18 COMMUNITY TUESDAY FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Seoul’s
Seollal
activities
By Shannon Heit

This year, the Seoul

Global Center and Global
Village Centers offer a
Seollal program for interna-
tional residents.
The events will run from,
Feb. 5 to Feb. 15 and will be
hosted at the Seoul Global
Center and three of its affili-
ate Global Village Centers.
They are open to all interna-
tional residents of Seoul and
will include an introduction
to Korea’s traditional Lunar
New Year culture and activi-
ties, as well as a volunteer
opportunity.
This is the first year that
the SGC has offered this
kind of lineup of events for
the Seollal period. When
asked why the SGC decided
to offer these programs,
SGC manager Kim Sang-
yong said it’s good for expats
to get involved.
“It’s important for the
Seoul Global Center to pro-
vide opportunities for inter-
Korea Herald file photos national residents to partic-
ipate during Seollal. We
thought it would be espe-

How not to globalize Korean food cially beneficial to include

Take culture-focused approach, rather than lumping all foreigners into one pot
By Daniel Gray
At the end of December 2009, the
Chosun Ilbo published an article stat-
ing that the current spelling of “mak-
geolli” might cause some non-Koreans
to mispronounce it as makjolee. The
author suggested that the spelling
should be changed and this would
popularize this alcohol overseas. He
recommended a few different options
such as maggoli, makkoli, and
makoli.
I wish that the author had done some
research to test this opinion, because it
caused quite a stir with the aT Center
(The Agro-Trade Center) and amongst
the Korean public. The aT Center is a
government organization that has
been heading the Korean Food
Globalization project and my company
(O’ngo Food Communications) has
been working with them on several dif-
ferent projects including how to mar-
ket makgeolli overseas.
Back in October of 2009, our compa-
ny and the heads of many makgeolli
companies had a meeting to discuss
changing the name of makgeolli. I will
tell you the same thing I told them: it
is not cost efficient, it will cause need-
less confusion, and it won’t put the
drink in people’s hands.
If you Google the current spelling of
makgeolli, you will get 75,800 hits on
the traditional rice alcohol. This is the
spelling accepted by CNN, the Lonely
changed. Her response was, “Why
change and generate confusion domes-
tically and internationally?”
Makgeolli is an example of how
Korea has a lot of fervor and passion to
Expat Living is a section dedicated to the daily
living of expatriates.
globalize, but has yet to do the re-
It is printed on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. search. They should also think of their
To share stories about your life abroad, send stories
or story ideas to Matthew Lamers at audience.
mattlamers@heraldm.com
Submissions may be edited for length or clarity. Case in point, let’s take the full page
“Bibimbap” advertisement that was in
the New York Times on Dec. 21. First
Planet, Wikipedia, Korean newspa- of all, I applaud the Korean show
pers, the Korean government, and “Infinite Challenge” for the initiative.
overseas newspapers. If you search for The ad had a great headline: “How
maggoli (which sounds like maggots), about Bibimbap for lunch today?”
you will get 103 hits — most are about There was a gorgeous picture and they
a Scottish family. Makkoli has 35,000 gave the phone numbers of several
hits (the top hits refer to a Japanese Korean restaurants in New York.
sushi restaurant in New Jersey) and The text is what I have a problem
most of the hits about “makoli” are of a with: “It is said that this dish came
famous chess player with the same from the customers of memorial ser-
last name. vice and rural villages. This dish is
Changing the name of something very convenient to provide, just mix-
that is obviously accepted would cost ing of cooked rice with various vegeta-
the Korean government millions of dol- bles, namul, and red pepper paste to-
lars and cause endless confusion. gether.”
As for the pronunciation, I went First of all, death (customers of
around and videotaped 10 non-Korean memorial service) doesn’t arouse my
speakers to see if they would pro- appetite and non-Korean speakers will
nounce makgeolli like makjolee. None not know what “namul” is. It was a
