A Presentation Of Korean Culture Through Cooking

readers why every culture is unique and contributes in its own way to the collective heritage of

When Athenians first saw playwright Aeschylus’ The Persians, they did not cheer at the tragic fall of their sworn enemies. They did not yell in a heightened euphoria of victory, nor did they stamp their feet in chanting triumph. Instead, they wept. They wept for their enemy’s tragic, human flaw, and for their resulting demise. When I learned of this, I was utterly confused. Why would one be sympathetic toward an adversary, let alone during a time of war? I then realized that the Athenians were capable of compassion because they were able to look past their perceived enmity with the Persians, no matter how briefly, and relate with them through a common human fault. This led to a fundamental change in my sense of identity and how I viewed other people. I

Culture itself is a complex topic with multiple definitions ranging from the organic to the mechanical, the natural to the manufactured. In a world composed of different groups, we see many variations of culture. Cultural universals are traits, patterns, and elements that transcend specific groups and can be applied to all known cultures (Macionis 2014). This idea implies that mankind and its multiple cultures are interconnected by patterns of fulfilling human needs that occur on a global scale. Specific examples of cultural universals extend from medicine to the family unit. Though anthropologists and sociologists have found support for the existence of cultural universals, the idea of these universal aspects of culture still draw criticism from critical and postmodern scholars and by individuals who ascertain cultural universals are in a natural state of opposition with cultural relativism.

We formed a group as an academic project-Confront Culture-Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. The objective of this project is to demonstrate cultural foods and gain understanding in various cultures as a viewpoint from an Anthropologist. The examination of foods is not just about food. It is bringing together several methods of a culture such as rituals, traditions and purpose as it relates to foods. The type of foods chosen in different cultures provides Anthropologist background knowledge of a culture, changes over a period of time, characteristics and devotion of in relation to an individual or a group in society. Anthropology is the study and the relativity of human mankind. There are four important fields in Anthropology (MCDowell, 2007)

In the article titled “The Author of ‘The Vegetarian’ Takes On Korea’s Violent Past” by Nami Mun, the author provides the audience with a short description of the word “Hello” emphasizing and demonstrating how this word has a different definition into the Korean culture. According to the author in the Korean language the word hello refers to being or feeling peace within oneself. With this idea in mind, the author introduces her point of views in ideas through a powerful question that makes the audience reflect and think before reading the rest of the article.

Culture is typically represented as a pervasive, generally invisible system of symbolic resources and shared beliefs arising from the shared experiences of a group of people that stands outside but still shapes their understanding of how the world works. For some time culture has been recognized as a powerful current running throughout the daily lives and experiences of human beings, not simply ritual occasions they take part I from tie ot time. Cultural values and norms have been offered with increasing frequency as expalnations for people’s actions, from greeting sequences to arranged marriages, and for the way people interpret the actions of others.

As history goes by the world structure, politics, and economy changes from decade to decade, however traditions, customs and culture of different countries remain almost untouched. Culture therefore is a highly important aspect to the society and individuals (Oatey, 2012). Culture of any society includes traditions, customs, rituals and events flourished by certain society. As a part of culture traditions in originated in ancient times and determined by public and private life of individuals. They implied teachings, moral and aesthetic norms, rules and skills of house dwelling and raising children methods. The stability

“… patterned ways of thinking, feeling and reacting, acquired and transmitted mainly by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiment in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e., historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values.” (Kroeber A.L. & Kluckhohn F., p. 181; emphasis added)

The United States of America is truly a melting pot. People of different cultures and ethnic groups flee to America to experience a piece of the ‘American Pie’. The culture of foreigners is different from the cultures of American’s. This has caused a lot of preventable tragic events over the years. Due to a lack of communication, individuals of different cultural groups and ethnicity can easily be evaluated as dangerous, rude, and even extremist because of the cultural barriers. With the world moving at such a fast pace, people don’t tend to consider the culture beliefs and behaviors of their new neighbors. Ultimately leaving people of different beliefs in fear that Americans opinions and perception of their culture will put them in harm, leaving them prisoner in a free country. I broke the cultural barrier and interview a citizen of North Korea. In the following I will speak of North Korean values, religion, and the role of women. In applying the communication concepts, I found that they are prisoners in their own land and come to American just to be rude by their ethnicity.

Over the past three or four years I’ve been really interested in the Asian culture with the TV that they watch or just their everyday lives. Of course, this all starts with a small thing and that was interpreting. When i was twelve i was interesting in sign language from the show "Switched at Birth." For the rest of that year i decided i would interpret that; at twelve i already what to do with my life. About a year later i was showed an anime show called "Fairy Tail." This is what you could say broadened my horizons in languages. Then i started getting into their music this somehow lead me to jumping to the Korean music. Korea doesn’t have anime but it does have K-Pop music leading me to like the Korean culture. Having this curiosity about those countries i could go and see them.

To begin, it is vital that the cultural dimension of any human experience be considered because it gives a reason for everything we do, along with why those who are different from us do the things they do. Doing this allows us to come to a deeper understanding of others and to realize that culture is something we can’t escape. The idea that culture shapes everything we do, and

Asian cultures vary in a variety of ways, not just when compared to western cultures, but also when compared amongst themselves. The Angelo State University campus gets to sample what the culture in South Korea is actually like due to the numerous exchange students. Through working as a Resident Assistant, opportunities to learn bits and pieces of their culture consistently presented themselves. In W.S.’s (1969) research depicts respect as the major factor of any, if not all, Korean relationships. This is due to the large reliance of hierarchy taught and passed down generation after generation, and is commonly known as ‘saving face.’ There are few limitations on the efforts and pressure to keep honor in their family name, bringing little to no disrespect in any endeavors. So in times of hardship, it is common to see students avoid eye contact and stare downwards as a sign of respect; this also relates to the feeling that they are unworthy of making eye contact with the person in authority.

Beneath the veneer of cross-cultural differences in cultural forms exists a layer of universals that unites the manner by which individuals create, experience, and consume instantiations of cultural expression. A complete theory of culture should take into account both the myriad of unique and idiosyncratic cultural expressions along with the underlying cultural commonalities that binds all people under a universal and invariant human nature. (218).

To analyze the many histories of people, a person must look to the historical aspects of that particular culture. The culture of any one group of people is usually passed down through generations via family and community. Whether the culture is nomadic tribal peoples of Mongolia or a modern day Roman-Catholic Italian-American family, the culture and its typical roles for men and women are passed along through each community.

At the present time, the idea of culture, traditions and their transparency with evolvement in time has come to fore. Different authors discuss separately these topics in relations to personal needs in a diverse way. However, the apparent gap of this literature review will be identified.