

Wait a minute, Didn't I write that the women's participating on the sports are really low? But why "all the people" , not only males but females are enjoying these national sports teams' playing?

Here is a Korean's unique characteristic, they are watching the national team's playing, not just they are enjoying that sports, but they think the team "Korea" is really important team enough to dedicate their passions and interests on it as they are Korean. It is  nice to see the people falling in love with watching Olympic or World Cup day and night, but the problem is..... After the Olympic or World Cup, most of them usually lose all the passions and interests on sports, and never keep paying
attention to their hometown sports teams or city sports teams as they don't feel anything special about those teams.. For example, it is pretty hard to see the people watching FC Seoul's soccer match on TV, even though those people were dedicating their time and passions for the South Korean national team soccer in the last World Cup.


So you might think that Korean's are crazy at soccer after you watch the video that I linked above this post, but... The fact is.... Many of them were watching those games not they love soccer, but they love big national team, so they have no reason to watch another small games that are always held in their small hometown..



After I came to Minnesota, I got some chance to watch the football game of my highschool. Actually, I didn't know anything about football at that time, but I just went there to experience the culture of America..
Hmmm. I was expecting that there would be few audience at the first time, as "Highschool game" wasn't a  big deal at all in my home.  But right after I arrived to the stadium, I could find hundreds and hundreds of people cheering for the "Highschool game" Not only the highschool students but also the citizens living in Northfield. It was pretty impressive that people are paying attention to such a small game. There must be someone who were watching these game just because they are in or they came from that high school,not they like the sports "Football",  but the most impressive part was that they didn't ignore their hometown game and give interests only of the "big team",  as Koreans often do..

The first post from Northfield.MN

I always thinking of some way to record my unique experience in Minnesota, but to be honest, I couldn't think of using a blog for recording it as I've never done that before.
But momentary I noticed that posting on a blog might me the best way to show not only my amazing new experience but also my opinion about the cultures and daily life of Minnesota.
So.. Comparing to my posts on Facebook, I think I might write about more formal topic, but at the same time, more interesting story for everyone!

Gunho Park, from Northfield.MN