I wish that the author had done some research to test this opinion, because it caused quite a stir with the aT Center (The Agro-Trade Center) and amongst the Korean public. The aT Center is a government organization that has been heading the Korean Food Globalization project and my company (O'ngo Food Communications) has been working with them on several different projects including how to market makgeolli overseas.
Back in October of 2009, our company and the heads of many makgeolli companies had a meeting to discuss changing the name of makgeolli. I will tell you the same thing I told them: it is not cost efficient, it will cause needless confusion, and it won't put the drink in people's hands.
If you Google the current spelling of makgeolli, you will get 75,800 hits on the traditional rice alcohol. This is the spelling accepted by CNN, the Lonely Planet, Wikipedia, Korean newspapers, the Korean government, and overseas newspapers. If you search for maggoli (which sounds like maggots), you will get 103 hits -- most are about a Scottish family. Makkoli has 35,000 hits (the top hits refer to a Japanese sushi restaurant in New Jersey) and most of the hits about "makoli" are of a famous chess player with the same last name.
Changing the name of something that is obviously accepted would cost the Korean government millions of dollars and cause endless confusion.
As for the pronunciation, I went around and videotaped 10 non-Korean speakers to see if they would pronounce makgeolli like mak-jolee. None of them did. Of the different pronunciations the ones that sounded closest to the original Korean were "Makgeolli" and "Makkolli" and I also interviewed linguistics expert Kara MacDonald of Hanyang University and asked her if she thought the spelling should be changed. Her response was, "Why change and generate confusion domestically and internationally?"
Makgeolli is an example of how Korea has a lot of fervor and passion to globalize, but has yet to do the research. They should also think of their audience.
Case in point, let's take the full page "Bibimbap" advertisement that was in the New York Times on Dec. 21. First of all, I applaud the Korean show "Infinite Challenge" for the initiative. The ad had a great headline: "How about Bibimbap for lunch today?" There was a gorgeous picture and they gave the phone numbers of several Korean restaurants in New York.
The text is what I have a problem with: "It is said that this dish came from the customers of memorial service and rural villages. This dish is very convenient to provide, just mixing of cooked rice with various vegetables, namul, and red pepper paste together."
First of all, death (customers of memorial service) doesn't arouse my appetite and non-Korean speakers will not know what "namul" is. It was a great idea, just poor execution.
The way that Koreans market Korean food for Koreans will not work overseas. Korea's "four seasons," "well-being," "good-for-health," "kimchi," and the "5 colors" will not convince the average person to try Korean food.
There are also differences in food textures. Some cultures don't like the chewy texture of the rice cakes in "tteokbokki" or the salty-sour taste of kimchi. Furthermore, not all foreigners are the same. What works in France doesn't mean that it will work in the United States and vice-versa.
Over the summer, my company was working on a project for a government tourism organization to write a brochure and make a PowerPoint presentation on Korean food to encourage the American press to come visit Korea. We were told to then translate this brochure into French to encourage the Michelin Restaurant guide to come. Obviously, just translating the document wasn't going to work because different cultures have different perspectives on food. Let's face it; food is very cultural.
For our project, we interviewed many non-Koreans on their impressions of Korean food. Once we explained Korea's cultural concepts of sharing, we found that the idea of sharing the side dishes, entrees, and soups was generally accepted and the idea quickly grasped.
Interestingly, the side dishes were considered by most to be the most noteworthy part of the meal. Korean barbecues were also a favorite and what most were most ecstatic about.
We found that Americans tended to favor dishes that involved using chicken -- chicken galbi was an overwhelming favorite. I believe it's because chicken is the most popular meat in America.
We also found that cucumber pickles were more popular than regular kimchi. I think it is because it reminded people of pickles.
Surprisingly, we found that many French people liked chicken and ginseng soup. They said it reminded them of a popular French dish: poule au pot.
My point is we shouldn't simply group all foreigners into one category. In order to globalize the food, we should do research to find which foods are best for different countries.
Korea should have a more cultural approach to food. Chinese cuisine is a perfect example. Chinese food is popular all over the world because they adapted the food for the local countries. Trust me, you won't find General Tso's Chicken, fortune cookies, or chop suey in China.
If Korea is to take Korean food to the world, they should know who they are taking it to and they should work to put the food in peoples' mouths.
