16 Responses for "폭탄영어 #12 - Party Culture"

1. yuri April 14th, 2008 at 7:02 pm 1

   Just wondering.. is it weird for westerners to have their birthday parties with only close friends? This seems lots of westerners tend to find that’s weird. I think it’s nothing wrong.. just I’ve found myself comfortable and it’s fun .. cuz I think it’s weird to invite people who I don’t know , esp to my house? Where all my familiy members r living ? -0-; even though my parents are away ! I think my home is ..very private area.. so .. in the case of birthday party it’s a bit private i’d say ~! Also I feel bit weird to say to some1 I don’t know well enough that.. my birthday’s coming soon. I don’t know how others feel..~ just in my case.. and also the sizing stuff.. when I meet people -0- I don’t size their careers , I don’t care how much money they can make; I think it’s caused by all parents in all the Korean drama they all ask -0- the same questions when their sons or dauthers bring their partners!!

2. chadic cosmic April 14th, 2008 at 7:42 pm 2

   파티 무화 (x) 파티 문화 (ㅇ)
   thanks to your episode

3. Jennifer April 14th, 2008 at 10:35 pm 3

   고맙습니다 cosmic ~ fixed now

   And it’s not at all weird to have small parties with close friends, but it’s not weird either to have large parties with lots and lots of people. One important difference is that in America, on your birthday, other people usually buy you a meal like dinner - the opposite of Korea! So it’s not so expensive to have lots and lots of people at your birthday^.~

4. Bombass April 18th, 2008 at 10:19 pm 4

   ay, you guyz talked about party something. sometimes i want some guyz to hang out with like those guyz on the TV show. you know, doin’ something usual but they have fun. jennifer, why don’ u invite me to dinner? gonna laugh at your food~.

5. Jennifer April 20th, 2008 at 12:17 am 5

   You have guys to hang out with . . . it’s just that they all wear silly sailor hats and have to salute each time they see you, hahaha.
   Nobody laughs at my food! We’re talking serious Iron Chef levels of good. Four star chefs have been known to call me for advice - but just to prove it, let me know the next time you’re around. I’ll make you eat your words!

6. Jae Young April 22nd, 2008 at 1:55 am 6

   Can I just say that it I find it super depressing that T.G.I.F. is 100,000 won/100 bucks? I’ve noticed that 외식 gets that mysterious bump in price in Korea that is inexplicable to me, tho I think T.G.I.F. is a little overpriced for what it is even in the US. I’d never, ever eat at T.G.I.F. in NY, tho I am sure that it would be different in Korea.

   It’s so hard for me to really weigh in on this conversation cos I grew up in NY and NY socialising is actually more like Korean socializing because of the space issues. And my parents did entertaining at home quite a bit when we were younger, though it was generally with v. clearly defined social groups–family, 계, which included mostly people my mom had known since she was young, etc. Sometimes they invited neighbors over, but that was really, really rare and done more because it was expected of them by their American neighbors/peers.

   My mom also spent her formative years in Argentina, so she’s super chatty cos of that weird Italian/Latino mix of culture (Argentina is super Italian/European and not quite the typical Latin American country), despite being “Korean.” I think she’s a 1.5er and she almost killed me when I said it, but she left Korea when she was 12-13, calling her first gen is a bit of a stretch.

   But you know, plenty of Americans are crap at talking to strange people at parties and I’ve met Koreans who are quite chatty and pleasant despite having met me sans proper 소개 so I guess it’s really more a gradient of difference than black and white.

7. Jennifer April 22nd, 2008 at 9:53 am 7

   Of course when we discuss things on the show, it’s usually in generalizations. Like you, I know Americans who would rather have teeth pulled than talk to someone they don’t know at a party, and Koreans who are so sparkling that they create parties around them spontaneously.
   There are some legitimate reasons for 양식 to cost more here, but not all 외식 is so bad. Korean food, by and large, is pretty inexpensive. But for 양식 and foreign cuisine they’re doing a lot of importing not just of ingredients. They also have to buy ovens and other expensive equipment and the higher electric and gas bills to run them, so of course it’s a bit more expensive. But still . . . it’s kind of crazy. Especially coffee shops . . . why is Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, which used to be my savior from overpriced Starbucks at home now my worst financial enemy?
   Then again, there are places in the states that will charge you $8 for a plate of 떡뽂이 . . .go figure!

