Different but enjoyable
Different but enjoyable
  • Observer
  • 승인 2007.07.24 15:48
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 On August 30, 2006, I stepped on the land of the Republic of Korea, a country which has glorious scenery as well as centuries-old history. I became so absorbed in her unique culture from the minute when I acquainted myself with Korean folk-custom. And also, there are several differences between Korea and my motherland China.

   Food
Korean food is famous in China for its uncountable kinds as well as its culture. As symbols, kimchi, ddeokbokki and bulgogi are the most representative food that almost all Chinese people know. Unlike Chinese food, Korean food contains less oil but not less nutrition. I believe that is the reason why Korean girls are slender while guys are lusty. Obviously, Korean food has a special thing. That is the spicy taste. They like capsicum put in almost every kind of food to make them delicious, as they put hot music and dance in their life to make it colorful.
Chinese food, as I have mentioned previously, contains more oil than Korean food and consists of 8 food series which have distinct characteristics respectively. They are: lu(魯), chuan(川), yue( ), su(蘇), xiang(湘), hui(徽), zhe(浙) and min( ). Take my hometown Beijing for an example, the most famous food is Beijing Duck. It is a kind of baked duck rolled by lotus leaf cake with soy sauce, shallot and cucumber as well. Different from Korean, not every Chinese person can accept spicy tasting food. Chuan food is a mostly spicy dish while lu(魯)food is salty and a little sugary. So you can see an interesting phenomenon that people from the north part and the south part have different hobbies and different characters as in their preference in food. 

  Manner
It goes without saying that Korea is a nation which pays great attention to manner. As an exchange-student, I have Korean language course every morning. Our language teacher is a cute girl, who says 'thank you' to us and who stands by door seeing us off after our class finished. Throughout the course, I feel her regard to us derives from her heart, like a warm wind overflowing our hearts in this cold winter. In China, professors only say 'let's begin' and 'time is up, thank you'. Most of professors in China are strict to students and it is almost impossible to see professors stand by door seeing students off.
Actually, what surprised me more is the regard from the younger people to elder people, even on campus. I still remember that day when my friend and I met a younger student who was smoking and chatting with his friend. As soon as he saw us, he stood up immediately and bowed, saying ‘안녕하십니까’ to us with a serious expression. In China, you may just say hello to the elder people. You do not need to stop walking, not to mention bowing to them. According to what I have experienced, I think Korean people are more courteous and good-mannered.

  Festival
As in chine, Korean people regard the spring festival and the mid-autumn day seriously. But the mid-autumn day here in Korea is different from which in China. In Korea, people hold a memorial ceremony for their ancestors, dance together and make songpyon.
Compared with this, in China, we do not hold memorial ceremonies for our ancestors any longer. Instead of that, a whole family has supper together, and then sits in the yard looking at the bright moon in the sky, while eating moon cake but not songpyon. Moon cake is a kind of snack which is round and has some yolk, nuts or red beans in it. The round shape stands for togetherness, forever and no departure. The moon cake contains our beautiful and kind wishes.
In China, there is an ancient, famous poem running like this; "每逢佳節倍思親" It means that when a festival comes, you will miss your family and relatives more than daily time. It is more commonly used when the mid-autumn day or the spring festival comes. At that point of time, this mid-autumn day in Korea, I understood this poem more deeply than when I was in China before.

  The understanding of isolation
While a person is having meals in a dining room or restaurant by himself or herself, he or she will be thought isolated and unsocial in Korea. 'We always have meals with our friends, and we prefer being in a group to being by oneself,' one of my Korean friends told me. 'If you are sitting alone in a dining room, you may be shot by everyone's eyes. Don't feel it inconceivable, it's true, in Korea. If that happens, almost every Korean believes that you are a bad person, having no friends, being exclusive from classmates and leading an isolated life as well. Because of this, one Korean friend told me that a strange phenomenon appeared gradually. That is: when you are having your meal by yourself, another person who is also by himself or herself may walk to you and then sit down in front of you. By now, you two are in the same table eating food respectively like friends, although that is the first time you see each other and you don't know each other at all. They only want to have a partner instead of being thought lonely.
In China, it is normal when you have meals by yourself, actually. No one may say anything and think you are strange or unsocial. Actually in China, doing something by oneself is normal not only having meals but also going shopping, drinking coffee in caf? and seeing doctor in hospital, etc. You do not have to be ashamed or find a stranger to disguise that you have friend to do something together. Or even sometimes, people think you are very cool, independent and capable when you can handle something on your own, especially for some hard things.

  The expression of love
It is not a rare thing to see couples on campus no matter which country you are from. But it seems that Korean people are much shyer because they only walk hand-in-hand and talk to each other with happy expressions on their faces. Through the Korean dramas I have seen before, I feel that Korean people use more expressions in eyes than words to express their deep love. And it is indeed the same as what is shown on TV.
Contrary to the situation in Korea, Chinese people are more open and like to show their love to their partners in public. It is so common to see couples walking hand-in-hand, hugging and even kissing on campus. Many guys select public modes to express their love to girls. For instance, they write down "I love you" on a big balloon and then set it in sky or order candles as a heart shape and light them in night.
No matter how they express their emotion, the most important thing is that their love ought to the true and beautiful.
Different culture creates different axiology. Existence of different points of view has no connection with right or wrong. It is just the production of cultural multiplicity. When we are in a place which has different customs from the place where we lived before, we should defer to it, abide to it and at last merge it, enjoy it.


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