Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Wow, I am overwhelmed by the uniqueness of Korea's Christmas.
If by unique you mean "divorced from any meaningful context whatsoever and adopted because we need something cute to do since all the other holidays are depressing and revolve around dead ancestors and foreign invaders," then yeah, unique. Fuck this shit.
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A quote from the newspaper article: "The phrase 'Merry Christmas' is used uniquely in Korea. In the U.S., it can only be heard in churches and privately among family members who recognize the holiday."
Didn't you know?! It's a Korean holiday!!
I got from that sentence a fucked up English mess meaning: "Merry Christmas" is the only phrase used in Korea. In the US, other phrases and expressions are used."
I think the point was that people don't use "Merry Christmas" in the US anymore because of PCness, so resort to Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings. Doesn't justify the misuse of "unique" or the tone of that particular fount of garbage. Can't anything just be let . . . be, without attributing "unique" or creating some kind of ranking? Don't answer that.
Merry Christmas is still very common in the US, so common that it's ridiculous to even have to say how common it is. How about leaving off approrpriating foreign holidays, okay? The sad thing is it was written by a whitey. He must not understand our culture.
At least he wrote "Protestants and Catholics" and not "Christians and Catholics" like Koreans do. Yeah, the part about the saying of Merry Christmas being unique is fucked up. Everything is unique in a sense. In that sense, Canadians celebrate (cough) Chusuck uniquely, because, well, its in Canada I guess.
I'm in Canada and lots of people are saying Merry Christmas right now. So, no. It isn't used uniquely in Korea. Of course, this is another example of how Koreans prefer to see the world as consisting of 4 countries: Korea, Japan, China, USA and...we're really not sure.
What's interesting is that down here in Jindo (and I suspect the situation is similar in other parts of rural Korea) I have not seen one vestige of Christmas whatsoever. In fact, if I wasn't constantly reminded of it by friends' blogs back home, I'd probably even forget to celebrate.
On one hand, that makes me feel a bit empty (especially since, seeing as I only get one day off, whereas the other foreigners get a long weekend, I will be the only one here), but it also in some ways makes it easier on me: without constant reminders, there's not as much of a feeling that I'm missing out.
I wrote this to the Christmas expert:
Mr. Meyer,
It is apparent in your article that you have never visited The United States during the Christmas season. Your article, while attempting to glorify Korea's uniqueness, does its best to ridicule the U.S. any chance it can. You are blatantly lying when you say, "Ironically, it is unlikely that you will hear any American business playing songs with Christmas lyrics". Also, your statement, " concerts on Christmas Eve and Day, which is unheard of in the US." is completely false.
Another note, businesses in America have idled down their use of "Merry Christmas" to respect the many religions in America. Your in Korea. How is it "unusually pleasant" to you when the country you live in continues to use the same Christmas phrases they have used in the past? I'm sure your defense is something along the lines of explaining"Korea's uniqueness", but your article's attempt at defining such uniqueness was only achieved by lies and poor understanding of respect for diversity.
I think it's important to understand the definition of unique.
u⋅nique [yoo-neek] Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective
1. existing as the only one or as the sole example; single; solitary in type or characteristics
With that, what is unique about Christmas in Korea?
Festive lights on buildings and homes? No
Christmas parades or concerts? No
This statement, "Here, people take time to reflect on what they have and to consider the less fortunate around them. Whether it's volunteer work, gift donations, or giving away spare coins, Koreans are willing to assist others in need."
The statement's attempt to say that is unique to Korea is completely baseless and an outright lie.
The Salvation Army was founded in London, England and operates in 111 countries ! The red kettle Christmas event started in the United States around 1982, and is no way unique to Korea or any other country.
Aside from the Salvation Army, there are thousands of food drives, gift drives, clothing drives and many other charity/volunteer services around the world during the Christmas season.
Do not take this in the wrong manner, I think it is great that Korea offers Christmas charities, festive lights and Christmas music. However, there is nothing unique about such events.
Perhaps your article could have celebrated the Christmas season in Korea without attempting to make Korea's Christmas "unique" or better than another country's. Unfortunately, your article was chock full of lies and poor attempts to glorify Korea's Christmas.
For my experience in Korea, and from what the Koreans I work with have said, Christmas here is "a holiday for young couples." So, for me, Korea's Christmas uniqueness stems from its separation of the true meaning of the religious holiday. Now, as I said, that is my impression. I would not think of broadcasting the impression I have gathered from a small group of people I have had direct contact with, or from what I have personally seen around the city in live in.
Perhaps you will do a little research and leave out the pathetic attempts to ridicule other countries in your next "unique" article.
Merry Christmas,
Paul Jones
So let's get this straight; we are having a pop at the Korea Times for having generally baseless, fairly idiotic, oft unreadable, grammatically inadequate, potentially inflamatory yet generally tedious writing?
Ok, just checking. Go right ahead. When you're done, there are some fish in a barrel over there I'd like you to deal with.
So, Paul, did he write back? I'm always curious about these so called foreigners that write for the KT. I can I honestly say I don't believe any of them exist.
Korea's pizza is also very unique because it includes corn.
The "unique" bit of Korean Christmas is simply that they've taken the consumerism bit (automatic entry for an iPod at the Gap) and building decorations (and having been in Seoul yesterday, I can safely say that they don't have more lights than, say, my sister's house, let alone New York!) and left out the rest...
It's true that businesses in the West use "Season's Greetings", but that's because we are recognizing that there are people who don't celebrate the religious side of it, but who still might celebrate in a secular way, simply keeping with family traditions. Or that there are millions of Jewish families who are celebrating Channukah, or African-Americans celebrating Kwanzaa, or Wiccans dancing around for Yule, or Swedes enjoying St. *can'trememberthename* Day or whatever... the list goes on. It's something that has evolved as we've become more open to different cultures and faiths...
*sigh*
So, in the words of my students "We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy to you!"
Sounded like Bill O'Reilly, Jr. is teaching English in Korea.
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