Wednesday, July 11, 2012
I'm moving!
I've been having a lot of fun with this blog for the past month and change so I've decided to upgrade to a new site! You can find me at www.inbetweensoju.com
Friday, July 6, 2012
What also floats in water? South Korea and Religion
What also floats in water?
If you said
I've long considered Korea "Asia's big secret." As Westerners, we usually have at least a passing knowledge of Japanese and Chinese culture usually gained through some media, most often movies. A lot of people also have some concept of what they think Southeast Asia is like, even if it's just the word "exotic" (which it is). But I, and I'm sure the vast majority of others have zero idea about Korean culture, and when you arrive in Korea you come in with only the vaguest of stereotypes which might include
Buddhist temples in Korea that aren't massive tourist traps are traditionally situated in one of two places: either at the foot of a mountain, or on the top of a mountain. Buddhism is certainly alive and well in South Korea, but it requires one to go seek it out. That isn't to say you will never see a monk in Korea, because when traveling in large cities like Seoul it isn't out of the ordinary to see a monk or two traveling in the subway. But Christianity is immensely more visible.
From my apartment right now, I am within 50-100 meters of three churches. Churches in Korea are large. And every single one of them is adorned with a neon red cross at the top. Some even have two steeples with a red cross on each one. When traveling by taxi from where I live to Suwon, the capital of my province of which my town is a suburb, you spend a few minutes in an area without many buildings and a lot of open land. In that area, especially at night, one is struck by the sea of red crosses visible in all directions. I would say that you could not drive for more than ten minutes in a medium sized town without encountering a church.
Another factor that leads to the visibility of Christianity of Korea is that many branches of Christianity here, especially Jehova's Witnesses, are tenacious in missionizing non-believers. Here's a few examples. I had a doctor last year who I visited several times. During my last appointment with him he formally tried to introduce me to his faith by asking me questions like "Is there a God? What happens when you die? Have you heard of Jesus Christ?" Please bear in mind this is during an actual medical consultation. On numerous occasions I have been stopped on the street, preached to, and encouraged to go to church with them. This most recently happened last week, when a car pulled over alongside me as I was walking on the sidewalk to the gym. A middle-aged Korean woman tried to get me to go to work and tried to hand me a pamphlet from her car. Christians have come to my door while I'm cooking breakfast. In Korea, it is common to advertise your affiliation with your church by attaching your church's placard onto your apartment door. When I moved into my apartment, one was already affixed to my door and I can't get it off.
Just another of the many, many ways Korea defies any conventional stereotypes about Asian cultures.
If you said
- bread
- apples
- very small rocks
- cider
- great gravy
- cherries
- mud
 |
| Look at my crown. Look at it! |
- Korea is in Asia. Asians are supposed to be short. So, Koreans are short
- Korea is in Asia. So they probably use chopsticks
- Korea is in Asia. So everybody is probably Buddhist
 |
| The temple near my old house in Anseong at the foot of 비봉산 (Mt. Bibong) |
From my apartment right now, I am within 50-100 meters of three churches. Churches in Korea are large. And every single one of them is adorned with a neon red cross at the top. Some even have two steeples with a red cross on each one. When traveling by taxi from where I live to Suwon, the capital of my province of which my town is a suburb, you spend a few minutes in an area without many buildings and a lot of open land. In that area, especially at night, one is struck by the sea of red crosses visible in all directions. I would say that you could not drive for more than ten minutes in a medium sized town without encountering a church.
 |
| The Red Cross |
Just another of the many, many ways Korea defies any conventional stereotypes about Asian cultures.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Before we talk, tell me everything, or we can't talk!
안녕하세요? In Between Soju를 읽어서 감사합니다. 잘 지내세요?
Hello. Thanks for reading In Between Soju. How are you doing?
(Annyeong haseyo? In Between Soju-leul il geo seo kam sa ham nida. Jal ji nae seh yo?)
Disclaimer! Lots of Korean follows! And just for fun, I'm going to phonetically translate the Korean so you at home can follow along! There will also be exciting speculation between language and culture! If you'd rather go back to watching internet memes or whatever it is you do online, please click the following link! Or if you just want to really waste time properly, you can do that here!
..............
..............
Anyone still here? Alright!
그럼 저는 시작할거예요...
