Globalization of Korean Food

                Have you ever heard of "bear soup" or "dramatic pot" in the Korean food menu?  Actually, there is no such thing as bear soup and dramatic pot in Korea. Then, where are these words from? It is because of google translate. For example, "Gomtang" is a Korean soup which is made by boiling beef brisket, oxtail, and tripe for many hours. "Gom" is a homophone for another Korean word that means bear. If someone looked up that word in google translate, "Gomtang" would be translated to bear soup. Most Koreans know this is wrong and laugh, but it is seen as disgusting and hateful for foreigners who just hear the name. In other words, they think the soup is made out of actual bear.

seoulcolors.com/2011/01/infinite-challenge-creates-a-taste-of-korea-cm/

                To spread the Korean food into the world, it needs to have standerized names. As technology is becoming more developed, people around the world are able to communicate more efficiently.  A lot of information is exchanged through social network services.  For example, when someone from Korea posts a picture of Korean food onto social media sites, others around the world can easily see the post. Also, more people are starting to become interested in Korea, so the number of tourists coming to Korea is increasing. However, it is not likely that korean food is ready to be introduced to the world. It is lacking in using homogenized English names for Korean foods yet. For example, kimchi has several names, such as kimchee and gimchi. Most people are familiar with kimchi, but the official name of kimchi is gimchi (www.korean.go.kr). However, kimchi is the most well known spelling, so it is allowed to be used.

                Most Korean restaurants in the U.S. serve Korean immigrants, but not many American audiences. However, most Chinese , Japanese and Thai restaurants in the U.S. serve their foods to various people who are foreign to their traditional dishes, including Americans. Many people often believe that Korean food is very spicy and smelly with unknown ingredients. Also, Korean BBQ is not healthy because it is often smoky, too sweet, and salty. To globalize Korean food, it needs to blend and transform as an attractive taste for foreigners. Bibimbap burgers and Bulgogi tacos are good examples. Those are  Korean and western foods combined together.The bibimbap burger is especially  good at the 'Social Eats' resturant in NYC. It won the "Best Burger in America" award in 2011(eater.com). That was off to a great start. 

Bibimbap Burger @ Social Eats Licensed under CC

                On the other hand, opponents believe that the transformation of Korean food is not the only way to globalize. If traditional Korean food is blending in with western food, that may cause misunderstanding for foreigners about the Korean convention. Also, they are concerned that the unique features of Korean traditional food will gradually disappear.

                However, globalization of Korean food does not mean that most Korean foods have to be transformed. It is important to introduce our traditional Korean dishes to the world, but the opinion that  the conventional Korean food should be spreaded might inturrupt the globalization of Korean food.  Additionally, it is necessary to use the standardization of Korean food names to spread the Korean dishes into the world.

References :

www.koreanfood.about.com           

www.korean.go.kr

www.eater.com