Learn about Black Day, Valentine's Day and White Day in Korea
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Seol: 안녕하세요. 윤설입니다. |
| Minkyeong: 안녕하세요. 지민경입니다. |
| Keith: Hey, Keith here. Korean Culture Class Number 11, Black Day. Before we get started, we should introduce one of our new members at KoreanClass101.com. 자기소개 좀 해 주시겠어요? |
| Minkyeong: 안녕하세요. 지민경입니다. 잘 부탁드립니다. |
| Keith: Wait, that's it,? You’re just going to tell us your name? |
| Minkyeong: 네. 알고 싶은 거라도 있으세요? Anything you want to know? 없잖아. |
| Keith: Okay. If you have any questions for Minkyeong, leave them at KoreanClass101.com. Let her know, she'll get back to you. |
| Minkyeong: 네. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Keith: Alright, so let's get started. Today is.... well not today, today is actually April 9th and it’s not Black Day. So when is Black Day? |
| Minkyeong: April 14th is Black Day. |
| Seol: Yeah, next Monday. |
| Keith: Are you excited? |
| Seol: No, why? |
| Keith: You should be excited. |
| Seol: No. No. It's not for me. |
| Keith: It's not for you. Is Black Day for you? |
| Minkyeong: Yes |
| Keith: Oh, that's so sad. |
| Seol: Yes, we need an explanation about Black Day so listeners can catch the meaning. |
| Keith: Yes, so it's Black. It's not a very nice color is it? |
| Minkyeong: No, it's not a nice color. |
| Seol: No. |
| Minkyeong: No, it’s not a nice color. |
| Seol: So miserable. |
| Keith: Well, as you can guess, Black Day is not such a happy day. So what do we have? We have February 14th, 2월 14일. |
| Minkyeong: 발렌타인 데이. |
| Keith: Valentine's Day, Okay, and also we have.... |
| Seol: 화이트 데이. |
| Keith: And what day is that on? |
| Seol: March 14th |
| Keith: For those of you who that do not know, Valentine's Day is a little bit different in Korean. Can you explain a little bit? |
| Seol: It's for lovers so girls... |
| Keith: That's not different. |
| Seol: Okay, so typically Korean girls give chocolates to their boyfriends. |
| Minkyeong: Or someone you like you give chocolate to. |
| Seol: Yeah, you confess your love, right? |
| Minkyeong: That's right. |
| Keith: Have you ever done that? |
| Seol: You mean confessing my love? |
| Keith: Yes. Well how do you say "confess your love" to somebody? |
| Seol: 사랑을 고백하다. |
| Keith: 사랑을 고백한 적이 없어요? On Valentine's Day? |
| Seol: No. |
| Minkyeong: I never. |
| Keith: Never? |
| Minkyeong: Never |
| Keith: Yes, you got to watch a little more Korean dramas. Get some love juices moving in you. |
| Seol: I am more special than that. |
| Keith: So you are above and beyond the rest of everybody? |
| Seol: Sure. Yeah. |
| Keith: Okay |
| Seol: No kidding. Maybe next year I will. |
| Keith: Maybe next year you'll confess your love. Alright, so that's the women to the men? |
| Seol: Yes. |
| Keith: What about men, when do they get a chance to show their soft side? |
| Minkyeong: 화이트 데이. |
| Keith: That's on March... |
| Minkyeong: 14th |
| Keith: Okay, and can you explain a little bit? |
| Minkyeong: It's when guys who received chocolates on Valentine's Day, they get to give candies to girls. |
| Keith: Wait, so it's not just chocolate? |
| Minkyeong: Oh no, it is usually candies, not chocolates, right? |
| Seol: Yes. |
| Keith: What's the difference? |
| Seol: Because the chocolate companies made a lot of money so it's time for candy companies. |
| Minkyeong: I think that's true though. |
| Keith: Really? |
| Minkyeong: Yeah. |
| Keith: So like Valentine's Day, White Day is all directed by the chocolate companies and candy companies? |
| Seol: Yeah. |
| Keith: So what kind of candies are males supposed to give to women? |
| Minkyeong: There are no specific kind of candies that you have to give, it’s just candies. |
| Keith: Yeah, but what's candy it's such a general term? |
| Seol: So usually men give candy with some present. So candy is kind of, you know, not the real one. It's not the bottom of the heart. |
| Keith: Say, I have a box and it's filled with candy? |
| Seol: Yes, and inside the box there must be something very valuable. |
| Keith: Something special? |
| Seol: Yeah, like, you know, rings or accessories or... |
| Keith: So you watched Korean dramas. |
| Seol: I think I watch it too much. |
| Keith: Okay, so did that ever happen to you? Did you ever get something really nice on White Day? |
| Minkyeong: No. |
