Chuseok at Emart

The Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving or Harvest) holidays this year are from September 29 to October 3, Saturday to Wednesday, a five-day treat! Usually we just get a three-day holiday, two days for travel and then the holiday itself, but this year with Chuseok, based on the lunar calendar, falling near a solar calendar holiday on October 3, National Foundation Day, the day that the nation founder Dangun was supposed to have established the Gojoseon Dynasty in 2333 BC, we get a bonus two days. Wouldn't be nice to have a three-day weekend, rush back to the offices and schools for a day and then have another public holiday.

 

So, with the holiday comes a little extra time for shopping, namely that the stores are congested with shoppers and congested with ladies everywhere dressed in hanboks and selling shelves congested with gift boxes of food for the holidays. I just have to document this gift-box-culture for people not living in Korea. It's such a unique culture. And my photos suggest it's limited to fruit and dried foods. Well, it's definitely not! Gift boxes could contain several boxes of toothpaste, several bottles of olive and/or grapeseed oil, liquor fancifully packaged, or teas, or pots of stylized ceramic honey pots packaged in beautiful Asian designed wooden boxes. (I've bought a few of those over the years, and yes, they make great gifts!) Anyway, there are boxes and boxes everywhere. And crowds of people too. It was hard getting these pictures because I had to wait for people to pass for almost every one.

 

Actually, several years ago there was a lot of discussion at the government level about making some green laws concerning the huge number of gift boxes produced, given and then quickly tossed, filling dumpsters and trash sites on the holidays. I should take some pictures of THAT! Unfortunately, the green laws must have just been rumor as the shelves are still loaded with gift boxes and the trash sites still get hugely piled up on the big holidays. But here are a few of the items, and some of the women selling them. Each short aisle had at least one woman selling. I don't know if they are paid wages or on commission, but they were quite aggressive about making sales.

 

apples

dried ginseng - if it's red ginseng, it's worth more as it is believed that the steaming and thus the coloration
of the ginseng has a healthier value

health products, which recently became a big and very EXPENSIVE market

canned tuna, spam and other

dried mushrooms

various nuts (I have yet to see Brazil nuts in Korea)

more dried mushrooms

10 Minute Play Festival Competition

Seoul Players, one of the two most active expat groups for putting on plays in English, held their 2nd annual play festival competition on Friday and Saturday, September 14-15. Advance bookings had to be made if one hoped to enjoy the festival, especially the final night, as the facility was rather small to hold the masses of people eager for English entertainment. Fortunately my friend made reservations and we got there early enough to even get pretty decent seats.

This festival this year attracted over 200 ten-minute submissions, more than double what was submitted last year, which also was the first time the festival was held. By last weekend the submissions had been narrowed down to 14, and then 3 of the top plays from the Friday night performances and 3 for the Saturday performances -- as determined by audience popularity -- were selected to perform in the final round this weekend.

The festival was a great opportunity for writers, actors and directors to collaborate, and in many cases, to try something new. Many of the playwrights are from the Seoul community and were excited to share their literary expertise to a large and avidly interested English community.

The 6 final plays competing in the festival were:

Melting by Eddie Zipperer
The story began with two snowpeople, a pessimistic and worrisome husband and his exuberant and optimistic wife, who stood stationary in the front lawn of someone's yard, watching the activities of life unfolding around them. The pessimistic husband feared the orange blaze of the sun and his melting condition (as the sun glowing behind them moved in the arc across the sky) and the wife after a little nap woke to the pleasing glow of the illuminated world. As they melted, the husband worried and fretted and the wife enjoyed the beautiful brilliance around them.

The Audience by Daniel Kennedy
A rather intriguing study of the people in the play playing the role of the audience as they stared at us, the audience. We, the audience, were told not to laugh, wave or interact with the actors, and the actors waved, laughed at and commented on people in the audience, us. Thus, we became the focus of the play and the players' comments were made on their realization of the role of the audience (a real play on concepts). The 10-minute psychological play was a clever expose on the complicatedness of the role people play and who, in fact, is the audience.

Surprise by Mark Harvey Levine
Two people started out in a restaurant, one a clever but boring guy who could predict what people said before they said it, and his girlfriend who needed anger management and hated that her boyfriend could finish her sentences and tell her what she wanted before she knew she wanted it. The fury of the girlfriend built, her rudeness and temper escalated and she broke up with her boyfriend in a fiery fit. The boyfriend knew it was coming, of course, but what he didn't know was that the waitress knew what he was thinking before he knew and she liked his intuitiveness in all things, except his ability to know that she was the one for him. Surprise!

