Fighteeng!

It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's... Ace and Gary?

These guys crack me up!  As I was walking towards Yuldong Park in Bundang last week, I noticed these two fellas that looked like they were showing off their Halloween costumes.  They were zigzagging up and down the street, giggling, grabbing and chest bumping each other on the way.

Huh? What’s going on here?  I was thinking… is this the Korean version of Saturday Night Live’s cartoon, The Ambiguously Gay Duo?

Turns out, I was not so lucky to see one of my favorite SNL sketches come to life.   They were just pizza delivery guys posting  flyers on doors around the neighborhood, while being general goofballs to attract attention from bored, hungry people like me.

They were moving along at a pretty fast clip for me to get a conversation in, but I was just wondering if their names might have been something similar to Ace and Gary in Korean.  Guess I’ll just have to order out some Super Pizza to find out for myself.

I didn't see anyone take the offer, but they had buddies priming the pump by putting on a show for passerbys.

Gotta hand it to these enterprising college students dooking it out just outside Seohyun station the other night around 10pm.

I thought someone had lost a bet, but apparently they’re just trying to make a few extra bucks.  Instead of the plain old, part time waiter or tutoring jobs, these guys were offering anyone to take free shots at the guy with the red headgear for a mere 10,000 won for 30 minutes.   That’s not bad considering minimum wage is about 4,000 won per hour, or just over $3 USD.

Sorry guys, I couldn't find any hot ring card girls, but just these dudes holding up homely posters promoting their new business.

Well, won’t the guy in the headgear, who has gloves too, hit you back?  Ahh, well… that’s where the real draw comes in.  After getting the scoop from my K-friend who was with me at the time, I learned that the guy in the headgear can’t hit you back.  He will only stay in a defensive posture by blocking punches or dodging out of the way.  Or so they claim.

So if you’re stressed out,  you don’t have to beat your wife or drink yourself silly.  Deal with it constructively by punching some poor college students who have too much time on their hands.

Maybe one of these guys will end up doing better than Hong Man Choi, whose MMA career seems limited to celebrity matches like fighting Shaq.

Here's badass Korean rapper, MC Sniper. I doubt his lyrics are consistent with classical Korean.

I didn’t know that Korea used to have another national holiday until I read this editorial at the Chosun Ilbo lamenting how modern popular use of the Korean language has apparently butchered its initial design and intent.

“… the crudeness of the Korean used on the Internet and heard on television, as well as jargon, shortened words and other slang are an insult to our ancestors. We have ended up maiming our written language rather than advancing the alphabet we inherited from our forefathers.”

Hmm… I’m not sure if this is a fair comparison, but is he advocating the analogous position that contemporary usage of English would be blasphemous next to classic examples such as Shakespeare or the King James Version of the Bible?   Has Western street culture influenced Korea to such an extent that there might be such a thing as Korean Ebonics?

What I like, but also bothers me the most about learning Korean formally at university programs is that although I’ll learn the correct way of speaking and writing, I won’t be able to converse in a way that will connect with the locals.  For example, I can understand the formality used when I’m speaking with customer service people at restaurants and stores, but when I’m with a group of Korean friends just hanging out, a lot of it just goes over my head.

While I sympathize with what this guy is saying about preserving the original beauty of the Korean language, I wouldn’t mind attending a class on Korean slangs that complemented the standard stuff, so I can understand some of the jargon coming out of Korean gangster movies or Korean hip hop.

Nearly every Korean newspaper has a short section on learning English that inevitably uses American idioms from examples such as the TV show Friends or The Office, so I don’t see the harm in teaching foreigners the free spirited and casual Korean that is used everyday anyways.  After all, didn’t the late Roh Moo Hyun endear himself to voters by using Korean slang during his campaign speeches?

In a survey in September by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, 68.8 percent of respondents said they favored reinstating Hangeul Day as a national holiday. Serious thought is needed about how such a holiday can be spent meaningfully, since it marks the moment when the written language began enlightening the people.

Hey, I’m all for another holiday that gets me off of work, but I agree that needs to be done in a meaningful way, or else it might devolve into another Columbus day or Labor day that gives people an excuse to just fart around the house the whole day.

