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.

Bulgogi and kkaennip : Korean food that changed my life!

I'm not much of a foodie, but when you live in a foreign country, it's somehow inevitable to try and discover all kinds of food, and that's why I'll probably write quite a few posts about Korean food on this blog. I have already written extensively about Kimchi and snacks. Oh, by the way, we have tried another one, 꽈배기더블스윗 (꽈배기 Double Sweet). But as the name indicates, it's a little too sweet (unlike most Korean snacks), so I advise to stick to regular 꽈배기 which is much more delectable.

꽈배기더블스윗

Where was I? So, yes, Korean food. It's a vast topic so I didn't quite know where to start. I do like gimbap (김밥), tteokbokki (떡볶이) and Korean noodles, and I will write about them some day, but I'd rather start with what I like best. And my all-time favorite is definitely Bulgogi (불고기). Bulgogi is very popular in Korea, and you can find it pretty much everywhere (in restaurants or at the supermarket). There are restaurant chains specialised in Bulgogi, like "Bulgogi Brothers", and fast-food chains like McDonald's have even come up with bulgogi burgers, but let's not dwell on that. 

In the Ulsan area, there's a town named Eonyang, which Her calls "bulgogi town" because it is nationally famous for its bulgogi (Eonyang bulgogi). And I can confirm it is delicious! But when all is said and done, my mother-in-law's is still the best.

Eonyang bulgogi

What exactly is bulgogi? Well, "bul" means "fire" and "gogi" means "meat". So basically it's slices of beef or pork (or other meat sometimes) marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil,  garlic, onions,  ginger, and sugar and grilled on a barbecue, or broiled, or cooked in a pan with mushrooms, vegetables, sometimes glass noodles. So as you've probably guessed there are a whole lot of different kinds of bulgogi.
 

Beef Bulgogi (left) and Pork Bulgogi (Right)

Bulgogi with glass noodles

I haven't met anyone in Europe who tried bulgogi and didn't like it. So I suggest you give it a try in Korean restaurants abroad. The following picture was taken in a Korean restaurant in France. Their bulgogi was nowhere near as good as the real thing, but it was still better than no bulgogi.

Naturally, bulgogi is eaten with rice and a multitude of small side dishes, which are always served in Korea whatever you're having. 

Korean side dishes and rice

 

Korean side dishes and Duck Bulgogi

I already wrote about kimchi. So today I'll focus on another one that has literally changed my life. To be honest I still don't know how I could live without knowing kkaennip (깻잎) . It's perilla leaf (sometimes presented as sesame leaf). It can be eaten as is, and Koreans traditionally use it to  wrap rice and meat. In that case it's called "bap-doduk", (밥 도둑), or "rice thief", meaning that you eat a lot of rice with it without even noticing it.

깻잎 (circled) and other side dishes

 깻잎 can also be cooked, for instance you can stuff it with meat and pan-fry it. Or it can be marinated and eaten as a side dish (some people call it "perilla kimchi" or "perilla leaf pickles").  Tasty, but not too spicy, as Korean food can be sometimes. I strongly recommend it, it's delicious any way you try it!

Pickled kkaennip

 We're having 돈까스 for dinner tonight (Japanese deep-fried pork cutlets). That's delicious too, and I'm adding it to my list of things I want to write about. So you should definitely expect more post about food in Korea in the future.

One more thing about Korean snacks

We discovered a new one today, so I couldn't help adding it to the list I posted the other day. This one is 빠다코코낫 ("Bada coconut", "bada" meaning "butter" if I got it right) and it just melts in your mouth! Her and I highly recommend it!

Nomnomnom!

 

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).