I Love the Smell of Kimchee in the Morning
Words sure are complex things, and it's interesting to consider why we use one word over another. This morning I was running late for work, so I grabbed a quick Japanese breakfast of white rice and kimchee, that delicious spicy pickled cabbage from Korea. I remarked to my mother-in-law that I was opting for a simple breakfast today, using the English word "simple" but with a Japanese accent, resulting in something like sin-puru. This got me thinking about why I'd chosen that word rather than the perfectly good term (kantan) that exists in Japanese. The answer is that words serve different purposes to people, and sometimes using a word from another language can provide a little je-ne-sais-quoi to your speech. In Death Note, you can see Light Yagami pull off one of his unique murders of the corrupt and unjust using his supernatural notebook then utter the phrase "Checkmate" when he was done. But the term used to declare victory after a game of Shogi, "Oh-te," would sound ridiculous if used in the saem situation.

Kira from Death Note, is so bad-ass

I love the smell of kimchee in the morning.



12 Comments:
I imagine that kimchee is one of those things that Americans don't eat that much, but give it a try. Basically, you can go to Korean BBQ and eat what they give you, but they'll pickly other things besides Chinese cabbage, which can be odd. Try a little of everything and soon you'll be hooked. The Japanese love kimchee which makes the Koreans mad, because of the thought that someone somewhere in the world would think it's Japanese and now Korean. Not much chance of that, since it's so closely associated with the country.
11:53 PM
I remember back around 2000-01, there was a push to name kimuchi as a Japanese product, which obviously Korea didn't like. I was living in Korea at the time, and it was all over the news.
2:15 AM
My wife watches so much Kan-dora that she just said, ノムカンドン、ヘッソヨ which means wow, that's really amazing. (We have a private joke that she's secret Korean since the ladies on KAL always speak Korean to her for some reason.)
I can imagine Koreans getting upset about Kimchee, it's their national food. I made sure to mention Korea in the update since I knew I'd be flamed (again) by Korean readers for implying that it was from Japan.
2:45 AM
Would I be able to taste the difference between kimchi from Japan and from Korea?
2:47 AM
I'd say that kimchee here is "sweet" (not spicy), i.e. I am trying to find my upper limit of spiciness and I'm not finding it here. This shouldn't be the case in Korea.
3:14 AM
So shogi players just don't say the equivalent of checkmate then? Do they say anything at all when they announce that they believe they have won?
6:07 AM
They say oh-te (王手) when they declare a victory. Not quite as cool as "Checkmate!"
10:18 AM
It would be immensely cool if you were Buckwheat.
11:16 AM
I knew about kimchi, and I enjoy it...and I knew it was Korean, too, even though I would most often get it from Chinese supermarkets. (Well, nowadays they're "Asian markets" with stuff from China, Japan, Korea...)
Perhaps instead of "Checkmate" he could say..."Ron"! ;)
5:09 PM
Thanks. Sweeter kimchee? I'll try to make it a point to try when I'm in Japan next. Maybe June. Aloha!
2:56 AM
I love kimchee too but I tend to like some of the hawaiian brands or this one brand made in carson california go figure. my dad loved kimchee ,but I never figured out where he tried it as he was a kibe(a japanese american born in the US but grew up in japan postwar japan no less.)
6:54 PM
I love fried kimchi rice (w/ spam!!)
2:09 AM
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