8. Jae Young April 24th, 2008 at 5:53 am 8

   Sorry, in my head, 양식=외식 cos my family would generally eat Western food outside of the house since I grew up in a mostly non-Korean town/county. Tho I suppose Korean food is 외식 if you eat it in a restaurant. Oops~ Just be glad I’m not sitting here trying to convince you Spanish is really Korean. (I do that sometimes. Blame my dad for co-opting my mom’s Argentina-ness.) So yes, I had really meant to say 양외식 was spendy.

   Coffee Bean is actually an American company, not a Korean one. I’ve seen Coffee Bean in the States, so I was surprised to see it in Korea. And tsk if they are overcharging, tho if they buy free trade, might be why. Maybe.

   Anyway, I totally concede growing in NY has made me somewhat unaware of the vast and varied American cultural landscape. Maybe I should take an American studies class.

9. Jennifer April 24th, 2008 at 11:10 am 9

   As I understand it 외식 just means “outside food” and means the same as dining out in a restaurant. Maybe one of our Korean commenters can clarify?
   Coffee Bean ain’t just American - it sprouted in my old stomping grounds around UCLA. But that’s just it - in LA it’s cheaper than Starbucks, so why is it more expensive here? For all the groaning about Starbucks jacking its prices, Coffee Bean’s markup is quite a bit higher as near as I can tell. And don’t even get me started on the greedy bums over at Caribou Coffee!!!
   Which raises another question (for which I do know a bit historically about the answer, but still . . .) why the heck is coffee so expensive in Korea? Or rather, why is the markup so high if you’re going to sit down and drink it there, rather than take it out? The average discount for takeout coffee is something like 500won, and I know several places where the coffee is half the price if you’re willing to take it along with you!

10. Michael April 24th, 2008 at 11:21 am 10

    The main reason, as revealed in a Korea Journal piece that dealt with an earlier source on the issue, is that the market research shows that Koreans actually WANT to pay more for coffee here.

    Korea is the only country in which, when Starbucks lowered the price on coffee to stay competitive, their rates of consumption actually went DOWN. In Korea, consumption, more than almost any other country, is linked to STATUS. Hence, there are many cases in which the more is charged, the more the product is seen as being worthy of buying.

    This pattern of Korean consumption has been written about recently quite a bit by recent anthropologists who specifically study Korean consumption patterns. Anthropologists see consumption as not just an economic activity (as economists might), but as a form of communication, which it is.

    In Korea, as much as or even more than other places, consumption is a way of showing wealth, marking social status, and even defining identity. Think about it — Korea’s mass consumer culture exploded from basically the late 1980s, whereas in America, the process evolved much more slowly, from mainly the 1950’s. As in all things Korean, the process was far more compressed and accelerated in the Korean case.

    Very interesting stuff, indeed.

11. Jennifer April 24th, 2008 at 11:25 am 11

    And now let me answer my own question:
    (at least part of it)
    There was a very interesting anthropological study a few years ago of McDonald’s expansion into East Asia. One thing they found in Korea was that once people had paid for their food and sat down, they were very, very, VERY slow to move. That meant lost revenue for the chain, which depends on quick turnover. Basically, they want you to eat and move on. They eventually solved the problem (in a very clever way! Go find a copy of “Golden Arches East” for a rundown) but also clarified something.
    Westerners by and large view themselves as paying a restaurant or bar or coffee shop principally for the food and drink (and to a lesser extent for service). Koreans view themselves as paying not just for food and service, but also for the space they use. Having paid for the space as well, naturally there’s a desire to get your money’s worth. So Koreans by and large will try to spend a longer time at the table.
    Of course this doesn’t translate to lingering forever over lunch every time. Contemporary life demands that we dine and go. But if you look at most coffee shops in Korea, people use them as a place to socialize as well as drink coffee. People will sit for hours and hours and hours, have study meetings, read entire books, do homework, chat for a pretty long time. And if you’re not moving, the coffee shop isn’t serving other customers, and thus not making a lot of money. Hence the extra charge to sit and sip.
    So by moving all the entertaining out of the house and into the bars, restaurants, and coffee shops, Koreans have induced owners to raise prices in order to cover the expenses of low turnover. Sound logical?

