ToKki.BunNy: THIS IS KOREA (Book Review)

안녕하세요 친구들. 저는 지난주에 한 책을 읽었어요. (Hello friends. Last week I've read a book.)

I want to review this book and recomendate it to you who's looking a book to be read on weekend. Especially if you are a foreigner that intend to stay in Korea or just want to know more about this beautiful country.

The writers of this book are CHOI Jung-wha and LIM Hyang-ok (Language : English).

I won't review all part of the book, only some part that I thought very interesting and will make you want to read this book yourself. ^^ㅋㅋㅋ

Front Cover

This book explain basic information about Korea (location of the country, the language, national anthem etc). But did you know how was Korea created ?

As with many other countries, Korea also has a legend about its creation.

The story goes that the heavens were ruled by King Hwanin (환인) who had a son named Hwanung (환웅). The son asked his father for permission to go down to earth so that he could help humans. His wish was granted and he was sent down to the most important land, what is now known as Korea. One day, a tiger and bear came to him, request him to make them humans. He telling them that it required enourmous patience. Finally, he told them to eat 20 cloves of garlic and mugwort he would give them and to enter a cave and pray to the gods. They ate the garlic and mugwort and prayed to the gods. After a few days, however, the tiger was unable to bear his hunger pains and fled from the cave. The bear, however, patiently withstood the hardships and after 100 days was transformed into a beautiful woman. Hwanung named her Ungnyeo (웅녀) and married her. They had a son, Dangun (단군), the first ancestor of the Korean people. Dangun then founded the land know as Ancient Joseon.

This book also explain Korea Major Holiday such as Lunar New Year's Day/ Seollal (설날) and Korean Thanksgiving/ Chuseok (추석) completed with an explanation of what usually a Korean family do on such occassion.

As many of you already know that Korea had a different way from Western people to counting someone age, the reason for this is because Korean people count the nine months you were in your mother's womb.

We can learned how to counting our age in Korean way from this book, below is the formula :

If you've already celebrated your birthday => You only add one year to your birthday.

If not => You must add two years to your birthday.

For example : I'm born on November 27, 1985. I haven't celebrated my birthday this year, so my Korean age is 29 (add 2 years from my western age). My western age is 27 and when I celebrated my birthday on November 2013 my western age will be 28. If someone asked me how old I am in Korean on November I will add only 1 year which is 29.

So if you were in Korean and someone asked how old are you, it is not unusual to answer twice, you can say "My Korean age is 29 but my man (만) age is 27".

So how about the Korean Zodiac ?

Korean Zodiac is similiar with Chinese Zodiac, below is the picture of twelve Korean zodiac. (This book also explain a people characteristic based on their zodiac, your best zodiac mate that match with you, etc)

Korean Zodiac Sign

Some Facts about Korean People according to the book:

- Usually when we first meet with Korean people, they will ask you how old are you.

The reason is because in Korea being senior or junior to someone has a special meaning. Unlike western, the relationship in Korea tend to be vertical. Because of this vertical relationship in Korea you will call someone by their title (teacher, director, manager etc). And if they don't have a formal title, you can use ajumma (아줌마) means aunt for older woman or ajeossi (아저씨) means uncle for older man. You can see that we call someone family (aunt/uncle) eventhough they completely stranger, this is show us a glance about Korean culture.

However, nowadays ajumma and ajeossi have a slightly pejorative connotation and therefore are used for cleaning ladies, concierges or taxi drivers. Instead, you can use eonni (언니) - used by a girl to an older girl or nuna (누나) - used by a boy to an older girl, oppa (오빠) - used by a girl to an older boy, and hyeong (형)- used by a boy to an older boy.

- Korean people when meet their colleague usually greet them with a question " Have you eaten?"
There's a several reason behind this question, one reason is that Korean people suffered a lot from hunger during the Korean War. So these memories still haunt their subconscious.

- Korean don't feel that they have finished their meal unless they have a bowl of rice.

Some Proper Manner in General & Table Manner according to the book :

- Bow to someone you are being introduced to.

- Bow to the person you want to greet or thank.

- Don't drink in front of a higher-status person. If you must, turn your head to one side as a sign of respect.

- When dining with elders, wait until they start using their utensils and eating first before lifting yours.

- Don't lift your rice or soup bowl.

- When using your chopsticks, place the spoon on the table.

There's still many interesting things about this book that you must read it yourself, such as Korean Food, Korean Traditional Games etc. I borrowed this book from Korean Cultural Center Indonesia library. So if you lived at Jakarta, you can visit KCCI to borrowed the book.