Everyday life Korean idiom : What does 파김치가 되다 mean? The origin and realistic example sentences! Plus, get some knowledge about kimchi and Korean culture.

Like every other language, Korean has tons of fun and witty idiomatic expressions.

The question that can arise when learning Korean idioms on your own is, "But do native Korean speakers actually use these expressions in everyday life?".

So here's a heads up. I guarantee that the Korean idioms I introduce in this blog are only the ones that are actually very common among the many Korean idioms.

Today, we're going to learn "파김치가 되다" as an idiomatic expression in Korean.

I don't know every language, so I can't say for sure, but I can surely guess that many languages have one thing in common.

That is, each language would have many idioms that reflect the culture of the country. For example, English has idioms using like 'bacon' or 'chip', and French has idioms using like 'cheese' or 'baguette'.

Similarly, Korean has quite a few idioms using 'rice' or 'kimchi'. LOL~!

This common ground is a frequent topic of conversation between the French co-author of this blog and me.

Today's idiom consists of very simple minimal elements.

If you've studied a little bit of Korean, you'll recognize the literal meaning of today's idiom. However, the pride is short-lived. The question "What the hell does ‘a human turns into kimchi’ mean???" will immediately follow.

The more different the literal meaning is from the actual meaning, the more "idiomatic" it is, so today's idiom is just that.

Let’s start by breaking down the phrase "파김치가 되다" word by word.

파 : [noun] green onion, spring onion, Scallion

파김치 : [noun] green-onion kimchi

~가 : A suffix to make a noun a subject or a complement (a complement in this idiom)

become : [verb] become, turn into

Yes. The literal meaning is quite simple. It means “to become green-onion kimchi”.

Are you now thinking about what the difference is between 'green-onion kimchi' and 'regular kimchi'? That's an admirable attempt, but I'd say 'you don't have to go that far', because things called 'idioms' don't necessarily have a logical reason.

Let's start by talking about kimchi.

There are many kinds of kimchi in Korea. (Officially, there are 336 kinds of kimchi).

Off the top of my head, as an ordinary Korean, I can probably name about ten different kinds of kimchi that I eat on a daily basis.

Although there are many types of kimchi, the process of making them all starts the same. The first step is to salt and smother the vegetables that are the main ingredient. You don't want the kimchi to be too brothy, so you want to remove some of the water from the vegetables beforehand, but you also want to make sure the seasoning is just right.

"green-onion kimchi" is of course "kimchi made with green-onion", and it's one of the most common types of kimchi that the ordinary Koreans eat on a daily basis.

To make ‘파김치’, we Koreans use slender green-onions, not thick green onions. It’s because it's easier to make and easier to eat because it salts faster and softens more quickly.

(You : So what the heck does it mean to become green-onion kimchi?!!!)

(Whoa, whoa, we're getting there!)

This is where you can use your imagination.

So, picture this.

Before the salt is applied, the vegetables are vibrant and springy. But after a few hours of being covered in salt, they're dead, lifeless, and shriveled.

Together, these fragments can explain today's idiom.

In conclusion, the Korean idiom “파김치가 되다" means "to become so tired (physically)”. 

It's helpful to visualize a green onion that has gone from being plump and vibrant to shriveled up after spending hours covered in salt. 

The best English word that comes to mind when you picture “someone who has become so tired” is “be exhausted”. The difference between the idiom and “be exhausted” is that ‘파김치가 되다’ is only used to describe physical exhaustion. There are also “be worn out” and “be dead tired”.

Some of you may be wondering, "But why ‘green-onion kimchi’ in this idiom, out of all the kimchi out there?".

To this question, I just have to say, "Your guess is as good as mine."

Speaking of vegetables that go from plump to soggy when turning into kimchi, I’d say basic cabbage kimchi or cucumber kimchi are not far behind.

Let's just take it at face value and use it diligently in our daily lives, because that's what our adorable idioms want from us humans, right? 

I'd like to add one more thing.

The image in your head from this explanation might be “a human being turning into kimchi”. So this expression may seem very funny to you, but it's not the only way the idiom is used.

Basically, of course this idiom doesn’t have a very heavy or serious mood, but it doesn’t mean this idiom is always used in a very funny way, either.

For Koreans, it's not particularly funny, it's just a flat tone that expresses that you're physically very tired. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, it can be used in a serious or even emotional way, depending on the context. (like in examples 5 and 6 below)

I'll give you some realistic examples.

These are examples that many Koreans actually use in their daily lives.

[1] 일을 얼마나 한 거야? 파김치가 됐네! 우선 좀 쉬어! 내가 저녁 준비할게.

