Reflecting on my language learning I would say that for me and the language I’m studying, language and culture are so entangled. Hebrew and Judaism are so wrapped up in each other that in learning about one I have learned about they other. I think that because Hebrew is the language of Judaism and Jewish culture, I am picking it up passively. I am not sure if I would say that the discussions about language structure have helped my understanding of my target language but they have been insightful. They have helped my understanding on language formation. I liked the discussion on competence because it speaks to how different languages form meaning and de facto rules. It also made me wonder how far someone could take the self-study program. AAVE is by some considered to be a different language and has words that English does but with different meanings. Is it worth its own study? It also made me think about what is defined as a language. Is it different meaning, understanding, or forms of communicative competence? A lot of my current study is very passive. I have two apps I have been using that give me lists of words for the day. As my study relates to my journey with Judaism I have had to choose a name for my conversion and been able to use what I do know about the language structure of Hebrew and my starter vocabulary to help with that. The one thing that has changed with my plan is that I want to use a metric to track my growth. I have found a few online programs that have good reviews that I would like to use when I move to the 110 section. I have become frustrated with my language learning only because I currently don’t have to opportunity to learn my language in the way I want. I have been going to services and using the other method I outlined to start though I think I want to move away from a more free form of study to one that is regimented. In my plan especially because Judaism is to some degree tied to my study I think I am focusing on that particular aspect of competence.
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105 Reflection 7:
My language learning experience has been good. We have now gotten to the point of creating complete sentences. I have been focusing more on the Ge’ez to English and vice versa with less involvement of Amharic than I initially expected. Especially during this past month, I have been heavily focusing on Ge’ez translations and exposure through youtube videos, scriptures and Church services. The relationship between Ge’ez and Church culture is really inextricable because the way that the language is staying alive is through liturgical and historical texts on the Church.
Now that I have the tools to make sentences, I want to take a functional approach (225) and learn the listed aspects of language. Grammatical competence is what I have covered so far; morphology, syntax, phonology.
I have definitely made use of the classroom conversations we’ve had these past couple of weeks. They have made me think about my language learning with a wider view in terms of research.
This past weekend was Diwali (it is a multi-day event), and I would be really missing out on a unique cultural artifact if I did not write about it. Also known as Deepavali or simply the Festival of Lights (and known as Hari Diwali in Malay), this is a traditional Hindu festival that marks the end of the monsoon season and holds deep religious significance for practicers of this faith. In Malaysia, it is a public holiday in 16 of the federated states and is a testament to the multiethnic culture of the country. It is celebrated across Southeast and South Asia.
During Diwali, members of Hindu communities will decorate their homes with paper lanterns, which are not unlike those in the Chinese Lantern Festival during the Lunar New Year (though they are white instead of red), as well as "kolam," or a textile floor design made of dyed rice and colored powder. These artistic pieces vary significantly from home to home, and many Hindu practitioners will invite those from other religions in to showcase their home and celebrate one of the most important days of the year for them. There are fireworks, and, also similar to the small red pouches I the Chinese New Year, there will be small purple or yellow packages prepared for children. Food, of course, is a major part of this holiday, and one Malaysian variation is "murukku"(see below), which are deep fried rice noodles. In Malaysia in particular, there are multiple places where this holiday is celebrated publicly. Kuala Lumpur's "Little India" is one of the most famous ethnic neighborhoods in the city (there are actually multiple areas). In addition, Hindu temples are of course a popular venue during Diwali, where Hindu practitioners can celebrate and practice their faith.
It is fascinating how festivals and traditions in the form of public holidays in Malaysia can encompass everything from Diwali to Chinese New Year to Muhammad's Birthday to Christmas. While the United States is also a multiethnic society, it does not have the same public memorializing or openness of citizens or members of different religions to holidays as Malaysia. This is not to say that Malaysian society is perfect or without its own issues (e.g. government-led closure of Hindu temples for hosting squatters), but the willingness of people from other faiths to get excited and celebrate something as a public good is very interesting.
Diwali is a major cultural tradition of a minority group in Malaysia, particularly in the western, peninsular part. I was really surprised to learn that there are some parallels to Chinese New Year (though with different characteristics), as I had never heard about this before. The University of Richmond will host its own Festival of Lights as part of its Asia Week celebration, and I am excited to see how it goes (along with Asia Week as a whole). For my next cultural artifact, I will certainly focus on East Malaysia and native culture in Borneo and see what insights Melissa can provide.