So, when you meet a Korean for the first time especially in a social situation, if you're a man, you will be asked the following things especially if the person you're talking to is also a man.
1) What's your name?
2) Where are you from?
3) What is your job?
4) Excuse me, how old are you?
5) Do you have a girlfriend?
5a [if answer to 5 is yes]) Oh, is she pretty/Korean?
5b [if answer to 5 is no]) WHY NOT?!
This barrage of questions will usually be qualified by the statement "you are so handsome" thereafter (yes, men do this to each other)
One thing that strikes a Western person quickly is how obsessed Koreans are with age. And for good reason, because if they don't know how old you are, they will have no idea how to speak to you in Korean. Communication actually becomes impossible until age, or other social standing, is established. I will explain.
Here's the Korean word for eat: 먹다 (mok-da)
And here's a sentence meaning I eat rice: 저는 밥을 먹어요 (jahneun babeul mogahyo)
Easy right? No. That sentence presupposes that I already know how old you are (older than me) or that we're new acquaintances. Now, if we were of similar age, or we are good friends now, I can speak to you like this:
나는 밥을 먹어 (Naneun babeul mogah). I get to change the "I" from 저 to 나 and I drop the 요 which makes it less formal. So there's formal, and not formal, easy one might think?
If the situation is you are older than me and/or I respect you, the sentence changes to
저는 밥을 먹으세요 (Jahneun babeul mogahsehyo)
If the situation is I don't know how old you are at all, or what your social standing is, or I know one or both of those things but I want to be deferential then its
저는 밥을 먹습니다 (Jahneun babeul mogsumnida)
And then all of these situations have their respective permutations in the past and future tenses!
The point is here that without knowing age, a dialogue in Korean becomes impossible. Age is critically important in Korea, and you see it here reflected in their language. A man must nearly always be older than a women in a dating situation (fairly normal in the West, but nearly compulsory in Korea). Food is served according to who is the oldest and youngest, a point that I've touched on here. Age can even determine trustworthiness and inherent personal worth. While in English, one might use a different vocabulary or use/omit slang or colloquialisms based on the person you're talking with, because age isn't formally established at the outset of a conversation, one uses their best judgement in the situation and proceeds accordingly but in Korean age formally determines how one speaks, and is formally established at the beginning of a meeting so that a conversation can actually take place.
Another example is that among any group of people of similar ages, someone has to be the oldest person. This needs to be established because in Korea, you're not allowed to say the name of the person if they're older than you. And the words are different by gender!
Men -> 형 older brother (hyeong) 누나 older sister (noo na)
Women -> 오빠 older brother (oh bba) 어니older sister (ah ni)
And even in the case of twins, one of the twins has to be born before the other. So the younger will always address the older by one of those four words, depending on the situation.
But even more important than age is social standing. And this is where you can perhaps read into the mind of how Korean culture works.
My girlfriend, who is Korean, teaches me Korean about once a week. Thankfully, she speaks incredible English. She was correcting my writing and used a form of a verb I didn't understand. The verb was 오다 (oh da) meaning to come. I had transcribed "When is our friend coming here?"
언제 진구가 여기에 와? (onjeh chinguga yahgieh wa)
To which she slightly modified to:
언제 진구가 여기에 오니? (onjeh chinguga yahgieh oh nee)
The translated into English, it is an identical sentence in terms of direct meaning. But the change from 와 to 오니 is that 와 is 'standard' and 오니 is 'literally another option to say the same thing to a younger person or somebody that you are close with but if you want to say 와 go right ahead it's totally the same anyway because you're going to use 와 and not 와요 in the same situation'
But!
She studies English formally with a friend of mine in town. She explained that she would use 오니 with me, but never with our friend. Our friend is two years younger than she is, but she would never use 오니 with her because she is her teacher. Even in a social setting, not a class setting, she would never use 오니 with her because social standing supersedes all, even age. Language is so tied into the culture that without asking those string of questions I outlined earlier above, communication becomes impossible. They are so critically important, but whether language reflects the culture or the culture reflects the language is a post for another time.Powered by WebRing.
Hello. Thanks for reading In Between Soju. How are you doing?