The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of The Korea Herald. Daniel Gray works for O'ngo Food Communications. You can follow his food adventures at www.seouleats.com -- Ed.
By Daniel Grayhttp://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2010/02/02/201002020014.asp
Here is the video I made on how people pronounce Makgeolli:
I hope your company does not equate non-Koreans with North Americans, as this video suggests.
ReplyDeleteKorean food and drink will always find itself victim of the Korean language and Korea's inability to decide upon and follow a set romanization system. President Roh spent a boatload of money changing the romanization system away from McCune-Reischauer's system, which resulted in a bunch of mildly changed street signs - and not much else. Makgeolli and it's pronunciation (which is McCune Reischauer, by the by) is the least of this country's language problems. Koreans who immigrate to other countries haven't been able to decide upon how to spell their last names in English in a uniform way. There are a ton of different variations on Kim and Jeong out there.
ReplyDeleteAfter all - the Japanese have successfully been able to get people of all races and nations tanked on 'Sakee' for years - and they don't really care if it's an 'ee' or an 'eh'
If it tastes good, why not?
Also, my opinion - the best way to familiarize first-timers with something like makgeolli is to use standardized beverage terms, without having to get too detailed. You can call it an 'unfiltered Korean rice wine' as a tagline, and if people ask further, you can describe the palate it has.
ReplyDeleteMakgeolli in it's cheap industrial forms has a grain flavor not dissimilar to beer, so it has something going for it. It's not the easiest drink to wake up after 5 bottles of, but it goes down pretty damn smoothly before that and I love it. It'll make you crazy though - case in point, the ageless guy with the dark tan, in the newsboy cap and CPO jacket pulling the wooden cart of makgeolli around Shinchon all night, everynight. The guy is a legend, I've seen him for something like 8 years.
Good points in the post, and Drew brings up plenty as well. The constant re-jiggering of romanization needs to stop (the most ridiculous example was "topokki," a rendering created to make it "easier" for foreigners to pronounce the dish, but doesn't even come close to the Korean name!)
ReplyDeleteThe amount of space in the local English newspapers to globalizing Korean food is ridiculous, and a clear indication to any non-believers that the papers, like Arirang TV, are intended more as a public relations service for Korea than as a legitimate news source and resource.
Drew said, "Makgeolli and it's pronunciation (which is McCune Reischauer, by the by)..." Makgeolli is actually the Revised Romanisation, not that that detracts from what you're actually trying to say.
ReplyDeleteWhat the Korean promoters of Korean food and language overseas seem to completely fail to recognise is that we're dealing with two completely separate issues.
For example, Romanisation of the language serves two purposes, the first is to help non-speakers of Korean say some Korean in Korea, in which case it needs to be Romanised in a way which allows native speakers of all languages that use the Roman alphabet to read it in a pronounciation that's a close to the actual Korean as possible. The second function is when it's used overseas, for example Makgeolli, just as a name for something. In such a case the pronounciation is not important. What's more important is ease of reading and recognition, as people can read, recognise and understand familiar words without actually reading all the letters, and also that people will all pronounce it the same to avoid confusion. For that reason, there's no need to change the spelling of Makgeolli overseas if that's what is most widely used. It's ok for people overseas who are not trying to speak actual Korean to get the pronounciation wrong, just as with the Japanese "sake" example, or karaoke, vodka, Volkswagen, paella or any other product that is frequently mispronounced outside of its native country.
To make makgeolli popular in other countries, they really just need to sell it, advertise it and get people drinking it. And also understand their own limitations: it's never going to be hugely popular in places like America or Europe, not even the more well-known sake is that popular.
And the constant changing of Romanisation absolutely does have to stop, it can never be perfect, the only perfect way of writing the Korean language is Han'geul.
Y'know, there are times when I wonder if the Western media almost treats Korean stories like the 'lighter side' or the 'humor' stories that commonly end the local news. Think about it - what sort of positive stories come out of Korea on a regular basis? This PR fluff, at best. At worst, you get beef protests and assembly fights. These kind of stories getting otherwise legitimate press makes me wonder if they're simply patronizing the stories in that friendly / diplomatic way...