Moreover I learned from wiki that just 8 years ago, employers had discontinued the holiday to get another day of productivity out of its workers.  But that was when they didn’t even get Saturdays off.  Since that time, Korea has become a global economic power, so the old argument that having a Hanguel day was hurting the GDP seems misplaced.

So I say too, bring back Hanguel day!

No, it's not a prop for Japanese porn. It's Korea's cheap and healthy rice wine, now being served by the foxy stewardesses of Asiana Airlines.

I could never imagine this happening on Southwest, but then again, Asiana Airlines does have a highbrow reputation to maintain.  The Chosun Ilbo reports that Asiana will begin serving a special alcoholic drink on all 22 flights to and from Japan.  Score!

But don’t get too excited, cuz it’s not Guinness or Hefeweizen.  It’s makgeoli, or Korean rice wine, a thick, milky white liquor made of specially fermented rice, which requires an acquired taste over time to enjoy (at least for me).  This is all part of a promotion of Korean food to Japan, which is not surprising following the recent face stuffing of kimchee from the wife of Korea’s president to the wife of Japan’s prime minister.

If you don’t like it at first, at least do it for the sake of protecting Korea’s rice market, because according to this political editor at the Korea Times, the prices have dropped due to a surplus arguably caused by the halt of aid to North Korea.  So how do we solve this?

Development of more food products made from rice is needed to reduce the rice stockpile. Measures include eating rice noodles and making more rice-based items for meals in the military and at schools.

Don’t exclude rice from your meals in the morning from tomorrow! It will help not only reduce the stockpile but also prevent rice prices from falling further.

So if you ever happen to fail the breathalizer at sobriety checkpoints, just tell the K-popo that you drank lots of makgeoli for the sake of the country’s economy.  You’ll probably get off easy.

42,000 won (or about $36) for one pimped up mango at the Shinsegae dept store.

I’m sure others have blogged about this before, but prices for fruits in Korea are jacked way up in the days leading up to Chuseok.

Korean supermarkets have no problem taking advantage of last minute shoppers like me who need to demonstrate filial piety by way of an overpriced, overpackaged fruit.

I was shocked by the price, but I’m more shocked that there’s such a strong demand for these items, especially in a country where the average salary isn’t much more than $30,000 USD.

I’m tempted to buy one just to see if there might be special packaging of the cash variety inside the fruits as well, then I could gift them to our public officials so I know they’re getting their daily nutrients required to think up of new ways to root out corruption.

140,000 won (or about $120) for a box of 8 Korean Pears. Who buys this stuff??

The exports of Korean pop entertainment, curiously called the Korean Wave, have apparently devolved into such a slow simmer that national competitiveness is at stake, so what does Kim Chul-Joong, news columnist for the Chosun Ilbo suggest?

The next Korean wave: we should see more of this girl on the right than the girl, er I mean guy, on the left. Thank YOUUU!!!

Plastic surgery.  Yes, he thinks the next Wave should be making Korea’s infamous reputation in Asia of carving out double-eyelids with an x-acto knife famous across the globe. (Well, it’s not all that bad… I usually can’t tell, unless a Korean friend of the opposite sex explicitly points out to me how that girl had this or that part done.)

The Korean brand of beauty has evidently grown into a source of power for Korea’s national competitiveness. All of this has contributed to a 33 percent rise in the number of foreign patients in Korea this year.

The disdain some women have for other women with plastic surgery obviously haven’t dampened the growth of the industry, especially to Korea’s neighbors, and it sure hasn’t deterred Kim from advocating that cutting up faces and enhancing breasts should be a source of national pride, not that I have a problem with the latter.

The country must tap into the potential offered by this industry. It needs a strategy to link this trend to its beauty industry as a whole, much as the Champs Elysees in Paris evokes images of haute couture and is the source of new fashion trends and luxury goods exported around the world.

Hollywood, too, is world famous not only for its movie studios but for cosmetic surgery, dermatology clinics and stores selling luxury goods. The new cosmetic surgery techniques and beauty products that are created there are exported around the world.

Hmm… so what part of Korea can compare to Champs Elysees or Hollywood to flex its beauty muscles?