(Annyeong haseyo? In Between Soju-leul il geo seo kam sa ham nida. Jal ji nae seh yo?)
 |
| My Korean vocabulary board. I write words I'm studying here then hope they enter my mind with a combination of staring ...well, just a lot of staring |
..............
..............
Anyone still here? Alright!
그럼 저는 시작할거예요...
So, when you meet a Korean for the first time especially in a social situation, if you're a man, you will be asked the following things especially if the person you're talking to is also a man.
1) What's your name?
2) Where are you from?
3) What is your job?
4) Excuse me, how old are you?
5) Do you have a girlfriend?
5a [if answer to 5 is yes]) Oh, is she pretty/Korean?
5b [if answer to 5 is no]) WHY NOT?!
This barrage of questions will usually be qualified by the statement "you are so handsome" thereafter (yes, men do this to each other)
One thing that strikes a Western person quickly is how obsessed Koreans are with age. And for good reason, because if they don't know how old you are, they will have no idea how to speak to you in Korean. Communication actually becomes impossible until age, or other social standing, is established. I will explain.
 |
| I like to 먹다 |
And here's a sentence meaning I eat rice: 저는 밥을 먹어요 (jahneun babeul mogahyo)
Easy right? No. That sentence presupposes that I already know how old you are (older than me) or that we're new acquaintances. Now, if we were of similar age, or we are good friends now, I can speak to you like this:
나는 밥을 먹어 (Naneun babeul mogah). I get to change the "I" from 저 to 나 and I drop the 요 which makes it less formal. So there's formal, and not formal, easy one might think?
If the situation is you are older than me and/or I respect you, the sentence changes to
저는 밥을 먹으세요 (Jahneun babeul mogahsehyo)
If the situation is I don't know how old you are at all, or what your social standing is, or I know one or both of those things but I want to be deferential then its
저는 밥을 먹습니다 (Jahneun babeul mogsumnida)
And then all of these situations have their respective permutations in the past and future tenses!
The point is here that without knowing age, a dialogue in Korean becomes impossible. Age is critically important in Korea, and you see it here reflected in their language. A man must nearly always be older than a women in a dating situation (fairly normal in the West, but nearly compulsory in Korea). Food is served according to who is the oldest and youngest, a point that I've touched on here. Age can even determine trustworthiness and inherent personal worth. While in English, one might use a different vocabulary or use/omit slang or colloquialisms based on the person you're talking with, because age isn't formally established at the outset of a conversation, one uses their best judgement in the situation and proceeds accordingly but in Korean age formally determines how one speaks, and is formally established at the beginning of a meeting so that a conversation can actually take place.
Another example is that among any group of people of similar ages, someone has to be the oldest person. This needs to be established because in Korea, you're not allowed to say the name of the person if they're older than you. And the words are different by gender!
Men -> 형 older brother (hyeong) 누나 older sister (noo na)
Women -> 오빠 older brother (oh bba) 어니older sister (ah ni)
And even in the case of twins, one of the twins has to be born before the other. So the younger will always address the older by one of those four words, depending on the situation.
But even more important than age is social standing. And this is where you can perhaps read into the mind of how Korean culture works.
My girlfriend, who is Korean, teaches me Korean about once a week. Thankfully, she speaks incredible English. She was correcting my writing and used a form of a verb I didn't understand. The verb was 오다 (oh da) meaning to come. I had transcribed "When is our friend coming here?"
언제 진구가 여기에 와? (onjeh chinguga yahgieh wa)
To which she slightly modified to:
언제 진구가 여기에 오니? (onjeh chinguga yahgieh oh nee)
The translated into English, it is an identical sentence in terms of direct meaning. But the change from 와 to 오니 is that 와 is 'standard' and 오니 is 'literally another option to say the same thing to a younger person or somebody that you are close with but if you want to say 와 go right ahead it's totally the same anyway because you're going to use 와 and not 와요 in the same situation'
But!
She studies English formally with a friend of mine in town. She explained that she would use 오니 with me, but never with our friend. Our friend is two years younger than she is, but she would never use 오니 with her because she is her teacher. Even in a social setting, not a class setting, she would never use 오니 with her because social standing supersedes all, even age. Language is so tied into the culture that without asking those string of questions I outlined earlier above, communication becomes impossible. They are so critically important, but whether language reflects the culture or the culture reflects the language is a post for another time.
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