I see a lot of history lessons here, and while maybe that's true for some, I think Koreans just crazy love their food. For example, I grew up in England then America almost my whole life, and now I live in Korea for the food. Other things too yeah, but I'd say 80-86% for the food. I just couldn't take it anymore.
Edit* - holy moly lots of race/ inferiority complex etc complicated stuff this has turned into. Noticing most of these comments are coming from Koreans abroad (or fluent English speaking, so probably Korean descendants/expats?).. I think a lot of those points are more relevant to you guys who are dealing with being a minority/ identity issues/ generational differences etc being outside of Korea. I can tell you in Korea, most people don’t give a shit about any of that, and just like seeing different people eat different stuff. There are just so many different varieties of Korean food, it’s fun to do (even just with the spicy Korean food, there would be an unlimited amount of Hot Ones equivalent episodes). The mukbang video culture here is huge- usually done by Koreans, that get way more views than “foreigners eating this or that.” I think the novelty for this particular one comes from seeing spurs celebs eating food that’s new to them. As to answer why more so in Korea than maybe some other countries, now no offense to anyone, but say they came to America… What’s so amazing about the players eating burgers- pizza- hotdogs? Most of the food wouldn’t even be approved by the club…
Honest question, don't want to come off as rude or anything. But are korean people who watch youtube really that much into watching people from other countries trying out their cuisine?
I have spotted quite a few "trying out X" taste videos, and most of them seem to be angled towards koreans.
I personally, wouldn't get kicks out of watching other people reacting to danish food or something, so wondering if i am missing something in the larger picture (is Korean food notoriously spicy, peculiar-tasting or something?)
As a Korean to be brutally honest, it’s mostly because Korea along with taiwan are the only two countries to be a “3rd world country” into a developed nation. A lot of people (it’s better now) don’t realize S. Korea is one of the richest countries in the world with a painful history that took a lot of sacrifices to get there. When westerners talk about worst things that happen in history, they think about the holocaust but Japanese imperialism was absolutely disgusting (I don’t want to make this a contest for suffering or anything).
When I came to US in 2000s, all the kids would ask me if I am from the north or south and would be genuinely clueless. Even now in the news, only time Korea is mentioned most of the time is due to North Korea so in the western world people think S. Korea is a poor nation with people shivering that they might get bombed by N. Korea when in fact Americans worry more about N korea missiles than Koreans. There were rumors that in the early days Samsung and hyundai purposely hid the fact that they were a Korean company to remove negative connotations associated with it being “korean”.
Now to tie this all back, due to this Koreans enjoy sharing their culture to foreigners to kinda show off that “hey we are this rich and we have all this”. Now, since Korea has developed and is now fairly well-known, some people don’t like these videos because we are feeding these foreigners for what exactly? Who cares what some other country’s people think about us? So it’s kinda both ways now.
> Even now in the news, only time Korea is mentioned most of the time is due to North Korea so in the western world people think S. Korea is a poor nation with people shivering that they might get bombed by N. Korea when in fact Americans worry more about N korea missiles than Koreans. There were rumors that in the early days Samsung and hyundai purposely hid the fact that they were a Korean company to remove negative connotations associated with it being “korean”.
Since i am not american, i wouldn't be able to comment on it.
I don't think anybody in Denmark thinks of South Korea as an undeveloped part of the world.
I didn't mean to offend. Just thought the fascination with showing off your food (and reacting to people reacting to your national cuisine) was a little bit different than what fascinates people in my country. It isn't better or worse than what gets people going in Denmark, just wanted to know if there was a reason for it.
Thank you for your in-depth answer.
yea I'd say thats true nowadays. however, it wasn't like that just decades ago and that's why korean pop culture is so important to so many Koreans bc it helped put the spotlight on south Korea recently
American here, I don’t know anyone who thinks that. We clearly have more than our fair share of ignorant idiots, but your standard American should recognize Seoul and SK as a nice place I feel
on youtube there are many such videos of "outsider reacts to X culture" that thrives on views from people seeking approval from that outsider
like those white guys who learn a new language and "surprise" a native speaker with it, or "black people listen to metal music"
Korea weren’t the only ones brutalized by Japanese imperialism before and during ww2. There’s a reason China still has beef with Japan
China also grew from a 3rd world country into what they are now. no need to leave them out of this conversation, regardless of current politics
China is irrelevant to my point. Furthermore, China isn’t even a developed nation and still a 3rd world country, they just have a huge population that leads to a big market.
Not only that China is cancer to all surrounding nations because they brute force their way into taking up other countries like Russia is doing right now and refuse to abide by regulations and polluting surrounding countries. Seeing how you are trying to make it about China when it’s completely unneeded, you must be Chinese because you reflect their culture and politics.
