Mixed-race (Anglo/Korean) couples and socialising

[xflibble]

As an Australian guy with a Korean wife, socialising can be a challenge sometimes. Have other people in the same situation cultivated mixed couple friends?

[Dan_84]

I have an American friend currently living in Korea with a Korean girlfriend. His Korean is pretty basic, yet her English is much better-- but still only at about 40-50%. I've never asked him about it, yet I know that they probably have challenges when they socialize in each other's social spheres.

Does your wife speak much English, and do you know much Korean?

[xflibble]

My wife's English is decent, my Korean is survival level. I've been learning on and off since we met, but my main issue is vocabulary. We occasionally meet her Korean friends, but she intentionally tries to stay a bit separate from the local Korean community. I get the impression some people in my situation are much more involved in Korean communities, but we haven't been.

I figure it might be good to have people to socialise with who are also of the same mix as us. Just wondering if others couples have found this a healthy thing for their relationships.

[steved]

My wife is Korean. We have been married for 16 years. When we met my Korean was much better than her English (spoken) but now she is fluent in English. In fact people who meet her don't assume that she is a non-native English speaker. I think the reason for this is because we have never associated a great deal with the Korean population. Where we currently live there are a couple of Korean/American couples but we don't do too much with them socially.
We also know Koreans who have come to America and never gone beyond survival-level English because they have never interacted outside of the Korean communities here. Conversely, an English speaker living in a foreign country (Korea) will do much better with the language if he doesn't spend all of his time with his English speaking friends.