A multicultural family that started a family after working as a successful foreign worker in Korea👍😃

The following article is a presentation by HoSuJin from Vietnam on how to adapt to Korea by marriage immigrant women at the ‘Family Homecoming Day in Gunpo City’ held on November 5th. We introduce you to the life, happiness, and hope for the future of married immigrant women who had a hard time adjusting to life in Korea. <사진=파파야스토리>

Hello. My name is HoSujin from Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam.

I was born and raised in the poor countryside of Ho Chi Minh City. My family was struggling financially and had many brothers and sisters. I am the 8th of 10 siblings. Above me, I have 7 older sisters or brothers and 2 younger siblings.

Perhaps because I had many siblings, I was matured in early age, and I knew from a young age that our family was in a difficult situation. So I thought that I should study hard, succeed, and help my parents. For this reason, I dreamed of coming to Korea to earn money, and finally came to Korea as a foreign worker.

Visa conversion from E-9 to E-7

When I first came to Korea, it was very difficult because the weather and food were different from my hometown. It was also the first time I was living alone away from my family, so I missed my hometown and family so much.

Living alone in the faraway land of Korea and working the night shift, my heart and body were constantly sick with longing. However, I had a dream, and as I endured difficult times, I gradually got used to life in Korea.

As I got used to life in Korea little by little, I thought that I should use this time to study Korean because I work overtime at work and have time during the day. So I went to the Multicultural Family Support Center and studied Korean diligently.

Thanks to studying Korean hard, I got a good score in the TOPIK test and was able to change my visa to the E-7, a professional employment visa. Thanks to this visa, it is possible to stay longer in Korea.

Married But Other Difficulties

I didn't think about marriage for a while because I needed to earn money to support my family in Vietnam. Then one day, I went to a hair salon to get my hair done, and the head of the hair salon said he would introduce me to a good person. The person to introduce is an old regular customer of the director, and he was born in 1985, the same age as me. After a while, my husband contacted me to meet, and we met in the neighborhood, had dinner, and went to a coffee shop to talk more about each other. After our first date like this, we started dating on the premise of getting married, we fell for each other and we got married 6 months after we met.

Since I lived alone away from my family for a long time, I was very excited and happy to think that I would have a family in Korea. But after marriage, a different difficult thing happened.

Communication is an important issue

Since I am a foreigner, I am not good at Korean, so I think I did not understand what my husband and mother-in-law wanted. There were times when my mother-in-law disappointments of me because of misunderstandings and upsets between us. I tried to work hard in my own way, but it was different from Korean daughters-in-law, so I bumped into my family a lot. In particular, I often quarreled with my husband because we had different ideas about ‘raising children’ and ‘education methods’.

It is said that most multicultural families have many conflicts of opinion due to differences in language, customs, and parenting methods. This problem is not just a problem in our family, it is a problem for all multicultural families. So I thought I should study Korean harder. I am positive that if I become good at Korean, communication with my husband or mother-in-law will become smoother, and then we will understand each other more deeply, and difficult problems will be resolved one by one.

Happier Life in Korea

There were many ups and downs, but now my family is living happily with my husband, me, and two children. Sometimes I feel upset, but nevertheless, I am grateful that my husband and mother-in-law are always by my side and take care of my two precious children together.

My wish is that our home is always full of laughter and health. I hope you all are always healthy and happy.