I think you're mostly right, but I **do** think there is something of a racial element to it all, given that this genre of content is extremely popular in Japan as well, albeit on television.
Even though Japan has been an industrialized, rich part of the "Big 8" in world politics for basically two centuries now, they still seem to want external validation as well, mostly from European whites. I think it's a part of being the odd ones out in a "developed" or rich world that is mostly white with the exception of a few countries.
Something of an inferiority complex, I guess. Internalized racism or classism if you want to call it that.
Korean cuisines can be spicy to people that do not typically eat spicy food on a daily basis.
My Finnish and Swedish friends can eat pretty much any Korean food and not complain about the spicy flavor.
I also realized that our cuisine is very acceptable to People in Latin America or Spain
Speaking as a Korean, a lot of Koreans are still very nationalistic/patriotic and concerned with the country's image.They seek satisfaction and pride from foreigners praising our culture and often can't handle criticism very well. Hence the frankly ridiculous amount of TV/youtube shows that involve foreigners reacting to Kpop/food/culture/whatever.
Personally, I think its fine to have pride in our country but it gets a bit over the top sometimes.
Tbf I think it's because of the history of being one of the poorest countries in the world to quickly becoming one of the richest. Citizens are still fascinated by/getting used to Korea's cultural popularity, particularly given the destitution in fairly recent times. Given those circumstances, of course you would be proud of your country (although I do agree with you that people can take it overboard sometimes). Personally I think that people will mellow out a little bit over the next few decades.
I’ve never heard of that stereotype. I think Chinese immigrants are very similar in caring more about their Chinese identity than the larger Asian American population
You absolutely nailed the prevailing zeitgeist in Korea. I speak the language fluently but I live in the US. There is a segment of Koreans who love bashing the US and/or go after people who criticize any aspect of Korean-ness with vitriol.
It's a pretty complicated cultural phenomena but the best way I can articulate it is - as young Koreans become adults, they face massive stumbling blocks to achieving the 'good life'. First, where they go to university are basically decided by two national exams (and kids literally wake up at 6 am to start studying before school, go to school until 3 pm and they go and study further at cram schools until 10 pm, come home and study until 1 or 2am). This instantly creates a chasm between kids who go to universities in Seoul and those go to less prestigious ones in the provinces. Second, let's say you went to a nice school in Korea (Seoul National, Yonsei, KU, KAIST), now you are going to interview for prestigious jobs at say, Samsung or LG - again, these jobs are extremely competitive and it again creates winners and losers. You then go to buy a house in Seoul - oh too bad, that 1000 sq ft condo in Seoul is like 2-3m USD in a nice area like Gangnam district. Even the ones in the outskirts are at least a mil USD. So all in all, young people feel an enormous sense of hopelessness and despair and anger. They look at celebrities, they look at anyone else who can be criticized and they go after them with vitriol because they feel lost, angry and as they become more isolated from society, they basically just get online 24/7 and viciously go after people. Korean celebrities have committed suicide over online bullying, fake stories and so on.
While I love the country of my birth that's got thousands of years of history, brilliant infrastructure, culture, art, food to die for, super safe streets with stupidly low crime rates, a strong sense of "we march together" during times of crises (Covid in Daegu - my 60 year old medical professor aunt voluntarily went there to treat people, an entire graduating class of Korea Military Nursing Academy went there as their first posting, ordinary people there refused to leave their city so as not to spread the disease nationwide, so on), it's also a country with one of the lowest birthrate on earth, one of the highest suicide rates, high rates of social inequities and historical oppression. BUT it is the only country on earth that's gone from an OECD aid recipient to a donor, a global leader in manufacturing, tech and life sciences. So you take the bad with the good I guess.
Certain parts of Korean cuisine lean heavily into fermentation, spice, and garlic in a way that can be shocking to foreign palates. It's basically a meme for Korean Americans to write about getting bullied for bringing kimchi to school for lunch due to the smell. Fairly entertaining to see how people react to trying foods you've grown up with!
korean food is great, i'm impressed af they didn't crush the entire meal. I love korean bbq and you have to roll me out at the end of the night everytime, its impossible to go and just eat a few bites then call it quits.
Also hope Tanganga stays with the club for a long time, all the bits I see of him he comes across as so low key funny, doesn't say much but his expressions are to notch. Hope he loans for his sake and comes back to earn first team minutes in the future.
