Park came to see that making friends required taking the first step too, which he said is not the typical Korean instinct.
“When I tried to open (up), they also were welcoming,” he said. “(As) time went by, we got happier and crazier.”
Kim also found belonging through sport, making friends on the badminton court with the local regulars.
“We get along well, just as we do with the other Indians here. There’s no difference,” said one of her badminton buddies, who described Kim as a “very nice person”.
That sense of belonging mattered even more after Kim’s children returned to South Korea. Having spent years supporting them, she felt the loss of that role deeply.
“I felt like I was made redundant,” she shared. “I felt like I was useless.”
But she eventually channelled that nurturing instinct into tutoring locals in the Korean language. They have made steady progress, she said.
“I think (Indians) have a great ability in languages,” she observed. “They speak a lot of languages. I was surprised that they learnt Tamil, English and other dialects. So they learnt Korean so much faster than I thought (they would).”