of them did. Of the different pronunci- great idea, just poor execution.
ations the ones that sounded closest to The way that Koreans market
the original Korean were “makgeolli” Korean food for Koreans will not work
and “makkolli” and I also interviewed overseas. Korea’s “four seasons,” “well-
linguistics expert Kara MacDonald of being,” “good-for-health,” “kimchi,”
Hanyang University and asked her if and the “5 colors” will not convince the
she thought the spelling should be average person to try Korean food.
There are also differences in food
textures. Some cultures don’t like the
chewy texture of the rice cakes in
“tteokbokki” or the salty-sour taste of
kimchi. Furthermore, not all foreign-
ers are the same. What works in
France doesn’t mean that it will work
in the United States and vice-versa.
Over the summer, my company was
working on a project for a government
tourism organization to write a
brochure and make a PowerPoint pre-
sentation on Korean food to encourage
the American press to come visit
Korea. We were told to then translate
this brochure into French to encourage
the Michelin Restaurant guide to
come. Obviously, just translating the
document wasn’t going to work be-
cause different cultures have different
perspectives on food. Let’s face it; food
is very cultural.
For our project, we interviewed
many non-Koreans on their impres-
sions of Korean food. Once we ex-
plained Korea’s cultural concepts of
sharing, we found that the idea of
sharing the side dishes, entrees, and
soups was generally accepted and the
idea quickly grasped.
Interestingly, the side dishes were
considered by most to be the most
noteworthy part of the meal. Korean
barbecues were also a favorite and
what most were most ecstatic about.
We found that Americans tended to
favor dishes that involved using chick-
en — chicken galbi was an overwhelm-
ing favorite. I believe it’s because
chicken is the most popular meat in
America.
We also found that cucumber pickles
were more popular than regular kim-
chi. I think it is because it reminded
people of pickles.
Surprisingly, we found that many
French people liked chicken and gin-
seng soup. They said it reminded them
of a popular French dish: poule au pot.
My point is we shouldn’t simply
group all foreigners into one category.
In order to globalize the food, we
should do research to find which foods
are best for different countries.
Korea should have a more cultural
approach to food. Chinese cuisine is a
perfect example. Chinese food is popu-
lar all over the world because they
adapted the food for the local coun-
tries. Trust me, you won’t find General
Tso’s Chicken, fortune cookies, or chop
suey in China.
If Korea is to take Korean food to the
world, they should know who they are
taking it to and they should work to
put the food in peoples’ mouths.
The opinions expressed here do not
necessarily represent those of The
Korea Herald. Daniel Gray works for
O’ngo Food Communications. You can
follow his food adventures at
www.seouleats.com — Ed.
cultural exchange and vol-
unteer events as part of this
program,” Kim said.
The first will be this
Friday at the Yeonnam
Global Village Center from
10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. This
Lunar New Year’s event
will introduce holidays from
an international perspec-
tive, allowing participants
to experience food and cos-
tumes from different coun-
tries. For more information,
call (02) 6406-8151.
The next event will be
take place Feb. 6 from 2 p.m.
to 5 p.m. at the SGC office
near City Hall Station (Line
1 or 2, Exit 4). During the
Lunar New Year’s
Experience event, partici-
pants will be introduced to
the Korean tradition of an-
cestor memorial services at
Seollal, taste traditional
New Year’s food, try on tra-
ditional hanbok, and learn
traditional folk games, such
as “Yut no-ri.” Afterwards,
participants can enjoy inter-
national folk performances
from three Global Street
performance teams. For
more info, call (02) 1688-
0120.
On Feb. 7, the Yeong-
deungpo Multicultural
Village Center will take a
more academic approach to
the holidays by hosting a lec-
ture by professor Kim
Young-jo of Sangmyeong
University. Professor Jo will
discuss understanding tra-
ditional Korean culture
through Seollal rites. It will
take place from 11 a.m. to 1
p.m. and is open to 70 atten-

