'When I first came to Singapore, I cried every day': Korean who works at NUS restaurant shares struggles of moving to another country

When Kim Yun-sil moved to Singapore in 2008, she was a ball of anxiety and emotions. 

Apart from having to adjust to a new environment, she was not familiar with the food and did not feel happy being here. 

"When I first came to Singapore, I cried every day because everything went wrong," she told Lianhe Zaobao on Wednesday (Dec 27). 

While she is Korean and speaks the language fluently, the 59-year-old is actually not from South Korea, but from China. 

There, she used to own two Korean barbeque restaurants in Fushun. 

After a friend recommended that she move to Singapore for work, she closed both her barbeque restaurants and got a job in a coffee shop, where she sold fried kway teow and noodles. 

In 2009, she found a new job selling food she was more familiar with. 

This was Hwang's, a popular Korean restaurant situated at the National University of Singapore. 

And she has been there ever since. 

On work days, Yun-sil starts her days early and leaves home at 5.30am just to make it to the restaurant in time, she shared with Lianhe Zaobao. 

She reaches home around 8pm every day and works six days a week. 

While the routine sounds exhausting, Yun-sil shared that she's happy. 

"Now I'm used to life in Singapore and the work in this school is better," she told the Chinese daily. 

In fact, now she is in love with Singapore and her job. 

"Sometimes I feel that although this is not my own restaurant, I feel happy and touched watching the students line up outside the restaurant and eating the food I cooked," she told Lianhe Zaobao. 

Adapting after moving to Singapore

Yun-sil isn't the only one who has had to adapt to life in Singapore after moving here to work. 

One example is Lim Kah Chuan, who first came to Singapore from Ipoh 13 years ago. 

When he first moved here, he had little knowledge or skill when it came to cooking.

But after years of working in different kitchens, he gained a wealth of culinary experience and opened a hawker stall, Xiao Di Charcoal Roasted Delights. 

However, the move wasn't easy and he had to leave his two young children back in Ipoh. 

While he goes back to visit them as often as possible, it's been hard considering his hectic work schedule. 

"Of course I miss them," he told AsiaOne during an interview in November. 

Another individual in the F&B scene is Klevis Shima. 

Klevis, who grew up in Italy, moved to Singapore in 2012 to marry his Singaporean wife. 

After almost a decade here, he set up a hawker stall at Beauty World Food Centre, a place he frequented. 

While hawker culture is unique to Singaporeans, Klevis didn't have trouble fitting in. 

He ended up making plenty of friends in the hawker scene and has become a part of the community. "I'm not Singaporean, but I feel local," he said.

ALSO READ: 28-year-old hawker sells $2 Ipoh curry noodles for the elderly

melissateo@asiaone.com