| Keith: So Black Day is the day for you. |
| MINKYEONG: Yeah, I think so. |
| Seol: Oh, poor Minkyeong. |
| Keith: What about you? |
| Seol: I’m kind of exceptional. |
| Keith: You keep saying that. You're a woman of mysteries. Okay, well, like we said Black Bays is for Minkyeong. We're glad to have you on the show with us. |
| Minkyeong: Okay, Thank you. |
| Keith: You don't look too happy. |
| Keith: All right. So on Valentine's Day we have the women giving men gifts and we have on White Day the men giving women gifts. So what about all those sad, single, miserable people out there? |
| Seol: Minkyeong? |
| Minkyeong: Oh, there is Black Day which is for all the single people they get together and they go to eat 짜장면. |
| Keith: Can you break down that word? |
| Minkyeong: 짜장면. |
| Keith: And what is that? |
| Seol: The black Chinese noodle. |
| Keith: In Korean, you call it Chinese food. But it is not Chinese food. |
| Seol: It's Koreanized Chinese food |
| Keith: Very, very Koreanized. |
| Seol: In China, you cannot find the same noodle. |
| Keith: So it is basically Korean food with a Chinese twist. |
| Seol: Yes. |
| Keith: So, we go there and the sauce is black. |
| Minkyeong: Yes, it's black. |
| Keith: And what do you do, you just eat? |
| Minkyeong: With your single friends. |
| Keith: So.... |
| Minkyeong: You gather up and eat 짜장면. |
| Keith: And what's the purpose of this? |
| Minkyeong: So make sure next sure you will have a boyfriend and girlfriend. |
| Keith: Oh… |
| Minkyeong: You're consoling each other. |
| Keith: Consoling each other? |
| Seol: Why? |
| Keith: It sounds really depressing. Well, let me ask you again, have you ever had this experience? |
| Seol: Yeah. |
| Keith: Really? |
| Seol: Yeah, I did. |
| Minkyeong: I haven't yet. |
| Seol: Really? |
| Keith: Well, this year you will. |
| Minkyeong: Yes. |
| Keith: It's Okay, we'll go with you. Console you. |
| Minkyeong: Thank you. |
| Keith: So, Seol, you had this experience, is it depressing? |
| Seol: Not really because most of my friends were singles and we are better than those couples. |
| Keith: Like you don't need... |
| Seol: No. |
| Minkyeong: I agree. |
| Seol: Yeah, we just pretended that we are better off. |
| Keith: Pretended, but you really wanted that special somebody. |
| Seol: Sure I wanted to receive those candies but... |
| Keith: With a special gift inside. |
| Seol: Yeah. |
| Keith: So where do you go? |
| Seol: 중국집. |
| Keith: That's a Chinese restaurant. And what do we eat? |
| Seol: 짜장면. |
| Keith: Ok. That’s not the official pronunciation, is it? |
| Seol: It should be 자장면, but I don’t think people are saying 자장면 actually. |
| Keith: Yeah, I have never heard that either. |
| Minkyeong: In news, you have to say 자장면. |
| Keith: Yeah, why is that, what are they strict on that? |
| Minkyeong: I don't know. |
| Keith: Yeah, everyone stressing it’s 자장면, but no one says that. Everyone just says 짜장면. So, Okay, we go there. Is that the only thing we eat on Black Day? |
| Minkyeong: We drink black coffee together after we eat 짜장면 I guess. |
| Keith: Do you wear black clothes too? |
| Minkyeong: No. |
| Seol: Not really. |
| Minkyeong: That is so sad. |
| Keith: I know. It sounds pretty depressing but, you know, you go eat black 짜장면, you go drink black coffee. Sounds pretty depressing. |
| Seol: Yes. |
| Keith: Also, in addition to Black Day, there’s a day for every month of the year. |
| Seol: You found information, right? |
| Keith: Yeah, we did some research and there is a day for every single month of the year, on the 14th. But no one actually pays attention to these, right? |
| Minkyeong: No, no one keeps track on these days... except Valentine's Day, White Day and Black Day. |
| Keith: Well, before we get in to the others days, how did Black Day start, do you know? |
| Seol: Not really. But I guess, maybe some famous Chinese restaurant started to commercialized that? |
| Keith: Actually I did a little research online. It says there's a famous 짜장면집, a famous Chinese restaurant that really wanted to boast their business so they started saying Black Day and gave all the reasons like "all single people come on over and..." And actually just kind of caught on. |
| Seol: Black Day’s another commercialized special day. |