ReplyDeleteI'd stick with "rice wine" even if it's not actually correct. People have been calling Sake "rice wine" for years even though it's technically a beer, too. When (most) people hear "Beer", they think of a bubbling, foamy-headed, clear-amber brew. Makgeolli is still closer in spirit (pun intended) to Wine than Beer.
ReplyDeleteAw, but I love a good assembly fight. Too bad our congress and senate doesn't do the same. i'm sure all the deadlock would be freed up with a couple fat lips from nancy pelosi or john McCain.
ReplyDeleteDan,
ReplyDeleteSaw your post in the Herald today... nice job...
Good comments here as well, other than some Scotchman getting pissed (standard behavior in two ways!) you filmed US expats...
;-)
Drew,
ReplyDeleteWhat a brilliant post! You have clearly pointed out why the South Korean government's endless obsession about the "correct" Romanization which has been happening for almost over 3 decades now.
As you and asadalthought have suggested, the main purpose of Romanization of Korean words is twofold: one to indicate which Korean word is Romanized so that the Hangeul users of Korea can precisely know which word the Romanized word is referring to, and the other is to assist non=Korean speakers pronounce the words close to the original Korean pronunciation.
We can clearly see this if you think about how the current Romanization forcibly add an extra vowel "e" to indicate "eo" to make "ㅓ"sound of Korean.
As you might have already noticed, due to the imitated capacity of Romanization, there is no such vowel that directly corresponds to the "ㅓ"sound of Korean.
Hence, if Romanization were to serve its purpose to assist the pronunciation of non-Korean speakers, they should have chosen "o" for the vowel as the one representing the "ㅓ"sound.
Point in case, many of non-Korean speakers who are not familiar with how "서울" is pronounced will pronounce "Seoul" as "Seh-oh-ul" or "See-ol".
Again, if the Romanization was to be used to serve the latter purpose, to assist non-Koreans pronounce it similar to its original pronunciation; it must have been spelled as "Soul"
Now, you are absolutely correct on the point that the South Korean government is wasting its time, money, and scarce marketing resources dealing with this problem that does not have an absolute solution.
Why? It is simply because the past, the current, or the future Romanization can replicate the original pronunciation that native Koreans make.
For such reason, the constant juggling must stop.
At the same time, I would like to kindly present a slightly different angle on this matter, and I will focus on this from a brand strategy point of view.
Now, as a product is developed and marketed by a company, it must have a brand name.
In the same logic, When it comes to the exporting/marketing of Korean cultural products such as Makgeolli, the word "Makgeolli" becomes a brand (or product name but for the cohesiveness of this argument I'll stick to brand name) name.
Mark Batey (author of Brand Meaning) said, "from the customer's perspective, it (brand) is the set of associations, perceptions and expectations existing in his or her mind"
When we consider this, we can understand the significance of having a good brand name.
Then what is a good brand name?
I believe a good brand name is something that is
1. Simple enough to pronounce
2. Simple enough so that people can easily remember and recall
But most importantly, a good brand name is something that is
3. Used in the uniform manner wherever the brand is present
Considering these elements, the current "Makgeolli project" has stepped off on the wrong foot from the get go.
ReplyDeleteFirst, it has failed to come up with a brand name that could help the elements #1 and #2. Had the South Korean government been more customer-oriented, they could have at least consulted with non-Korean speakers to find the simplest version of spelling it.
Personally, I think "Makoli" is the most optimal solution in this case because it satisfies both of the criteria #1 and #2.
As you have strongly argued, Drew, having this eye-soring spelling of makgeolli needs to be maintained GIVEN that it is already widely used around the world.
However, the main purpose of South Korean government's efforts on "globalizing (although I strongly believe "internationalization" is the proper word)" is to promote the product so that it can capture a greater portion of the market which is a lot bigger than the ones contributing to the number of page hits on Google search result.
For this matter, I firmly believe that the South Korean government's coming up with the word "Topokki" instead of "Tteobokki" was a brilliant move in terms of brand strategy BECAUSE topokki is NOT YET popular around the world. Now it is being promoted as a strategic product with a strategic brand name.
As you can see, this is clearly different from changing the spelling of a brand name that has ALREADY been widely used by the people around the world.
If the South Korean government were changing the spelling of "Kimchee" or "Taekwondo" to "Gimchi" and "Taegwondo" to reflect the most up-to-date version of Romanization, it is just another huge waste of money.