The posh stretch of Seoul connecting Sinsa-dong, Apkujeong-dong and Cheongdam-dong is home to dermatology and plastic surgery clinics, fitness centers and other beauty-related businesses. Fashion designers also own boutiques there, while other high-end stores sell accessories and cosmetics. It can very well be called the Korean beauty district. If this area can be developed into a symbol of Korea’s beauty industry, it has the potential to become an internationally recognized location.

Garosugil in Sinsadong probably comes to mind as anything remotely close to Champ Elysees.  If we stretch this belt of beauty all the way to Itaewon’s gay neighborhoods, then maybe this posh stretch will have more of a Hollywood feel to it, because isn’t it really the gay guys that validate women’s claim about what is fashionably beautiful or not?  And the reference to “other beauty-related businesses”? Well, that’s probably those where the non-gay men pay a lot of money to appreciate that beauty up close and personal. And by some accounts, that seems to already be internationally recognized. But I digress…

Right now, the Pusan International Film Festival is in full swing. Many movie stars and fans from across Asia have converged on the city also spelled Busan to enjoy the festival, enabling the port to reap the benefits of its image as East Asia’s movie capital. By the same token, Seoul’s beauty district could become the center of the Asian beauty industry if businesses can compete and thrive there, creating new products and trends.

OK, so I get what he’s saying… it’s feasible I suppose, but the government has already beat him to the punch.

The South Korean government designated the area from Apgujeongdong to Cheongdamdong — home to luxury brand fashion shops and two massive department stores — the country’s new fashion district last year, aiming to create “Korea’s own Champs-Elysees” after the famed boulevard in Paris.

But that may not be a great start, because Korea appears to have some serious competition to be the plastic surgery capital of the world… The Hungarians recently held a beauty contest for those with plastic surgery.  Well, to a regular guy like me…  fashion, plastic surgery, beauty… it’s all the same.  Whatever gets the ladies to come out in their mini-skirts in the winter as much in the summer is a positive step in the right direction.

Korea’s latest penchant for its place among global rankings is of all things, as the Korea Times reports, corruption, in which,

“… According to Transparency International, Korea ranked 40th among 180 countries surveyed in the 2008 Corruption Perception Index.”

This is one of those rare rankings where Korea doesn’t want to be high on the list. I suppose being 40th was high enough, so what grand scheme does the government come up with to put this embarrassment behind them?  Oops, excuse me, embarrassment is a poor choice of words given what Lee Jae-oh, chairman of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, told reporters.

“We have to upgrade the ethics standards for public officials to meet growing public demand for a clean society… Such efforts are crucial for Korea to raise its global competitiveness and become an advanced country.”

OK, that’s a noble goal.  So here is Lee’s master plan to root out evil in government:

“The government will work with private institutes to develop a quantitative integrity evaluation system.  The integrity of more than 470 government agencies and public firms as well as 2,000 senior officials will be measured under the system…”

Hmm… well, I certainly appreciate the positive intentions, but developing your own domestic pro-corruption list so you can move down on the international anti-corruption list?  How does he figure?

“We will check the integrity level of every single public organization and senior official and share the data with the public. We think that’s the only way to build a clean society,” Lee said.

Uh… OK.   Is that truly the ONLY way?  Well, how about just enforcing the laws you already have?  That’d be a sure way to expose those without scruples.  Even so, how in the world would you objectively evaluate those that are paying your salary or worse paying you off to get a pass?  And why stop at 2000?   Just keep turning over every rock, I say.

This just reminds me of my high school, where the teacher would write names on the board of those who misbehaved enough to warrant an after school detention.  And every week, there was always a handful of people.  Sigh… Weird man… weird.

Talk about mixed signals… ever dated a girl who was a sweetheart one second and then a psycho the next?  Well, that’s not exactly a fair comparison with the volatile behavior of North Korea, but what happened today comes close.

The New York Times reports that North Korea is turning over a new leaf by almost apologizing for the deaths caused by the “accidental” flooding of Imjin river.

“It was regrettable that unintended human casualties occurred,” a North Korean delegate told South Korean officials during the meeting at a North Korean border town on Wednesday.

The North also offered condolences to the bereaved families, the Unification Ministry in Seoul said. South Korea was pressing the North to agree to a joint flood-control system to prevent similar episodes.

“We see this as an expression of North Korean intentions to improve ties with us,” said Park Sun-kyoo, a presidential spokesman in Seoul. “This is a very positive signal.”

