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crazylemongirl
Joined: 23 Mar 2003
Location: almost there...
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 Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 7:39 pm Post subject: Koreans and Lunch |
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After I finish my half days at the Gym I like to go and workout. Even after explaining to the Korean teachers that I'll eat later, as I don't want to be ill from eating lunch before my workout, they insist on shovelling food down my gullet.
It seems like lunch seems to be the highlight of the workday here... what's with that? |
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spliff
Joined: 19 Jan 2004
Location: Khon Kaen, Thailand
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 7:49 pm Post subject: |
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Let me get this straight...after you finish a half day at the gym, you like to skip lunch and go back to the gym?  |
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HapKi
Joined: 10 Dec 2004
Location: TALL BUILDING-SEOUL
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 8:19 pm Post subject: |
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Koreans eat lunch at lunchtime, and go back to work.
What's your point? |
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Satori
Joined: 09 Dec 2005
Location: Above it all
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 8:56 pm Post subject: |
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| HapKi wrote: |
Koreans eat lunch at lunchtime, and go back to work.
What's your point? |
Her point is they want everyone to do exactly what they do, despite some people having other life styles. |
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denverdeath
Joined: 21 May 2005
Location: Boo-sahn
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 9:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Actually, food is important for many Koreans, as it is for many Westerners. Koreans still haven't realised that many of them are no longer starving. Why do you think they always ask, "Did you eat (breakfast/lunch/dinner)?" rather than, "How ya doin' today?" or "How was your weekend?" Food is a tradition; more for sustenance, not enjoyment. Yes, they are trying to make you a part of the group, and, no, they will not understand your strange eating habits/schedule. Stick to your guns, if so desired...if you tell 'em enough, they'll get it. Tell 'em you're not Roman... |
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laogaiguk
Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Location: somewhere in Korea
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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| denverdeath wrote: |
| Actually, food is important for many Koreans, as it is for many Westerners. Koreans still haven't realised that many of them are no longer starving. Why do you think they always ask, "Did you eat (breakfast/lunch/dinner)?" rather than, "How ya doin' today?" or "How was your weekend?" Food is a tradition; more for sustenance, not enjoyment. Yes, they are trying to make you a part of the group, and, no, they will not understand your strange eating habits/schedule. Stick to your guns, if so desired...if you tell 'em enough, they'll get it. Tell 'em you're not Roman... |
I agree. Just let them know firmly and they will get it. But a lot of these countries are still not totally used to not worrying about food. In China, the common greeting (atleast in the middle part) is "Have you eaten?". (Chi fan le ma?) and not "Hello". |
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kangnam mafioso
Joined: 27 Jan 2003
Location: Teheranno
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| Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 1:22 pm Post subject: |
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| maybe you could have lunch periodically with the coworkers and work out in the late afternoon? when do you normally eat lunch if not during lunchtime? |
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crazylemongirl
Joined: 23 Mar 2003
Location: almost there...
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| Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 4:46 pm Post subject: |
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| I eat a late lunch/early dinner. At the moment I'm on half days due to vaction so strictly speaking I finish at 12.30 |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 6:43 pm Post subject: Re: Koreans and Lunch |
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| crazylemongirl wrote: |
| It seems like lunch seems to be the highlight of the workday here... what's with that? |
It's partly to do with food qua food.
I think posters are right about the historical importance Koreans, Chinese, etc. place on food, how that's worked its way into speech (the "have you eaten?" greetings), and one's forms of speech and ways of thinking will change slower than one's actual, material circumstances. (Koreans & Chinese aren't starving anymore, though they often speak and think and behave as though times are still hard.)
But quite apart from mere sustenance, it also has to do with the strong group ethic and the desire to discourage individualism.
Meals with one's 'co-workers' (interpret that word as loosely as required) here are in a way a kind of rite. They're not charged with any deep religious-like significance, nor are they even consciously understood as being rites. But there is an undeniable element of propriety to taking part in group meals with one's co-workers. Your attendance shows that you understand your and everyone's correct place in society.
By opting out for any reason short of a personal emergency, you're indicating that you don't understand your place, or that you have no regard for "the group". No, you are to attend. And as the group is having peppery hot fishhead soup with extra fishbones, so are you. No no, you're not dashing out to the deli for a Greek salad -- you're sitting there and eating your big bowl of peppery hot fishhead soup with extra bones, like the rest of the group. To do otherwise would be insincere. |
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Swiss James
Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Location: Shanghai
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| Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 7:54 pm Post subject: |
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| I never eat lunch with my co-workers, they bolt their chow down like someone's trying to steal it, and then sit around commenting about what I have and haven't eaten |
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anyway
Joined: 22 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 8:07 pm Post subject: |
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| I'll never forget the first staff hike I had here in Korea. When it came time to eat our boxed lunches, the director plopped himself down on a pretty narrow section of the trail. Of course, all his inferiors followed suit until there was actually no room left on that little half-flat spot, only the trail was left clear (kind of). I went down a little ways to a nicer grassy place as I didn't particularly want all to eat in a huddle with all the passersby stepping between us and our lunch boxes. A little later I learned that the director said I wasn't sociable. True...but I did enjoy my lunch that day. |
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xtchr
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
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| Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 8:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Ditto what Swiss James said. |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 8:17 pm Post subject: |
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| anyway wrote: |
| I'll never forget the first staff hike I had here in Korea. When it came time to eat our boxed lunches, the director plopped himself down on a pretty narrow section of the trail. Of course, all his inferiors followed suit until there was actually no room left on that little half-flat spot, only the trail was left clear (kind of). I went down a little ways to a nicer grassy place as I didn't particularly want all to eat in a huddle with all the passersby stepping between us and our lunch boxes. |
How insincere of you. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 9:42 pm Post subject: |
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| I always have lunch with my co-workers after we finish our half-day of teaching during winter break, even if I'm planning on going to the gym afterwards. Why we all have to pile into two cars to drive three minutes to a restaurant that we could have ordered from (and then have to sit on the floor) I don't know, but I do feel very much one of the gang at my school and get an enormous amount of respect. Is it that hard to adjust one's lifestyle, especially when winter break affords so much free time? |
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