Korean Culture & Language / The Korean Dream



Hello, this is Uptempo Marketers!


Growing up as a Korean, I’ve often thought that dreams have a special place in the American ethos. America is the land of dreams. It’s where dreams come true. Martin Luther King had a dream. We’re all familiar with the American Dream.


But what is the Korean Dream? The word “dream” meaning “aspiration” is still a foreign concept to the Korean ethos. True, South Korea was founded on foreign concepts (e.g. democracy) so we’re used to adopting them, but what’s foreign is still foreign. It’s extraneous. It can take a long time for something of foreign origin to become deeply rooted in the heart.


It’s all in the language. What do you tell a friend who has delusional aspirations for himself? You say something like “In your dreams” or “Dream on,” right? Well, Koreans say “꿈깨 (ggoom ggae)” which literally means “Break your dream.”



Korean

꿈

깨

sound

ggoom

ggae

meaning

dream

break



Americans encourage dreaming. Dreaming is living. So even if you have overweening aspirations, it’s okay, because there’s a safe place for that: your dreams. And who knows? They say dreams come true. So dream on!


In Korea, dreaming means sleeping. So if you’re dreaming, what are you doing? Time to wake up. Oh, you’re still trapped in your dream? Just break it. It’s okay, just slam it down and break it, and you’ll be fine. 꿈깨!


America is a young culture. It started around 500 years ago by people who risked everything for freedom and adventure. Its history is marked by exploration, exploitation, and power.


Korea is an old culture, thousands of years old. Our history is marked by a continuous struggle to stay alive in the midst of powerful neighbors; and stay alive we did, often at the cost of enduring heart-wrenching humiliation. Time after time, we had to break our dreams just to survive.


Today, Korea is a rather prosperous country, thanks to the American influence. That’s why it has become quite common among Koreans to ask one another, “What is your dream?” or “Do you have a dream?”


But when we mention the Korean Dream, we never say it in Korean. That is, we don’t say, “한국의 꿈 (Hanguk-ae ggoom).”


Instead, we say, “Ko-ree-an Deu-reem.” Because it’s a foreign concept to us. So it’s only natural to say it in a foreign language.

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