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GrooveCast GrooveCast host Chance Dorland got the personal story behind My Korean Husband from Nichola and Hugh. Check out the podcast at groovekorea.com. Edited by Jenny Na (jenny@groovekorea.com) COMMuNITy N ichola Gwon was a single gal living in Australia when her life took an unexpected turn: She gained a new language partner who would later become her partner for life. Now, she’s a married ajumma transplanted to Korea who runs a blog about the man she married and their cultural differences. She started the blog, My Korean Husband, as an outlet for her artistic inclinations and her experiences as a newlywed. She says she also hoped to dispel some of the negative portray- als of Korean husbands she saw online, and to offer a more positive characterization. Her sto- ry unfolds in a series of comic strips full of hu- Korea’s most famous Australian ajumma Story by Stephanie McDonald / Photos and comics courtesy of Nichola Gwon Comic artist Nichola Gwon swaps cultural quirks with My Korean Husband morous situations about love, life and cultural differences. The couple also has a YouTube channel with episodes filmed by both. Nichola met her husband Hugh (Gwon Sun- hong) in 2010 in Sydney during a Korean lan- guage exchange, and the two began dating shortly thereafter. They married just a year and a half later in April 2012, with the encourage- ment of Nichola’s mother, who herself married after only four months of courtship. The blog centers on Nichola and Hugh’s interactions, with a healthy dose of humor thrown in. In one strip, Nichola rags Hugh out for eating smelly, dried squid, but Hugh then turns the tables and rags on Nichola for eating smelly macaroni and cheese. While their married days are filled with these types of interactions, their early dating life was just as endearing. “One time when I was sick, I really want- ed Chinese congee (rice porridge), so Hugh bought me some. But he was rushing after the bus, tripped in the middle of the road, spilled the congee and got a big gash on his knee,” Nichola says. “He showed up later at my apartment with ripped jeans and bleeding knees and only half the congee left.” She says the blog has changed her views not only about Korean culture, but also her own. “Now that I am in Korea, I am more aware of how much more Korea is a community-ori- ented society, whereas Australia, as with most Western countries, is an individual-oriented society,” she says. My Korean Husband is now a much-loved and respected blog that resonates with read- ers in Korea and worldwide. The blog receives around 79,000 hits a month, and its YouTube channel has 11,000 subscribers. Nichola is also working on a comic book written for a Ko- rean audience with English subtitles that’s due for publication this month. She spoke with Groove Korea about the growth of the blog, keeping readers hooked and how sharing her culture with her husband, and vice versa, has made for a happy mar- riage. ‘The comics mirror what is happening in our life; it’s an ongoing story broken down into short daily chapters, so I guess that’s one of the appeals — wanting to know what happens next in the story.’ Nichola Gwon