Today, we focused on Korean culture. Minju and Yang invited us to their place to celebrate Chuseok. It’s a holiday in Korea that celebrates the rice harvest (similar to Thanksgiving). It’s a big family gathering usually held at the grandmother’s house. Minju and Yang had never cooked these dishes before. We made bibimbap, potato pancakes, buckwheat noodles, and tofu/zucchini pancakes. These cooking moments taught me patience! In France, dishes take time to cook, but it’s usually the cooking itself that takes long, so we can do other things while waiting. Here, we had to cut the carrots into tiny slices, which took us a lot of time.
Before the gathering, I was a little anxious because I had never eaten Korean food and thought it would be very different from European cuisine. In a way, that’s true because there’s a lot of sweet and salty mixing, but that’s what makes the dishes delicious! In the end, I realized that our cultures always find common ground. I was surprised when we made potato pancakes because we have a very similar dish in France called “criques.” Emese also explained that in Germany, they make a similar dish, but it’s sweet because they add apple jam on top. It’s amusing to see how similar our cultures actually are. We only vary a few ingredients or have different ways of eating, but the essence of the meal is the same. Moreover, I experienced something we never do in France : eating from the same dishes. We’re used to eating from our own plates, and picking directly from the shared dish would be frowned upon. So, it was a culturally enriching evening. I am very grateful for these moments and for what Minju and Yang bring into my life. They are helping me discover a world completely different from my own, one that I’ve always wanted to explore. This is allowing me to broaden my mind even more to a part of the world I know very little about.
I also tried learning a few more Korean words, but I struggle to remember the pronunciations after our meetings. Next time, I’ll need to download a dictaphone app to record both them and myself, so I can listen to the pronunciations at home. Without this, I won’t make much progress in their language. I also think I’ll download an app to learn Korean because Emese does that, and we practice recognizing the letters of the alphabet each time.
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