How long have you been working? You're exhausted! Get some rest, I'll make dinner.

[2] 어제 전화 못 받아서 미안. 퇴근하고 완전 파김치가 돼서 바로 잠들어 버렸어. 

I'm sorry I missed your call yesterday. I was so exhausted after work that I went straight to sleep.

[3] 일 끝내. 너 내일 첫 기차 타야 하는데 오늘 파김치 되면 어쩌려고 그래?

Finish your work. You have to catch the first train tomorrow. What if you get totally worn out today?

[4] 나, 차 사야겠어! 지하철로 출퇴근하니까 매일 파김치가 돼.

I need to buy a car! I commute by subway, and I become exhausted every day.

[5] 이제 우리 아빠도 인생을 즐기셔야 해. 우리를 위해서 평생 파김치가 되도록 일하셨거든.

Now my dad should enjoy life, he's been working so hard for the family his whole life that he became exhausted.

[6] 나 이제 아빠가 됐으니까 일을 더 많이 할거야. 파김치가 돼도 상관없어!

I'm going to work more now that I'm a dad. I don't mind becoming worn-out!

If this post was helpful to you, please leave a comment.

It will be a great motivation for me to continue this Korean Idiom series.

Guide des supermarchés coréens

Je ne suis pas un passionné de shopping, c'est le moins qu'on puisse dire. Mais je dois admettre que le shopping est plus amusant à l'étranger parce qu'on peut voir un grand nombre de produits différents. Je suis donc peut-être un peu moins réticent à aller faire les courses en Corée qu'en France.

Il y a quelques grandes chaînes de supermarchés en Corée, comme Lotte Mart, Homeplus et E-mart, et des chaînes plus petites comme Top Mart ou Sunny Mart, pour n'en nommer que deux. Parmi les grands, E-mart est celui que je connais le mieux parce que nous avions l'habitude d'y aller à Yangsan, et il y en a aussi un dans notre quartier à Busan.

Notre E-mart est ouvert de 10h à 23h du lundi au samedi et un dimanche sur deux. C'est assez pratique, et un peu nouveau pour moi, car en France, la plupart des supermarchés ouvrent plus tôt le matin et ferment plus tôt le soir. Très peu sont ouverts le dimanche (faire ses courses à 2h du matin comme aux Etats-Unis serait impensable dans mon pays).

Dans ce post, je me concentrerai surtout sur l'alimentation, car c'est là que je peux voir les plus grandes différences avec la France. Commençons par les fruits. J'ai l'impression qu'il y a un grand choix de fruits dans les magasins coréens. Je veux dire qu'il existe de nombreuses sortes de fruits, mais il n'y en a souvent qu'une ou deux variétés. Par exemple, je suis un mangeur de pommes et, en France, je m'attends à trouver quatre ou cinq variétés différentes de pommes au supermarché. Dans les magasins coréens que j'ai visités, je n'ai toujours trouvé qu'une seule variété de pommes ("pommes Fuji" si l'on en croit wikipedia). D'un autre côté, on peut trouver des fraises presque toute l'année, et elles sont savoureuses.

Le gros problème à mon avis, c'est que les fruits sont très chers ici. Cela a été un véritable choc pour moi la première fois que j'ai vu que je pouvais acheter 5 pommes pour 6000 wons (4,5€, ou 5$). Il est également frappant de voir que la plupart des fruits sont enveloppés dans du plastique. Il semble y avoir du plastique partout !

La Corée semble cependant avoir pris conscience du problème. De nouvelles lois ont été adoptées pour interdire ou limiter l'utilisation d'articles et de sacs en plastique, mais il faudra un peu de temps pour changer les habitudes des consommateurs, je suppose.

Cet affichage demande aux clients d'utiliser les sacs plastiques avec modération.

Dans presque n'importe quel rayon de supermarché, vous rencontrerez des gens qui vous offriront quelque chose à goûter ou vous proposerons un produit en solde. D'une certaine façon, c'est une bonne chose parce que vous pouvez prendre un repas complet gratuitement en goûtant tout simplement tout ce qu'on vous offre. D'ailleurs, il y a souvent une "food court" à l'intérieur du supermarché si vous avez vraiment faim (encore une fois, cela ne surprendrait pas les Américains, mais nous n'en avons pas en France).

Mais tous ces gens rendent aussi l'endroit assez bruyant, surtout quand certains d'entre eux ont des micros, et pour couronner le tout, vous pouvez avoir de la musique de fond ou des télévisions qui diffusent des messages publicitaires. Donc ça peut devenir assez cacophonique.

