Hello again! Let's continue talking about my experiences
of Korean culture! I think an easy
transition from the food topic is to talk about the holidays. Largely because they have food.
First off, we had two days off of school in the middle of September
for 주석(Chuseok)! This is a traditional harvest celebration in
which Koreans all leave the cities to their family homes to honor their
ancestors and have a great meal. We
first celebrated it on Sunday with Uncle Simon and Haejung 이모, who were gracious enough to make us a simple, familiar,
and delicious dinner of spaghetti, french bread with olive oil and balsamic
vinegar, and fruit for dessert. This was
after a week of total Korean food immersion, so we were very thankful for the
break.
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| Spaghetti and delicious bread, oh how I had missed you! |
The next day, however, we were invited to the home of the pastor of
our church, Reverend Cho, for a more traditional Chuseok meal. Everything was delicious! There was rice, fried veggies and pancakes
and crab-somethings, a wonderful 불고기 (bulgogi -
marinated and barbequed beef) dish, and delicious dessert of Korean honeydew
and pear. He and his wife and daughter
(who is in our youth group) live in one of the high-rise apartment buildings
that are everywhere, so we finally got a look at one from the inside. It was just like you'd expect, a nice
apartment.
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| Dessert, demolished. |
More recently, as in last Monday, there was the holiday 개천절("geh-cheon-jeol" -- National Foundation Day),
which celebrates the "Opening of Heaven," when 환웅 (Hwangung) descended from heaven to live with
mankind in the traditional Korean religion.
We didn't do anything related to that holiday, other than
spending our time off of school enjoyably.
We went with our first official Korean friend, Da Young Kim, to an
arboretum in Daejeon. It was very
pretty, and located next to a park where there were Koreans everywhere! Playing catch, flying kites, kicking various
balls around, picnicking, riding bicycles, rollerblading, and just generally
having a relaxing afternoon. It was
pretty much like you might expect in the US, only compressed in space so that
every spot of grass was taken by somebody doing something. Afterward, we headed downtown for dinner,
where we wanted 닭갈비 ("talk-kal-bee" -- the chicken
dish I mentioned in the last post), but the stand that our guide knew of was
closed. Instead we had western food at
"Uncle Bob's." It was good,
but expensive. There was a very surreal
moment in the restaurant, which was playing western music of many kinds, when
everyone around us kept calmly eating to the tune of a song that I know from a Saturday Night
Live digital short which I would normally consider extremely inappropriate for
that setting.
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| Arboretum panorama, look to the bottom of this post for many more arboretum pictures! |
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| This is the one I'm most interested in! |
That leads me into
the subject of music. We've heard K-pop
a lot, my first exposure being a group of middle-aged women who do aerobics to
it early every morning on the track at Hannam.
There have also been many popular songs from home, usually current pop
songs from the likes of Maroon 5 and Lady Gaga. Many bands I consider famous in the US are
met with blank looks here, yet others I didn't know were as big, notably Muse,
are well-known. We've also seen and
heard a traditional Korean band in Jeonju, but I'll tell you about that in a
post about that trip. On campus, I've
seen a group with traditional drums and cymbals that plays interesting rhythms
somewhat like a drumline, so I'm interested in learning how to play in that
style if I can.
I think that's about
it for the big subjects, but I'll go ahead and make a list of other little
things that I've noticed as different, but a Korean wouldn't give a second
thought:
- Traffic: There's a lot! And the cars seem to mostly have the
right of way, it's the pedestrian's job to keep a sharp eye and stay out
of the way. Also, in backstreets,
the cars often have to play a real-life version of this game. This does lead to a wonderful public
transportation system that everyone uses, however. There are card readers that
automatically deduct your fare from a pre-charged card, seating
conventions that respect the elderly, and drivers who only require the
doors to be closed before peeling out.
For city to city transport, there are buses and trains, the fastest
being a bullet train. Which we're going
to ride to Seoul on Friday, so stay tuned!
- Symbols: Koreans understand
waving to say "hi," but I've also seen them waving hands when
they're saying "no, no, no," so I'm sure that could be
confusing. Beckoning someone is done with the hand exactly as we would, but with the palm facing down. Our way is used for beckoning animals... I've used it by mistake many times! They usually show
"no," with crossed forearms, making an 'X.' 'X' means wrong and 'O' means
correct. Not having a 'V' in their
alphabet, they use 'V' as a check mark, 'ü.' Thumbs up and
the 'okay' hand signal are okay, though.
- This one many might already
know: Koreans leave their shoes at the door. There are separate house shoes to wear
inside if you want. This seems to
go along with a general attitude of the floor being dirty… at least I got
scolded (I think, it was all in Korean) for leaving my sweater on the
floor in the office at my children's center.
- School school school
school! Koreans, especially in high
school, seem to go to school all day, only breaking to sleep. It seems like there isn't enough time
for even this, though, leading me to think of Koreans (jokingly) as a
nation of learned Batmen. On this
note, all Koreans are made to learn an instrument throughout school, but
with less expectation to choose a particular one until later on. I think it's pretty neat, and I wish I
could really play the piano.
- Speaking
conventions: The most obviously confusing one for an American is that the
Korean word for 'yes' is '네.'
Pronounced "nay," as in "yay or nay." Koreans say their names with their
family names first, followed by their title. So while I would say, "I'm Mr.
Thomas Keith Loyd," phrasing it the Korean way would go something
like, "Loyd Thomas Keith Mister am." The 'I' is implied. They use group pronouns, like 'we' or
'our' much more often than individual ones like 'me,' 'you,' or 'my.' Instead of saying 'he' or 'she,' they
will usually use the person's name or title. Saying 'you' to a Korean in Korean is
downright insulting, be ready to fight!
Also, Koreans consider everyone to be one large family, and so will
often call each other by familial names, like older brother, sister, aunt,
uncle, etc. When I've been saying
Uncle Simon and Haejung 이모, that's why.
이모 ("emo") is the word for an aunt on your mother's
side. It would be vaguely insulting
to just call them by name, since we are younger, so this way everybody's
happy.
- Age is a big deal: everything
from the bus seats to the very structure of the language is built
according to different levels of formality, the highest of which is used
when speaking to your elders.
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Total creeper pic (wasn't me),
but aren't they cute? |
- Couples in Korea often match
their outfits, it's adorable.
- Advertising is
EVERYWHERE. The most glaring
example is a street of business with so much neon and lights that it's
brighter at night than in the daytime (I still need to get a picture of
this that does the real thing justice).
But they're also in buses, handed out on the street, and even on
basketball hoop backboards. And I
guess it works, Korea seems like as much of a consumer-type country as the
US to me. Especially cell phones --
there's a shop every block or so selling an enormous amount of accessories
for them.
- People are very friendly, but
driven. They all seem to want to do
a good job, and expect us to do so, too.
One interesting characteristic is that part of the culture is to
try to figure out what a guest might want and provide it, rather than
asking the guest directly. This has
led to some interesting assumptions about what food we might like, or what
we like to do, etc., but it's overall very flattering that they are trying
so hard to get to know us and understand our likes and dislikes.
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