Korean Job Discussion Forums

SOOHWA101 · Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 2:58 am Post subject: Do you ever tell them?

I have only had the courage a few times, especially when the annoyance places me past making a joke out of it; but, what is it with the smacking of food?

I have periodic breaks and people are always eating around me. I literally have to remove myself from the area until they are finished.

I mean I understand that they see it as no big deal, however, I find it very offensive. Some of them may not like me, for whatever reason, but I do not force them to "put up with" anything. I get nauseated on a daily basis from this.

This has gone on for long enough. How do you tell a grown man or woman that their eating habits literally turn your stomach and remind you of a barnyard animal when they feed? And I don't just mean the sounds, they will actually have food draining from their mouths and slurping it all around.

Pooty · Joined: 15 Jun 2008 Location: Ela stin agalia mou

It's just part of living in another culture and all that...try not to be so ethnocentric. Very Happy

SOOHWA101 · Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 3:08 am Post subject:

Pooty · Joined: 15 Jun 2008 Location: Ela stin agalia mou

I know man, I hate it too. But you know what I hate more? When they suck their freakin teeth after they eat. Go to the frickin bathroom and brush them for god's sake. And quit spitting all over the ground where I have to stand when I'm on a break, you're engineers for cryin out loud, you're supposed to be educated.

Whitey Otez · Joined: 31 May 2003 Location: The suburbs of Seoul

Higher class Koreans will tell you that it's not part of the culture. Smacking food is something peasants do, but like shoving and cutting in line, no one who does it ever gets confronted with it so it lives on. One of my coworkers found out that foreigners find it low-class behavior, and she told the others. Now when I go near the cafeteria, they stop eating and fell self-conscious.

Awkward.

SOOHWA101 · Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 3:15 am Post subject:

I sometimes take a smoke break with a coworker in the stairwell, and he routinely hawks up loogies right where we smoke. I slipped and almost fell the other day on one of those things. I handled it rather well I think; I just gave him a disgusted look.

Jeff's Cigarettes · Joined: 27 Mar 2007

I eat with Korean people every weekday and I've personally NEVER heard any smacking of lips....sorry.

Gimpokid · Joined: 09 Nov 2008 Location: Best Gimpo

I do it even though my dad would beat me for it.

I thought that's what Koreans did in lieu of blowing on food.

SOOHWA101 · Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 3:23 am Post subject:

nomad-ish · Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 3:25 am Post subject:

last year i did notice it a little, but it wasn't a big deal for me as i only really heard it during lunch time. now my desk is right in front of the office's communal eating table (you know the one i mean), and i get everyone standing around the table and my desk, chomping away, making it extremely difficult to do any work.

Draz · Joined: 27 Jun 2007 Location: Land of Morning Clam

I put on my headphones when I hear it. My coworkers are pretty delicate and lady-like about it, but it still drives me batty.

Kikomom · Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 3:44 am Post subject:

I've seen this complaint here on Dave's before and I have to wonder how Wario is handling it.

Once, when he was about nine or ten, a food fight broke out at Easter dinner when we had a little neighbor kid there who was talking with a mouthful. Wario was so grossed out he threw his whole plate full of food at him. Twisted Evil

sojourner1 · Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 4:06 am Post subject:

It's like expressing, "this is a very delicious," to each other. Cake will have their mouths a smacking, but they don't see it as rude. It's a different culture with a totally different set of rules of what is rude and what is respectful. For example, I show civilized respect by saying, "excuse me, sir or mam" if someone is in my way instead of shoving past them unless it's an emergency.

How about some noodle slurpin' and jaw smacking to tell your mates you find the communal dish quite yummy and acceptable?

SOOHWA101 · Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 4:25 am Post subject:

Starla · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Location: Seoul

I haven't noticed too much smacking and slurping except from maybe the men....especially after they've mixed rice into their soup into one gloppy mess.

One thing though that gets to me is the need to make those phlegm like sounds in the middle of speech. Even the women do it. I think they do it to add emphasis to what they're saying but when you don't understand the language, it just sounds very peasant-like for lack of a better term, especially when it's done several times in a row. How this became a part of common Korean speech, I don't know. I don't think we have anything equivalent to that in American English.