쫄깃한버섯 !

Mais au moins, en les écoutant, on peut apprendre des mots comme 버섯 ("champignon") et 쫄깃 ("moelleux"), que j'ai appris de ce type qui répétait sans cesse "쫄깃한버섯 !" On peut aussi apprendre les noms des fruits en regardant ça:

Et bien sûr, nous sommes en Corée, donc vous trouverez de nombreuses variétés de kimchi, bien sûr , mais aussi toutes sortes de tofu. C'est pourquoi la dernière fois qu'Elle m'a demandé d'"acheter du tofu", j'ai dû lui envoyer un SMS lui demandant d'être un peu plus précise.

Inutile de dire que le rayon nouilles est aussi très impressionnant. J'écrirai bientôt un article sur les "ramen" coréennes.

Le rayon poissonerie / fruits de mer est bien garni aussi, avec des animaux vivants dans des aquariums, ce qui me rend toujours un peu mal à l'aise. Et pourtant celui-ci a l'air heureux, mais les apparences peuvent être trompeuses.

Comme je l'ai déjà écrit sur ce blog, tout va assez vite en Corée. Au supermarché, vous pouvez donc passer en caisse à une vitesse folle. Ou vous pouvez aussi utiliser les caisses automatiques, qui semblent être assez nouvelles en Corée, d'après ce que j'ai compris. Ce qui est bien, c'est que la machine parle anglais donc on peut l'utiliser si on ne veut pas interagir avec un  humain. Dans ce cas, sachez qu'il est également possible de commander des produits d'épicerie en ligne. Cela sera livré en un rien de temps, bien sûr. Et si vous voulez vraiment éviter de parler à quelqu'un, nous avons récemment découvert ceci à Yangsan : "ㅇㅇㅅㅋㄹ" est un petit magasin sans un seul employé, seulement une caisse automatique et beaucoup de caméras de surveillance.  On ne peut y acheter que de des glaces et des snacks pour l'instant, mais je ne serais pas surpris qu'il se diversifie à l'avenir.

Mais si vous voulez mon avis il est plus amusant d'explorer les rayons animés d'un supermarché coréen.

A guide to Korean supermarkets

I'm not a shopping enthusiast, to say the least. But I must admit shopping is more fun abroad because you get to see a lot of different products. So I may be a little less reluctant to go grocery shopping in Korea than in France, although to be honest I'd still rather be going somewhere else like here or here.

There are a few big supermarket chains in Korea, like Lotte Mart, Homeplus and E-mart, and smaller ones like Top Mart or Sunny Mart to name but two. Among the big ones, E-mart is the one I know best because we used to go there in Yangsan, and there's also one down the street in Haeundae.

Emart in Haeundae

Our E-mart is open  Monday through Saturday from 10 am to 11 pm, and every other Sunday. This is pretty convenient, and a little new to me, as in France, most supermarkets open earlier in the morning and close earlier in the evening. Very few are open on Sundays (grocery shopping at  2am like in the US would be unthinkable in my country).

In this post, I'll mostly focus on the food section , because that is where I can see the biggest differences with France. Let's start with fruit. My impression is that there is a large choice of fruit in Korean stores. I mean there are many different kinds of fruit, but they often come in only one or two varieties. For instance, I'm an apple eater, and in France I would expect four or five different varieties of apples at the grocery store. In the Korean stores I have visited, I've always found only one variety of apple ("Fuji apples" if wikipedia is to be believed). On the plus side you can find strawberries almost all year round, and they're very tasty. 

Speaking of taste, it's interesting that Korea has pears and grapes that taste quite different from I'm used to. They look familiar but they taste like it's an entirely different kind of fruit.

When you buy vegetables or fruit,  you may have to weigh them before checking out, but sometimes that is not necessary. So I'm never really sure what to do, but usually one  shop employee manages to make me understand what I should do, even if they don't speak English.

One big problem in my opinion is that fruit is quite expensive here. It was a real shock to me the first time I saw I could buy 5 apples for 7,000 won (€5,5, or $6). It's also striking to see that most fruit is wrapped in plastic. There actually seems to be plastic everywhere!

Plastic

A lot of plastic...

Korea seems to have become aware of the problem, though. New laws have been passed to ban or restrict the use of plastic items and bags, but it will take a little time to change customers' habits I guess.

This sign asks customers to use plastic bags responsibly

In almost any aisle at the supermarket, you'll run into people offering something to taste or some kind of discount on a product. In a way it's good because you can have a whole meal for free by simply trying everything you're offered. By the way there's often a Food Court or food booth inside the supermarket if you really are hungry (again, this wouldn't suprise Americans, but we don't have that in my country).

