Seoul, South Korea (CNN)Micky Kim remembers the day two years ago when he married Tony Ruse in California.
韓國首爾（CNN）米基·金姆仍記得兩年前那天，他與愛人託尼·魯斯在加利福尼亞結為夫妻。
"All the people from City Hall suddenly came out and congratulated us," he recalls.
他回憶道：「所有在市政廳的人都突然走出來祝福我們。」
"People who I don’t know are congratulating our marriage. But in (South) Korea, no-one even knows my marriage and I couldn’t even tell my family."
「我不認識的人也在祝福我們的婚姻，但是在韓國，任何人都不知道我結婚了，我連家人都不能告訴。」
As far as Micky’s relatives know, Tony is just his business partner at their recording studio in Seoul, South Korea’s capital.
米基的親戚一直都以為託尼只是米基在韓國首爾錄音室的商業夥伴。
When asked about his personal life at recent family event, Micky had his lines ready to go.
當在最近一次家庭聚會上被問到自己的私生活時，米基已經編好了故事。
"It felt like I couldn’t breathe because now I had to suddenly pretend I’m a different person," he recalls. "I put on this persona, and like 』OK, I have a girlfriend and it’s been a year.』 I create these fake stories to cover up."
他回憶道：「我覺得在這個環境中，我無法呼吸，因為現在我必須突然假裝自己是另一個人，我帶上面具，告訴他們我現在已經有女朋友了，並且已經交往一年了，我需要編織謊言來掩蓋自己是同性戀這一事實。」
He says he did the same thing when he worked as an intern at a major South Korean company.
他表示自己曾在一家韓國大企業實習時，也說過同樣的謊。
"I went into the closet again because of work. Because my superiors are all (in their) 40s and 50s and they don’t really know what gay is, and I was afraid I might lose my job."
「為了工作，我再次選擇入櫃，因為我的上司都是40多歲或50多歲的老一輩人，他們不太知道同性戀，我怕我會丟掉工作。」
Unfamiliarity
陌生感
But now he’s decided to open up to help increase understanding and tolerance at home.
但現在他決定要公開自己的真實取向，幫助韓國對同性戀更加理解與寬容。
Unfamiliarity, he says, is part of the reason why South Korea can be a difficult place for people like him to be themselves.
他表示像他一樣的人在韓國很難做真實的自己，而陌生感則是部分原因。
He thinks many South Koreans see homosexuality as a foreign phenomenon -- especially the older generation.
他覺得許多韓國人把同性戀還看作是一種國外現象—尤其是老一輩。
There are some prominent LGBT South Koreans, including film director Kim Jho Gwang-Soo, who is fighting in court to have his marriage to Kim Seung-Hwan recognized, but they are few and far between in popular culture.
韓國也有一些著名的同性戀，包括導演金趙光壽，他為了與金承煥的婚姻得到認可，在法庭上奮力力爭，但這還是少數個例，並與主流文化相差甚遠。
A Pew Research Center study found that 57% of people surveyed find homosexuality unacceptable. Just 18% said it is acceptable.
皮尤研究中心的一項研究調查結果顯示，在調查人數中，57%的人表示無法接受同性戀，而只有18%的人表示可以接受。
"Generally you cannot say you are gay openly in South Korea, because South Korea is a very conservative country," explains Kang Myeongjin, organizer of the Korea Queer Culture Festival.
韓國同性戀文化節組織者康美金解釋道：「一般在韓國的公共場合，你不能說自己是同性戀，因為韓國仍是個非常保守的國家。」
"The worst thing is the rejection and isolation from belonging to a group, such as family, workplace, neighborhood, society and the country."
「最糟糕的感覺就是被自己的群體拋棄和孤立，如家庭、工作、鄰居、社會，甚至國家。」
Micky Kim remembers that feeling of confusion when he was a teenager.
米基·金姆仍記得他青少年時期那種困惑的感覺。
"Because, OK, why am I like this?" he says he thought at the time. "I know no-one who’s like this. Maybe I’m crazy. I’m mentally sick ... because you don’t know anybody who’s gay you think you’re the only crazy person. So I was very suicidal sometimes and very depressed."
他說那時他會想，「我為什麼會這樣子？，我不知道還有誰和我一樣，可能我瘋了，我腦子有病....因為你不知道還有人是同性戀，你覺得你自己是唯一一個瘋了的人，所以有時我會想自殺，感到非常抑鬱。」
But he thinks the situation is getting better -- slowly.
但他覺得現在情況在慢慢變好。
He believes the recent ruling in favor of marriage equality in the United States will help.
他相信最近美國支持同性戀婚姻的舉動對韓國的現狀也有所幫助。
"Even though Korea is not very gay friendly... Korea likes to does whatever America does," he laughs. "So I think they’re going to follow the trend."
他笑道：「即使韓國還不是那麼歡迎同性戀，但一般美國做什麼，韓國也喜歡跟風做什麼，所以我覺得韓國也在追趕潮流。」
Or at least he hopes so.
至少他希望如此。
【對於學習，從現在開始，你還沒有晚。別說自己沒基礎，慢慢來；你不懂？問我吧！——訂閱微信公眾號：愛語吧聽歌學英語（iyubasong）】