Korean in the World – Australia

Do you have your own second home? I have one: Australia, and I would love to introduce it and the people I have met there to you.

Before I went, my younger brother had already stayed in Australia on a working holiday visa. It sounded so temping to me that I just applied for it first without making any other plans a year after graduating from university. But, I did not want to spend a whole lot of time there just hanging out or wandering. So, I enrolled to take a TESOL course in Sydney for three months, which was the beginning of my life in Australia.

Australia is like a huge plate holding various kinds of vegetables, a mixed bag of cultural influences from a history of British colonization. For example, Australians like to drink tea after breakfast and before dinner, just like the British. In the past few years, Koreans in Australia have increased significantly, mainly because Koreans are able to obtain working holiday visas in a shorter amount of time now. Koreans do not need English certificates or bank accounts to show at the embassy.

With a large community of Koreans now living in Australia, the population lives in distinct ways. Koreans go to language schools or colleges to improve their English skills. Others go to the countryside to work on farms where they have to speak little English. Good English speakers can work in cafés or restaurants, and a few Koreans even stay with an Australian family to help with housework and/or to take care of kids as a nanny or an au pair.

I was quite lucky because I worked in all these ways. I first stayed with an Australian family, which made my English speaking abilities much better than before. I started to fall in love with this huge country. It later brought me the challenge of farm work, which gave me an opportunity to stay one more year in Australia.

You can get a second working holiday visa for one more year by doing farm work for 88 days in some areas registered by the Australian government. Anyone who wants to work on a farm needs to decide carefully where and with whom to work. Most employers are very nice and friendly.

A Korean lady, who I met while staying on the farm near Cairns, told me that she came to the farm to work like me, but her final goal was to get a permanent visa. Later, she met and married an Australian man. Now she has a partnership visa and is having a great time there.

After I got my second working holiday visa through farm work, I moved down to a shared house in Melbourne owned by a Korean couple. They have been living in Australia for eight years and have obtained permanent visas. They made great efforts to secure their visas, such as studying in college to get degrees, working full-time and also studying to pass the IELTS test. At first, they did not plan to stay in Australia for that long, but they changed their minds, because they thought, compared to life in Korea, Australia was more peaceful and less stressful for living.

Some Koreans meet other Koreans in working places or while travelling. There are also some Korean churches, especially in Sydney and Melbourne, which have the biggest populations of Koreans in Australia. Korean Christians normally get together and invite others to celebrate Chuseok and New Year’s Eve with Korean dishes. Attending these gatherings made me feel less lonely, even when I could not see my family. Also, finding Korean items is easy on the streets of Australia. Kimchi, samgyeopsal, bulgogi and gochujang (pepper paste) are common. Sometimes you hear K-pop music being played in record shops, and if you want to sing, you can just go to a noraebang.

Korea’s identity in Australia surprised me. Most foreigners I met did not know much about Korea. “Are you from North or South Korea?” was what I was asked most often, and a few people did not know where Korea is located. Those who knew Korea seemed more curious about North Korea than South Korea. I actually got frustrated at first, and I felt like I should do something to make them get to know about my home better. But I also realized that when I was abroad, I needed to behave more carefully, because the image of our country could become worse by making mistakes and displaying bad behavior.

Australia gave me so much, like traveling all over the country, working as a foreigner, meeting new people from different countries, learning various cultures and improving my English skills. The more you adventure, the more you will be able to broaden your perspective on life. It actually does not matter where you go, but it will show you another side of the world that you did not expect to see.

The Edu House, a company for Koreans, has branches all over Australia. The organization provides useful information about studying in Australia and getting jobs, along with organizing cheap day tours and offering Korean food for free on Korean holidays. I visited often, using their free Internet services while also hanging out with other Koreans. More information can be found online by visiting: www.eduhouse.com.

For more information about living and working in Australia, please refer to: www.gumtree.com.au and www.hojunara.com.