The Extras by Daniel Kennedy
A group of five people sat around wasting time waiting for another friend to show up in a coffee shop, but not all who waited wanted to. Conversation flickered between them but was interrupted by two other people in the coffee ship functioning in a surprising number of roles with a lot of spoofing from well-known movies. My friend and I missed many of the allusions, and I have to wonder at times if the majority of the people caught them all, but there was a lot of sporadic laughter as realization hit from the wild acting of an auditory-only organism to a movie spoof when he realized his dying wife was in fact the last barely recognizable apparition of his ... mother.

Calibans by Ray Salcedo
Three women went to a rather exotic restaurant, two were familiar with the place and one was being introduced. The specialty was alluded to with ribald and grose commentary but the newcomer was never clearly told what exactly was the specialty of the menu. Hints were thrown out as the women slurped up their alcohol drinks, and gradually the secret of the restaurants menu became to be known as young flesh .... as a child came hopping across a corner of the stage obviously fleeing some terror. The "child", a small thin Korean-American male, with duct-taped mouth and wearing only kid's cartoon character underwear and with trailing ropes from his bound hands and feet was hopping away. The drunk women calmly told the waiter, whose eyes widened and he ran after the hopping child, threw the child over his shoulder and disappeared, promising that all was under control and the menu would soon be brought. [I was repulsed by this ... and was greatly disappointed in the audience (a reflection of society perhaps and its desire for the macabre and the morbid) when it one first place.]

The Kiss by Mark Harvey Levine
A young single girl was singing loudly and doing her laundry when a platonic but good male friend came and asked for her advice, basically how she kissed. He wasn't interested in her but had been told by a previous date that he was a bad kisser and, as he had a hot date that night, planned to kiss his date but needed advice ... and he wanted a little practice from his friend. Well, the girl being a good friend finally agreed and he practiced kissing, amid her turning and laughing at the strangeness of the situation. However, each practice kiss got better and better with her tips and his practice, and the ultimate kiss was deep and changed them both. The play beginning in light-heartedness ended with deep discussion as the complicatedness of changing emotions came to the forefront.

After the audience had enjoyed all 6 10-minute plays, each member wrote his/her top three choices on a slip of paper and submitted the vote to play-ushers. Tallies were quickly made and the outcome was a clear win for Calibans. The Audience and The Extras came in second and third.

Yin & Yang of 6 Medicinals

When Chinese, Koreans and many people of Asia, who have beliefs in hot and cold theories, are treating ailments and diseases, they first must understand the body constitution of the patient.

To know the body type, evaluating the physique, studying the diet with preferred foods and preferred temperatures of foods when eating, taking the pulse, and a few more points are taken into collective consideration before a body type "diagnosis" is pronounced. To be specific, there are 2 yang or warm body types (a greater and a lesser) and there are 2 yin or cool body types (again, a greater and a lesser). Only when the correct body type is ascertained can medicinals be prescribed.

3 Warm Herbs / Medicinals (Yang 陽)

Ginseng - Ginseng is used to reduce stress, improve the digestive function, reduce fatigue, fight against colds and infections; mountain or wild ginseng is seen as far better than cultivated ginseng and the price in the thousands of dollars that a single wild ginseng plant brings in reflects this belief. A caution, however, for people wanting this cure-all is that people with dominating yang should avoid the plant, or their body balance will be blown with excessive heat.

Velvet Deer Antler - Deer antlers in the velvet are another warm medicinal with a more than 2000 year old medicinal history. Deer antlers commonly figure in medicinal compotes as they supposedly relieve arthritis pain, inflammation, support joints and improve blood circulation. They are pretty much viewed as enhancing the entire immune system. A caution when using deer antlers as a medicinal is to avoid alcohol.

Caterpillar Fungus (동춘화초) - Caterpillar fungus is one of the many fungi in Asia that has medicinal healing factors. This particular kind of fungi is believed to protect against lung and kidney problems, and also to help in the prevention of cancer. Cautions for this are unknown.

Cool Herbs / Medicinals (Yin 陰)

Adlay also known as Job's Tear (율무) - Adlay is a gluten-free grain not commonly cultivated in Korea or until recently enjoyed as a grain. It predominantly figures in the sweetened instant drink 율무차. Adlay is believed to be good for the metabolism and promotes good blood circulation. Recently it has taken on the extra meaning of being beneficial for dieting and weight loss. There are two cautions for this grain. People who have cool constitutions are very much affected by the cooling affects of this grain. Likewise, preganant women should avoid as it "cools" the blood which affects the fetus.

