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NYC_Gal 2.0
Joined: 10 Dec 2010
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 Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 7:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Steelrails wrote: |
| I mean, we have ALL done the "eat a too hot bite of pizza and whistled to cool it while its in our mouths" thing. That's like slurping. In fact, its the same reason as slurping. |
Maybe when I was a child, but certainly not recently. Adults with manners take smaller bites or wait for it to cool. |
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Chalmers
Joined: 20 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 7:43 pm Post subject: |
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| i love to hear old man walking around sucking on their teeth! |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 8:02 pm Post subject: |
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| NYC_Gal 2.0 wrote: |
| Steelrails wrote: |
| I mean, we have ALL done the "eat a too hot bite of pizza and whistled to cool it while its in our mouths" thing. That's like slurping. In fact, its the same reason as slurping. |
Maybe when I was a child, but certainly not recently. Adults with manners take smaller bites or wait for it to cool. |
Same here, NYC. I don't have bad table manners--by American, Japanese, German, or Korean standards--I've lived in the US, both in the North and in the South, in Japan, in Germany, and in Korea; in all those cases I've lived there as an adult. So, Steelrails' latest trolling at me is yet another failure on his part. FTR: My comment to him about him not having a clue was addressing his asinine comment about "the vocabulary of an infant."
Last edited by CentralCali on Thu Jun 09, 2011 8:49 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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methdxman
Joined: 14 Sep 2010
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| Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 8:43 pm Post subject: |
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| NYC_Gal 2.0 wrote: |
| Steelrails wrote: |
| I mean, we have ALL done the "eat a too hot bite of pizza and whistled to cool it while its in our mouths" thing. That's like slurping. In fact, its the same reason as slurping. |
Maybe when I was a child, but certainly not recently. Adults with manners take smaller bites or wait for it to cool. |
We all know that "manners" are just relative. Some Europeans think it's disgusting that Americans grab a slice of pizza with their hands.
Are you really bothered by someone taking a bite of pizza that's a bit too hot?
Dunno about you but when I'm eating pizza I'm usually in a really comfortable, laid-back environment where I couldn't really care less about social etiquette.
For me personally, the most well-mannered are those who don't really care what others are doing during a meal unless it's overtly distracting the majority of people at the table. A good rule of thumb in any cultural situation is that if you're the only one who's really being bothered, maybe you should relax. |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 8:57 pm Post subject: |
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| eamo wrote: |
| Steelrails wrote: |
| eamo wrote: |
I for one am not talking about slurping hot soup.......do it myself if the soup/tea/liquid is hot enough...
Nice try Steelrails, but I think most people who are bothered are bothered by the loud smacking caused by opening and closing the whole mouth while chewing solid food......and other associated eating noises.
If I did hear that from people in western eateries, any time of day or night, then I'd say those people were eating rudely as it goes against the etiquette and table manners that polite people follow.
So you can say that anyone at any time might do it......but that doesn't stop it being impolite.........then you might say do we have to be polite all the time? I know I'm not, but I should be. Especially outside my own house. |
But whose politeness, ours or Koreans? In some Korean circles the slurping is polite.
Politeness and rudeness is defined by society, not the individual.
Western Eatery is one culture/society, Korean ShikDang is another. |
Yeah, so, as I said before, the loud smacking sound is becoming more and more looked down upon in KOREAN society. They are redefining their own desirable eating manners......along with the other stuff I mentioned.
20 years ago in Korea, if you looked upset because the ajeossi next to you at the bus stop was spitting and smoking, people would have thought you picky and overly sensitive....what's the problem? All ajeossi's spit and smoke!!
But things change very quickly in Korea. Smoking next to non-smokers is seen as so offensive now that there's even legislation out to protect non-smokers.
The same thing with the mouth-smacking....it's going the same way.....in a few years only country bumpkins and defiantly coarse people will still be smacking when they eat.....
Whether this change in etiquette has come from simply wanting to copy western manners, or because Koreans themselves are just becoming more gentrified is up for debate. |
Well I guess it would all depend then where the people in question are eating. Are they eating in some posh neighborhood of Seoul or are they eating in some place more relaxed.
I agree that you could go into a restaurant filled with Koreans and be rude for making slurping noises. There it wouldn't be a Korean or non-Korean thing, it would be a "time and place" thing. A westerner or Korean would be held to the same standard.
I also think you could go into many places in Korea and have it be fine.
What bothers me is why do people think its okay for them to rant and rave and look down on this issue, but its wrong for Koreans to do it to them when it comes to aspects of Korean manners? Who made them the princes of manners?
| Quote: |
| Same here, NYC. I don't have bad table manners--by American, Japanese, German, or Korean standards--I've lived in the US, both in the North and in the South, in Japan, in Germany, and in Korea; in all those cases I've lived there as an adult. So, Steelrails' latest trolling at me is yet another failure on his part. |
So you were never a little drunk in a bar and dived into a plate of fries? You always used a fork and waited for them to cool? Never slurped the bottom of a cup through a straw?
If I didn't know 50,000 people back home or over here who chew their ice and make that slurping sound at the bottom of their fountain pop or did the hot pizza thing then maybe I might get on the bandwagon.
As it stands those things are way to prevalent amongst the NET population for us to condemn Koreans.
