Tag Archives: Korean

Tae-mong, Korean Conception Dreams

Nationality: Korean
Age: Early 50s
Occupation: Housewife
Residence: South Korea
Performance Date: April 13th
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

Main Piece:

The following is translation of a conversation with my mom, identified here as M, in Korean about “tae-mong”, Korean conception dreams. I am identified as IC.

IC: Can you tell me about tae-mong?

M: Tae-mong is a dream that you have either when you’re pregnant or about to be pregnant. Usually it’s the pregnant woman that has the dream but sometimes it’s people around you. When you have this dream, you usually know that it’s tae-mong

IC: How do you know?

M: It just feels a little different. The dream is clearer and something big either comes at you or you pick up something nice.

IC: Is there a specific time frame for when you have tae-mong?

M: There isn’t a specific time, but generally it’s in early or mid-pregnancy. But I had mine before, for both you and your brother.

IC: What was the dream for my brother?

M: I went to my in-law’s place where your dad’s grandmother lived. So, She and I were walking when a huge pig came towards me, bit my hand and didn’t let go. I screamed and screamed and woke up. So, I thought, this is either a tae-mong or a dream telling me to buy lottery. I wasn’t pregnant so I but the lottery which I didn’t win. But two months later, I became pregnant. Also, what’s fascinating about tae-mong is that when people hear it they guess the gender.

IC:  How do they know?

M: Normally if it’s a big or fierce animal, people say it’s a boy

IC: Is this guess usually correct?

M: It was right for me, but for some people it’s wrong. For girls it’s something small and pretty like flowers.

IC: What was the dream for me?

M: One day, I went up a mountain and there was a small, spring pool that was filled with clean and sparkly water. Inside, there were two small fish playing and I picked one up and kept it.

Also, after I was pregnant with your brother, my mother said that I would have two kids, one year apart. I asked why and my mother said that she had a dream and there were two puppies, similar in size—one little smaller than the other—ran to me.

IC: I see, that’s cool. My brother and I are one year apart.

M: Right. And in Korea, when you’re pregnant, people generally ask if you had a dream. When they ask this, they’re referring to tae-mong. And typically, you just know that it’s a tae-mong because you’re the center focus of the dream.

Background:

It is common for pregnant Korean women to have conception dreams that relate to the gender of their baby. My mom experienced this when she had me and my brother.

Context:

TThis was collected in an interview with my mom in a casual setting.  I had remembered about my mom telling me about conception dreams before and I thought it would be interesting to ask her about it for this project.

Thoughts:

Although the idea of conception dreams to predict gender is interesting, I can’t help but think that the basis for differentiating gender is a little outdated and somewhat sexist. For boys, it’s a big and fierce animal like pigs, lions et cetera. But for girls, it’s something small and sparkly, like small animals or jewels. Whether it’s food, animals or flowers it’s always small for girls. I don’t know if this is something in Western cultures or even other Asian cultures, but I think it’s a unique tradition that Koreans have.

Buying Someone Else’s Dream

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Residence: Fullerton
Performance Date: 4/29/2020
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean, Mandarin

A Korean practice on buying dreams for good luck.

Text:

Informant:

There’s this Korean thing we do where we buy each other’s dreams. You can buy someone’s dream off of them. Dreams with pigs, dragons, or dreams where you poop or pee are considered good luck. I think the latter part originated back with farming when poop was good for crops. That’s why those are considered good dreams. So, if you tell someone about your dream, they could offer to buy it from you. You can name your price or work something out between the two of you. When someone buys a dream they also buy the luck that comes with it.

Context: I asked a group of friends to share any superstitions they were raised with. This was one of their replies. The informant is of Korean descent and was raised in both Korea and China. 

Thoughts: I find this a very interesting practice, especially since there’s nothing stopping someone from pretending they had a good dream.

Korean belief on Japanese Spirits

Nationality: Korean-American
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Residence: Fullerton
Performance Date: 4/29/2020
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean, Mandarin

Text:

Informant: The reason why Japan is such a hot spot for spirits and ghosts is because ghosts can’t cross water, and Japan is an island country. Korean people who travel to Japan, especially people who have a wider third eye, have to be very careful. They have to be very mindful of what kind of spirits they might accidentally carry back over the water. Spirits can’t cross water themselves, but they can cross on someone’s back or someone’s shoulder. I feel like it was made up to keep us from traveling to Japan ‘cause we’re supposed to hate each other.