Food booth

But all these people also make the place quite noisy, especially when some of them have microphones, and to crown it all there may also be background music or TVs playing commercials. So it can get pretty loud and cacophonous.

쫄깃한버섯!

But at least, listening to them can help you learn words like 버섯 ("mushroom") and 쫄깃 ("chewy"), which I learned from that one guy who kept repeating "쫄깃한버섯!" Or you can learn the name of fruits from one of the commercials I've just mentioned:

Catchy, isn't it?
 
And of course, this is Korea, so you'll find so many varieties of Kimchi, but also so many kinds of tofu. That's why last time Her asked me to "buy some tofu" I had to send a text message asking her to be a little more specific. 

Needless to say that the noodle section is quite impressive. I'll write a post about Korean ramen noodles soon.

The seafood section is well stocked too, with live animals in fishtanks, which always makes me feel a little uncomfortable. And yet this one looks happy, but appearances can be deceptive.

As I already wrote on this blog, everything goes pretty fast in Korea. So at the supermarket, you can check out at breakneck speed. Or you may want to use self checkout, which seems to be pretty new in Korea, as far as I understood. The cool thing is the machine speaks English in case you don't want to interact with a human clerk. In that case, you should know it's possible to order groceries on line too. It's delivered in no time, of course. And if you really want to avoid talking to someone, we recently discovered this in Yangsan : "ㅇㅇㅅㅋㄹ" is a small shop with no employees, only a self checkout machine and a lot of CCTV cameras.  You can only get ice cream and snacks so far (I believe their name comes from 아이스크림, which means "Ice cream", they just took the first letter of each block of letters), but I wouldn't be surprised if it diversified in the future.

ㅇㅇㅅㅋㄹ

But it's more fun to explore the bustling aisles of a Korean supermarket if you ask me.

Deux aspects radicalement opposés de la cuisine coréenne

 J'ai beaucoup écrit sur la cuisine française en Corée il y a quelques jours. Il est donc grand temps que j'écrive aussi sur la cuisine coréenne. Mais c'est un sujet assez vaste, alors j'ai décidé de commencer par LE plat traditionnel le plus célèbre de Corée : le kimchi.

Le kimchi est un plat d'accompagnement épicé à base de légumes fermentés (chou, radis ou concombre par exemple) et il est servi avec pratiquement tous les repas coréens. Il y a de l'extrait de poisson, des huîtres parfois, de l'ail et c'est fermenté, ce qui signifie qu'il peut être assez fort parfois, voire très fort et odorant. D'où le dégoût que certains étrangers ont pour lui. Mais puisqu'il y a probablement des centaines de sortes différentes de kimchi, comme vous le verrez si jamais vous visitez un magasin de kimchi en Corée, il est difficile de dire que l'on aime ou non.

J'aime certaines sortes de kimchi (celui que les Coréens considèrent comme "doux") et je ne peux pas en manger d'autres, du moins pour le moment. J'aime aussi quand il est cuit au lieu d'être consommé en accompagnement (le kimchi frit et les "kimchi pancakes"  sont délicieux !).

Kimchi Pancake

 Quoi qu'il en soit, le kimchi est extrêmement populaire (quand nous ne sommes pas en Corée, Elle me dit parfois "j'ai besoin de kimchi"), et la bonne nouvelle est que c'est assez bon pour la santé (health.com nous dit même que c'est peut-être une des raisons pour lesquelles le taux d'obésité est si bas en Corée).
J'ai parlé des magasins de kimchi, mais beaucoup de Coréens font encore du kimchi à la maison (ils sont de moins en moins nombreux, cependant). Cette année, nous avons visité ma belle-famille pour Gimjang (김장), un événement annuel au cours duquel les familles préparent le Kimchi pour l'année à venir. Les quantités peuvent être énormes ! Ma belle-mère utilise habituellement une centaine de choux, mais cette année elle n'en a préparé "que" soixante....

Traditionnellement, le kimchi se conservait dans de grandes jarres, mais aujourd'hui, on utilise des réfrigérateurs à kimchi, ce qui peut être un bon moyen d'éviter l'odeur de kimchi dans votre réfrigérateur principal (je me demande pourquoi les Français n'ont pas encore inventé le réfrigérateur à fromage...).