The warm fuzzies wouldn’t last long. Less than 24 hours later, North Korea appears to have made up another incident to rattle its sabers.

North Korea accused the South on Thursday of intruding into its territorial waters, further raising tension on the peninsula already heightened by the North’s launch this week of a barrage of short-range missiles…

“The reckless military provocations by warships of the South Korean navy have created such a serious situation that a naval clash may break out between the two sides in these waters,” the North’s KCNA news agency quoted a military official as saying.

Damn… those are fighting words! Well at least the North Korean did send out a warning this time, unlike the river flood.

Coming soon to a theater near you... Police Academy 6: Pursuit Training in Korea

In contrast to the lucky Mapo-gu cops who got a new Ferrari to show off how big their d*cks were enforce local traffic laws, I went to the US embassy about a week ago and noticed a different kind of squad car guarding the statue of Admiral Yi at Gwanghwamun Gate… yes it’s the Korean version of Herbie the Love Bug… the Kia Morning… or is it the Daewoo Matiz?

Not sure, but it made me chuckle…  Just doesn’t look intimidating at all.  It’s too cute.

Well, I suppose you wouldn’t need a lot of horsepower in Seoul anyways cuz any hot pursuits would quickly come to a halt.  Not because the cops caught ya, but because all the other cars did in the crazy mess that is Korean city traffic.

A few weeks ago, I blogged half-jokingly about widening the pipe for foreigners to marry Korean women or men in order to put a dent in the low birth rate problem, in addition to government policies that protect pregnant women in the workplace.  But the presumed context of that discussion was married women who have the choice of whether have to kids at all.

In reality, life is not that simple or straightforward.  Accidents happen. Lack of planning happens.  Mistakes happen.  Women get pregnant outside of marriage too, so what does the Korean government do for those that choose to carry to term?  Well, apparently not much but a mere $42 monthly allowance per kid, which is about half of what the kid would get if he/she were adopted, according to a recent, gut-wrenching New York Times article.

Ironically, for a country whose leaders lament that they have one of the lowest birth rates among the OECD nations that might trigger a population decline by 2018, Korea has the infamous reputation as a baby exporter for foreign adoptions and of having high abortion rates.   So I decided to do a little math to figure out what the opportunity cost was, or more precisely, the number of kids that would have been born and lived in Korea had the government actually done more to help unmarried women, instead of just the socially acceptable married ones.

The article reports 96% of all unwed pregnant women choose abortion (although illegal, but not enforced), which means that if the reported 7,774 babies born out of wedlock in 2007 (representing the 4% that are not aborted), then 194,350 babies were aborted that year.  (And I use the word babies for lack of better word. I am not advocating for or against abortion on moral grounds in this post.)  And if the reported 70% of those who choose to have the baby give them up for adoption, then there were 5,441 of them, with nearly 90% of them (or 4,896) going abroad.

So in 2007, that leaves about 2,877 kids remaining in korea, adopted or not, according to my fuzzy math.  Of these that stay, the Korean government has made some progress:

For years, the South Korean government has worked to reduce overseas adoptions, which peaked at 8,837 in 1985. To increase adoptions at home, it provides subsidies and extra health care benefits for families that adopt, and it designated May 11 as Adoption Day.

While it’s certainly laudable that the government has taken over a decade to nearly half the number of kids being sent to other countries, that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the number of kids that would have been born if not aborted due to enormous social strain of being a single mom.

I’m not suggesting the government is capable of saving the entire 96%, but its policies should be weighted towards those that are likely to be aborted and not those likely to be shipped away, because of the obvious fact that those numbers are just staggeringly higher to work with, and thus could make a bigger, positive impact on the low population problem.

The two support groups of unmarried mothers that the article mention argue on the basis of discrimination and human rights for the government to do more for them.  To add my two cents, I’m arguing on the basis of economics as well, that providing social incentives and financial support for unwed pregnant women will compel more of them to choose to have the baby and keep them, rather than terminate.

So if hypothetically these new programs were to drop the 96% abortion rate to say 75%, that’s a gain of 21% , or 40,813 in additional kids born out of wedlock.  And I suspect that the adoption rate would lower as well because a mother who opts for the baby to live under a more tolerant society will more likely keep it as her own rather than give it away.  For argument’s sake, let’s suppose the 2007 adoption rate of 70% drops to 60% with the same 90% going abroad, then that’s a net gain of an additional 18,773 kids residing in Korea a year, adopted or not, to add to the nation’s future productivity.

