Living abroad reshapes you in ways that are hard to predict when you first pack your bags. When I first arrived in South Korea, I thought being Korean American would somehow make coming to Korea feel like the perfect homecoming. And while already knowing Korean and having Korean relatives certainly helped in some ways, I found it harder because I looked Korean and was therefore expected to speak Korean as a native speaker. I could sense the slow realization on the other person’s face that I was a foreigner as I spoke very slowly in Korean, with my unnatural pauses and hand gestures in coffee shops, grocery stores and doctors’ offices.
While there were times these interactions ended in mutual frustration as we both awkwardly fumbled through conversation, there were other times that they invited conversation about why an American would choose to move to Korea and what life in Korea is like compared to the U.S. Sometimes it ended with amazing local restaurant recommendations that no amount of my own NAVER searching could ever find.
