Jeon Ji-hyeon does KFC.

Even though I've been in Korea for over three years, there's one newbie pet peeve I've never been able to get over: the sounds of eating. The noise at meal time drives me up the wall: the lip-smacking, the slurping, the talking with food coming out the mouth. Koreans usually deny they do it, or say that only old people do it, but don't let them trick you. Also, have a look at what some etiquette guides have to say. Tour2Korea says:

Do not make noises while eating and using spoon or chopsticks.

And another one:

Don't ever speak out loud with food in your mouth.

Always try not to make noise when you are chewing.

Before you look at that page, try and guess how the Korean man started his little essay. Anybody who's ever graded lots of Korean essays can probably get it on the first try. And this is all without getting into the running commentary on everything I eat at lunch, or the fact that Koreans spend 83% of the time talking about food. Anyway, I don't want to get too into it because it will give me a bad reputation, but suffice it to say it's a hatred with a long history and probably a long future.

I bring this up not only because it's very important but also because it relates to something brought up on the latest Seoul Podcast. They were debating the merits of Jeon Ji-hyeon, the drab-looking model and actress famous for being thin and having long hair. I remembered the KFC commercial I saw with her a few years ago, and remembered that I don't think I could be with someone who ate like that, no matter how hot she may be.



Zen Kimchi said she has the "Asian . . . girl . . . look." Um, I guess that about sums her boring ass up. She's soon to be 27, so probably not much of a girl nowadays anyway.