Sources:
https://publicholidays.com.my/deepavali/
https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/10-facts-about-diwali-1412067946-1
It is admittedly quite surprising that it is already midway through the semester and that I recorded my Panopto video so long ago. Regardless, it is quite insightful to look back now (and not at the end of the semester), gauge my progress, and reevaluate where needed. So, this is how I held up:
According to the survey I took at the beginning of the semester, I fell into the "musical, language, and social" learner, and was also slightly more of a visual one than auditory (45% vs. 40%). Funnily enough, I had not incorporated music until last week, where Melissa and I went over the Malay songbook (and Mehreen's singing recordings in it!) and now it's my turn to give it a try. Music is a fascinating gateway into culture, and this in particular will help with one of the goals that I listed in my recording: feeling comfortable speaking and pronouncing. This is something that I have kept up with and constantly tried to improve during my time learning Malay. To this end, my reciprocal exchanges with Melissa have been really helpful and I have already improved so much just in this small regard. The word "tengan" that was so hard for me to pronounce earlier in the semester suddenly does not seem as bad. I also noted that I would practice prefixes/suffixes in Malay, which I have not done much of and would like to focus more on (with the exception of the "me"/"mem" one). The last challenging aspect that I wanted to improve upon earlier on was surrounding compound words, and I actually also went over some with Melissa last week. This is a process and I wouldn't have expected to reach complete perfection by this time, but at least I am still working towards conquering similar challenges linguistically and have not lost sight of that original vision too much.
In terms of my original goals, one of the first ones I mentioned was gaining insights into Malaysian culture and gain a different worldview. While in hindsight this seems somewhat simplistic, I also remember where I was going with this: it is my third language, and with each one you gain so much perspective and insight. To this end, my conversations with Melissa have been wonderful and I am excited to continue working towards this. We are watching a movie this week, which will be my first exposure to a film in this language. I also watched a cooking video in Malay and got to dissect words and learn recipes with Melissa in my target language, which was a lot of fun. Another goal was incorporating my language study into my academic work and gaining some geopolitical insights. My Politics of Asia class has been really helpful in this regard, and I wrote my Political Leader Profile on Mahathir Mohammad so that I could talk further with Melissa about this key figure in Malaysian politics and learn more about the domestic political situation in Malaysia at the same time. I also wanted to be able to describe myself and my background comfortably, and discuss culture and tradition, and to this end I think I have made substantial progress.
Overall, my process of individual learning so far has been going well, but there are of course a lot of areas where I can improve. To improve my communicative competence, I need to continue trying new and unknown methods and seeing what sticks, so to speak. I really want to start listening to music in Malay, and I already have a lot of options lined up. I have downloaded a Malay keyboard on my phone to help me be able to go online and learn that way too. I want to engage more deeply with Malay pop culture, and also meet more Malay people. To this latter point, there is an event at the Malay embassy in Washington, D.C. that I told Melissa about and am really hoping I can go (though it falls right before Thanksgiving and I may not be able to). Regardless, I am starting to learn what works and what does not, and this has been helpful to me because soon enough I will need to independently keep up with my Chinese as well and it is important to have this experience and exposure.
At the begging, I found learning Turkish was so hard because it was totally different from all the languages I learned before. But after listening and knowing more about Turkish, I began to find the pattern, and everything became much easier than the beginning. Now I can memorize Turkish words much faster, and when I watch Turkish movies, I can even understand some very basic words or sentences that we learned in class. Also, it was always surprising to see how unique Turkish culture is, and it is very different from other European countries as well. I felt like they loved to enjoy their lives and proud of making really fantastic foods that impressed tourists from all over the world. Now I’m expecting to see the more in-depth insight of Turkish culture and their values.
I was continuously thinking about the meaning of studying a new language when I study Turkish. I realize I like learning language because I want to experience different ways of expression. Language is a system to display ideas and is also an art, so no matter in Turkish, English, Chinese, dancing, music, or painting, in my opinion, they are all different languages. In the process of tapping the semantic meaning behind each symbol, understanding a new structure of grammar, and getting to know a new cultural background, we can see a new world. We can use a new language or choose the language most suitable for the idea we really want to express, and express our inner feelings incisively and vividly. It's a beautiful thing.
