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Korean and Tamil Cultural Similarities Written by Bala Krishnan Ganesan
COMMUNITY
H
i this is Bala – a not-so-nerdy freshman PhD student from India, specifically, Tamil Nadu. The reason for being specific about my state is that in India, we Indians are so different in each state but proud to have unity in diversity. For example, we Tamils don’t greet with “Namaste” but with “Vanakkam,” a smile, and a bow. In terms of food, generally we make sambar, a lentil stew with rice and vegetable salad with some pickles, and not Indian curry with flat wheat bread (i.e., chapati and naan, which are common in the northern parts of India). So, I hope these examples have convinced you that we are a little different. But wait! I said my region is very different in culture when compared to the rest of India; but is Korean culture so very different from that of the Tamils? In Korea, people often bow when greeting and a common meal is rice with stew and some kimchi. Upon learning this, I couldn’t help but notice that Korean culture has some interesting similarities with Tamil culture. So, let’s explore how much alike we are.
Now let’s talk about food. Generally, Indians eat a lot of spicy foods. We Tamils also eat spicy food, but not always. An everyday home-cooked meal consists of some boiled rice with a lentil stew (sambar) and a watery stew (rasam)
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May 2020
Let’s begin from the very moment I set foot in the country at Incheon and called mom back home to tell her that I’d reached Korea safely! In Tamil, we call mom “amma” or, “ma” for short. I was surprised to see a small Korean kid using the same word “omma” (엄마, mom). Though a different word in a different language, they sound almost identical!
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Oorugai (pickle)
with some vegetable salad and pickles. Pickles (oorugai) in Tamil Nadu are fermented or soaked in red pepper paste and some sesame oil, unlike in Western countries, where they’re soaked raw in vinegar. Additionally, a common breakfast in my region is rice soaked overnight in water and eaten the next morning, which is called pazaya soru, meaning “old rice.” Having just said that, now I’m hungry. On one occasion, my friend, being vegetarian by choice, ordered some bap (밥, rice/a meal) at a Korean restaurant. To my surprise, the bap that my friend ordered for me was the same as the Indian platters I’m familiar with: a bowl of boiled rice, a stew with some spinach, some salad, and above all, kimchi, which is like pickles. Sounds yummy, right! I was surprised to see a food platter so similar to what’s served in my country thousands of kilometers away. Though my Korean lab mates were shy to speak in English at the beginning, within a few days, we found great connections over shared interests in K-dramas and alcohol. In another instance, I along with my friends went to a bar to get some drinks. I wanted to try something specific to Korea, so my friends ordered soju (소주), makgeolli (막걸리), and jeon (전) with sides. Starting with the makgeolli, after a few rounds, I noticed the taste and texture were so similar to my region’s liquor, sundakanji. Though I was a little too drunk then to explain the similarities to my friends, at least now I can mention it. One difference in drinking culture is that in Tamil Nadu, drinking is not as socially acceptable as in Korea. In fact, it’s quite a private affair, much like romantic relationships. Despite the social taboo, this doesn’t stop people in our region from having their own liquor recipes. We produce large amounts of rice, so naturally, we produce liquor also by fermenting it. Sound familiar? Yes, it’s much the same as the recipe for making makgeolli. With drinks flowing, it was time to eat kimchi-jeon (김치전). My first thought was “Wow, this also tastes familiar. Doesn’t it taste like adai dosai?” Indeed it does. Adai dosai is a recipe made with lentil flour, oftentimes onion, and spinach toppings. It’s almost the same as yachae chon (야채 전). It doesn’t stop there, because we
4/24/2020 4:15:56 PM
