You've gotta be shittin' me!

In case you're not the sort to read through what other people have written in the comments section, I thought there were a couple of comments on yesterday's post that were interesting enough to be posted out here in the limelight.

From Gwen:

Well on the pronunciation side of things, the "dd" in "ddong" is an explosive consonant, a term that makes me chuckle, especially in relation to this word. My old director at ECC explained to me that the best way to master explosive consonant pronuncation is to start the sound with your tongue pushed firmly against the back of your front teeth. After you listen a while, you'll notice that explosive consonants give words a very harsh feel. Ddong is one of my least favorite Korean words, not because of its meaning, but because it is really grating to my ears. A lot of people really put on an elaborate production when uttering it, which realy just annoys the hell out of me.

I asked a high school student last year what she liked to do in her free time, and she responded "poop." She used the word "eung-ga" instead of "ddong," which is less offensive to my ears. Everyone else in the class seemed to think it was a cute answer. She said she likes to poop because it is refreshing.

I guess this is one of the issues we'll just have to write off as a cultural difference.

(She also told me that the whole poking-others-up-the-ass thing is a sign of friendship. I'm sorry, but that's a dealbreaker for me folks. Just in case for some reason you were unaware, if any of you decide to ram your fingers up my unsuspecting rear while my back is turned, the friendship is over.)

From Bob:

In the not-too-distant past, when Korea was largely an agriculture- based subsistence economy, most Koreans saved their poop and used it to fertalize the family rice fields and garden. Small children saw poop as valuable AND as a source of entertainment that they could have fun with while being taught to work it into the soil with their hands. My guess is that the cute little kids playing with poop image became intwined in the Korean culture and is now a firmly established meme. Whatever. It doesn't mean poop to me.

We had horses when I was a kid, and we used horse manure as compost/fertilizer in our garden... granted, it wasn't subsistance farming or anything, but I don't have any fond memories of the stuff.

Also, as far as I know, the whole human-excrement-as-fertilizer thing no longer happens (or at least if it does, it's on a VERY small scale) although if anyone knows differently, feel free to share.