Monday, November 11, 2013

Ha Eun Park/ 201001433/ Interview 1st Draft/ TUE 11AM

Brave and Early Decision

 

In one of my class, I got the opportunity to get to know some people. She got married at a very young age and I was interested in how she made that decision and what kind of plans she has in the future. She is married to a Korean-Canadian and she is planning to move to Canada after her graduation to live with her husband. I thought that her decision was very brave and I wanted to know more about her.

 

I went up to her to ask whether she wanted to participate in an interview. She said yes in a very shy way. I told her that we should go to a coffee shop and we started talking after ordering a cup of coffee. The first question that I asked her was about her childhood.

 

The way that she moved and kept staring at my phone helped me to see that she was kind of uncomfortable that she was being recorded. I asked her if she was born and raised in Korea. She answered in a very shy manner. She was born in Daegu and has lived in Suwon since elementary school.

 

After talking about her childhood, I asked how she met her husband. She said that she always wanted to go abroad as an exchange student. At the end of sophomore year, she decided to go to Alberta, Canada as an exchange student since it was too complicated for her to apply to exchange student as America. In the process of getting ready, she decided to also apply for "Working-Holiday" visa. "Working-Holiday" is a program run by the Korean government that allows you to go to countries such as Canada or Australia to work. The reason why people add the holiday at the end is because you can also travel during the weekends and holidays. So, when she realized that she was going to Canada, she decided to apply for this so that she could extend her stay at Canada.

 

When her exchange student program was over, she decided to go to Toronto to find a job for the "Working-Holiday". When she arrived in Toronto, she decided to go to a Korean people gathering that she found through Twitter.

"If you go to school, you get the opportunity to meet different kinds of people but, when you are working you don't get the same opportunity."

There she met her current husband. After couple of days she realized that she clicked really well with Phillip, who is her husband, and started dating after a month.

"I'm not the type of person who goes to these types of meetings and neither is my husband, so I think it is really surprising that we met through this meeting."

 

I was really curious about how she knew that Phillip was the person that she wanted marry. So, I asked what made him so special that made you say yes to being married. She told me with other people that she dated, there always was some sort of a misunderstanding, but with him it was easy for her to understand him.

 

When her visa ended her husband came to Korea with her in 2011 winter. Although her parents did not disapprove, she told me that her dad felt a little reluctant. In order to persuade them, Phillip stayed in Korea for about a year, talking to her parents about their future plans and convincing them that they have a solid plan. Phillip is 28 and he is currently working in Canada as a software engineer.

"Although it is not a lot of money, I think it is enough to get by."

She told me that she didn't have a wedding yet, but she plans on having one this year.

"It is difficult for me to prepare all the wedding details without having my husband in Korea." I encouraged her saying that she can do it.

 

I told her that her decision was very brave since it is not common for students to be married at a young age especially in Korea. I thought that her decision was very interesting since she was born and raised in Korea. Usually, for people who are born and raised in Korea, I found that they usually do not go against the norm. After talking to her I realized that she really pushed through with her decision because she believed in Phillip. I sincerely wish her the best of luck with her marriage.

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