Confusion
Classes start for many of the Koreans this week. Some start next week. My classes start in mid October. I was told they start next week. My visa, my plans and my return trip ticket were set up based on that information. So we’ll see how things go. I think that the administration will be willing to work with me. I’ve been studying Korean on my own, so maybe I can get through the book faster than my Chinese classmates will be able to. But I kind of doubt it. Something will work out, for sure.
Rice Land
The Korean name for America is something like Mee-gook. Korea is Han-gook, Thailand is Tae-gook, China is Jun-gook. Canada is Canada, Cambodia is Cambodia, many of the other countries are phonetically similar to their “real” (American) names. Guk/gook is something like “land” when it comes to naming places. I asked why America was called Mee-gook. What does that mean? The answer was kind of fun.
It comes from Chinese, as much of Korea’s language does, and it means “rice land” (or land of rice). Because they saw America as rich, and because rice was the measure of richness at the time, America must have a lot of rice. So much, in fact, that America must be a land full of rice. It’s a fun idea, a bit on par with naming Korea “Computer Chip Land” because we think they have a bunch of them. Which they do, so maybe that’s a bad example.
And just to be fair, we name things crazily. For instance, Korea is named after the kingdom of Goryeo. Japan is Nippon. Cambodia is Khmer (though they use Kampuchea, too). We just make it up as we go, so I can’t fault anyone else for it. I don’t really understand why we can’t use the names they call themselves, though. While learning Spanish, I was annoyed that I suddenly became “Jose” from “Los Estados Unidos”. I’d willingly trade the genuine pronunciation for Mexico, Hanguk for Korea and calling Japan Nippon for a homogenous naming system.
