Humans of Seoul

I recently found out about this website called “Humans of Seoul” on Facebook.
They cast random people on the streets in Seoul and ask them some questions to get to know about their personal and unique story.

They simply post scripts of the conversation between the interviewer and a random person both in Korean and English translation, and each posting is very short; some of the story is just about 1 or 2 sentences like this kid’s response:

“This watermelon is my pillow. I’m going to use it when I lie down to sleep.”
“이 수박은 제 베개예요. 누워서 잘 때 쓰려고요.”

Their English translation is pretty decent, so I would say this can be a good website for Korean or English learners. Especially for Korean learners, they can see how Korean people talk in daily conversation.

I like how they put the stories without editing or their opinions. Just by reading stories of different  people, you get to reflect on yourself or people you know. For me, it was the story of people in my age who share similar agony about their future and current state:

“What was your biggest obstacle to quitting being a teacher?”
“The feeling of stability from being a teacher was more influential than I thought. I discovered that I was trying to settle for it. My present self was trying to stay there even though my ideal self was full of dreams. I hated it so much.”

“(Left) After that, I quit my job as a teacher to work on my dream of teaching art.”
“I guess this is the first time after you two have met that you have seen her like this?”
“(Right) Yes. She kept talking about guys just now too.”

“교사를 그만두고 나오는데 가장 큰 걸림돌이 무엇이었나요?”
“교사라는 직업이 주는 안정감이 생각보다 크더라고요. 거기에 제가 안주하려고 하는 모습을 발견했어요. 꿈꾸고 있는 이상적인 내가 있는데, 현실의 저는 여기에 머무르려고 하니까. 그게 너무 싫었어요.”

“(왼쪽) 그렇게 해서 제가 결국 예술교육을 하겠다는 제 꿈을 위해서, 교사를 그만두게 됐어요.”
“서로 알고 나서 언니의 이런 모습은 처음 보시나봐요?”
“(오른쪽) 네. 아까도 막 남자 얘기만 했거든요.”

Also, stories of 할아버지, 할머니 who you can see often in Seoul’s streets, some of them who even went through the Korean war, just made me tear up; especially this story from a 할아버지 who was the only survivor of the war in his village and had to see mothers of his friends crying at a party celebrating his return:

“We lived supporting our elderly mothers during Syngman Rhee’s presidency when the Korean War suddenly broke out. Without a moment’s hesitation, I fled to the south because I wanted to live. When I returned to my neighborhood after my refugee days were over, everyone in my neighborhood greeted me joyfully. But the moment the neighborhood mothers looked at my face, they wept.”
“Why did they cry?”
“Because they were reminded of their sons who died serving in the army… In that neighborhood, all the young people my age died except for me.”

“노모 모시고 살던 이승만 대통령 시절이었는데 갑자기 6.25가 터졌어요. 일단 살고 보자는 마음에 남쪽으로 피난을 갔지요. 나중에 피난을 끝내고 동네에 돌아갔더니 온 동네가 잔칫집 분위기로 저를 맞아줬어요. 그런데 막상 동네 엄마들이 내 얼굴을 딱 보고는 눈물을 뚝뚝 흘리더라고요.”
“왜 그랬죠?”
“군대가서 죽은 자기 아들이 생각나서… 그 동네에서 나 빼고 내 또래 청년은 다 죽었거든요.” 

 

Here are some of the stories from Humans of Seoul that I want to share:

“I’ve been looking for a job, and I’m just on my way back from an interview at a company. It’s difficult every single time though because they ask such unexpected things.”
“Like what?”
“‘What’s your personality like?’, ‘What are your strengths and weaknesses?’ It’s so cliché. Those things aren’t that relevant to the work. I majored in design, and the companies I’m interviewing at are design companies, so they should ask questions related to my skills and just review things like my portfolio and my work. I even went to an interview where they asked if I had a boyfriend. I really don’t get why they ask those kinds of things.”

“취업준비생이라 방금도 회사 면접보고 오는 길인데, 볼 때마다 힘들어요. 생각지도 않은걸 물어보니까…”
“어떤 것들이요?”
“너무 뻔한거요. ‘성격이 어때요.’, ‘장단점이 뭐예요.’ 같은 것들. 일하는 것과 크게 상관없거든요. 저는 디자인 전공이고 제가 면접보는 회사들도 디자인 회사니까 그냥 제 포트폴리오, 작업물 같은 걸 보고 실무 능력에 관한 것들을 물어봐야죠. 심지어, 남자친구 있냐고 물어보는 곳도 있어요. 그런 건 진짜 왜 물어보는지 모르겠어요.”

“We were once living from rent to rent, but we eventually moved away. After my children grew up, they told me that they had once gone together to the house where we used to live. But there was a new building there and the house was gone. They came back and told me about how the woman who owned the house had truly been good to them. As I remember, she had separated from her husband early on and was raising her son alone. I always pried myself away from my children and went to work, so I suppose her heart went out to them and she gave them snacks. I was always away, so I didn’t know she took care of them like that. It would’ve been good if I had at least gotten her number…”