Language also means adapting a brand-new world view. Learning a language is learning to see the world from a new perspective. In fact, every culture's way of observing the world is reflected in the language. After learning a new language and entering the system of that language and culture, we will begin to feel that there is no right or wrong, or right and wrong does not matter anymore; there are only differences among people, and then people will become more empathetic and open-minded.
Last week, every K-pop fan was shocked about the death of Sulli, a famous singer and actress in Korea. Although she was a popular K-pop star, she had long been the target of abusive online comments. According to Sulli’s manager, Sulli had depression because of the hate comments that she got recently. That was highly possible the main reason that she chose to kill herself at age of 25.
Actually, the problem of hate comments in Korea is always a serious topic to talk about because people in Korea can post something really disrespectful anonymously. I read some hate comments about Sulli before and after her death. For example, which is she is ugly. Moreover, a lot of comments on her Instagram are insult to her body. As a matter of fact, she encouraged women to forgo wearing a bra as a means to encourage breast cancer awareness. However, those haters just left comments such as “her body is flat, no curves at all.” And “If you keep not wearing your bra, your boobs are gonna be saggy.” Even after Sulli’s death, there were still people leaving hate and aggressive comments such as you supposed to die early. And they claimed Sulli just wanted to drag attention using her death. I have never seen such hate comments before, and I was really shocked about it. What’s more, not only celebrities, but also normal people in Korea will also get bullied and hate comments online.
South Korea has one of the world's highest rates of suicide which, according to recent government figures, is among the top causes of death for those under 40. And most people that choose to suicide are women in Korea. I think one of the main reasons is that Korean society still set a lot of limitation of what women can do in Korea and what they cannot do. Such stories happened everyday online. I still remembered there was a really good book called Kim Ji-young, born 1982 in Korea. This book is about a housewife who becomes a stay-at-home mother and later suffers from depression. It depicts the everyday sexism the title character experiences since youth. However, a part of people in Korea – most are men – state that this book is for feminism. Every K-pop star who had recommended this book before got harassment and bullying from those haters. Some of those haters will never realize that their words are killing people.
After Sulli’s death, major South Korean portal Daum will temporarily close its comments sections on entertainment news. This is actually a huge step to make. Many agree that the degree of insults that occur through comments under entertainment news sections has reached a level that harms the health of the public. I hope the whole society in korea can be more open to diversity and new ideas instead of just simply closing the comment sections.
It was recommended to me that I watch a show called 꽃보다 할배 or Grandpas Over Flowers which is a Korean comedy series about a group of elderly men who travel around and explore the world. It explores different concepts about Korean culture around aging and because the show is not scripted, it provides a unique and authentic platform. I watched an episode in which the group of grandpas travel to Barcelona, Spain. There were two situations that I found exemplified certain aspects of Korean culture around relationships with and between the elderly people. One situation was when a younger man around 40 years old was told to plan the trip for the grandpas. He was in charge of buying the tickets and setting up the lodging. The grandpas teased him a lot, but he took their critiques lightly, almost in an endearing way, and catered to their needs before his own when taking care of them. Another concept that I found very interesting was the hierarchy of age even within the elderly community. For example the eldest grandpa led the entire group to their hotel in Barcelona. No one else helped him or provided input on the situation. The oldest grandpa was in charge of looking at maps, talking with locals, and guiding the group to their destination. The rest of the grandpas looked up to him for wisdom and direction and did not trust their own abilities to fill his shoes.
I think it is also interesting to note that the show's production also played a role in accentuating these roles of the older and younger generations. The directors put comments on the screen as the show is playing, that points out the silliness/clumsiness of the 40 year old man, yet acknowledges how he comes through for the grandpas. They also made the eldest grandpa seem more heroic by pointing out all of his skills and efforts as he led the group.
These two examples represent a part of a larger concept of community. South Korea has a history with the ideology of Confucianism. A lot of aspects of their culture such as respect for elders and filial piety stem from Confucianism. My Korean professor suggested that in the past there was a need for a strong community. The most convenient and closest community was the family, so it was common for all members of the family to live in the same household. In times of economic hardship, this structure relieves the responsibility of each individual and creates a collective accountability system. Positions were established of leaders and providers to support the overall group. Even though the culture and community of South Korea has developed and modernized over the past several decades, it is still apparent that these ideologies continue to present themselves as important aspects of Korean life. It is typical for he children of the grandparents to provide for the group economically, yet the elderly still hold the wisdom and guidance for the community. The eldest is seen as the most wise, honorable, respected, valued member of society.
