''Danke schön, schönen Tag noch!'' (Thank you, have a nice day)

Taekwoon says goodbye to a customer who leaves the store after she smiled at him. 25 year old Taekwoon works in a grocery store and is an employee here for 5 years now. But he is determined to make something of his life, so he doesn't want to do this his entire life. He has graduated from school, but couldn't really find some work so he applied for a job at the grocery store and they couldn't wait for him to start. Taekwoon was known in Munich as Leo, as people had difficulties in pronouncing his name. To make it easier for the German people, Taekwoon told them they could name him Leo.

Taekwoon is the last person the customer sees, because he is in charge of one cash register. Taekwoon is loved by the people in Munich, because people love to queue up at his cash register. Taekwoon doesn't know why, but he believes people love the way he treats them. He is from Korean decent and he has learned from his parents to treat people with respect, even when they hurt him. Taekwoon should treat everyone with respect and that's what people like so much about him. 

Taekwoon's parents moved to Germany 20 years ago to build a steady life for themselves. They didn't want to live the image South Korea wanted them to and the Jung couple moved to Germany, because they saw it as a country far away from their own. Yes, they have no family here. But they have made enough friends to keep that in balance. When mrs. Jung was pregnant, mr. Jung worked hard to earn enough money to keep his family steady and he also didn't want his child to live in poor circumstances. Mrs. Jung saw how tired her husband was everyday when he came home and she told him to spend more time with her in the weekends. He couldn't affort it at first, but he stayed home in the weekends when she was 4 months along.

When Taekwoon was born on a winter night in 1950, the couple was happy to have a family they wanted and they decided to give their son the best life they wanted for him. They were learning him the Korean language, while he learnt German when he attended Kindergarten. Taekwoon picked up the German language real quick and German kids loved to play with him, that didn't change when Taekwoon attended elementary school. Children loved to be around Taekwoon and not only because of him being Korean, but because of his way of equal treatment towards others.

''Schön Guten Tag, Frau Jäger. Wie geht es Ihnen?'' (Good afternoon, mrs. Jäger. How are you doing?) Taekwoon asked once an older lady was at his register. Taekwoon filled the prices in on his register, while he had a small talk with this lady who comes to this store for over 40 years. Mrs. Jäger was a lady in her 70s, but she knew her manners. Mrs. Jäger could be strict and stubborn, but she was always very outgoing when she talked to Taekwoon. She knew about Taekwoon's story and she always loved to have a chat with Taekwoon whenever he was in the store.

''Mir geht es gut, danke. Und Ihnen?'' (I'm doing good, thank you. And what about you?) mrs. Jäger replied and smiled at Taekwoon. Taekwoon continued to talk with her, while she paid for her groceries. Taekwoon took her money and gave her the money in exchange that she had to recieve.

''Tschüss Leo!'' (Goodbye Leo!) mrs. Jäger said and left the store while smiling at Taekwoon. Mrs. Jäger was secretly Taekwoon's favorite customer, because she understood him well and he could trust her.

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When it was time for the shop to close, Taekwoon always remained until the end of the day along with the owner of the shop. Taekwoon always made long days and he got paid for his long days, because Taekwoon was the only employee who earned more than any other employee at the shop.

''Bis morgen, Leo'' (See you tomorrow, Leo) the owner said and Taekwoon looked up after he had collected his stuff. Taekwoon smiled and nodded at the older man. The owner of the shop was a man in his 80s, but he was still working hard. The old man told Taekwoon once that people in Germany worked until the day they can't work anymore, they don't retire that fast compared to the people in the west. Taekwoon was surprised by how many elder people did this, because he never could've imagine this.

''Bis morgen, Herr Schmidt.'' (See you tomorrow, mr. Schmidt) Taekwoon replied and a faint smile appeared on his face, before he left the shop. It's a cold winter evening in late November and snow fell out of the sky. People were preparing for Christmas and Munich looked at its most beautiful at night with all those Christmas decorations lighting up. Taekwoon never wanted to miss this, because he could look at this for hours.

Taekwoon didn't live that far away from the shop, it was a 15 minute walk. Taekwoon didn't have a driver's license yet, so he wasn't going to worry over that too much. While walking his way home, Taekwoon came across some typical German shops with German souvenirs for tourists and some shops with German food. All the shops were about to close, but the smell of some dishes were still in the air and it made Taekwoon hungry. He couldn't wait to be home to see what he would get for diner. His mother always made the best dishes and she made both Korean and German dishes.

Taekwoon basically walked fast on his way home. He never ran, because that would look awkward. But people never let him pass by, because some even got into a conversation with him. People were interested in him, because they hadn't seen many Korean people before who also spoke their language. Koreans always rather spoke their own language and barely spoke languages like English, like his parents. Taekwoon always translated everything for his parents whenever the three of them were in public, his parents couldn't really learn the German language how hard they tried.

When Taekwoon finally arrived home, the smell of ramen went into his nose. Taekwoon smiled and closed his eyes for a few seconds, because he loved ramen so much. Taekwoon quickly made his way inside and hung up his jacket on the coat rack behind the door. Taekwoon realised how tired he was right now, but his mum's cooking would make it feel better.

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A/N Here's the first chapter of Germanized. As mentioned in the Foreword, I came up with this idea in German class last week and this story will contain German language what I will mark purple. I'm sorry for my German, it's not the best German ever. But I try to the best I can. And I thought of Christmas when I wrote the second part of this chapter, because I listened to And I by NU'EST W which gives me the Christmas vibes a bit.