12. Jae Young April 24th, 2008 at 9:06 pm 12

    Both sound right to me, but I still think Starbucks coffee sucks and would not touch it with a ten foot pool, tho my coffee drinking philosophy is either 1) super cheap (I grew up on instant coffee, I don’t really have standards) ; 2) ethnic (aka go to local Dominican resto cos the latinos love their coffee and always have cafe con leche, which is my fave <3); or 3) super expensive (local one of a kind stores that sell free trade coffee). It depends on my checking account or my mood.

    Man, I need coffee now.

13. dana May 22nd, 2008 at 2:09 pm 13

    hiee i became a big fan of this since I knew I could download these using podcast.
    I listen while driving, or walking to class. and the topics are really fresh, and you two voices are soo good.
    especially micheal. i wanna see how you look like..

    well. what I want to request is that I think it is good idea to introduce about guest (who was yoon ji this time) to the listeners. I noticed she is not native speaker, and i wonder how she learned english, such as back ground. Actually she doesn’t sound fluent to me.
    she used too many connection words such as you know., well. like.. etc. It sounds as if she is not fluent but she pretends she is good.

    My second suggestion is that why don’t you guys introduce some slangs that teeagers use frequently in America at the end of the show. so we will be able to become more familiar with real english.. right?

    well. thank you for passion, and efforts on this clip.
    keep up the good works.

14. Jennifer May 24th, 2008 at 11:42 am 14

    Yunji isn’t a guest, she’s our co-host. Unfortunately she can’t be with us all the time to record - we’re all very busy, but Yunji especially. And her English is completely fluent. She might not be a smooth sounding as a native speaker, but it’s important to listen to all kinds of different voices, styles of speaking, and accents to improve your skills. She’s not pretending to be good at English, she IS good!
    The problem with Mike and Yunji and I introducing teenage slang at the end of the show is that we’re not teenagers . Also, teenage slang changes very quickly, and by the time we learned it and passed it on in our show, nobody would be using it anymore Also, it tends to depend on where you live, so we couldn’t give a very accurate representation. Rather than teenage slang, general slang used by everybody is more important and useful, and tends to stay around longer. Better than the words teenagers are using now, we use pretty common slang terms and expressions throughout our show.

15. windbyun May 27th, 2008 at 10:08 am 15

    Yeah.. I really disagree with dana.
    Yunji is not “that” fluent like native speakers, but you should notice that she ISN’T a native speaker. And I think the way Yunji speaks in English is the way most of ESL learner can follow. She is a good role model as she tried hard to get that English ability inside Korea. Plus, most of ESL learners don’t have to be like “that” fluent speaker, as long as we can communicate with people outside the world. Yunji’s speaking is perfectly enough for that in my opinion.

16. Michael May 27th, 2008 at 10:29 am 16

    Well, we are glad to hear some discussion here!

    No matter what, though, I think we can all agree that it’s important for Korean non-native speakers to speak freely and without fear — that’s how one improves in ANY language.

    I think that in Korea, there is too much belief in “foreigner magic” and people are obssessed over the speaker’s accent, or whether there are any small mistakes, etc. This is why Korean teachers are afraid to speak English in class, and it isn’t helpful to anyone.

    The way to learn a language is to speak, and speak without fear. That’s how I learned Korean, and I continue to learn, as well as correct past mistakes. And I have forever abandoned the goal of “speaking like a native.” It’ll never happen. It’s impossible. That’s why it’s called “NATIVE speaker” — it’s from birth.

    I think I can work to be a good KSL speaker, and I’m happy with that goal. I can communicate, and as my language improves, my ability to communicate also improves. COMMUNICATION should be the goal of language, not perfection, I think.

    And thinking that way would relieve a lot of stress for all of us.