Presumably, those babies that are fortunate enough to be adopted are taken well care of by more financially and socially secure parents.  So please give these two worthy groups that represent single mothers who raise their own kids on their own dime a visit.

Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea

Korean Unwed Mothers Support Network

The Chosun Ilbo profiles a fascinating professor named Robert Fouser at Seoul National University who teaches Koreans how to teach the Korean language to foreigners.  The fact that he’s not a Korean (but an American) is a pleasant surprise, but what was more remarkable was that he thinks Koreans ought to be learning more about their own language than English.  Why?

… “There are people who need to speak English at work for business purposes, but not everyone in the country needs to speak English well,” he says. “In fact, I believe the emphasis should be on classical Chinese in order to improve Koreans’ understanding of their own language. Learning Japanese or Chinese seems a lot more effective for Koreans than struggling to learn English. This is the very reason why Latin is regarded as so important in France and Germany, because Latin forms the basis of their languages.”

Sure, of course it’s more effective for Koreans to learn Japanese or Chinese because of greater similarities in language than English, but just because it’s easier doesn’t mean that it’s beneficial in terms of their careers.  An article few days earlier reveals that 80% of Koreans think that their poor command of English is a detriment to their salary.   Most Koreans might not use English much everyday in the office, but the ability to use it is a barometer to see who the best employees are.

I think as a professor of the Korean language, Fouser is probably a bit disappointed that Koreans who strive to teach their language to others do not sufficiently understand the roots and history of their own native tongue.

So will learning the language of their neighbors necessarily also improve the spread of the Korean language? Not quite.

Fouser points to the lack of a systematic approach to Korean language teaching despite increasing numbers of foreigners who are interested. “There needs to be a more professional and comprehensive body for Korean language education to spread the language,” he says.

Hmm… that must be a dig at the Korean language division of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, who is helping to coordinate the adoption of Hanguel alphabet by Indonesian tribes.

Wow, hard to believe that the Nobel prize has been awarded to Obama barely a year into office.  Would Kim Dae Jung, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his years of work reaching out to the North, have positive things to say about this if he had lived long enough to see this day?  Does Obama deserve it?

So I listened to Obama’s speech to see how he would justify accepting the award, and he had this to say:

“… And I know that throughout history the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it’s also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes.  And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.”

Hmm… sounds reasonable, but I wasn’t sure if that was consistent with the Nobel charter, so I headed over to wikipedia to find out what the criteria is that the prize panel uses to judge peace awards, which is:

“… the person shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”

Now whether you agree if this criteria is appropriate or not is a different matter, but clearly, it’s not just about quantity of accomplishments but also a more loosely worded “best work”.  I don’t know any of the other 200 or so odd nominations that might have been more deserving, but if apply Obama to these standards, then I think he passes with flying colors. Did Obama have the best work for fraternity between nations?  Check.  Did Obama reduce standing armies?  Check.  Did Obama hold meetings to promote peace?  Check.  No wonder Nobel’s official statement on their website states:

“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.”

Note that the committee uses the word “efforts” rather than “results”, which means to me that one’s courageous efforts can be just as useful to promote peace, regardless of accomplishments.

Kim Dae Jung was awarded for his tireless work in reconciling with North Korea as well, with unfortunately little to show for it.   Not to take away anything from the breakthrough negotiations, but even the secret millions paid to the North hasn’t reduced troop levels, nuclear testing, and a reciprocal visit.

Personally, I prefer not to dwell on the rhetoric of whether it was premature or deserved.  Whatever.  I think Obama will live up to the higher expectations that people have for him now that he has won this award, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the world changes for the better with Obama leading the way.

Anyone who’s been to a family home in Korea might possibly notice a plastic bag , located in or near the kitchen sink, that contains food scraps from cooking and unfinished meals.  Well, it usually just sits there for a day or two until someone in the household has the pleasant job of routinely tying up the bag and tossing it into a special bin at the community garbage area.  Or until the stench or size of the leftovers in the plastic bag becomes unbearable.