Video Clip from the show:
I watched a Turkish movie yesterday called Issiz adam. I watched this movie because I really liked the main actor from the other Turkish movie Hazal asked us to watch. In the film, Alpher is the owner of a restaurant. Like nostalgic music, he is a lonely man, every night he will spend money sleeping with different women. Then during the day, he lived a normal life as a good chef. At night, he began to linger over different women's bodies.
Until a beautiful encounter, he met Ada, a beautiful and temperament woman, who has her own second-hand clothing store and only designs clothes for children, but she lives in a very ordinary and even a little bit tedious life. However, they fell in love.
It's just that after a period of getting along and having fun, Alpher suddenly says that they should break up, which makes Ada very unacceptable. But still, they don't contact each other anymore.
Alpher feels nothing about breaking about until one morning, the hairpin Ada left at his house slipping down from the glass, he cried, and he realized he hasn't let go this short-lived relationship at all. Then Alpher began his life being alone, with a yearning and guilty to wait for Ada.
It's just unexpected they will meet again many years later. They meet at the gate of the cinema. Ada cut her hair to very short, and at that time she was having tea with friends. She and Alpher stand face to face at the entrance of the cinema and cover up their inner nostalgia and love with lies. This scene made my tears keep falling down.
For the last hug, there was a hilarious scene. I thought the story would have a perfect ending, but after the hug, there was endless sadness. The music rang again, and I cried. Even if they turned their backs after hugging, Ada cried. Alpher also walked out of the cinema, looking dazed and disappointed.
The movie doesn't talk about love exaggeratedly. It begins as a simple meeting. Because of their appearance or hobbies, they started to fall in love. And they were separated by misunderstanding, and then it went through a few twists and turned to a really realistic ending. The movie makes people understand that love exists, but love is not always perfect in real life. Everyone has their own problems and puzzles.
Maybe the thing I'm confused about is that if two people have a very romantic experience of 1-2 months, can both men and women miss each other for 5 years? Before this idea, I thought that the film was very practical, and this made my opinion swing, because I felt that people's ability to adapt to the environment is strong, and emotional change is relatively easy, so this is not realistic. Of course, maybe my life experience is not that long, and I haven't seen such feelings before.
The director and screenwriter are really delicate, and the actors are so great, especially the leading actors. From the beginning to the end, I actually really understand the reason why Alpher made those "wrong" decisions because I made very similar mistakes before and sometimes we just cannot control these things to happen, even though you knew you would regret it one day.
For this cultural post, I am focusing on Korean idioms! I did research on this topic because idioms are a good way to learn a new language and its culture. The first idiom is “딸바보.” “딸” means “daughter” and “바보” means “idiot.” However, this phrase does not refer to a foolish daughter. Rather, it is a name for someone who loves their daughter so much that they will do anything for the sake of their daughter. “딸” gives the word “바보” a positive connotation instead. This idiom reflects the emphasis on family in Korean culture, particularly the sacrifices that parents will make for their daughters. I remember hearing that in older Korean society, the role of the daughter was to take care of her parents when they became elderly. Perhaps parents who are “딸바보” sacrifice so much for their daughter because they know that she will one day take care of them. In modern society, I think this phrase is recognized because there are many Korean parents who love their daughter very much.
The next idiom I discovered is “뒤통수치다.” “뒤통수” refers to the back of one’s head, and “치다” means “to hit; to strike; to play (an instrument).” The direct translation of this phrase is “to strike the back of someone’s head.” However, it does not literally mean someone is hitting the back of someone else’s head. It is used when a person unexpectedly betrays someone. It is similar to the word “backstabber” in English. I would have guessed that idioms do not translate well between languages, but this one is fairly similar in Korean and English. I am curious which phrase was introduced first: “backstabber” or “뒤통수치다.”