Mung Beans (녹두) - Mung beans are believed to be very beneficial for detoxing the body and improving urination. They also help sick individuals recovery their health and improve the actions of the organs in the body. Mung beans are not to be taken with chemical medicines as through interaction they may reduce the effects of the intended treatment outcome.

Gardenia Seeds (치자) - Gardenia seeds are a cooling "herb" for reducing an internal fever, and according to the 동귀보감 they are especially helpful for improving liver function. A secondary outcome when taking them is the lowering of one's blood pressure. They also can help depression and soothe blood shot eyes. The only mentioned caution for gardenia seeds is the likelihood of a diarrhea.

This interesting piece of research was done by my students Doyoung Lee and Sojung Oh. Although there are sooooo many types of yang and yin medicinals, the students prefaced their presentation with choosing six, three from both of the yin and yang categories, to explain to the audience for tips on how to improve their own or their family members' health.

On Korean Writing Style: Non-Linear Rhetorical

Collegue Rocky Stewart, a professor in our department well versed in linguistics and writing, gave a lecture a few months ago on Korean writing styles to help our teachers have a better conception of how to teach English cross-culturally to our Korean students. If English were said to have 2 unique writing structures, they would be said to be: (1) unity in writing, and (2) lack of repetition. Likewise, Korean in the following samples has been reduced to two unique writing features:

Feature #1: 기성전귤


The non-linear Korean pattern of writing originated from the "qi-cheng-zhuan-he)" (起承轉合)style in Chinese. The Korean version, 기성전귤, comprises 4 stages: “beginning”, “development”, “turn”, and “end”. A similar pattern can also be found in Japanese writing (“ki-sho-ten-ketsu”). And do to their non-linear style, English readers may find the pattern confusing.

Example 1 of Korean Writing:

The Ministry of Home Affairs is planning to strengthen the period of training for public officials from 3 days to 6 days per year in order to solidify the spirituality of the public officials. The training is to be conducted at the Spiritual Cultural Institute which is rendered in English as the Institute for Korean Studies.

A new meaning of “national” is attached to the word “spiritual”. Perhaps this comes from the term “spiritual culture”.

A member of the Korean Alphabet Society complained that the architectural design of the Institute for the Korean Studies resembles a Buddhist Temple and thus is not Korean. This is not so because Buddhism, though imported from India, is a Korean religion. Likewise Christianity is a Korean religion.

Any attempt to label what is national and what is foreign fails,

Perhaps too much emphasis on nationalism may do more harm than good.

Instead of inspiring nationalism we should be appealing to universal reason and proper moral conduct. The civil spirit must take precedence over the national spirit.

I am reminded of this when, changing trains at the subway, I witness the rush to occupy seats on route to the sports centre where the Olympic Games are to be held. How do we enhance the nation’s prestige through a sports event? As a teacher, I am partly responsible for this situation.

Spiritual poverty is best observed in a metropolitan area like Seoul. Why is our public transport system so multi-layered with standing buses at the bottom, then regular buses, and finally taxis which move constantly to catch more passengers?

Once you catch a taxi you have to listen to the loud radio controlled by the driver.

“Dear administrators, please do not talk about spiritual things unless you are interested in implementing concrete ethical conduct.”

According to English analysis, this style of writing would be broken down into 5 non-linear parts: beginning of argument, "loose" development of argument, main point of argument, concepts indirectly connected with the argument, conclusion of main theme (the latter does not appear in this writing sample). However, from the Korean writing perspective there would be 4 parts: beginning, development, turn, and end (the latter which does not appear). From this, it becomes obvious that conclusions, summaries and how to finish the writing becomes obviously a point that differs between English and Korean writing styles. One obvious feature which was not said is that Koreans typically want to conclude with a wide overall statement like "I hope my children will never have this problem" when the topic was strictly relating a narrative on a traumatic childhood event of a grandparent, for example. From my perspective on this, Koreans would typically like to finish with a statement that (involves them, but from a collective point of view, and usually stemming the sentence with "I hope".

Feature #2: Indirection


The writing is not developed in a straight line proceeding from a statement of the central idea followed by elaboration. Instead, the subject is looked at indirectly through examining issues not directly related to the main idea.

Other non-linear or indirect features are “discontinuity” (see German examples) and “abrupt transition” (see Hindi example).

