Writing POC 101

Korean Characters - @eunheeah

I live in the UK, and I learnt English here but I'm still Korean, and these are a few things I wanted to clear up.

Nowadays when I read stories (not always non-fiction, I also read fanfiction)

I see the main character is Korean, and the story is set in Korea. Whilst that makes me happy, there are A LOT of things people do wrong.

Firstly, Busan and Daegu AREN'T RUN DOWN. Just because they're not as expensive as Gangnam, Seoul, Cheongdam etc, doesn't make them the slums. I see it in so many stories where the MC lives in Busan and it's referred to as a bad place. Busan and Daegu are amazing places and big tourist attractions.

Secondly, I tend to see lots of 'American' influenced things. I.e, currency, or age. Korean Won, compared to most currency is very 'cheap' as in 5000 won might sound and look expensive but converted, it's actually $4.36, £3.38 and €3.73. So characters saying "Wow that's so much" will probably be looked at very strangely.

Also, Korean age, it's pretty hard to explain but most of the time, a character may be 20 in the book, but in international age, they're only 18/19, and so on.

Next, honourifics and Korean language. Please please please, for everyones sake, don't use broken Korean randomly in sentences as decoration. It's honestly very annoying. And I mean randomly saying "My eomma is very nice", "Mianhae brother" or "Kamsahamnida Sir". It's even worse when the spelling is wrong, "Annyong everyone" And trust me I've seen a lot of this.

Another thing, if the main character was born in a place other than Korea and they don't learn Korean beforehand, 9/10 times, you won't speak Korean fluently or learn Korean. There's enough English to get by in Korea, so that you wouldn't really need to speak Korean, unless talking to elders.

Also, please realise that most girls don't randomly call boys their oppa. Like you wouldn't call some random guy on the street oppa. You need to actually KNOW the person, and be a little close to them before you bring out the oppa card. I've see so many times in stories where a girl calls a guy oppa on their first meeting. Same with girls and calling other girls their "eonni". They'd most likely refer to that person as (Their name)-ssi (which is basically like sir or miss).

Fourth, school isn't really "as free" as it is in American schools (or as American schools are portrayed to be since I'm not from America).

We don't leave the classroom much unless for lunch or when school ends (usually at10PM). And most students usually go to a Hakwon after school anyways, so there's not much free time. Plus schools provide free dinner (in my old school it was up until the age of 16)

Plus, GCSE work in the UK is what we're taught in Primary school [from ages 5 - 11]. So seeing stuff like just learning trigonometry when they're in their second year of highschool is VERY unlikely

Also, being late to school (in my old school) we had to come to school even earlier and mop the corridors and classrooms. In Korean schools, we have to clean up the classrooms ourselves.

In Korea we wear uniform, (in the UK too so it wasn't much of a culture shock), and we have 2 pairs of shoes, indoor and outdoor. In my school we had two separate lockers; The shoe locker and the everything else locker.

Fifth, not everyone is a Chaebol. Anyone who watches K-Dramas knows that one of the most popular storylines are the ChaebolxCommoner love stories. You're less likely to meet a Chaebol then you would a celebrity being fully honest. Chaebols and Chaebol kids tend to stay in areas like Gangnam, Cheongdam, Seoul etc, and don't really interact with those of a lower status!

Family life in Korea isn't really that much different from other places. You have to be respectful to your parents (or expect a punishment) and more than often you have to be respectful to your older siblings too. Family members tend to join together on celebrations like Korean Independence day (15th August), and Chuseok (a really BIG celebration, and theres always delicious food :]. It starts on October 3rd and ends on the 6th)

And finally names. I see many names, every name under the sun really, from Suzy to Chaeyong to Kiesha. There are three types of Korean names. Hanja (Chinese characters), Hangeul (Korean words) and English names.

Hanja names take inspiration from Chinese characters and create a meaning. Korean names do the same but with only Korean words. Please be careful with said names because an example could be "Yoo Areum" [劉 아름) which is a mixture of Hanja and Hangeul and means 'Killing beauty'. English names are becoming increasingly popular in Korea too.

Korean names are usually made up of three syllables [Family name, generational name and personal] and siblings usually have a generational name (a part of the name thats's shared). An example, my name is Park Eunhee, and I have a sister called Park Janghee and a brother called Park Heejun.

Our family name is "Park", our generational name is "Hee". And the personal names are different. You could also write names with a dash "Eun-Hee" but most Korean people (for aesthetics really) tend to 'monolise' their names.

Not every Korean girl is called "Areum" or "Hana" As I see in MANY stories. You could have a typical 3 Syllable name, a 2 syllable one or even one with more than 3. I'd suggest that when choosing a name, use the website "Behindthename" it also tells the meaning of the name and states whether it's Hanja (Sino-Korean) or just Hangeul.

You can either PM me (eunheeah) or watch this really informative documentary called "School Swap Korea Style" It's really insightful into Korean School Life.