Sometimes, you just got to wonder:
According to South Korean tourists who recently visited Pyongyang for the annual Arirang Festival, Jang Chol-gun, a 31-year-old tour guide, has become almost as famous as the tour itself.
Mr. Jang’s funny comments and comical expressions have won him quite a reputation.
Give Mr. Jang a camera and rather than say “cheese!” or “kimchi!” he will say “Ban-mi!” which means “Anti-U.S.!” This is trendy among youngsters in Pyongyang these days, he explained in a joking manner.
12 Comments
you know what i like that phrase you posted baduk.
kim joung il gae sae gee!
president roh is also a F******* A$$hole! thank you.
Ban-Han! Ban-Han! Ha! Ha!
SK should practice saying “?????? ??????”. It will work.
i don’t why they translate this kind of article in english. it’s even more striking that the source is Joongang which is regarded pro-american.
A pro-American Korean newspaper? Isn’t that an oxymoron?
A pro-japanese korean newspaper can be the one maybe. Chosun, Joongang and Donga are major pro-american korean media. there are also many anti-american media but those three newspapers are most widely read by koreans. there exist anti-american incidents, however they are frowned upon by the majority.
I’d like to punch him in the face for saying something like that.
Oh, c’mon, airman. He’s a NorK who’s been immersed in anti-US propaganda all his life. Someday he may send his kids to American universities just like Professor Kang.
North Korean humor doesn’t translate well. Example:
“So, I poked her frostbitten feet with a rusty spike, and her toes eventually rotted off! And — get this — she had to hobble to escape the next time!”
(Uncontrollabe laughter among North Korean guards.)
See what I mean? This is really funny in North Korea, but the humor just doesn’t translate.
Jeffery Hodges
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could it just be that we’re imposing our own cultural values onto the good people of dprk? perhaps we’re merely talking past each other when we say “anti-US” and “son of a bitch.” perhaps we should get deborah tannen on the line. or better yet, perhaps we just need an expert…
“In contrast to the American media description of North Korea as a “Stalinist Communist state,” I have come to see it as a Confucian nationalist monarchy, based on traditional Korean values and reflecting the bitterness born of foreign invasions throughout Korean history. In Confucian society, loyalty to the ruler and respect for elders are basic tenets. The iconic stature of the late “great leader” Kim Il Sung isn’t that different from the Confucian image of a divine ruler.”
http://www.nautilus.org/fora/s.....html#sect2
IMHO, Koreans make too much stink about foreign invasions. Britain has been invaded more times than Korea. The Philippines was a colony of Spain for 300 years, the US for 100 years, and was occupied by Japan during WW II. Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia were colonized by Europeans and then the Japanese. Malaysia and Singapore endured a painful parting, and Indonesia is fragmented by independence movements. Yeah, I know, they’re not “danil minjok” like the Koreans. So what. We Americans have never been racially homogenous, and we fought a bitter war to keep our nation together. Africa is just a mess of artificial countries whose boundaries divide peoples with a common history and language. The native peoples of the Americas lost people and land to European settlers. Korea occupies its own peninsula, partially protected by the waters of the Yellow Sea and that other sea. There are many peoples and nations with situations and histories more tragic than Korea’s.