On the other hand, some people are true "manners" folks who don't really make it a "Korean thang". They hate the people who eat Doritos (seriously, Doritos are one of the rudest foods out there- noisy, repulsive smell, cheese residue everywhere) and eat pizza with their hands. They are at least consistent.
So yeah, if you eat Doritos/Cheetos in public, I consider you rude. Think dried squid with noise and cheese residue mess added to it. |
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eamo
Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.
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| Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:22 pm Post subject: |
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Why not take a little straw poll of your own....
Ask as many Korean co-workers/friends/family as you want if they think the things on this list are....
a. not rude.
b. rude, and as common as ever.
c. rude, but becoming less common.
eating noisily
spitting
smoking near non-smokers
swearing in public
talking loudly on cellphone
letting doors close on people behind you
driving through crosswalks when people are crossing
I bet you get mostly 'C'.
Korean manners are changing as more and more Koreans go to college and have more or less middle-class lives. |
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NYC_Gal 2.0
Joined: 10 Dec 2010
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| Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 2:06 am Post subject: |
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Adults dont "grab" pizza, either. They also wash their hands when eating what is considered finger food in their respective countries. Hell, some sushi is actually supposed to be eaten with hands.
I never said it bothered me when people slurped their food or even made the cooling whistle. I just said that most well-mannered adults from the west don't do it.
As for the drunk in bar/fries analogy: no, I haven't. I don't get drunk in bars because I have self control. I eat dry fries with fingers, and smothered fries with a fork, but I always wait for them to cool because I'm not an animal.
It's the difference between eating and feeding. Animals feed.
Again, though, I said that I only have a problem with it if it's gum. People can slurp and make noise all they like when eating food. It's the nasty gum smacking that gets to me. |
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lille
Joined: 27 Jan 2009
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 2:22 am Post subject: |
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It's the mouth noises that seem to happen just for fun that bug me. Who (aside from Koreans) think it's a valid pastime to spend your whole commute sucking on your teeth? You're past the pacifier stage, guys. Give it a rest.
When my ipod's out of batteries during my commute, I just about go batty. Slurp, slurp, slurp. |
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PatrickGHBusan
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -
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| Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 4:19 am Post subject: |
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| joelove wrote: |
| PatrickGHBusan wrote: |
| Except for the gum smacking...its no big deal. |
Wrong. Annoyances can be a big deal, but what's one to do? Isn't stuff like this what really bothers most people, so often? A bunch of trivial stuff, or is it?
It isn't, because it isn't just a thing or two here and there, it's a pile, a cascade of ugh, that leads one to bed weary. |
I suppose everyone reacts differently to things.
Frankly speaking, after traveling to a few countries, the noises people make when eating are pretty inconsequential for me. The gum smacking irks me sometimes however. |
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Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 5:00 am Post subject: |
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| runthegauntlet wrote: |
| This is only eclipsed by the gum-smacking.. |
Aghhh..that tops the list.
Its hard to think of anything more irritating than some ajosshi sales attendant shadowing you around the store, while sucking his teeth and gum-smacking every 10 seconds.
I told him that it was ok I didn't need his help, but you could still hear him from 10m away. Eventually I just left the store. Enough to drive anyone completely nuts. |
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cj1976
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 5:04 am Post subject: |
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| In the five years I've been here, I've only ever encountered the Greater-Spotted Gum-Smacking Ajumma 3 or 4 times. Where do these fine specimens usually congregate? If this board is anything to go by, they're all over the place. |
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Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 5:12 am Post subject: |
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| joelove wrote: |
| it isn't just a thing or two here and there, it's a pile, a cascade of ugh. |
Korea's centuries-long isolation from the rest of the world has resulted in korean males forming a lot of unique cultural habits. The country has only recently been exposed to the international community, and they don't yet realise that many of their ways are unacceptable outside of Korea.
The women tend to have good etiquette though. The only bad thing I've seen the women do is eat with their mouths open. And thats only some of them. |
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tatertot
Joined: 21 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 4:18 pm Post subject: |
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| cj1976 wrote: |
| In the five years I've been here, I've only ever encountered the Greater-Spotted Gum-Smacking Ajumma 3 or 4 times. Where do these fine specimens usually congregate? If this board is anything to go by, they're all over the place. |
I see them (hear them) all the time on the subway. It's somewhere between a daily and weekly occurrence. Sometimes they're so loud that even with my in-ear headphones in and music cranked I can still hear them smacking. One time it sounded like this lady was chewing on rocks! It drives me crazy. |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 6:11 pm Post subject: |
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| cj1976 wrote: |
| In the five years I've been here, I've only ever encountered the Greater-Spotted Gum-Smacking Ajumma 3 or 4 times. Where do these fine specimens usually congregate? If this board is anything to go by, they're all over the place. |
After they've had lunch or dinner out is when you'll usually hear them. They pop the gum in when they can't go brush their teeth. |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 6:12 pm Post subject: |
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| eamo wrote: |
Why not take a little straw poll of your own....
Ask as many Korean co-workers/friends/family as you want if they think the things on this list are....
a. not rude.
b. rude, and as common as ever.
c. rude, but becoming less common.
eating noisily
spitting
smoking near non-smokers
swearing in public
talking loudly on cellphone
letting doors close on people behind you
driving through crosswalks when people are crossing
I bet you get mostly 'C'.
Korean manners are changing as more and more Koreans go to college and have more or less middle-class lives. |
The gap between what people say and do is usually a bridge too far. |
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