Could the Coway WM03 be Wall-E's great great great grandfather?

Garbage disposals and composting in backyard gardens are virtually unheard of for city dwellers in Korea.   So what’s a geeky guy with a little extra cash and a clean freak wife supposed to do?  Enter the Coway WM03 Food Waste Treatment System, which I discovered from Red Ferret, a tech website I frequent while on the throne.

It not only crushes your leftovers up to 10% of its original size but also bakes and deodorizes it.  Sounds pretty cool to me… no more foul odors and eyesores that would embarrass your guests, less nagging from wifey to take out the garbage, and one less thing for ajumahs to complain about when it comes to germs around kids.  Plus, it looks like it’s Martha Stewart compliant.

Red Ferret poo poos the machine because it apparently uses up 800 watts of power.  But wouldn’t shrinking your garbage landfill to 10% of what it could have been good for the environment too?

Kim Kyu Kwang, who looks like your average teenage guy playing too much Starcraft, is a bit negligent in school and tests and says proudly that he doesn’t want to be doing what other people tell him to.  You might be inclined to think the kid is a slacker, but  he is actually a precocious scientist who just published his first paper in a medical journal, according to the Chosun Ilbo.  Here’s a day in the life of Kim:

As soon as he started high school, he immersed himself in the world of science. All his self-study hours and weekends were devoted to his scientific endeavors.

When he could not figure out answers to questions on his own, he sought help from a university. He sent an email to a medical professor at Seoul National University and asked to be accepted as an intern in a lab and got a chance to observe experiments in the diagnostic microbiology lab at SNU during the summer and winter vacations of his first year. As soon as the supplementary classes at school were over, he ran over to the lab, where he stayed until 10 p.m. every day.

Because he was so focused on science, Kyu-kwang was a little negligent in preparing for school and university entrance exams. But he says, “I’m so happy to be doing what I really like to do, rather than studying stuff that other people tell me to. I want to continue study science and work in bio-informatics.” Kim has applied for early admission at SNU, POSTECH and KAIST.

Way to go, kid.  While his friends all go to cram school and hagwons after school, he jets off to the lab.  What impresses me isn’t so much his academic capability… there are plenty of youngsters like him in Korea… but his attitude that he doesn’t want to do what other people tell him to, probably referring to his parents, teachers and peers.  He knows what he wants and he gets is.  He is an example of how Western individualism, usually regarded as a negative trait for disrupting social harmony in Korea, can be a positive influence on education.

Granted, not too many teenagers know what they want at such a young age…. even adults have a hard time figuring out what their career path is… but sometimes as parents, myself included, perhaps we stifle our kids’ curiosity and ignore signs of their true interests because we don’t want to them to fall behind whatever our neighbor’s kids are doing.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting a well rounded kid that can compete on par with his peers, but not at the expense of fostering his or her own natural gifts and talents.

This being my first Chuseok in Korea, I had several Korean friends inform me that it’s “Korean Thanksgiving”, which explains why everybody goes back home to visit family and gorge on homecooking.  I didn’t think much of it until an article in the Korea Times insisted on the contrary with the title, “Don’t Say Chuseok Is Korean Thanksgiving“.

Some use the term “Korean Thanksgiving” as an informational gateway point. But most foreigners, including Canadian expatriate Jamie Webster, don’t research the holiday in-depth.

“I think it’s similar to Western Thanksgiving, as far as I know,” said the three-year resident of Seoul. “I didn’t really investigate too much.”

According to legend, Chuseok began as a result of a weaving competition held between two princesses in the Silla dynasty. The goal was to see which team could weave the most. The fierce competition lasted for about a month, ending on the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar during the full moon. As punishment, the losing team had to prepare a bountiful feast for the victors.

This guy would've won the original Chuseok contest had they let guys participate.

I feel better that I’m not the only ignorant one about Chuseok, but now that I know, why does the origin of Chuseok seem like a bad idea for a reward challenge on the TV show Survivor that went into the reject pile?  Who can weave the most??  And for a whole freakin’ month??!!!  I can only imagine that the princesses opted for weaving instead of what the guys wanted, which was probably mudwrestling.

Too bad there’s no modern day equivalent of that original contest, though my wife says the daughter-in-laws usually are the losers by default for having to prepare the majority of the food.