“예전에 세살이를 하던 적이 있었어. 그러다 우리가 이사를 갔고, 후에 우리 애들이 한참 크고 나서 자기네들끼리 그때 살던 집에 한번 찾아갔었대. 근데 거기에 건물을 새로 지어서 그 집은 사라지고 없었다네. 그리고선 나한테 돌아와서 말하더라고. 거기 살 때 그 집 아주머니가 참 잘 챙겨주셨다고. 내 기억엔 그 주인아주머니가 일찍 남편이랑 헤어지고 혼자 아들을 키우고 계셨어. 근데 내가 항상 애들을 떼어놓고 일을 다니니까 우리 애들한테 마음이 쓰이셨는지 간식도 챙겨주시고 그랬었나 봐. 난 항상 밖에 있으니까 그렇게까지 잘 챙겨주시는지를 몰랐었거든. 정말 전화번호라도 받아놨으면은 좋았을 텐데… ”

“About this time last year, I suddenly thought, ‘Is it right to spend my last three years as a teenager solely dedicated to college preparation?’ I got along with my friends and studied hard at school, so it seemed like I was doing well on the surface, but I could feel myself becoming empty inside. Rather than going to a good college, I wanted to discover the kind of person I want to become. I ended up withdrawing myself from a regular high school after one year, and started studying at an agricultural high school. At the moment, my dream is to become a scholar on plant breeding. There are still so many people starving in poor countries. I want to become someone who develops types of plants that suit the environment of these regions, and help these people stand on their own.”

“작년 이맘때 쯤에 문득 이런 생각이 들었어요. ‘10대의 마지막 3년을 오로지 대학에 가기 위해 쓰는게 맞는걸까?’ 친구들과 잘 어울리고 학교생활도 열심히 해서 겉으로는 잘하고 있는듯 했지만 제 안은 점점 비어가는걸 느꼈어요. 좋은 대학에 가는것보다 내가 어떤 사람이 되고 싶은지 찾고 싶었어요. 결국 1년만에 학교를 그만두고 농업고등학교에 다시 입학했어요. 현재 저의 꿈은 육종학자예요. 여전히 가난한 나라에는 굶주리는 사람들이 많잖아요. 그 지역에 어울리는 종자를 개발해서 사람들이 스스로 일어설 수 있도록 도와주는 사람이 되고 싶어요.” 

“(Right) Last year I had a fight with my closest friend. We met almost every day, but we started to cancel our plans often as we both got busier. One day I got angry and said, ‘Hey, let’s stop planning to hang out if we don’t mean it.’ I think this made my friend upset and we didn’t talk to each other even once after that. I cried every day as if I was going through a breakup, and I even changed my phone number I had had for ten years. Out of pride, I thought, ‘You’re nothing to me,’ and didn’t contact her. I also felt a lot of regrets. Because for a year and a half, I thought about that friend every single day. Last week, I couldn’t take it any longer, so I ended up calling her.”
“What did you say?”
“(Right) Instead of something like, ‘Hey,’ the first words that came out were, ‘I hate you. I’m gonna hate you for the rest of my life.’ So she said, ‘I’m also going to hate you for the rest of my life. Have a great life.’ I got so angry I asked, ‘Things are going well, huh?’ and she answered, ‘No, I’m just getting by… but it seems like you’ve been doing well.’ I found out that she was also having a difficult time, but to her, it seemed like I was doing well, so it made her angrier. Then when I asked, ‘Why didn’t you call me?’ she started crying… With just those few words, our relationship that had been so bad for over a year was mended. Thinking back on it, it’s pretty funny. She was like family, yet our relationship nearly fell apart. And we were able to fix it so easily.”

“Yesterday she said, ‘Talking with you on KakaoTalk makes me feel like things have finally gone back to normal.’”

“(오른쪽) 작년에 제일 친했던 친구와 싸웠어요. 매일같이 만나던 친구였는데 서로 바빠지다 보니 약속을 잡아도 깨지는 경우가 허다해졌거든요. 하루는 제가 화가나서 ‘야 이제 쉽게 약속 잡지 말자.’라고 했는데 그 친구도 기분이 상했는지 정말 한 번도 연락을 안 하는 거예요. 마치 실연 당한 것처럼 맨날 울고 10년 된 번호까지 바꿨어요. 저도 오기가 생겨서 ‘니가 뭐라고.’라는 생각으로 연락하지 않았죠. 서운함도 컸어요. 저는 1년 반이 지날 동안 정말 하루도 빠지지 않고 그 친구가 생각이 났거든요. 결국 저번 주에 제가 결국 못 참고 전화를 했어요.”
“전화해서 뭐라고 하셨나요?”
“(오른쪽) 그냥 ‘안녕’ 이런 말이 나오지 않고 ‘너 미워. 나 평생 너 미워하면서 살거야.’하는 말이 먼저 나오더라고요. 그러니까 그 친구가 ‘너도 나 미워하면서 살아. 재밌게 잘 지내고.’라고 하더라고요. 화가 너무 나서 ‘그래서 잘 지내니?’하고 물으니까 ‘아니, 난 그럭저럭… 넌 잘 지내는 것 같더라.’ 하더라고요. 알고보니 그 친구도 무척 힘들었는데 제가 괜찮아 보여서 더 화가 났나 봐요. 그래서 ‘그럼 너 왜 연락 안 했어?’하고 물으니 울더라고요… 그렇게 말 한마디에 1년 넘게 좋지 않았던 관계가 다시 풀렸어요. 지나고나니 참 웃겨요. 가족 같이 친한 친구였는데 고작 그런 이유로 싸웠다는 사실이요. 이렇게 쉽게 풀릴 수 있었다는 것도요.”

“어제는 걔가 ‘너랑 톡하고 있으니까 이제서야 일상으로 돌아온 것 같다.’라고 하더라고요.”

 

For more stories on Humans of Seoul, click here