Entering the week meant one thing: 추석 (Chuseok, aka Korean Thanksgiving or Mid-Autumn Festival). Like American Thanksgiving, most folks get a kick-ass long weekend to spend quality time with friends and family. However, South Korea seems to turn off during this time with only a few places being open to provide various daily services (READ: A brother cannot even buy some bread if he wanted to.). But like us Yalies, as “wise” as we are, planned a bit ahead and planned to gather during at Hangang on Sunday right before the technical holiday.
The friendsgiving was a success in multiple ways: Not every Yalie at the little picnic knew each other. Not every character at the event was a Yalie. Not every person had a Korean family in Korea to go back to celebrate a traditional Chuseok. We had IH. IH. Bless the heavens they were still open before the holiday fully kicked in. And like all conversations that involve Yalies, there was a consistent tendency for shifting conversation into tangents that devolved into further tangents. Nevertheless, we had our serious moments of reflection as a number of the group included graduates and the rest would be living in Korea for God-knows-how-long. In summary, it was a much needed outlet.
The morning of actual Chuseok meant getting up early for prayer with the host family. You bet I immersed myself and actually did bows to my host ancestors. Actually, a big thing about Chuseok and other Korean holidays that may or may not differ from Mid-Autumn Festival as its celebrated elsewhere in Asia (my knowledge of Chinese-based traditions is extremely sub-par) is the set-up of the holiday table. Koreans have a number of rules of how meal and offering tables are set up based on the holiday and the size of the table. I would say the size of the one in our apartment was relatively small but that didn’t mean much to the “rules” as the table was packed.
The day continued with me getting acquainted to my other host siblings (both of whom are married with children) and my host parents getting acquainted with my friends for a wonderful Chuseok dinner. My 형 (older host brother) has a 1 year-old 딸 (daughter) who was adorable but my other 누나 (older host sister) has a 6 year-old 아들 (son) so he was pretty much in the brat stage of his childhood and kept to himself . That evening my host parents prepared quite a feast for my friends. Actually it was feast-like to the point I could actually not move from the weight of all the food, especially since this was my second large meal on a day of constant devouring. Aside from the food, my friend got tidbits on Korean culture, everyone poked fun at Jake, everyone poked fun at me, we all go to hear about what my host dad did before retiring. Actually, that last one probably takes the cake for the gravity of the subject mater; not only had he received numerous awards for his work with the government but his job actually involved him actually going into North Korea and/or living there on numerous occasions. But retiring from arduous work didn’t weaken his ability to take photos with a bunch of foreigners.
A quick summary on the rest of the week: We went to pay respect to one of my host ancestor’s grave and redid our bows. I experienced my first ever Korean condo; I’m going to stick to the American ones. I befriended someone through Tinder and the light is blessed as its helped me getting integrated into the KU community. A couple of us managed to make friends on campus! Jake has computer problems 🙁
Sarcasm is a staple of American culture and humor. I don’t think there has been in my adult life where I was not at least the victim of sarcasm or the asshole who delivered it. Oftentimes, it’s not harsh to the point that it actually stirs trouble. However, I’m not sure what to recommend the more sarcastic folk reading this to do if they ever do visit Korea.
So Korean humor can (for me, obviously) be divided into two camps: slapstick and exaggeration. Slapstick speaks for itself. Exaggeration in Korea is a whole other thing. Don’t believe me? 개그콘서트 (“Gag Concert”) is the Mad TV to Korean SNL. After you watch this clip, you’ll probably understand a bit of the difference in humor. However, it is probably more likely that you won’t fully understand how all that could be funny. Don’t worry, I went through those same struggles. Essentially, the exaggeration that many Koreans seem to exude and appreciate is simply just overacting or overdoing a role or character. Any if you think this is just a thing found on this show, surprise, surprise, a sizable numbers will exaggerate reactions, facial expressions, and stories to add a dose of humor to it all. Take it as you will, it’s pretty much a hit or miss for me.
Back to the sarcasm. It doesn’t exactly exist (seemingly) in Korean culture. I think I’ve been doing with a 50% success rate is attempt to either use American idioms or sarcasm in Korean. Luckily for me, the people who I use it on already know me decently enough and the know I’m a little strange. So when they hear the ridiculous things that come out of my mouth, they often laugh because I’m just a ridiculous human being, but I give the benefit of the doubt to them and imagine they understand I was joking. (My class, however, now seriously believes that I will become a Korean movie star; I may have to fix that in the coming weeks.) Another lighter form of sarcasm I use is similar to whole exaggeration things Koreans seem to dig but only with language. Actually, a lot of Koreans will reply with things like “그러구나?” (think about that asshole that responds with an overdone “REALLY?” when you say something pretty obvious) or “그럴 리가!” (think about that jerk that responds with an overdone “NO WAY!” when you again say something pretty obvious, also you should stop stating the obvious). I’ve used those phrases and expanded that Korean sarcasm lexicon to include other exaggerated retorts. I’ll let you know when I finally get arrested for my ludicrous behavior.