In Focus – Shooting in ‘the Zone’ dees. For more information,

The Photo Challenge is spon-
sored by Hyosung Camera
(English: 010-7203-9599) and
Babo Shirts (www.baboshirts.
com). Winners of the weekly
competition receive a 50,000
won store credit at Hyosung
Camera and a Babo Shirt. To
take part in the competition,
simply upload your photo at
w w w. f l i c k r . c o m / g r o u p s /
seoulphotoclub — Ed.
By Aaron Raisey
We could take this to mean
one of several different things,
but the particular ‘zone’ I want
to touch on this week is the
Zone System. Those who have
been around photography for a
few years will probably have at
least heard of it, if you don’t al-
ready use it on occasion.
The Zone System is simple in
theory, but very comprehensive
when practiced in its fullest
form, so I’m only going to dis-
cuss it briefly here as it is very
useful to be at least aware of it.
First, a bit of background:
The Zone System was devel-
oped by photographers Ansel
Adams and Fred Archer in the
early 1940s and is more or less
a formalization of Adams’ own
well established black-and-
white photographic workflow.
As I alluded to, the full Zone
PHOTO CHALLENGE — winner Feb. 1 — Bubbles are trapped in System encompasses the entire
ice on a small lake near Wa Stadium, Ansan. Alex Murry process from pre-shoot visual-
ization of the finished product
right through to realization of
that vision in print. But what
we will address here is the core
of the system — the zones
themselves — and how we
might use them in basic form.
This is a very limited explana-
tion and I’m assuming you’re fa-
miliar with the principles of ba-
sic exposure.
The Zone System divides the
total range of brightness into
eleven steps referred to as
‘Zones.’ From Zone 0 (total
black), through Zones I, II, III,
IV and up to Zone X (solid
white), each is separated by one
stop of exposure. Most images
won’t span all zones, of course.
A low contrast subject might
only span two to four zones of
brightness, while a bright sun-
ny day may well yield an image
that spans eight or more zones
— from black shadows to re-
flected sunlight.
The key to utilizing the Zone
System is engaging in a bit of
pre-shoot visualization and
knowing into which zone of
brightness you want to place a
specific area, or your particular
vision of the final image.
But how do we know into
what zones the image falls prior
to shooting? Your cameras’ me-
tering is preset to place whatev-
er light it measures into Zone V
(five) — exactly halfway be-
tween solid black and total
white (or on 18 percent gray for
the more technically minded).
Switch to spot metering for
greater accuracy and take an
exposure reading from some
part of your subject, the camera
will automatically set the expo-
sure so the metered area falls
on Zone V — no matter how
dark or bright it might actually
be, the camera will expose to
place it in Zone V. Now visualize
exactly how bright or dark you
want this area — into what
zone you want it to fall — and
manually adjust the exposure
accordingly.
For example, you can use the
Zone System to easily shoot a sil-
houette. Spot meter off the sub-
ject to be silhouetted (Zone V)
and decrease the exposure by
four or five stops — placing the
subject into Zone 0 or I for an
ideal black silhouette. Hopefully
you can imagine the creative
possibilities available when you
take back a bit of the exposure
control from the camera.
There are some things to
keep in mind when using the
Zone concept.
Don’t forget about the other
effects of adjusting exposure —
changing the aperture will alter
your depth of field and increas-
ing exposure could introduce
camera shake or motion blur.
Also, all zones move together.
If you expose to place that
bright spot in Zone IV, for ex-
ample, most of the picture will
be crushed into darker zones
(though this maybe ok if that’s
your creative end).
The extremes yield little to
nothing worthwhile. Zones 0, I,
IX and X retain no appreciable
textural detail so should nor-
mally be avoided. In fact, the
general rule of thumb for nega-
tive and digital capture is to
place the darkest areas in Zone
III or IV and develop (or post-
process) to place the highlights.
Despite being developed for
B&W film, the concept can
equally be applied in all areas of
photography. If you can get your
head around the Zone System
it’s a great road to gaining a
greater understanding and ap-
preciation of exposure, and it
will become another tool in your
creative photographic arsenal.
Ansel Adams is recognized as
one of the greatest ever land-
scape photographers and I
highly recommend further
reading on the subject, specifi-
cally Adams’ book “The
Negative” in which the Zone
System is explained in greater
detail.
(raisey@hanmail.net)
call (02) 2670-3000.
For those with an interest
in the kitchen, the Itaewon
Global Village Center will
host “Making Korean Rice
Cakes” on Feb. 11 from 4
p.m. to 6:30 p.m. It will also
include an introduction to
Seollal topics before rolling
up your sleeves for the rice
cake-making. For more in-
formation, call (02) 796-
2459.
The final will be a volun-
teer opportunity on the ac-
tual date of Seollal, Feb.
14. The exact location is to
be announced, but will
take place from 10 a.m. to 4
p.m. This will give Korean
nationals and internation-
al residents a chance to
work side-by-side to offer
cultural exchange and per-
formances at a welfare cen-
ter in Seoul.
In addition, an exhibition
will be held at the SGC of-
fices during the entire
Seollal program period,
from Feb. 5 to Feb. 15. The
exhibition will include dis-
plays of toys, food, and
clothes from different coun-
tries.
For more information
about these programs, please
visit the SGC website
http://global.seoul.go.kr or
the unofficial blog www.
seoulcityblog.com — Ed.