| Keith: Yeah, just like Valentine's Day, the chocolate people. White Day the candy people and.... |
| Seol: And these Chinese restaurant people. |
| Keith: Yeah, they went out on Black Day. So after that, after they saw that the Chinese restaurant they can make their business, a lot of other industries try to get in on this and that's why they created all these other days; so many different industries within the 14th of every month of the year. So we have a bunch of this right in front of us but, once again, nobody pays attention. So what other days are there? Besides looking at what we have in front of us, what did you know about? |
| Seol: Except those three days, no I have no idea. |
| Minkyeong: How about 빼빼로 데이? |
| Seol: Ah, yeah. And we already did a recording about this, right? |
| Keith: Yeah, we did a culture class about Pepero Day. And if you want to check it out we will post a link to this lesson. Check out our culture class about Pepero Day. But other than Pepero day, which is on November 11th (1111), four Pepero sticks, what else is there? |
| Seol: No idea. |
| Minkyeong: Me neither. |
| Keith: Well, this piece of paper in front of me says, May 14th is a.... |
| Minkyeong: Rose Day. |
| Keith: Supposed to give roses, the flower industry is trying to get some money in this. And in June, there is Kiss Day. |
| Seol: No industry can benefit from this day, right? |
| Keith: I can. |
| Seol: How? Ah, Okay. |
| Keith: I can benefit. Alright, once again, no one actually pays attention to this. So, don't go around Korea yelling, "Hey it's Kiss Day, kiss me!" It's not going to work. So, in July we have... |
| Seol: It's Silver Day. |
| Keith: Don't go around buying silver for everybody. It's wasting your money. And in August we have Music Day just go to clubs, hang out, go to a concert ah, also in August what else is there? |
| Minkyeong: Green Day. |
| Keith: And, Green Day, what is that exactly? |
| Minkyeong: Apparently you go hiking. |
| Keith: Okay. |
| Minkyeong: With your girlfriend and boyfriend. |
| Keith: You can go ahead and do that. |
| Minkyeong: Hiking? |
| Keith: Yeah. |
| Seol: With who? Alone? In August? |
| Keith: Sorry. |
| Minkyeong: Or if you're single, you have to drink soju. |
| Keith: Oh… On this day? |
| Minkyeong: I guess is the soju company benefiting from this. |
| Keith: Well, I figured soju would be appropriate on Black Day. Black Out Day? |
| Seol: Wow! Another day for drinking… |
| Keith: Yea, black out and miserable...single. Let's run through the rest of them really quick. In September we have... |
| Seol: 뮤직 데이. |
| Keith: Or… |
| Seol: 포토 데이. |
| Keith: Photo. And in October we have... |
| Minkyeong: 와인 데이. |
| Keith: Wine and in November... |
| Minkyeong: 오렌지 데이. |
| Keith: I found this one really interesting. |
| Minkyeong: Yea, me too. Apparently you drink orange juice together. |
| Keith: Orange juice with your lover? |
| Minkyeong: I know. Why just can't you do it some other day? |
| Seol: Sure, this is not special at all. |
| Keith: And we also have on that day... |
| Minkyeong: Movie Day. |
| Keith: And the last one we have in December... |
| Seol: It's Hug Day. |
| Keith: Oh, that's really sweet though Hug Day. Hug Day and... |
| Seol: Money Day. |
| Keith: What’s that one all about? |
| Seol: I don't know, people should spend a lot of money on that day. |
| Keith: So, all the companies run out of ideas so they all like Money Day, just spend your money. |
| Minkyeong: Apparently it’s the guys spend money on the girls. |
| Keith: Hmm, well... |
| Minkyeong: Good thing for us. |
| Keith: Good thing nobody pays attention. That's going to do it for today. I hope all you single people out there enjoy your Black Day. |
| Minkyeong: I like 짜장면 so it's okay for me. |
| Keith: Okay. So enjoy it. Have fun. |
| Minkyeong: Okay. |
| Keith: With all your single friends |
| Minkyeong: Yeah, it is going to be would be fun. |
| Keith: Yeah, it would be fun. Okay and go find your local 짜장면집. Hopefully you will have couple other people to celebrate Black Day with. |
| Seol: You can make friends there, you know. |
Outro |
| Keith: It's like “Hey, I'm alone. You're alone. Let's be together.” All right. So that's going to do it. Remember to stop by KoreanClass101.com and leave us a post, say hi. |
| Seol: Bye. |
| Minkyeong: Bye. |
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