An idiom that I presume is very relevant among students is “손 놓고 있다.” “손” means “hand” and “놓다” means “to let something go.” This expression literally means “to not have one’s hands on something.” However, it actually refers to when people do not do things that are supposed to be done. Most of the time, the procrastinator knows that the longer they do not complete the task, the worse the situation will get. I believe this idiom is very popular among students because I know that education is taken very seriously in Korea, especially before college. Students must learn the value of time and how to not procrastinate. This is a lesson that I am still learning, even after 15 years of education.
For my cultural artifact, I have posted cartoons of more Korean idioms. There are a lot of idioms related to food. I speculate that this is the case because food is relatable for everyone; it is not something that requires explanation. Therefore, there can be a deeper meaning to a simple phrase so that the deeper meaning can be learned and explained.
I rewatched my learning plan on PanOpto and I think I am doing pretty well on my learning plan. I talk about how I want to preserve my Korean language. I talk about how I aim to learn how to read and write in Korean. I furthermore talk about how I will use radio garden to listen to different Korean broadcasts to increase my listening skills. I also talked about how I want to learn Korean grammar. I haven't really gotten into that as much as I wanted to so far into the semester. I have done a lot of writing practice and reading, but not too much about grammar. I also talk about listening to music in Korean and watching Korean TV shows. I have been doing this successfully through YouTube. I have incorporated materials from class like radio garden, voice notebook, and Jenna my student teacher. I think learning about language structures and learning strategies has helped me understand how to learn a language efficiently. Learning the history of languages and how they have influenced other languages, and how cultures influence the changing of language. All of these discussion posts in the past few weeks have really helped me prepare myself in learning a new language and understand the culture from a different perspective.
The relationship between language and culture is very important to understand when learning a new language. From what I have learned so far in this class, language and culture go hand in hand with each other. Language deeply influences culture and culture deeply influences language. Languages can change over time due to many different factors, but the changing of culture is the biggest influence in languages changing. We learned about the different cultures and how some countries aim to preserve their language by preserving their culture. On the other hand, countries like America have become more diverse in culture, so the language has changed over time, where some dialects and languages have become extinct or altered. To improve my communicative competence while learning Korean, I will continue reading, discussing, and thinking about the relationship between language and culture, and the importance of understanding the morphology and structure of language. I think strategic competence is most related to my learning plan based on H.D. Brown's reading. My learning plan focuses on the verbal and nonverbal forms of Korean (reading, writing, and listening), more than the history of sociolinguistic components.
For this post I wanted to talk a little about the paradox that is multiculturalism in Israel, and my experiences with it while I traveled there last summer. Israel as a country was created for a very explicit reason - essentially to create a home for the Jewish people. In theory, the mainly Ashkenazi (European Jewish) founders of Israel wanted to create what would be considered by today's standards an ethnostate - one country, one religion, one people. But this didn't really work, perhaps because after the holocaust there were far too few Ashkenazi Jews left to populate Israel. What actually happened was the creation of an although majority Jewish, extremely pluralistic and multicultural nation that encompasses a massive range of different people and cultural identities. Immigration was the main factor in this, with large swaths of people coming from Ethiopia, America, and the former USSR. Maybe more relevantly to this class, multilingualism is high as well, with a huge amount of Israelis speaking English or Russian as an auxiliary language to Hebrew - there is enough Russian to have prompted Putin to call Israel a Russian speaking country.
My personal experience was even more extreme. In my group, out of 5 soldiers, two spoke Russian as a first language, and one spoke English with no accent having lived in the states for a long time. Walking around in Jerusalem we went into stores that had absolutely no Hebrew spoken - only Russian/English/Amharic/Arabic. It reminded me a lot of America - in San Francisco I spent a lot of time in Japantown (called Nihonmachi I believe by the residents) and it was always a lot of fun to be able to travel in one city and see an area that felt almost like another country. The same things is possible in modern Israel. So even though by it's founders standards Israel could be considered a failed state, something else has grown in it's place - and it is far more fascinating, in my opinion.