After all, it all boils down to the matter of brand awareness. Having a simplest form of brand name helps raise its own brand awareness and brand recognition level, but when it is already well-known, simplification is not necessary. Again, however, if a company decides to sell a product, it is recommended to have the most simplistic version of brand name possible, and THIS MUST HAPPEN BEFORE THE PRODUCT IS PUT OUT TO THE MARKET!!! Following the logic, I lament the fact that the eye-soring version of "Makgeolli" is the one chosen by the South Korean government, but it needs to be consistently used.
Having said all that, now we can talk about the most important issue of having "consistency" of the brand name. This "consistency" is very important because without this, "easiness to pronounce' or "easiness to remember" are just worthless.
To illustrate this point, let's think about how many different versions of the same Korean last name you have heard of.
ReplyDeleteKim-Geem-Gim-Khim (really I saw one)
Park-Bak-Pak-Bark-Bahk
Kang-Gang-Khang
Lee-Yi-Rhee-Li
You name it.
What this lack of standardization mounts to is the inevitable confusion among same identical products! When 비빔밥 is spelled in 6 different versions, the non-Korean customer who tried "Bibimbap" at restaurant #1 would be disappointed to find that restaurant #2 doesn't have it because they were selling it under "Peebimbob".
It is virtually impossible to think of Samsung engaging in the practice of exporting products under different versions of brand name "Samsong" "Sahmseong" "Zamsung" and so on.
Look at how the Japanese are doing. Almost any Japanese restaurant you go, you can find the words that are spelled the same (or near-same because a lot of them are owned by non-Japanese) way from restaurant to restaurant.
Therefore, what we really need is not to find the "most accurate" version of Romanization, but to decide only 1 version of brand name that is optimal to catch criteria #1 and #2, and to stick with it whatever happens!
Point in case, the Romanization of 독도 has some 9 variations whereas "Takeshima" only has 1 version.
The result? All the historians around the world need to spend 9 times as much their efforts to get the information on 독도 than on Takeshima. Not only is this a problem that causes physical frustration, but it is big problem which translates into an astronomical amount of financial loss.
Now, it seems that we agree on the fact that the constant juggling needs to stop, and a slightly different angle as to makgeolli.
Personally, since it is still in the very early stage of marketing, adopting "Makoli" shouldn't be too late (but again, this must have taken place BEFORE it was being promoted)
In addition, I do not completely agree with holterbarbour's comment that it could be called as "rice wine" (I am not sure if you are saying that we should not use "Makgeolli" as brand name but use only 'rice wine, but please correct me if I am wrong because I am writing with the assumption that you implied so). Again, from a brand strategy point of view, it is almost equivalent to neutering of the identity of Korean food.
By calling Makgeolli a "rice wine" without having the brand name "Makgeolli", is the same as calling "Bibimbap" a "Korean style mixed salad bowl with beef".
No, as Sake is called Sake and is followed by the English description of "rice wine", "Makgeolli" must be used as an independent brand name, which is then followed by "rice wine'.
A lot of Korean people make this mistake by calling "Chung Wa Dae" as "the Blue House", or "Bingsu" as "Ice Flakes/Shaved Ice". What are they doing? They are just voluntarily giving up their own right to register their brand name in the international market!
Why this is important is because it doesn't help to promote a series of purchases of other related Korean products.
ReplyDeleteIn cognitive psychology, there is a term called "Semantic Network" and "spread activation". What this basically suggests is that when you are given a stimulus, the images that are associated with that specific stimulus are also activated. Applying this to real life, you can imagine when you hear the word "Karate", your thoughts about "Sushi" "Sake" "Wasabi" are activated and the chances of consuming those products increase.
What about South Korea? If they keep selling "Naeng Myun" as "cold noodle", the images that are associated with "noodle" will be activated. Hence, when "Naeng Myun" needs to activate other related products such as "Kimchi" or "Bulgogi", it only activates undesired images that are associated with "noodle". Depending on the case, this thinking of "noodle" can lead to the consumption of Chinese food "Lo Mein" if it is the image that is most strongly associated with "noodle".