Bref, le kimchi est au cœur de la cuisine et de la culture coréennes. En prenant une photo, les Coréens diront "Kimchi" au lieu de "fromage". Et il peut même être utilisé comme une arme, comme le montre cette célèbre scène d'un feuilleton coréen :

Comme je l'ai dit, il faut parfois du temps pour s'habituer au kimchi, donc vous préférerez peut-être dun type de nourriture coréenne dont vous tomberez amoureux dès la première bouchée. Si oui, essayez les "snacks" coréens. La raison principale pour laquelle ils sont si bons, à mon avis, est qu'ils ne sont pas trop sucrés (ou salés), comme c'est souvent le cas aux États-Unis ou en Europe. J'ai consulté quelques sites web sur le sujet et j'ai remarqué que peu d'entre eux mentionnent mes favoris, alors voilà. Mon préféré est Mat Dong San (맛동산) mais Jolly Pong (qui n'est pas différent des Smacks et que je savoure en écrivant ces lignes par souci de rigueur) est juste derrière.  Il y a beaucoup d'autres variétés comme Caramel Corn (카라멜 콘), qui est à tomber, Corn Chip (c'est juste du blé soufflé, mais pas aussi salé que ce serait le cas en France, j'en suis sûr), ou Sin Jjang (신짱). La liste est longue. Et la bonne nouvelle, c'est qu'ils continuent d'en inventer de nouveaux. Nous avons récemment découvert Caramel Pretzel (프레첼), qui m'a littéralement époustouflé !

Le problème, c'est qu'une fois qu'on les entame, on ne peut plus s'arrêter de manger. Et je ne suis pas sûr que ce soit très sain (étonnamment, health.com ne mentionne pas les snacks coréens). Alors grignotez avec modération et n'oubliez pas de donner une chance (ou plusieurs chances) au kimchi.

Kimchi and snacks, the opposite poles of Korean food

I wrote quite extensively about French food in Korea a few days ago. So  it's high time I wrote about Korean food too. But it's quite a vast topic, so I decided to start with THE most famous traditional food in Korea : Kimchi.

Kimchi is a spicy side dish made of fermented vegetables (cabbage, radish, or cucumber for instance) and it is served with virtually every Korean meal. There's fish extract in it, oyster sometimes, garlic, and it's fermented, which means it can be pretty strong sometimes, not to say pungent. Hence the distaste some foreigners have for it. But since there are probably hundreds of different kinds of Kimchi, as you'll see if you ever visit a kimchi store in Korea, it's difficult to say if you like it or not. 

I like some kinds of kimchi (the mildest ones by Korean standards) and can't eat others, at least for now. I also like it when it's cooked instead of being eaten as a side dish (fried kimchi and kimchi pancake are yummy!). 

Kimchi Pancake

Anyway, Kimchi is extremely popular (when we're not in Korea, Her sometimes tells me "I need Kimchi"), and the good news is that it's quite healthy (health.com even tells us that it may be one of the reasons why the obesity rate is so low in Korea ).
I talked about kimchi stores, but a lot of Koreans still make Kimchi at home (fewer and fewer people do, though). This year, we visited my in-laws for Gimjang (김장), which is a yearly event during which families prepare Kimchi for the year to come. The quantities can be huge! My mother-in-law usually uses about a hundred cabbages, but this year she "only" prepared sixty... 

Traditionally, kimchi used to be stored in big jars undeground, but today kimchi fridges are used, which can be a good way  to avoid kimchi smell in your main fridge (I wonder why we French people haven't invented the cheese fridge yet...).

In short, kimchi is at the heart of Korean cuisine and culture. When taking a picture, Koreans will say "Kimchi" instead of "cheese". Oh, and it can also be used as a weapon, as this famous scene from a Korean drama shows:

As I said, Kimchi is an acquired taste, so you may want to go for some Korean food with which you'll fall in love at first bite. If so, try Korean snacks. The main reason why they're so good, in my opinion, is that they're not too sweet (or salty), as is often the case in the US or Europe. I checked a few websites on the issue and I noticed that few are mentioning my favorites, so here we go. My all time favorite is Mat Dong San (맛동산) but Jolly Pong (which is not dissimilar to Honey Smacks and which I'm savoring as I'm writing these lines for the sake of accuracy) is a close second.  There are a lot of other varieties like Caramel Corn (카라멜 콘), which is to die for, Corn Chip (it's just puffed wheat, but not crazy salty as I'm sure it would be in France), or Sin Jjang (신짱). The list goes on and on. And the good news is that they keep inventing new ones. We recently discovered Caramel Pretzel (프레첼), which literally blew my tastebuds away!

The problem is once you open the pack you can't stop eating. And I'm not sure it's very healhty (surprisingly, health.com doesn't mention Korean snacks). So snack responsibly and don't forget to give kimchi a chance (or several chances).