Last week, I was helping my mother go through some business documents at her store when her friend dropped by to visit. "And what is your daughter doing here?" "She's helping me sort through these documents, make phone calls, write letters, and fill out forms." "What a great daughter!" "Oh it's nothing. She's been doing this for us ever since she was in 2nd grade!" What my mother said is true. When we first immigrated to the U.S., my parents painstakingly studied books, listened to cassette tapes, and even took night classes to learn English. But how could they properly learn while working 80 hours a week in an attempt to set up a new life in a new country (to which they had arrived...
Continue readingThe new Sydney International Food Festival has released a series of ads that depict various country flags via the use of their national foods. (click to view larger) Australia Brazil France Greece India Italy Japan Korea Lebanon Spain Switzerland Vietnam What a fantastic visual representation of the different cultures that will be represented in the festival! Kudos to the Australian ad agency WHYBIN/TBWA on the great job! I may be biased, but I think the Korea one is the best - don't you agree? Via Ads of the World. ...
Continue readingMy mother recently asked me if I had any strange or memorable dreams when I became pregnant. I then recalled that Koreans believe a woman begins her pregnancy with a 태몽 (tae-mong), or a dream about the conception of the child. (I thought this was unique to the Korean culture but apparently not - J just confirmed that the Chinese believe the same thing!) When my mother first became pregnant with me, she dreamt that she was caught in a terrible thunderstorm. To escape the rain, she sought shelter in a dilapidated building. She looked up at the ceiling and was horrified to see a great number of snakes writhing and squirming on the roof beams. While most of them were a dull...
Continue readingIf Korea were to have a national dish, most people would undoubtedly point to kimchi. With roots tracing to ancient times, there exist dozens of variations, and is the most popular banchan - or side dish - on Korean tables. Kimchi is so deeply-rooted in Korean culture that Koreans say "kimchi" instead of "cheese" when smiling for the camera. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may remember when I wrote about Space Kimchi, which was developed so that Korean astronauts do not have to part with kimchi when in space. Heck, there is even a Kimchi Museum in Seoul! (image source) Having been born in South Korea, and raised by a mother whose Korean cuisine rivals that of...
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Having grown up in the U.S., I have heard on more than one occasion that celebrities possess larger heads compared to those of the general population, the idea being that the larger head will have larger features, which will show better on screen. There is even an episode of Entourage where Turtle proclaims, "The bigger the head, the bigger the star." However, in Korea, the exact opposite is true. The smaller your head/face, the more attractive you are. A picture of Ivy, a Korean celebrity, posing between two fans. Notice how small her face is compared to that of "normal" people. (image source) It is not uncommon for foreigners to be utterly confounded when first met with this phenomenon. "Gosh, your face is so small!"...
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