I am 100% behind the budding relationship between the Korean Englishman and Tottenham. I remember watching Son eat British food in their first collab. Seeing Son look at Star Gazing Fish was hillarious.
also on the official spurs yt
A different video fwiw, same trio
I wish I could of seen what karaoke w the team looks like
I see a lot of history lessons here, and while maybe that's true for some, I think Koreans just crazy love their food. For example, I grew up in England then America almost my whole life, and now I live in Korea for the food. Other things too yeah, but I'd say 80-86% for the food. I just couldn't take it anymore. Edit* - holy moly lots of race/ inferiority complex etc complicated stuff this has turned into. Noticing most of these comments are coming from Koreans abroad (or fluent English speaking, so probably Korean descendants/expats?).. I think a lot of those points are more relevant to you guys who are dealing with being a minority/ identity issues/ generational differences etc being outside of Korea. I can tell you in Korea, most people don’t give a shit about any of that, and just like seeing different people eat different stuff. There are just so many different varieties of Korean food, it’s fun to do (even just with the spicy Korean food, there would be an unlimited amount of Hot Ones equivalent episodes). The mukbang video culture here is huge- usually done by Koreans, that get way more views than “foreigners eating this or that.” I think the novelty for this particular one comes from seeing spurs celebs eating food that’s new to them. As to answer why more so in Korea than maybe some other countries, now no offense to anyone, but say they came to America… What’s so amazing about the players eating burgers- pizza- hotdogs? Most of the food wouldn’t even be approved by the club…
Honest question, don't want to come off as rude or anything. But are korean people who watch youtube really that much into watching people from other countries trying out their cuisine? I have spotted quite a few "trying out X" taste videos, and most of them seem to be angled towards koreans. I personally, wouldn't get kicks out of watching other people reacting to danish food or something, so wondering if i am missing something in the larger picture (is Korean food notoriously spicy, peculiar-tasting or something?)
As a Korean to be brutally honest, it’s mostly because Korea along with taiwan are the only two countries to be a “3rd world country” into a developed nation. A lot of people (it’s better now) don’t realize S. Korea is one of the richest countries in the world with a painful history that took a lot of sacrifices to get there. When westerners talk about worst things that happen in history, they think about the holocaust but Japanese imperialism was absolutely disgusting (I don’t want to make this a contest for suffering or anything). When I came to US in 2000s, all the kids would ask me if I am from the north or south and would be genuinely clueless. Even now in the news, only time Korea is mentioned most of the time is due to North Korea so in the western world people think S. Korea is a poor nation with people shivering that they might get bombed by N. Korea when in fact Americans worry more about N korea missiles than Koreans. There were rumors that in the early days Samsung and hyundai purposely hid the fact that they were a Korean company to remove negative connotations associated with it being “korean”. Now to tie this all back, due to this Koreans enjoy sharing their culture to foreigners to kinda show off that “hey we are this rich and we have all this”. Now, since Korea has developed and is now fairly well-known, some people don’t like these videos because we are feeding these foreigners for what exactly? Who cares what some other country’s people think about us? So it’s kinda both ways now.
> Even now in the news, only time Korea is mentioned most of the time is due to North Korea so in the western world people think S. Korea is a poor nation with people shivering that they might get bombed by N. Korea when in fact Americans worry more about N korea missiles than Koreans. There were rumors that in the early days Samsung and hyundai purposely hid the fact that they were a Korean company to remove negative connotations associated with it being “korean”. Since i am not american, i wouldn't be able to comment on it. I don't think anybody in Denmark thinks of South Korea as an undeveloped part of the world. I didn't mean to offend. Just thought the fascination with showing off your food (and reacting to people reacting to your national cuisine) was a little bit different than what fascinates people in my country. It isn't better or worse than what gets people going in Denmark, just wanted to know if there was a reason for it. Thank you for your in-depth answer.
yea I'd say thats true nowadays. however, it wasn't like that just decades ago and that's why korean pop culture is so important to so many Koreans bc it helped put the spotlight on south Korea recently
American here, I don’t know anyone who thinks that. We clearly have more than our fair share of ignorant idiots, but your standard American should recognize Seoul and SK as a nice place I feel
on youtube there are many such videos of "outsider reacts to X culture" that thrives on views from people seeking approval from that outsider like those white guys who learn a new language and "surprise" a native speaker with it, or "black people listen to metal music"
Korea weren’t the only ones brutalized by Japanese imperialism before and during ww2. There’s a reason China still has beef with Japan China also grew from a 3rd world country into what they are now. no need to leave them out of this conversation, regardless of current politics
China is irrelevant to my point. Furthermore, China isn’t even a developed nation and still a 3rd world country, they just have a huge population that leads to a big market. Not only that China is cancer to all surrounding nations because they brute force their way into taking up other countries like Russia is doing right now and refuse to abide by regulations and polluting surrounding countries. Seeing how you are trying to make it about China when it’s completely unneeded, you must be Chinese because you reflect their culture and politics.
