-My name is Han Eun Jin. In Korean culture, when a woman gets married, she doesn't follow her husband's name, but their child/children does/do. That's why I am still using my maiden name.
What is your date of birth?
-I was born on December 11, 1962.
What is your place of birth?
-I was born in Kim Cheon in South Korea.
What is your ethnicity?
-My ethnicity is Korean.
Where were your parents, brothers, and sisters born? Include their names.
-My father, Han Jong Hyuk, and my mother, Park Nam I, I heard they were born in a province. And my brothers and sisters, all in all, there are 7 of us so I can't tell you much about them because if I do, it will take us a lot of time.
Where were your children born? Include their names.
-Both of my children were born in Suwon City in Korea. My first child is Lee Kyeong Min, and the last child is Lee Jeong Eun.
Where have you lived?
-I lived in Kim cheon, and during my childhood, I transferred to Moon Kyeong, and now I'm living in Suwon.
What languages do you speak?
-I can only speak my mother language, Korean, because I was in athletics during my high school years so I didn't have the chance to study other languages well.
What is your citizenships?
-Of course, my citizenship is Korea.
BIRTH TO ADOLESCENCE
Where did you live as a child?
-When I was young, I lived in a countryside. In front of our house, there were big mountains all over, and very long fields were there, too. I really liked it there.
When you were growing up, what was the role of boys and girls in the family? Were there any "coming of age" ceremonies or significant event?
-Of course. Usually, boys did the cutting of the grass and trees. For girls, we were tasked to gather vegetables for our supper. We went out for farming, took up knitting, and did the laundry. Even though our parents didn’t tell us what to do, we did these by ourselves.
Describe your neighborhood when you were in junior high school
-Most of the neighborhoods were almost the same because most of us were poor. But we helped one another, and we were happy all the time.
How were young boys and girls treated at that time? Were you treated differently?
-Most of them think that courtesy is the most important thing. At that time, parents were really important to us so we were dutiful to our parents. For examples, during the meal, we had to wait for our parents to eat first, and when there were visitors in the house, we had to go out to pick them up. And when it time for them to leave, we had to go out again to say goodbye. And we never said something back to our parents because we believe that the parents are always right. For my case, my father was really more strict than the others so if I did something bad, I would really have a horrible punishment.
What were the roles of adult women in the family?
-If there were no parents at home, they played the role of parents at the kitchen, if there were younger brothers and sisters, we had to take care of them just like why our mother did. We took care of them, washed them, and gave them meal. Our parents didn’t teach us ,but we already knew what to do. Most of us sacrificed for our younger siblings ,but we didn’t get any price from our parents for doing that. However, we didn’t complain for that because we thought that it was the right thing for us to do. If our siblings grew up very well and successful, we feel very worthy. Even though you were the younger one, you must do well to your older siblings and they should do as well to you. That is family; this is how a family should work hand in hand.
What jobs did you have throughout your life?
-At that time, actually, there weren’t really good jobs. Usually for women, we went to work in a company, and fixed the papers. For me, I was in a company as a secretary, and I also worked in a shop as a cashier as my part time job to help my family. Most of the women during those days did like this.
What were women doing during your adult life? What roles did they perform?
-During my generation, if we get married, we should quit our jobs. There was about ninety percent (90) of the housewives who did that. So the most important thing was family. We believed that if family is very safe, they could earn money. So our husbands didn't want us to work.
What difficulties did women have to go through?
-There were kind of discrimination between men and women. For example, women should go home earlier than men and they thought men had higher position than women. Even though when we get married, women should take care of the family while men worked and provided for the family.
What cultural beliefs surrounded the way women dressed, behaved, worked, studied, performed duties such as being a mother, wife, sister or daughter?
-First, in dressing up, women should wear very girlish styles. We couldn't wear something short unlike now. For behavior, we should not be rude to our parents and older people. For our jobs, we couldn't really have a good job because there was discrimination. In terms of studies, if we had siblings especially men, we should give up our education to work for our younger sibling's tuition fee. And lastly duties as a mother, I should be strong, I must not show my sad feelings to my daughters or sons to make them happy. As a wife, I should always be at my husband 's side. As a sister or daughter, I should act well to my parents and my siblings.
What influenced changes in culture? Western culture? Education? How?
-I think because of western culture, our culture changed. For examples, we eat bread with coffee every morning, and there are big apartments all over our country except for some of our traditional houses that were preserved.
WOMEN OF TODAY
What is your opinion of women of today?
-For my opinion, I really feel jealous. Sometimes, I think that I should have been born in this generation. However, I feel worried because nowadays, our traditions are gone. I think we really have to do something with our tradition. There should be the learning center for teaching tradition to remind them what is the tradition of Korea.
What advice could give to young women like me?
-I hope you will recognize how important family, money, and time are. These days, young adults are just spending their money and time without thinking. I hope for you, you will think twice before doing something. And the most important thing is the family. Friends can turn their back from you ,but family will never do that. I hope you would think of these things and you would obey us, your parents.
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