Dance, Math, and Xenophobia

A glimpse into South Korea’s election campaign

안녕, it’s Ari, your talkative Korean friend and weekend reminder. 🎉 Today’s newsletter covers a bestselling side dish, updates on my country’s upcoming general election, and a squeaky vocabulary lesson. Let’s dive in!

😷 I caught a cold, so there won’t be a podcast this week.

Best-selling Side Dish

Miyeokjulgibokkeum (10000 recipe)

A Korean food company recently announced the top five best-selling side dishes. The No. 1 rank was "미역줄기볶음 (miyeokjulgibokkeum)," a warm salad made with seaweed (miyeok) stems and vegetables. It’s a side dish often served at restaurants in South Korea. Seaweed is a popular and affordable food ingredient in the country, with a pack of 300g of stems costing around 2 USD. Koreans enjoy different parts of seaweed, including stems or leaves, as well as various kinds such as miyeok, parae, maesaengi, dasima, and gim. In this salad, miyeok stems are used, which are chewy and slightly crunchy, offering a taste reminiscent of the salty beach air. 🌊 The salad is a perfect accompaniment to rice or steak.

Seaweed might not be as popular in other countries, making it challenging to find miyeok stems. However, I wanted to share this food anyway because it’s the top-ranked dish, delicious, and super easy to make. Hopefully, you can try it in the future! If you find the stems, watch this recipe video. 😋

Dance, Math, and Xenophobia

People are enjoying a pre-speech performance of a Democratic Party candidate. @anjeongmi_namu

With South Korea’s general election, which decides the total of 300 representatives in the country, less than a week away, the election campaign is heating up. The above gif shows people enjoying a pre-speech dance performance while waiting a Democratic Party candidate. The Korean election campaign is 50% dancing and 50% speech. Volunteers, campaign staff, and even candidates dance to grab passersby’s attention in the streets while music plays in the background. Candidates also give speeches to people riding a small truck equipped with speakers. This has led to an increasing number of noise complaints to the police during the campaign period.

A representative candidate is solving a math problem for students at a cafe.

Candidates visit restaurants, bars, and cafes to meet voters during the campaign. Lee Jae-sung, a Democratic Party candidate running for a representative of Busan, met high school students who were solving math problems in a cafe. The 53-year-old candidate, who majored in statistics at Seoul National University, helped the students solve a question. After a video of him helping the students went viral, his approval ratings among voters in their 20s and 30s increased.

A policeman and a representative candidate is having an argument.

Another viral video depicts a heated argument between a policeman and a representative candidate. The far-right candidate and his associates had been reporting and “arresting” undocumented immigrants across the country. He uploaded videos of himself questioning random foreigners on the streets as a part of his campaign. 🙃🙃 He reportedly threatened people with an iron bat and even detained 😱🤬 immigrants to hand over to the police. In the viral video, as the candidate threatens a foreign man, a policeman tries to intervene, shouting, “You have no right to detain people like that!” "Do you think foreigners have no human rights?" The candidate keeps demanding that the police check the foreigner’s ID and instructs his cameraman to film everything. The police are investigating his case. And there’s almost zero possibility that he will win the election, in case you’re wondering.

Mini Korean Lesson: Ppo-dog-ppo-dog

A Korean cosmetics company recently announced a project to develop a foot wash for dogs and held a competition to pick the product’s name on X. One of the most voted names was “뽀독뽀독,” 👆 pronounced as “ppo-dog-ppo-dog.” It’s one of millions of Korean onomatopoeias that could be challenging for Korean learners. The Korean language is notorious for its numerous quirky or adorable onomatopoeias, including sounds like tears falling on a cheek or footsteps on snow.

According to a dictionary, “뽀독뽀독” describes the appearance of the surface of a wet object after it has almost dried. Although the dictionary only mentions the appearance, in reality, it often refers to the sound. So, what sound does it represent? For instance, imagine you've cleaned a bathroom with water and soap. After it's almost dried, if you rub the surface of the perfectly-cleaned wash basin, it will make a squeaky sound. In Korean, that sound is described as “ppo-dog-ppo-dog.” Thus, the word is frequently used in the context of cleaning or washing. For example:

1. 손을 깨끗하게 씻었다. (I washed my hands cleanly.)

2. 손을 뽀독뽀독 씻었다. (I washed my hands squeaky clean.)

Both sentences convey the same meaning, but the latter sounds more vivid because the word “뽀독뽀독” evokes the squeaky sound after thorough cleaning. Consider this word as a cute alternative to "cleanly."

Thanks for reading! If you liked my newsletter, ☕️ buy me a coffee ☕️ to support my work. It’ll help me keep writing! I will be back next week. 안녕!