Context:

I asked a group of friends to share any superstitions they were raised with. This was one of their replies. The informant is of Korean descent and was raised in both Korea and China.

Thoughts: The subtle xenophobia in this reminds me of the Mexican Pet story in that it teacher the listener to fear what comes from the other country.

Korean Sink Ghost

Nationality: Korean-American
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Residence: Fullerton, CA
Performance Date: 4/29/2020
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean, Mandarin

Text:

Informant: There’s this nice ghost who lives under the sink and if you leave leftover food in your bowl it will go down the drain and it will choke the ghost. The ghost will be miserable. It’s a happy ghost that brings joy and luck to the household, but if you leave food on your plate and it goes down in the sink then the ghost, it’s a very tiny spirit, will be choked. The spirit will die and it won’t bring any happiness to the home. I think it’s told to keep kids tidy because it’s very clean in Korea. Like we don’t even put food in the sink. That’s not something we do. We dispose of food separately, and I think parents tell their kids this to help them to learn to throw things away right. 

Context: I asked a group of friends to share any superstitions they were raised with. This was one of their replies. The informant is of Korean descent and was raised in both Korea and China.

Thoughts:

This is clearly a very modern superstition, but it feels old. It seems cleat to me that it was made by a parent to keep their child from clogging the drain.

Dalgonaa Coffee

Nationality: Korean
Age: 24
Occupation: Barista
Residence: Seoul, Kora
Performance Date: 14 April 2020
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

Original Script: 달고나커피

Main Piece:

The following is transcribed from a conversation between the informant and the interviewer. It was conducted in Korean, and was since translated.

Informant: Dalgona coffee is a new viral recipe. Dalgona is the name of popular street candy in Korea, and the coffee is named after that because of the similar taste and color to the candy. So the recipe was first made in Korea, but you see people everywhere make the thing now.

Interviewer: Can you describe the recipe?

Informant: You mix sugar and instant coffee power, about the same ratio. You add a spoon of hot water, and blend everything. This is the key point, you have to like, really mix it. Some say it’s about 400 whips, but it’s more like 4000 if you’re using no electric utensils. Anyways after you mix it for like 10 fish minutes, the mixture’s gonna be really thick and have this beige color, which is the dalgona color. You pour a glass of milk, and drop that mixture on top. You mix the two and drink it.

Interviewer: Where did this recipe originate?

Informant: It wasn’t a thing until like, this year, once the stay at home order started. Koreans were just bored, and was looking for something to do I guess. It’s kind of the perfect thing to make in quarantine. This recipe requires a lot of manual labor, that’s the kind of stuff you need to distract yourself. And the coffee is delicious, so there’s that.

Interviewer: Why do you think the recipe became viral? Dalgona isn’t a widely known candy anywhere outside Korea.

Informant: I think it’s because everyone’s bored everywhere right now. No matter what nationality, people just want something to do. And with stuff like TikTok and Twitter, anything can be viral globally now.

Background:

The informant is a barista in Seoul, Korea. The recipe preexisted in different cultures, most notably in Macao. But around January of 2020, the recipe became a viral trend amongst Korean Twitter users, and it has since spread all over the world under the name ‘Dalgona Coffee’. On social media apps like Tiktok, making this coffee has gotten viral- under hashtag “dalgonacoffee” there are 280 million views on Tiktok, as of April 2020, and recreating this recipe has since become a viral challenge. Many cafes in Korea have since started actually selling this coffee, including the very cafe that my informant works at.

Context:

The conversation took place over the phone, and the informant was alone in his apartment during the talk, in a comfortable environment.

My thoughts:

I think this recipe had all the perfect elements to go viral. It’s extremely easy to make, and there’s just the right amount of mundane labor to keep you distracted, but not enough to tire you out too much. It’s a delicious coffee too, so it only made sense that people around the world took part in this challenge.