Again, look what the Japanese have done. They were smart and nimble enough to make "kimono", "shoyu", "wasabi", "miso soup" a household name, and they are enjoying the "first mover advantage" in this field as they are perceived as the inventor/original developer of the products! While South Korea gets lazy and not paying attention to this, other countries like Japan can quickly market them as their products.
Remember how they tried to register "Kimuchi" as their own food at Codex Alimentarius. As you can see, if Korea sells "Naeng Myun" under a very generic term "Cold Noodle", then Japan could quickly come in to sell it as "Rei-men" and promote it as their product all over the world. The result? People around the world would visit Japanese restaurants to have Korean food (because they wouldn't know it's Korean food)
The late comer, South Korea, has to fight against such strongly-established brand names.
But again, a lot of Koreans make more even dumber mistakes by calling "Hanbok" as "Korean Kimono" or "Chuseok" as "Korean Thanksgiving Day" or "Makgeolli" as "Nigori Sake (Unfiltered Rice Wine)"
Why? This must be a desperate and thoughtless effort to easily convey what they are, but please reconsider what such foolish actions can contribute to.
By introducing "Hanbok" as "Korean Kimono", you are automatically implying that "Hanbok" is a derivative of a Japanese culture "Kimono", and by introducing "Makgeolli" as "Nigori Sake", you are automatically implying that "Makgeolli" is a derivative of Japanese "Sake".
How ridiculous would this be if a Korean introduced himself as "My name is Beautiful flower from Gyungjoo (김미화 Kim Mihwa, which in Chinese characters means "beautiful flower from Gyoungjoo"), and my country Korea is like Japan, and we have a founding father "Dangun" who is Korean version of George Washington, and we enjoy Chinese New Year while eating "sliced-rice-cake soup" while wearing "Korean Kimono"
What would that person look like? You never hear Samsung promoting themselves as "Korean Sony" or Hyundai as "Korean Honda", because initially this could be beneficial as it could capture some of the market, but as soon as it fails to differentiate, it is always doomed to fail.
In order for South Korea to be successful in their quest to "globalize (internationalize)" Korean culture and food, their strong sense of national identity is required.
ReplyDeleteDrew, this is the longer version of what I wanted to say short. I truly admire the work of you and your colleagues, as it provides the priceless advices that the South Korean government must to embrace.
What the South Korean government is doing right now is an act of self-contentment. They have a product to sell, but they do not have a proper marketing plan to execute. Worse, they are not even prepared for the customers who will buy the products. They are naive enough to assume that the products will sell if they are sold in the KOREAN WAY.
by retro!
(I write extensively on the subject of nation branding, and I cordially invite you to visit my blog at www.koreabrandimage.com or drop me a line at vivaretro@gmail.com if you want to exchange ideas. Again, thank you so much for your passion and love for Korea.)
Also, I am sorry that I did not proof-read what I wrote. I musta been way too excited to find you here! Please forgive my broken English. It is not my mother tongue but I am slowly getting there!
ReplyDeleteVivaretro, it's all good. thank you so much for your insightful comment. I'm meeting up with a couple people from Seoul Eats tonight at a H makgeolli House in Haebangchon. You can find the post on the website. You should come out. I think it would be fun to meet an chat.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Dan
Daniel, thanks for the invite!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I'd love to join you guys, the earliest flight that will get me there will be sometime tomorrow I think :P I hope to see you guys when I go back to visit Korea over the summer!
Meanwhile, I will keep checking out your page and your great work.
Thanks!
retro!
Vivaretro: I'm not suggesting that we *replace* the name "Makgeolli" with "Rice Wine" or "Korean Rice Wine" or anything else like that. That would be the same as calling Hamburgers "Beef Patty Sandwiches".
ReplyDeleteI'm suggesting that if people want to explain what Makgeolli (or however one wants to spell it) is, it's simpler and more effective to describe it as a kind of rice wine rather than a rice beer, even if that is technically incorrect. For example:
A. Hey, how about some Makgeolli?
B. Makgeolli? What's that?
A. It's a Korean rice wine.
B. Sounds good.
Holterbarbour,
ReplyDeleteGreat great! That's what I thought too! :) I just pretended like you meant otherwise so that many other people who simply call it "rice wine" instead of calling it "makgeolli" followed by the description can have a chance to think about it. I know you are innocent, but I actually knew it all along :)
Thanks!
retro!