So far I think things are going according to plan, especially in terms of pronunciation and fluidity. Oftentimes during sessions I will be able to respond and express my feelings on something through Hebrew instead of English, for instance if my partner uses a word that I haven't learned I will first say "I don't know that word' in Hebrew. So far I haven't said anything that hasn't been understood so I take that to be a good metric for analyzing basic pronunciation and accent. Since I have learned the alefbet and studied many of the words for common foods in Israel such as bread and olives already, I think I have hit my goal of being able to read basic menus, although looking back I think these kinds of words would help more in a grocery store setting than a restaurant one, since I can't imagine ordering straight olives and bread in a restaurant on the regular. I have used the radiogarden.com website a couple times to listen to Hebrew while doing other things a couple of times, but have found Netflix to be a better resource for this as I can get the translation of what exactly people are saying much easier, and Israeli radio plays way too much Taylor Swift.
As for the relationship between language and culture, I think both these things support and take from each other. Language comes from culture, and vice versa, culture comes from language. I think neither can be built in isolation, whether isolated from each other or more literally by a human isolated from the world.
In the last culture post, I discussed korean food and its cultural importance. In this cultural post, I would like to concentrate on Korean gaming culture since it’s a big part of contemporary korean culture and what I would like to focus on for the final research project.
The artifacts I am using for this post are an article from NewYork Times, an article from BBC news, and a documentary made by Red Bull.
Gaming is a huge industry in Korea. In some other countries, gaming is still in progress for getting recognized as a real sport and regulations are developing to support professional leagues, but South Korean esports has already made its progress that younger Koreans view gaming as a legitimate career path.
“Pro gaming exists in its current form and size in large part thanks to the people who made it possible in South Korea,” said Manuel Schenkhuizen, a Dutch pro gamer. “Other countries took years to catch up and are to this date trying to mimic some of their successes.”
Esports players have become role models for younger people in Korean and as an equivalent of a K-pop or K-drama celebrity. Gaming is THE leisure activity in Korea. Statistics show that 28.9 million people play games in Korea, more than half the population. Twenty percent of the Korean population watch esports tournaments several times per month, and sixty-four percent are permanent esports viewers.
The bbc reporter was able to score an interview with Lee Sang-hyeok (이상혁), better known as his game id--- Faker. He is recognized as one of the best professional players of the game League of Legends. He dropped out of high school to join a professional league team-SKT and has won many awards and honors since then. Professional gamers’ life is actually not as interesting as people would imagine. Faker said in the interview that his day was composed of mostly just eating and repetitive practice. Players must practice relentlessly, spending their days in front of a screen. In the New York Times article, the coach of CJ Entus, Kang Hyun-jong, said he tried to encourage players to enjoy themselves, the real goal was clear. “The best way for players to enjoy themselves is to know how to win,” he said.
One of the most famous members of CJ Entus, Hong Min-gi, said he still enjoyed playing the game, despite the commitment. In part, he said, it was because he usually won. “I still get motivated when I beat someone,” he said. What faker said in the interview also comfirms this. Faker started his career for the awards and prizes, but gradually, it’s more for the sense of achievement.
Though gamers and industry insiders have different theories about how e-sports became so popular in South Korea, nearly all versions start in the late 1990s.
At the time, in response to the Asian financial crisis, the South Korean government focused on telecommunications and Internet infrastructure. By 2000, a vibrant community of gamers emerged, largely thanks to PC bangs that used the new connections. South Korean currently has over 20000 PC-bangs, where people play games together and learn how to play games better. A lot of professional players’ career started with playing the tournaments hosted by these PC-bangs.
The government also became involved, creating the Korean E-Sports Association to manage e-sports. Cheap television stations took off as well, a result of the new infrastructure, and it was only natural that one, then more, would focus on e-sports.
Companies also started to sponsor teams since they see the potential for business profits.
sources:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180329-inside-south-koreas-intense-gaming-culture
For this cultural post, I will talk about Korean spicy food. I think Korea is known for some of its spicy food. I really love eating spicy food even though my tolerance for spice isn't that high. It is almost like an addiction. I always crave spicy food especially Korean spicy food. I'm sure there isn't anyone who doesn't know about the Korean fire noodles. The fire noodle challenge was very popular on YouTube, and even now you can see many YouTubers even non-Korean YouTubers eating them. The fire noodles are by Samyang, and in Korean the noodles are called Buldak bokkeummyeon. The regular one looks like this.
These noodles are very spicy. There's actually an even spicier version called nuclear spicy noodles, and there are also a bunch of different flavors. Some of the most popular ones are the cheese and carbonara. My brother eats the regular ones all the time, but I don't like it that much anymore. You can get these at any Korean grocery stores and online like Amazon. Also, there is now a Buldak dipping hot sauce.
