Husband wins multicultural writing award
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Jung Young-jin, the grand winner of the multicultural writing contest presented by Sookmyung Women’s University, with his wife Ng Wuyen Nye and daughter at the university’s Centennial Hall in Yongsan-gu, central Seoul, Tuesday. / Korea Times
By Jhoo Dong-chan
The Research Institute of Asian Women at Sookmyung Women’s University has named a 42-year-old man as the grand winner of this year’s multicultural writing contest.
“I still can’t believe that I won this year’s award. The award means a lot to me and my wife,” Jung told The Korea Times before the award ceremony.
In his story, “I love you, darling,” Jung candidly wrote about the difficulty he recently experienced with his Vietnamese wife, Ng Wuyen Nye.
It has been three years since they were married. Now she speaks better Korean than when they first met but they still don’t have many conversations.
One day, Wuyen Nye asked him why he loves her. “I was tired after my work and bluntly said I love you because we are husband and wife. I know she was not happy about my answer.” Jung wrote.
“But we used to not be like this. Although there was a language barrier, we tried to keep talking so we could better understand each other. Since we had a daughter shortly after we got married, we just lived along with what we needed to do.”
Jung said that he is often reticent and doesn’t talk much at home, while Ng is a devoted wife who supports her husband and takes care of their daughter.
“Something had gone wrong between us at some point, and we both felt that this was not what we signed up for,” said Jung.
“Maybe it wasn’t love when we met, married and started to live together. She came a long way from her home in Vietnam to marry me at such a young age. She learned Korean not just so she could understand me better but so she could also get to know my family. I was the one who should have reached out first.”
Due to his shy nature, Jung decided to express himself through writing instead of suddenly turning into a sweetheart in a day.
“I would like to express my gratitude to the officials at Sookmyung Women’s University for giving me the opportunity to show my feelings to my lovely wife,” said Jung.
“And I am also happy to visit Seoul with her. She always wanted to go sightseeing around the city.”
The couple said they would stay in the city for another day to see the sights, then return to Ulsan.