“It’s like eating rice cakes while lying down.”
According to my informant, this is a popular Korean saying. It is said when a task is so easy, it’s like eating rice cakes while lying down. That activity takes absolutely no effort, so it means that a task resembling such an activity would also require little effort as well.
“For indigestion, prick your finger with a needle and let the bad blood out.”
As my informant says, this is a remedy that is commonly used among Korean parents. Whenever someone is suffering from indigestion, the fastest and most relieving solution is to prick the tip of any finger and let a small amount of blood out.
Korean people believe in the existence of “bad” and “good” blood. Therefore, they believe that indigestion is a result of too much “bad” blood pooling in one life. In order to provide relief, the blood must be released so that the body can find some comfort.
“Another person’s rice cake always looks bigger.”
According to my informant, this saying is similar to, “The grass is always greener on the other side.” Rice cakes are a traditional food item in Korea, so it tends to come up often in folk sayings and proverbs. Even if you have a rice cake that is exactly the same as the one another person is holding, the rice cake always seems to look bigger when it belongs to someone else. This is supposed to mean that even if you have everything you need to be content, sometimes, you tend to envy the things that another person has–simply because they are not yours.
“Eat mi-yuk-gook (seaweed soup) on our birthday.”
Korean people have a tradition of eating seaweed soup every birthday because this same soup is used as a source of rejuvenation for women who have just given birth. Seaweed contains many of the nutrients that are needed to make a body healthy and help it recuperate, so seaweed soup is commonly used to aid new mothers. Therefore, seaweed soup is eaten on birthdays in order to appreciate the suffering their mothers went through.
“Take a shot of whiskey for a hangover.”
Although this hangover remedy seems to have absolutely no basis in reason or medical knowledge, my informant swears by it. Every time he has a hangover, he takes a shot of whiskey–no matter how badly he wants to throw up.
Perhaps this remedy works for my informant because whiskey is so strong that it can probably force a person to momentarily forget about any nausea or sickness. In addition, Korean males firmly believe in the power of alcohol as a remedy for anything.