Topic Talk | Nostalgia
The A to Z English Podcast
Challenges of Living in Korea and Nostalgia
Living as a foreigner in Korea, mask-wearing challenges, feeling isolated, and experiencing nostalgia for studying film in Los Angeles.
In this episode of The A to Z English Podcast, Xochitl and Jack talk about nostalgia.
Transcript:
00:00:01
Jack
Welcome to the A to Z English podcast. My name is Jack and I'm here with my co-host social. And today we're talking about nostalgia and maybe we should define the term social before we.
00:00:16
Jack
Go jump into the episode.
00:00:19
Xochitl
Yeah, Jack nostalgia or feeling nostalgic? I would say it's when you feel.
00:00:25
Xochitl
Wistful. Uh, which is another big word, but you long for you. Kind of long for or remember fondly have positive memories and reminisce about a time in the past, a place in the past.
00:00:45
Xochitl
People in the past and yeah, it can definitely happen when you're feeling homesick, which is something that you feel when you move to another country and you're away from your culture, your family, your friends, your language.
00:00:57
Xochitl
And it can also just be something you feel during different phases of your life where maybe you miss college or you miss high school and you miss your peers or your family, yeah.
00:01:12
Jack
Yeah, I do. You can you think of a something that you're feeling nostalgic about right now?
00:01:20
Xochitl
Yes, Jack. Oddly, I've been well.
00:01:22
Xochitl
Maybe not oddly, because this was pretty much the time.
00:01:26
Xochitl
Back a couple years ago, when I was preparing to move to Korea for the first time.
00:01:33
Xochitl
And I moved February 14th. So Valentine's Day I it's late, but it was around towards the end of January when I was putting the last pieces together and packing to move to Korea to teach English. And I have been feeling nostalgic for Korea.
00:01:53
Xochitl
And I am planning a trip in October.
00:01:57
Jack
I know that I'm excited. We're definitely going to have to. We can finally meet face to face.
00:02:02
Xochitl
Yes. Yes, I'm very.
00:02:03
Jack
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:02:03
Xochitl
Excited about that?
00:02:05
Xochitl
I funny because I left my last paycheck in my bank account. I don't know, I'm sure.
00:02:11
Xochitl
You're aware of this?
00:02:12
Xochitl
Check it's like.
00:02:13
Xochitl
You can withdraw your money in cash when you leave Korea, but when they pay your last paycheck in your bank account, you can't really transfer it to your U.S. bank account.
00:02:24
Jack
Right.
00:02:25
Xochitl
Umm so I have like my last paycheck just sitting there so I can basically take a free flight to Korea whenever just on my paycheck. So.
00:02:34
Jack
Like a spy. You know you have foreign bank accounts all over the place.
00:02:39
Xochitl
Right. So it's like, so that is convenient. So I I have been thinking, OK, well, I should go back to Korea and get that money before they close my bank account down or something. Yeah, and.
00:02:52
발표자
Right.
00:02:53
발표자
So I have.
00:02:54
Xochitl
Been feeling nostalgic and and it's funny because I think.
00:02:58
Xochitl
Especially if you're a little bit of a romantic.
00:03:00
Xochitl
In life, you tend to look back fondly at things even more when you've already left them than you did in the moment, and you appreciate certain things that you missed or liked about that place. For me, I I didn't like my job at all in South Korea. I really hated my job. It was a terrible.
00:03:17
Xochitl
Job. But I liked.
00:03:19
Xochitl
My apartment. It was beautiful and I really liked it.
00:03:21
Xochitl
The sun, which is the city and the.
00:03:23
Xochitl
Top that I lived in.
00:03:25
Xochitl
Absolutely beautiful city bus ride 40 minutes away from the beach.
00:03:31
Xochitl
And it was just it was lovely. And I did like a lot of good food. I really like the raw salmon sashimi bibimbop doing Janja as everyone knows, that's my favorite. So I've been thinking a lot about these.
00:03:48
Xochitl
Foods and also places within Korea. I I traveled a lot just in the six months I was there, but just places I didn't get to go or you know, foods I didn't get to try things I didn't get to do that. I wanted to do like visit the palace in Seoul.
00:04:02
Xochitl
UM or wear a humbug? I never got to wear humbug, which is no.
00:04:05
Jack
You never get to wear a Hamburg handbook is the traditional Korean clothes, yeah.
00:04:10
Jack
You you. Yeah.
00:04:12
Xochitl
Have you ever worn A humbug Jack? I'm curious.
