An interview with Unnie
Tsz Ching LEE
201303883
EIT
On a Saturday afternoon, I went back to the place I had used to live since I came to Korea
2 years before. The person I am going to interview with is Ji-hye, a 36-year-old lady, runs a homestay business all by herself. She has a story about chasing her dream. Since we are close, Ji-hye suggested me to call her Unnie, means "sister" in Korean.
"Becky! It has been a while! How are you doing?" she came to me and hugged me tightly, "Come on in!"
After entering to the house, it feels like I am home. The memories piled up for 2 years in this house keep coming up on my mind. Everything is still as same as I moved out half a year ago. I passed a gift to Ji-hye Unnie, and sit down on the sofa.
"Outside is cold, I prepare some tea for you." She placed it on the tea table and then sat down on the floor.
"How have you been, Unnie? Still being busy as always?" I asked. "Yes, still as always. I am preparing for the essay lately." She answered.
We started with some causal chats, and then moved our topic into interview related.
"Why did you choose to be a flight attendant after graduated from college?" I asked.
"My parents used to suggest me what should I do for next since I was young, but after high school, they just let me choose whatever I want to be in the future. So that after graduated from high school, I decided to get into the Tourism Department in college. Since I was living in countryside, I didn't know there is a type of occupation called flight attendant at the very first. Many students in my department were also discussed about going up to Seoul to apply for flight attendant. Suddenly, I found I would like to be a flight attendant as well. Then, I set flight attendant as my goal, and started to equip myself during the school years," She started to remember,
"I did many researches about the required qualification of flight attendant. The essential part is the language proficiency, so I started to memorize vocabularies and expressions every day myself for improving English ability. Besides, during the long school holidays, I took 2 hours to come up to Seoul from my home day by day for attending to the flight attendant training institute." She continued, "Luckily, all the effort I put was worth. Korean Air announced the first recruitment of flight attendant after the financial crisis happened couple years ago. I applied for the position, and everything went well. Finally I became a flight attendant right after my graduation."
"Any memorable experiences when you worked?" I asked.
"I found myself like to communicate with people. And the job allowed me travelling many countries, which widened my sights during those 8 years of my working experiences. I really enjoyed it." She told me when showing some photographs about her experiences.
Since then, Ji-hye Unnie was working in Korean Air for 5 years. During the time, she made lots of contribution to the company, such as helping the company to develop a new low-cost airline. In her late 20, she decided to step into a new stage of her life – marriage. And 2 years later, she gave birth to her daughter Eun-seo. For the family, she had no choice to give up her career, and remain home to take care of the family. (Divorce)
"What makes you choose to start a new stage in your life?" I asked.
"In Korea, girls concern a lot about getting married before 30 years old. So do I. I was 28 years old at that moment, and my parents started urging me to get marry as well. So I thought it was the time to form my own family.
"Did your career be affected by your new life?" I asked.
"I was still working as flight attendant even after got married and gave birth to my daughter. However, I have to stay in other counties for work all the time, and my husband worked a hospital in another province where is far from Seoul. And we had to find someone to take care of our child. The only way was to ask my husband's parents to babysit our daughter. However, it made us always falling apart," she hold for a second and said, "and it lasted for a year."
"There was a question always appeared in my mind," she continued, "Do we still being a family even separate apart?" She stopped and took a sip of tea. "I spent a whole year of time to think about should I quit and remind home to take care of my daughter but chasing my dream. I loved my job, and it was my dream. Finally, I made a hard decision to quit from the job."
After quitted from her job, she moved to live with her parents-in-law, and started being as a full-time housewife. She thought her discussion could make a better life for both of her family members; unfortunately, it didn't keep her marriage for long.
"My mother-in-law didn't like me, as she thought her son deserves a better and richer wife, but not just a flight attendant with no financial background. She always raised up some troubles in the family for that reason, and my husband had never solved it or gotten involved to help but just left it away, so I decided to divorce with her husband." She said.
By considering to her own financial condition, Ji-hye Unnie thinks her ex-husband's job can provide her daughter a better life condition. So she decided to let her daughter to stay with her ex-husband.
"After back to being single, have you ever thought about getting back to your work position at the moment?" I asked.
"Yes, I did. I tried hard to continue my dream at the moment though. Eventually, I found an opportunity that I considered as my last chance, since the career of flight attendant has an age limit (35 years old) at all. The opportunity was to work as a flight purser for an enterprise's private jet. But the point is, for ensuring no staffs will be absent for any single flight schedule, the company preferred their staffs haven't married or have no children. I didn't want to conceal the fact, so I just gave up the opportunity. From that moment, I think it was the end of my career as a flight attendant."
After that, Ji-hye Unnie spent 8 months of time in Vancouver, Canada for a retreat. During that period, she attended to English institute and learned a new business.
"Why did you start running the homestay business?" I asked.
"When I was in Vancouver, I lived in a homestay family there which was ran by a Korean lady. We talked a lot and she shared her story of running a home stay business with me. It inspirited me that I can try to run a home stay business when I back to Korea too. Meanwhile, I was spending times to think about where can I apply my experience on tourism field. Then I just spared 2 rooms in my apartment flat and started running home stay business." She answered.
"So running a home stay business is just right for what you want to do!" I said.
"Yes, totally. I receive guests from different counties in the world. It reminds me the time when I worked as a flight attendant. And I am happy to introduce Korea's culture and provide my warm hospitality to everyone of them." She pleased.
"So, what is your next goal to achieve?" I asked.
I like to share my experience and do some researches about the tourism field. So I decided to go back to school for a master degree. Now, I am preparing for the essay for graduation, and going to write a book about my research."
"Last question, are you doing what you desire to achieve right now?"
"Yes, definitely," she held for few seconds, "It's most happiest to achieve what your passion on it." She said with a satisfied smile.
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