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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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Kimchifart
Joined: 15 Sep 2010
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 Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 1:54 am Post subject: Re: No More Chinese New Year |
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Utterly pathetic on so many levels. Surely the festival did originate from the Middle Country?
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| Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Chinese populations, such as Mainland China, Hong Kong,[2] Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore,[3] Taiwan, Thailand, and also in Chinatowns elsewhere. Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors, as well as cultures with whom the Chinese have had extensive interaction. These include Koreans (Seollal), Tibetans and Bhutanese (Losar), Mongolians (Tsagaan Sar), Vietnamese (Tết), and the Japanese before 1873 (Oshogatsu). |
Last edited by Kimchifart on Tue Feb 08, 2011 2:01 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Kimchifart
Joined: 15 Sep 2010
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| Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 1:59 am Post subject: |
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| TheUrbanMyth wrote: |
| eamo wrote: |
Koreans seem to take their international profile incredibly seriously.
Is there another government in the world which has a special department whose sole job is to scrutinize the textbooks of schools in foreign countries to make sure they are portraying Korea in the approved way? |
Is there ANY government in the world which has a special department whose sole job is to scrutinize the textbooks of schools in foreign countries to make sure they are protraying ANOTHER country in the approved way? |
You simply couldn't apologise for this one, so you instead chose to become a linguistic pedant to somehow express your seething frustration and rage at all us whiteys denigrating our overlords. |
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BoholDiver
Joined: 03 Oct 2009
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 3:19 am Post subject: |
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Koreans seem desperate to label something as Korean where almost no words have the term 'Korean' in front of it. The only one I can think of right now is Ginseng, which is often specified as Korean ginseng.
Even some Koreans call 한약 as Korean medicine, where in fact, it is not. It is Oriental medicine. The Chinese character of 한 is 漢, not the same as the one used for Korean. The 한 that means Korea is 韓.
The first one means the Han dynasty of China. |
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redaxe
Joined: 01 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 7:17 am Post subject: |
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| By the way, do you guys know where the words "China" and "Korea" came from in the first place? |
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BoholDiver
Joined: 03 Oct 2009
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 11:34 pm Post subject: |
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Korea came from Goryo, the old kingdom.
China? No idea.
| redaxe wrote: |
| By the way, do you guys know where the words "China" and "Korea" came from in the first place? |
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BoholDiver
Joined: 03 Oct 2009
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 11:37 pm Post subject: |
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Maybe I wasn't clear enough.
My point was, this act by VANK to tell us how to speak is akin to us telling them that the word 설 offends us in some way. They ought to call it 구정.
Korean is their language in their country. Others have no right to tell them how to speak.
| redaxe wrote: |
| BoholDiver wrote: |
As it refers to Koreans saying 'we're not telling Americans to call it Seol-Nal'.
Seol-nal is a Korean word to mean Chinese New Year. |
Seol-nal is a native Korean word (NOT a Chinese character word) meaning "New Year's Day." The "nal" part is just "day."
Before the Gregorian (solar) calendar was introduced to Korea, they followed the lunar calendar, and it was just called "Seol."
Sure, the lunar calendar was probably invented several thousand years ago in what is now China (it was many separate warring kingdoms back then), but to Koreans it has never been "Chinese New Year," it was always just "New Year." Because Koreans have been using it since before they were even called "Koreans."
Of course from OUR western perspective, we first heard about the lunar calendar and the holiday from the Chinese, so to us it always has been CHINESE New Year.
It's just a question of perspective. Koreans see it from their perspective and we see it from ours. And nary the two shall meet. |
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earthquakez
Joined: 10 Nov 2010
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| Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 4:55 am Post subject: |
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| nukeday wrote: |
| No, it's more akin to disliking the term Canadian bacon. Or renaming french fries "freedom fries." |
Actually 'French' fries were first made in Belgium. But I never hear Belgians going off into a tizzy about it, I suppose they are just more secure people who don't feel the need to remind the world about themselves.
Koreans need to accept that basically the world was never interested in them because they were never interested in the world. And the fact that they make phones, cars and other goods for sale to the world doesn't really cut it in terms of making everybody interested in Korea and their supposed pre eminence  because they're only selling technology they got from the west back to it. It's not like it's some wonderful original inventions. |
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BoholDiver
Joined: 03 Oct 2009
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 5:39 am Post subject: |
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They take inventions that were invented mostly in USA or Europe, pay lower wages and ignore human rights to get ahead, then eventually surpass other countries, then call them lazy and stupid.
It seems to be a good model for a company. Save money on R & D. Why pay when someone else will make it for you at their expense.
| earthquakez wrote: |
| nukeday wrote: |
| No, it's more akin to disliking the term Canadian bacon. Or renaming french fries "freedom fries." |
Actually 'French' fries were first made in Belgium. But I never hear Belgians going off into a tizzy about it, I suppose they are just more secure people who don't feel the need to remind the world about themselves.