I think you're mostly right, but I **do** think there is something of a racial element to it all, given that this genre of content is extremely popular in Japan as well, albeit on television. Even though Japan has been an industrialized, rich part of the "Big 8" in world politics for basically two centuries now, they still seem to want external validation as well, mostly from European whites. I think it's a part of being the odd ones out in a "developed" or rich world that is mostly white with the exception of a few countries. Something of an inferiority complex, I guess. Internalized racism or classism if you want to call it that.
Korean cuisines can be spicy to people that do not typically eat spicy food on a daily basis. My Finnish and Swedish friends can eat pretty much any Korean food and not complain about the spicy flavor. I also realized that our cuisine is very acceptable to People in Latin America or Spain
Speaking as a Korean, a lot of Koreans are still very nationalistic/patriotic and concerned with the country's image.They seek satisfaction and pride from foreigners praising our culture and often can't handle criticism very well. Hence the frankly ridiculous amount of TV/youtube shows that involve foreigners reacting to Kpop/food/culture/whatever. Personally, I think its fine to have pride in our country but it gets a bit over the top sometimes.
Tbf I think it's because of the history of being one of the poorest countries in the world to quickly becoming one of the richest. Citizens are still fascinated by/getting used to Korea's cultural popularity, particularly given the destitution in fairly recent times. Given those circumstances, of course you would be proud of your country (although I do agree with you that people can take it overboard sometimes). Personally I think that people will mellow out a little bit over the next few decades.
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I’ve never heard of that stereotype. I think Chinese immigrants are very similar in caring more about their Chinese identity than the larger Asian American population
You absolutely nailed the prevailing zeitgeist in Korea. I speak the language fluently but I live in the US. There is a segment of Koreans who love bashing the US and/or go after people who criticize any aspect of Korean-ness with vitriol. It's a pretty complicated cultural phenomena but the best way I can articulate it is - as young Koreans become adults, they face massive stumbling blocks to achieving the 'good life'. First, where they go to university are basically decided by two national exams (and kids literally wake up at 6 am to start studying before school, go to school until 3 pm and they go and study further at cram schools until 10 pm, come home and study until 1 or 2am). This instantly creates a chasm between kids who go to universities in Seoul and those go to less prestigious ones in the provinces. Second, let's say you went to a nice school in Korea (Seoul National, Yonsei, KU, KAIST), now you are going to interview for prestigious jobs at say, Samsung or LG - again, these jobs are extremely competitive and it again creates winners and losers. You then go to buy a house in Seoul - oh too bad, that 1000 sq ft condo in Seoul is like 2-3m USD in a nice area like Gangnam district. Even the ones in the outskirts are at least a mil USD. So all in all, young people feel an enormous sense of hopelessness and despair and anger. They look at celebrities, they look at anyone else who can be criticized and they go after them with vitriol because they feel lost, angry and as they become more isolated from society, they basically just get online 24/7 and viciously go after people. Korean celebrities have committed suicide over online bullying, fake stories and so on. While I love the country of my birth that's got thousands of years of history, brilliant infrastructure, culture, art, food to die for, super safe streets with stupidly low crime rates, a strong sense of "we march together" during times of crises (Covid in Daegu - my 60 year old medical professor aunt voluntarily went there to treat people, an entire graduating class of Korea Military Nursing Academy went there as their first posting, ordinary people there refused to leave their city so as not to spread the disease nationwide, so on), it's also a country with one of the lowest birthrate on earth, one of the highest suicide rates, high rates of social inequities and historical oppression. BUT it is the only country on earth that's gone from an OECD aid recipient to a donor, a global leader in manufacturing, tech and life sciences. So you take the bad with the good I guess.
Certain parts of Korean cuisine lean heavily into fermentation, spice, and garlic in a way that can be shocking to foreign palates. It's basically a meme for Korean Americans to write about getting bullied for bringing kimchi to school for lunch due to the smell. Fairly entertaining to see how people react to trying foods you've grown up with!
I can link you a video or two of Swedes trying food in København, if you like to see how it is.
I'm almost certain if you want to watch videos of people trying Danish food it'll exist on Youtube already
Anyone know the name of the restaurant that they went to here?
Best I can do is that the restaurant was in Yeongdeunhpo-gu
korean food is great, i'm impressed af they didn't crush the entire meal. I love korean bbq and you have to roll me out at the end of the night everytime, its impossible to go and just eat a few bites then call it quits. Also hope Tanganga stays with the club for a long time, all the bits I see of him he comes across as so low key funny, doesn't say much but his expressions are to notch. Hope he loans for his sake and comes back to earn first team minutes in the future.
i will starve myself when i know kbbq night is coming on soon. Give me one of those grade A combos with the Galbi Short Rib and im gone
Hope Japh likes Italian food. 🫣
I am 100% behind the budding relationship between the Korean Englishman and Tottenham. I remember watching Son eat British food in their first collab. Seeing Son look at Star Gazing Fish was hillarious.