00:04:14
Jack
No, I never have. Actually. I've never worn.
00:04:17
Jack
100 yeah.
00:04:19
Xochitl
That's crazy. How can you have gone? You've lived in Korea this long and you've never worn humbug.
00:04:24
Jack
I feel like.
00:04:25
Jack
I've I've gone so long, I might as well just, you know, be one of those people that never wears one. You know, I'm. I'm so tall, like they'll never have one my size, you know.
00:04:32
Xochitl
Right.
00:04:36
Xochitl
That's true. You're you are insanely tall. Yeah.
00:04:40
Xochitl
That's true. And that does make it a lot harder, I'm sure, so.
00:04:43
Xochitl
I don't have to worry about that.
00:04:45
Jack
Yeah. You'll find one. Yeah. Yeah, it might be a.
00:04:48
Jack
Kids handbook but.
00:04:51
Xochitl
Yeah, I thought that was funny. Yeah. So I feel nostalgic, I guess, for Korea, I really.
00:04:59
Xochitl
I've almost been thinking about going back to teach because I think I just missed independence. There's great health insurance. Like if you teach in Korea, you have pretty good benefits because you get the Korean National Health insurance and pension.
00:05:12
Xochitl
Which is pretty good, and if you finish out your contract you get like one extra month's pay at the end of your contract, and they pay for your apartment. So some places you have to pay, like a utility or an apartment fee where I lived, you had to pay like utilities. So I paid like $90.00.
00:05:32
Xochitl
A month for utilities and I also 90,001 a month which is equivalent to like 80 something U.S. dollars and I paid my phone bill which was only like 38 dollars I think a month. So my expenses were like 120 plus food and I would get lunch for free actually on the days I worked so.
00:05:50
Xochitl
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I would eat lunch for free.
00:05:55
Xochitl
So the benefits are actually pretty good.
00:06:01
Jack
Yeah. I mean, if you ever wanted a job in Korea, just let me know, we'll we could find you a good school like there's.
00:06:09
Xochitl
You're making attempt and Jack don't.
00:06:11
Jack
I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm.
00:06:11
발표자
Go back cause.
00:06:12
Xochitl
No, no, you're fine.
00:06:13
Jack
Trying to I'm trying to.
00:06:14
Jack
Pull you back in, but yeah.
00:06:16
Xochitl
Me back. Yeah. No, it I do feel nostalgic for. I think I really miss the independence. Also. It's like sometimes you miss a certain period.
00:06:23
Xochitl
Of your life.
00:06:24
Xochitl
You feel nostalgic for it because you have, like, independence.
00:06:28
Xochitl
They have, like benefits and a lot of disposable income because like I said so.
00:06:32
Xochitl
Many of your.
00:06:35
Jack
Expenses are taken care of.
00:06:37
Xochitl
Yeah, that you just have a ton of disposable income that you can save up and like pay off student loan debt. A lot of people do that when they move to Korea, save up money to come back home and put a down payment on a house or, you know, just there's so many things you can do.
00:06:53
Xochitl
Yeah, I am feeling stuck in.
00:06:54
Xochitl
Sick for that, especially that.
00:06:56
Xochitl
Freedom and that independence and just the romanticization I guess of it.
00:07:01
발표자
How about you?
00:07:02
Xochitl
Ohh sorry, go ahead.
00:07:03
Jack
Well, I mean, I was just I.
00:07:05
Jack
Think we talked about this like.
00:07:07
Jack
Maybe a few weeks.
00:07:07
Jack
Ago or whatever, but there's a certain like.
00:07:11
Jack
And I'm going to use a big word here. Trajectory. There's like, a trajectory. Just means like, a a forward motion and it's it's kind of like you start teaching in Korea and in the beginning everything is new and you love it. And it's so fascinating. And then.
00:07:28
Jack
And then you there's a drop, you know, and you start to hate everything and you start doing this like ohh, this is not like my back home. It's so different and it's annoying. And then you and then you come back up again and you realize that like, no, it's not bad, it's just different.
00:07:49
Jack
You know, and then and then you kind of settle in there a little bit and you're like, you know, I appreciate certain things like I love the food and like you said, the being able to save some money if you have a good job, it's that can be enjoyable too and quite rewarding.
00:07:50
발표자
Right.
00:08:07
Jack
And and then you finish your year contracts and then you go back home and you get that kind of what we call reverse culture shock, where now your home country is kind of bizarre. You know, it's like, well, this is so different than Korea.