Another well-known dish is Yeopgi Tteokbokki, which is just spicy Korean rice cakes, but this place puts it into a giant bowl, and drizzles cheese on top. This is also very spicy. I don't think I can ever try the challenge level, even the normal level is pretty spicy, and I have heard that for some people, even the mild level is extremely spicy. Before I had Yeopgi teokbokki, or yeoptteok for short, I never realized how good cheese with spicy rice cakes is. It is a great combination. Yeoptteok is based in Korea, but they have two locations in Los Angeles, and I think another one in New York as well.
The next one is something I have never tried. It seems too spicy. It is called Songju Fire Naeongmyeon. A few of the pictures I've seen scare me a bit. In some pictures, the color of the sauce looks extremely bright red. Here is a picture of a Mukbang YouTuber eating it. Naeongmyeon literally means cold noodles, and there are various types like there is one with cold broth and one without broth and just sauce you mix and even Pyeongyang (North Korea) style naeongmyeon. The spiciest food I have ever had was actually naeongmyeon not the Sonju one though. I think the place I went to was in the Jamsil area in Korea. I searched it on Google and found it. It is called Haeju Naengmyeon. Don't add in too much of their red sauce. It is very spicy. I added too much, and I almost died, but it was still very good. I really want to go there again. It was also the best naengmyeon I've had in general. Their hot self-serve broth was also extremely good. It was perfect with the naengmyeon, and sometimes I think about how good it was and remember that I can't eat it unless I go to Korea.
This one isn't exactly traditionally Korean, but I still want to mention it since I'm sure only Korea has extremely spicy tonkatsu, or pork cutlet. Here's a picture.
I don't think I could ever handle this.
These are some of the Korean vocabulary words that I’ve learned and practiced for the past couple of weeks.
- 공휴일 (Gong-hyu-il) noun: government holiday
- 훈민정음 (hoon-min-jung-eum) noun: a term used to describe the first form of hangul.
- 개칭되었다 (gae-ching-dwae-ut-da) verb: changed
- 구강구조 (gu-ghang-gu-jo) noun: shape of the mouth when speaking
- 애민정신 (eh-min-jung-shin) noun: love for a country’s citizens
- 문맹률 (moon-meng-ryu-eul) noun: illiteracy rate
- 개천절 (geh-chun-jull) noun: a holiday that celebrates the founding and birth of Korea
- 제헌절 (je-hun-jull) noun: a holiday that celebrates the creation of the Korean constitution
- 광복절 (gwang-bok-jull) noun: a holiday that celebrates Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonialism
- 한글날 (han-gul-nal) noun: a holiday that celebrates the creation of hangul.
These were some of the more interesting vocabulary words that I learned because they are directly linked to specific historical events. For example, the word 개천절 is directly linked to a Korean fable. In this fable, a tiger and bear searched for the deity of Korea because they wanted to be human beings. Once they completed a task given by the deity, they transformed into human beings and founded Korea.
The word광복절 is comprised of three parts. 광 (gwang), 복 (bok), and 절 (jull) mean “light”, “return”, and “festival day” respectively. Literally, this means that Korea has restored its light from Japan. Korea was colonized from 1910 to 1945 after Korea was forced to sign the Japan-Korea Treaty in 1910. This treaty soon transformed into terms for colonization after Japan prevented Korea from developing its political, military, and cultural status. For many years, Koreans resisted the rule of the Japanese by forming demonstrations and creating resistance forces. After the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan signed the Potsdam Declaration, surrendering control over Korea.
한글날 (hangul-nal) celebrates the birth of hangul. I learned the rich historical facts behind this event. I learned that before Korea started calling this holiday 한글날, it used to celebrate the day as 훈민정음 (hoon-min-jung-eum). The language was created by King Sejong out of his love for his people. In Korean, a leader’s devotion to his country and people is called 애민정신 (eh-min-jung-shin). During King Sejong’s reign, his country’s 문맹률 (literacy rate) was close to 0%. In order to increase this rate exponentially, King Sejong designed the language so that it would closely follow the sounds and the shapes we make with our throats and mouth. In essence, hangul is a commoner’s language and can be learned by anyone in a short amount of time.
