Learn about Pepero Day in Korea
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Seol: 안녕하세요. 윤설입니다. |
| Keith: Keith here. Now, today is November 11th. And because today is a special day in Korea, we want to share that with our listeners today. So, Seol, can you introduce what today is? |
| Seol: Today is Pepero Day. |
| Keith: Can you explain what Pepero is? |
| Seol: Pepero is a kind of cookie. Is like chocolate covered pretzels. |
| Keith: They’re just sticks of pretzels, crackers? |
| Seol: Crackers I think. |
| Keith: Crackers. And they’re chocolate covered and yes, so today is 11.11, one, one, one, one and if you have a little bit of imagination you can see that it kind of looks like four sticks. |
| Seol: Yeah, that’s why we have Pepero Day on November 11th, right? |
| Keith: Well, why don’t we have 윷놀이 데이 on November 11th? |
| Seol: Wow. A new idea. We usually play 윷놀이 on 설날, so people have hard time to imagine playing 윷놀이 on usually days. |
| Keith: Well, it’s not a very commercial game 윷놀이. |
| Seol: That is true. |
| Keith: But, Pepero... |
| Seol: It’s a very commercialized day. |
| Keith: Yes, it’s very commercialized. So, can you explain a little bit about the culture that goes on behind Pepero Day? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Seol: Pepero Day is like Valentine’s Day and White Day in Korea. So people get Pepero to their 여자 친구 and 남자 친구 to 고백하다. 사랑을 고백하기 위해서 빼빼로를 줍니다. |
| Keith: Did you ever confess your love to somebody? |
| Seol: No. I was the person who got Pepero. |
| Keith: Oh. |
| Seol: Yes. |
| Keith: 공주병이네요. |
| Seol: 아니에요. |
| Keith: All right. Well, yea. So can you break down that word for us that we had before? |
| Seol: 고백하다. |
| Keith: “To confess” and “to receive a confession”. |
| Seol: 고백 받다. |
| Keith: And, Seol, which one was more for you? |
| Seol: 고백 받다. I’m not 공주병. |
| Keith: Well, 고백 받고 남자랑 사귀어 봤어요? |
| Seol: 네. |
| Keith: Can we break down that word? |
| Seol: 사귀다. |
| Keith: “To get together”, “to befriend”, “to become a couple”. All right. So, Pepero Day is November 11th , and we have one, one, one, one. It looks like Pepero sticks. Now, Pepero is a kind of snack. |
| Seol: 미국에는 빼빼로 같은 과자 없어요? |
| Keith: No, there’s no Pepero in America. |
| Seol: No cookies which look like Pepero? |
| Keith: Not that I know of, no. We have Pepero, but that’s like at the Korean supermarkets. |
| Seol: So, listeners should drop by a Korean supermarket to buy Pepero today, right? |
| Keith: Yes, and 고백하고 |
| Seol: 고백 받고. |
| Keith: 고백 받고, yeah. All right. So, yeah, we don’t have Pepero. But in Korea there’s many different types of Pepero. |
| Seol: 아몬드 빼빼로도 있고 블랙 빼빼로도 있고 딸기 빼빼로도 있어요. |
| Keith: Well, what company makes Pepero? |
| Seol: 롯데. |
| Keith: But Pepero is the original and there’s a bunch of different copycats as well. All right. So, can you tell us a little bit about the origins of Pepero Day? Now, is it some kind of romantic story where this guy, he was so in love with the girl, but he had to... |
| Seol: No. |
| Keith: No? |
| Seol: No. This is a very commercialized event, so the company Lotte made a commercial to promote this Pepero Day. So after watching the commercial, people try to mimic, imitate that kind of things to other people, so it became quite a national event, but originally this is a very commercialized thing, so I don’t like it. That’s why I don’t buy Pepero for Pepero Day. I just get and receive Pepero from other people. |
| Keith: Okay. So it’s not really a romantic thing, it’s just very commercialized. But, hey, we bought into commercial. We’re doing a little... |
| Seol: That is true, yes. |
| Keith: Culture Class, so yeah all right. So, instead of Pepero what other options do we have to give to our loved ones or our friends? |
| Seol: On Pepero Day? |
| Keith: Yes. |
| Seol: You can drop by a bakery to buy Pepero figured bread. Well, there are many options that you can buy. On the streets, there are a lot of 빼빼로 빵 and copycat Pepero and they look really pretty and cute. |
| Keith: Yeah. And some of these packages are really elaborate and big and expensive. |
| Seol: It is expensive. |
| Keith: Yes. Everyone is really, really chipping in the commercial aspect of this day. But some of these things are really expensive and they can get up to like 10만원, right? |
| Seol: Really? |
| Keith: I think so. |
| Seol: Ok. Everybody bought cheap Pepero for me so I didn’t know that’s that expensive. |
| Keith: Well, even though it’s kind of expensive, most of the people that celebrate Pepero Day are... |
| Seol: Students. |
| Keith: Yeah, students. Like high school, junior high school students. Not really college students. |
| Seol: No. |
| Keith: Elementary school students. |
| Seol: Yeah, they do buy Pepero too. |
| Keith: But, instead of 고백, they just give it to their friends and hey, it’s candy day. |
| Seol: It’s like, you know, showing their friendship to their friends. So that’s special to them. |
Outro |
| Keith: All right. Well, today was just a really quick Culture Class we wanted to show you today. I wish everybody a happy Pepero Day. And, yeah, remember to stop by KoreanClass101.com, 101, now that doesn’t work Pepero. |
| Seol: No. |
| Keith: No. 101.com. And yeah, check out the posts and leave us a comment. All right. That’s going to do it. See you. |
| Seol: Bye-bye. |
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