00:08:27
Jack
And then you start to get nostalgic for those things in Korea, but.
00:08:32
Jack
The the problem.
00:08:32
Jack
With nostalgia is that I think it's like.
00:08:37
Jack
It's kind of like looking back.
00:08:40
Jack
Through rose colored glasses, you know there's a idiom for everybody there. When you put, if you put rose colored glasses on, everything appears row, you know, red kind of rosy and and and it's like you just remember the good things you know. And you you forget about the things that were kind of annoying.
00:08:59
Xochitl
Right.
00:09:03
Jack
And that kind of bothered you about it a little bit. So I think nostalgia can be a little bit deceiving sometimes. I don't know. Do you, would you agree with that?
00:09:12
Xochitl
Yeah, like there's things that I as soon as I start getting a solid, my brains like ohh remember how you had like I've never struggled with acne and I had horrible cystic acne after a while in Korea and it was really painful. Like I don't. I didn't really care about the look of it. I was wearing a mask all the time anyway. But it was so painful.
00:09:33
Xochitl
I hated that it, like, hurt my face. One and two of my hair would like fall out like crazy. This is something that's happened to a lot of foreigners.
00:09:42
Xochitl
That, like, moved to Korea.
00:09:43
Xochitl
I don't know if it's.
00:09:43
Jack
Hey, tell me about it.
00:09:46
Xochitl
Yeah, you're bold now. Yeah, I literally, I feel like I'm going down that route. I would lose tons of hair every time I showered, and it was very weird. I've heard of that happening to multiple foreigners who move there. And another thing is it can be very isolating.
00:10:03
Xochitl
You're mostly making friends with other foreigners because Korean culture can be little isolating, and it's still true that there are places, especially in smaller, more rural areas. But even in solo and stuff, whether you don't accept foreigners.
00:10:16
Xochitl
And they turned 4 hours away and it can be a very insular culture and people kind of like.
00:10:24
Xochitl
You kind of sometimes when you're making a new friend in Korea and if they're Korean, you're kind of like an accessory or a new fun shiny toy.
00:10:32
Xochitl
For a while.
00:10:34
Xochitl
And then they get bored of you because you're just a foreigner and they can't relate to you. Like, that's kind of how it feels at times. I don't know, Jack, if you.
00:10:41
Xochitl
Ever had that experience?
00:10:43
Jack
You know it's it's interesting because, you know, I I mostly had 400 friends and.
00:10:52
Jack
Then you know my, but my wife is Korean, and so I I was kind of brought into a Korean family. But, you know, my wife is my best friend. So it's a little bit.
00:11:07
Jack
I don't, I've I've.
00:11:08
Jack
Never been really close with like a male Korean friend.
00:11:12
Jack
You know.
00:11:13
발표자
Right.
00:11:14
Jack
So yeah, I I don't really have that experience. I I was just more of, you know, had my foreigner friends and we would just run around town and and go crazy and and be a knuckle knuckleheads. But yeah, I mean the, the the nostalgia for me, you know, when I feel when I feel.
00:11:25
발표자
Right.
00:11:34
Jack
Nostalgia. Now it is at 47. It's a little bit different it.
00:11:39
Jack
It comes it.
00:11:41
Jack
Could be a smell.
00:11:43
Jack
Right. Like let's say there's a smell. There's something that reminds me of.
00:11:49
Jack
Of a time when I was studying film in Los Angeles, I was at a film studies program, which is maybe maybe one of the happiest times of my life. It was really just such an A great experience. I was an artistically I felt more freer than I had.
00:12:09
Jack
Never felt and and creative. We're making short films. I loved my my classmates. I had really good friends and we just really.
00:12:21
Jack
It was. It was just.
00:12:23
Jack
That's the the one of the this maybe the best three months of my life. Like it was just amazing. It was an amazing experience. I will never forget that. And and every once in a while I'll kind of I'll there'll be a smell that will remind me of Southern California and my time there.
00:12:43
Jack
And and it and.
00:12:44
Jack
It hits you like.
00:12:44
Jack
A like it it hits you in.
00:12:46
Jack
The in the gut.
00:12:47
Jack
A little bit. You know, it's like it's like a gut punch, you know, like a.
00:12:54
Jack
Just a I don't know how to describe it, but it's the feeling of nostalgia.
00:12:59
발표자
You want.
00:13:00
Xochitl
To kind.
00:13:00
Xochitl
Of it's like.
