Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Teddycakes21]

I have noticed something about some of my students. On several occasions, I have had numerous Korean students tell me that they don't like American food because it's "too greasy" and doesn't taste good. They have told me that they would much rather have Korean food, because it is "very healthy".

From my experiences, I have witnessed the complete opposite of what I've been told. Take yesterday for example, one of the student's parents bought the whole schoolMcDonald's for lunch. I know right? It was awesome! The thing was, I saw a frenzy beyond anything I've ever seen in my school cafeteria.

Some of the very students who had told me one thing, were going crazy for cheeseburgers. I can identify with going burger-crazy, but just kind of notice an underlying theme here that it's hard to admit enjoying something from another culture.

Has anyone else had this feeling, or is it just me?

=D

[mayorgc]

For a lot of older Koreans, any food that isn't Korean will either be too greasy or "bad smelling".

[Old Gil]

I notice that 느끼한 gets applied a lot more to foreign food/people than native. I don't spend a ton of time with Koreans, just my limited experience.

[teacha]

Korean kids are too obsessed with their weight, I think. I think saying they don't like American foods has less to do with Korean pride and more to do with concern over their figures. Dieters like to convince themselves that greasy, fattening foods taste bad to help keep them on track, but shove a McDonald's cheeseburger in front of them and all their convictions crumble.

[redaxe]

[Trinidad]

[teacha]

[Xuanzang]

They`re liars. They secretly and definitely would prefer Hamburgers, KFC or fries to the Korean slop they're served for lunch. Just heard the party lines from their parents about "greasy", "salty", etc/

[roadwork]

I've had them say the same thing and when I point out all the grease dripping off the grill from the samgyeobsal and state that it's greasy, they will vehemently deny it to my face.
As someone else pointed oout before, I think there is something wrong in the translation. I think they are trying to express that western food is richer and/or heavier. Sometihng gets lost in the pragmatics of the translation.
Also, for 느끼 being applied to a person, it's the Korean equivalent to us calling someone either 'cheesy' or 'sleazy'. It depends on the circumstance.

[halfmanhalfbiscuit]

I gather they think "American" food is greasy is because they see such bad examples of it.

Home made hamburgers and pizza are wonderful.

Having said that I could really go for a kebab....anyone know where to get one in Gangnam?

[fermentation]

Yeah there's an interesting difference with how Koreans see food. I hear "느끼" all the time. Pizza is greasy, pasta is greasy, burgers are greasy, Chinese food is greasy, all the while they're stuffing their face with it.

[earthbound14]

Koreans and food can be a bit strange.

They do indeed spout off about healthy their food is and how much they love it. Sometimes too much. It seems they have to say it out of patriotizm or they are just giving you the easiest answer (without getting into details).

It does seem sometimes as if they say one thing then do another...it's not like the American empire has been forcing them to eat McD's. Yet, there they are....everywhere, and every school event seems to be followed by pizza, coke, burgers and chips.

Sometimes as Fermentation mentioned, Koreans can even be a little one sided and even ignorant about what exactly is healthy about Korean food. It's all mixed up in national pride. My wife insists wheat is bad for her while rice simply can not be. She refuses to see that rice is just a sugar and is what is leading to her ajuma arms.

Truth is though, when compared, Korean food is far more healthy than what gets called foreign food here. Chinese food in Korea is greasy and sugary, Western food in Korea is greasy, salty and sugary in Korea. Even when compared head to head, I think Korean food is a little more healthy than you average American diet (not my American diet...I eat super healthy back home....probably healthier than I do here...but that's another story)

Traditionaly, Korean food doesn't have as much salt, sugar or grease. That's changing though, many people are starting to eat overly salty and greasy Korean food. My mother in law makes some horribly salty bulgogi.

Of course traditional Korean food itself isn't without its flaws, many traditional diets are carb heavy (rice, bread and potatoes) and do little for your body other than keep you going. This is a good thing if you are some farmer living week to week only on what you can grow, but not really what the human body was designed to eat. We need more veg in our diets.

And of course our own Western diet is full of flaws, rather than eat more veg, we've moved towards high calorie diets that taste really good but don't provide what our body needs long term. Koreans have issues with adopting this form of modern diet (all societies that modernise do tend to introduce more dairy, sugar, salt and grease into their diets) and they tend to blame Americans for it, even though they may well have moved somewhat in that direction if Americans never existed on the planet.

[kg2095]

[Hindsight]

Can you spell



S - P - A - M ?



Now there's a Korean food that's not greasy!!!!!!!!

It's especially good served on those Korean klones of Ritz crackers or Saltines.

You can wash it down with some of the Korean klone of 7Up they call "cider."

And how about for a chaser some of those Korean klones of Moon Pies?

[djsmnc]

I remember seeing an ad before a movie one time that featured a Korean man on the top of a double decker bus in Paris pleasantly dreaming of spicy Nakchi (octopus) dripping with red sauce. Then he was shown again with bread and freaked out.

It summed things up pretty well.