Koreans need to accept that basically the world was never interested in them because they were never interested in the world. And the fact that they make phones, cars and other goods for sale to the world doesn't really cut it in terms of making everybody interested in Korea and their supposed pre eminence because they're only selling technology they got from the west back to it. It's not like it's some wonderful original inventions. |
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redaxe
Joined: 01 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 7:35 am Post subject: |
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| BoholDiver wrote: |
Korea came from Goryo, the old kingdom.
China? No idea.
| redaxe wrote: |
| By the way, do you guys know where the words "China" and "Korea" came from in the first place? |
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The name "China" comes from the Chin (or Qin) dynasty, which was the first unified empire in Chinese history, and only existed between 221 to 206 BC. That's right, after the Qin emperor conquered all the other states, his dynasty only lasted 15 years. And it only covered less than half of the modern territory of the PRC. |
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pr1ncejeffie
Joined: 07 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 4:59 pm Post subject: |
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Well, from reading that article... Koreans are desperate to label something.
But I think they want to just label it without the hard work behind it. If you want people to know about your Lunar's New Year, then start putting it out there. Make the world aware that its a little bit different although not that different from any other Lunar's New Year holiday. Don't just sit in your little association and whine about how the world uses "Chinese" New Year.
Go around Chinatown in America and you will see the sea of red hanging around their stores, firecrackers, dragon dances and all that stuff. The community put it out there and let the world see it, I think thats what Koreans need to do. Not just sit there and moan about it. START showing your culture. |
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West Coast Tatterdemalion
Joined: 31 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 6:34 pm Post subject: |
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My biggest beef with Korea in this case is the hypocrisy. Koreans generally keep to themselves and are very exclusionary. When they go abroad, they keep to themselves. Yet, they somehow believe that people outside their group should give them respect and do everything to appease them. It just doesn't work that way. It's like they want the best of both worlds: they want to be able to exist within a bubble, yet want everyone outside of the bubble to be envious of them and do everything to please them. That is not the way it works. You can't erase history or time just because you want to change things. I will always call it Chinese New Year. Last I looked, China has the biggest economy in Asia, so they have a little more clout, aside from the fact that it has been known as Chinese New Year for a long, long time. Just like I will always call the Sea of Japan. That is the official name for it and all of your complaining and stamping of feet will not change a thing.
If Korea really wants name recognition, then for god's sake, invent something unique! And share it with others, don't exclude them. You have to integrate, otherwise nobody will really care what you have to say. But enough of this PC, "getting offended at what something is called and wanting everyone to change it because you don't like it" garbage. |
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NYC_Gal 2.0
Joined: 10 Dec 2010
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| Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 7:37 pm Post subject: |
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| pr1ncejeffie wrote: |
Well, from reading that article... Koreans are desperate to label something.
But I think they want to just label it without the hard work behind it. If you want people to know about your Lunar's New Year, then start putting it out there. Make the world aware that its a little bit different although not that different from any other Lunar's New Year holiday. Don't just sit in your little association and whine about how the world uses "Chinese" New Year.
Go around Chinatown in America and you will see the sea of red hanging around their stores, firecrackers, dragon dances and all that stuff. The community put it out there and let the world see it, I think thats what Koreans need to do. Not just sit there and moan about it. START showing your culture. |
That's it in a nutshell. In the article, someone even said that Koreans and Koreatowns don't have the energy of Chinatown. Well, if they want people to know that it has other names, they should put some effort that would actually attract visitors into it. |
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Vagabundo
Joined: 26 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 7:43 pm Post subject: |
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| West Coast Tatterdemalion wrote: |
If Korea really wants name recognition, then for god's sake, invent something unique! And share it with others, don't exclude them. |
Kimchi.
Four distinct seasons.
ddok.
hallyu.
boshintang.
eyc |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 8:15 pm Post subject: |
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That's it, its time for a Korean Chinese New Year holiday remake.
Now Koreans are not that original so I think the best they could do is some sort of Korean St. Paddy's day.
The symbolic guy should be that freaky guy from Boor Chicken. Korean Fried Chicken will be the new staple food, no more ManDooGuk. Beer will flow like wine. Other traditions can include an annual bleaching of skin (or white face-paint) to ward off evil and singing, lots of singing. Also in the mix could be Kimchi Chiggae as sort of a corned beef n' cabbage alternative.
Now the key thing is scheduling- They'd totally have to change this holiday to June or August. Right now things are too close to other holidays, especially drinking ones, to really pull it off. |
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NYC_Gal 2.0
Joined: 10 Dec 2010
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| Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 9:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Vagabundo wrote: |
| West Coast Tatterdemalion wrote: |
If Korea really wants name recognition, then for god's sake, invent something unique! And share it with others, don't exclude them. |
Kimchi.
Four distinct seasons.
ddok.
hallyu.
boshintang.
eyc |
The softer, more cake-like ddeok is pretty famous in NYC Chinatown. I'm curious as to whether or not it's originally Chinese or Korean.
As for the 4 distinct seasons...  |
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