00:13:02
Xochitl
Almost sad and happy in a way. It's like a lot of different emotions and a little anxiety. Yeah, yeah.
00:13:11
Jack
Yeah, yeah, it.
00:13:12
발표자
Just you just.
00:13:13
Jack
You know it, you just wish you could jump back in there for just a day and just have that experience one more time. But you're also is there's gratitude in there too.
00:13:27
Jack
Is it's it. It is a. It can be kind of a sad feeling nostalgia because it's like you miss something.
00:13:35
Jack
And you wish.
00:13:35
Jack
You could go back there, but you're so happy that you were able.
00:13:39
Jack
To experience it.
00:13:40
Jack
So if you can move move from the kind of feeling of like regret that it's that it's done that it's finished.
00:13:48
Jack
And understand that everything in life moves in stages and that you can't hold on to it forever.
00:13:55
Jack
And that's why I think like trying to be present more like to live in the present and right now and just really and stop thinking about the past and stop thinking about the future and just really experience things fully in the moment will help you appreciate it. Later when you when you have those.
00:14:14
Jack
Feelings of nostalgia. You're like. You know what, though? I have no regret. That's one thing I can say is I have no regrets about that time because I really did experience it to the full the fullest that I could. I really, you know.
00:14:30
Jack
You know, jumped into it and participated, and I wasn't. I wasn't shy. I wasn't bitter during that time. I was just really fully present and enjoying the people and the experience to the fullest I could. And so.
00:14:49
Jack
I I I.
00:14:50
Jack
But I do feel nostalgic about that. I sometimes feel nostalgic about my time in Thailand as a teacher. I remember we used to sit out.
00:14:59
Jack
On in front of my apartment and we would throw a mat down on the on the ground and and play guitar and drink beer and people would.
00:15:11
Jack
Come over from other.
00:15:12
Jack
Apartments and they would sit down and listen and.
00:15:15
Jack
Soon we had a party.
00:15:17
Jack
You know, and it wasn't.
00:15:18
Jack
Planned it was a completely impromptu party, but we would do that all the time and talk and laugh and play songs on the guitar and sing and those. Those are things that I I was way too embarrassed to do back in my home country.
00:15:37
Jack
But with all these friends who were all kind of traveler types, you know, hippies they, you know, they were OK with like, yes.
00:15:43
발표자
Right.
00:15:46
Jack
Sing. Sing as.
00:15:47
Jack
Loudly as you can with the with you know sincerely, without any sort of embarrassment or shame or anything like that, because we weren't worried about looking cool.
00:15:59
Jack
We were just, it was all about having fun and I I do miss those moments and I do feel a lot of nostalgia for my time that I I spent in Thailand and if I were to leave Korea, I'm sure I would.
00:16:15
Jack
That I would suffer a lot, huge bouts of nostalgia over my time here and and miss and and and probably more so than any other place because I've just so many of my life. Experiences are connected to Korea. Having my daughter was born in Korea.
00:16:35
Jack
She's got she's half Korean. I met my wife in Korea. We got married in Korea. It's just a lot of those seminal moments in my life are connected to.
00:16:48
Jack
Yeah. And so yeah.
00:16:49
발표자
Right, that's.
00:16:49
Xochitl
The whole like.
00:16:50
Xochitl
These inquiry are basically.
00:16:52
Jack
Yeah, half my life I have spent in Korea and so it's such a huge part of my life that I think if I were to leave it, I I really would suffer that I I think nostalgia and homesickness are are very close cousins, I would say.
00:17:11
Xochitl
Yeah, that's true. That's true. It's like being homesick for a time or a place. Kind of.
00:17:19
Xochitl
And a place in time, because it's like those memories are all frozen and tied together, and that's always a great thing. Yeah.
00:17:27
Jack
Yeah. And you can't. You cannot relive those. You could. You could try to. You could try to recreate them, but it just it.
00:17:33
Jack
Doesn't work. It's all about the people.
00:17:34
Xochitl
You're not.
00:17:35
Jack
And the place and the time and that's it.
00:17:38
Xochitl
Yep, definitely true. Well, listeners, if you've ever felt nostalgic before, please let us know in a comment down below, shoot us an e-mail at AZ English podcast at Gmail dot.
00:17:49
Xochitl
Come leave us a comment on our website azenglishpodcast.com and join our WhatsApp and link chat groups to join the conversation and we'll.
00:17:57
Xochitl
See you guys.
00:17:57
Xochitl
Next time, bye bye.
00:17:59
Jack
Bye bye.
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