Example 2 of Korean Writing:

Foreigners who reside in Korea as well as those who study the Korean language in foreign countries are, despite their deep interest, ignorant of the basis on which the Korean alphabet, Hangul, was formulated. The Korean alphabet, composed of combination of lines and curves, seems more difficult than the Japanese kana for those who use the Roman alphabet, and as the combination of vowels and consonants multiples, it appears more difficult to memorize all the combinations. This seemingly complicated combination of vowels and consonants can, on the contrary, be mastered with no more effort than is needed to learn the Roman alphabet or Japanese kana, for one must merely memorize two dozen vowels and consonants, the principal letters of the Korean alphabet.

The principal concern of foreign as well as Korean scholars has been on what foundation the Korean alphabet was formulated. (Kang and Kim 1979:5)

No Korean analysis of this writing was offered, but from an English writing perspective, this writing can be broken down into 3 parts: main topic in the thesis statement, discussing around the topic or illustrating the main issue from tangential views; restating the main topic in the beginning of the next paragraph. From an experiential point-of-view, it's rather hard to define clearly enough for the students to understand that this style of writing isn't exactly on the topic.

For another look at this writing and more in-depth studies on other non-linear styles (Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, French, German, Thai, Hindi), refer to the on-line source.

In short, the 5 points to focus clearly on when teaching writing to our non-linear writing Korean students is that a strong thesis statement should:

(1) make a claim. it should raise specific issues for the essay to explore.
(2) not say something that is obviously true or a statement of fact. it should make an assertion that some readers may diasgree with.
(3) no restate conventional wisdom, i.e. it should not say something that has been said many times before.
(4) not state only the writer's personal conviction, likes or dislikes.
(5) not oversimplify or make too broad a claim (Rosenwasser & Stephen 2006)

A History of Chocolate in Korea

Chocolates in the Daehan Empire

Chocolate originally came to Korea during the time of the Daehan Empire. At that time chocolate was unfamiliar "food" and symbolized the duality of something of the barbarians and yet as a symbol of accepting western culture. Western culture was culturally rejected as something foreign but there was always the allure that it brought many conveniences and luxuries for the yangban class and the king and his court, and so chocolate was one of many items tried and, while not becoming popular, was still viewed as something luxurious and therefore desirable.

a movie clip recreation of Daehan dining ... with chocolates

Chocolates from the Korean War to the 1950s

Not until the US Forces who came to the Korean peninsula with chocolates (and candy and other cultural unknowns) did chocolate become "accessible" to the common people. Actually it wasn't all people who had access but chocolates and candies were something that soldiers passed out, especially to the young children who flocked around them and reminded the lonely soldiers of kids back home. At this time, the wealthy people were starting to enjoy chocolates, but all chocolates in Korea were import items and therefore scarce.

US Soldier passing out chocolates to kids



US Army issue chocolate bars



Chocolates in the 1950s and 1960s

Sometime in the 1950s Korea developed and marketed its own chocolate bar. The second chocolate bar was the 나하나 chocolate and with it came popularization. Chocolate now was made accessible to the common people. The bar was an entrepreneurial adventure that was well received by the public and soon afterwards other food companies were entering into the Korean chocolate market. One of these was Ghana chocolate launched in 1975 and which, surprisingly while other chocolate bars and companies faded out with the decades, Ghana chocolate is still marketed today ... and with the same packaging! Chocolate became a symbol of Korea's quickly growing food industry and the booming economic growth of Korea. Now, people who in former times had struggled to just eat, could actually enjoy the former elitest "food" as they were not limited to agricultural work for just maintaining life but they were working at jobs which brought in income for buying and enjoying market foods. In the 1950s and 1960s chocolate bars became an unspoken symbol of changing traditions and more cultural acceptance of western culture.

Korea's second chocolate bar

Ghana chocolate - developed in 1975 and still sold today with the same packaging!

Chocolates Today

Chocolates made in Korea now has grown into a full fledged booming industry. Chocolates are marketed on holidays, given fancy packagings and wrapping to help with marketability, come in all possible shapes and colors, or, so it seems. Chocolates are an expression of love, friendship, a time to celebrate, or just something to be shared with friends. Though introduced from the US, chocolates have taken on a culture and symbolic meaning that is so loaded with symbolic contextual meaning that Americans understand the "food" but cannot fully grasp the Korean chocolate culture which has evolved around it.

Various packaging and decorating of chocolates

Park So Mi and Park Su A did a marvelous job organizing this history.

Very enjoyable and thank you for letting me post your work here.