From: davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: What do most of Japanese think of Korean (Re: An open letter..)
Date: 23 Aug 92 23:52:57 GMT
Organization: Aegis Society, Kyoto Japan

ntetsuya@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Nishimura) writes:

>In article <2459@aegis.or.jp> davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane) writes:

>>So 'baka-chon' means 'stupid dot'? ? ?

>	"baka demo chon demo toreru kamera" -> "baka-chon kamera"
>	"a camera with which both baka(a stupid person) and chon (a person with
>	less wisdom) can take pictures."

Maybe that's the literal meaning but....

>>I don't know myself, but a lot of (~30) Japanese nationals have told
>>me that 'baka-chon' meant "so easy that even a stupid Korean could
>>use it." Maybe they were wrong and it doesn't mean that, but they
>>thought it did and gave it as example of how Koreans are made fun of
>>even in advertisements. 

>	Yes, there are such people ignorant about the facts, and to tell the
>	truth I had been one of them until I looked up the origin of the word
>	in the dictionary.  (Still I had hated to use the word.  Now? Still 
>	don"t.)

... it sounds like a play on words to me; a word literally has one
meaning but is close enough to another than people can take it that
way as well. 

[* shifting to another topic *]

>	We have to be careful about food because even if you think there is 
>	no better food in the world than your favorite, there ARE people who
>	just cannot stand it.  I like sushi but I know some people sho cannot
>	imagine having raw fish.

Yes, I know what you mean. Speaking of plays on words, this isn't
quite the same but my favorite sushi shop is "Long Eight". Yes, Long
Eight. That's what the kanji say to me, although native speakers
read them "Cho Hachi" which is something different. Still, Long
Eight brings a smile and this is something worth doing :-)

>	BTW, I *love* kimchee.  How about sending me some of those, Dave?

Heh, heh, no way! I eat it all!

>	PS.  the other day my friend who is a Czekoslovakian made some kimchee
>	     and I tried some...   Boy, they were great and my Korean friends
>	     agreed, too.  Now I have one of the bottles with kimchee in my
>	     refrigerator.  :->

Ahhh, sounds like you have enough. All I get is a little plastic bag <sigh>.  

Speaking of Czechoslovakia I've been corresponding with some people
from Kosice (has an accent over the 's' and is pronounced Ko-sh-i-ke
as far as I can make out) and they say they are definitely Slovak,
not Czech. Hmmm, best to not make the same mistake as calling
somebody from Scotland 'English' <ouch>. As for the spelling of the
name of the country, on the stamps it's 'Ceskolsvensko' with an
accent over the 'c'. 

Anyway, I just got a video tape converted so it would play on VTRs
here and there were the postcards some of us had sent last
Christmas/New Year. They really liked one of a monkey (the animal
for '92) and had blown it up and made many many copies of it and
used them for decoration. Also to be seen were views of Toji temple
in Kyoto. 

Let's see, an American living in Kyoto is comparing kimchee made by
a Korean woman in Osaka with that made by the Czeh/Slovak friend of
(what I presume is) a Japanese living in Colorado. 

Maybe I'll ask the people I know in Kosice if make kimchee too and
see if they will reply to you directly so we can go around the loop
once more :-)

Dave

--
Dave McLane 
JUNET: davidg@aegis.or.jp (ONLY within Japan: post otherwise)
Nagaokakyoshi, Kyoto Japan Tel: +81-75-951-1168 Fax: +81-75-957-1087
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan