The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
  • Login
  • Register
  • Login
  • Register
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
  • 1

    Disgraced ex-minister's daughter says she feels proud, qualified as a doctor

  • 3

    Why Galaxy Book3 draws more attention than S23 smartphones

  • 5

    INTERVIEWSaudi Arabia seeks greater cooperation with Korea in NEOM

  • 7

    SM in internal feud over founder's exit from producing

  • 9

    VideoHow Koreans' favorite convenience store foods are made in factories

  • 11

    The Boyz member Hyunjae apologizes for wearing hat with Rising Sun flag design

  • 13

    Seoul city zeroes in on foreign residents' unpaid taxes

  • 15

    Book recounts poverty-stricken Korean coal miners' contribution to their country

  • 17

    Dongwon aims to to acquire McDonald's Korea

  • 19

    Powerful quake rocks Turkey and Syria, kills more than 1,500

  • 2

    Singer Lee Seung-gi to marry actor Lee Da-in in April

  • 4

    Decoding success factors of NewJeans: How is it different?

  • 6

    Coupang reveals Asia's largest fulfillment center in Daegu

  • 8

    'Celebrity forests' emerge as new K-pop trend in Seoul

  • 10

    VIDEOFilipina K-pop idol and K-drama actress react to stereotypes about the Philippines

  • 12

    Ex-gov't employee summarily indicted for alleged attempt to sell Jungkook's lost hat

  • 14

    Tiger endures 3 years of solitary confinement in closed zoo

  • 16

    Debate heats up over chemical castration of more sex offenders

  • 18

    BTS fails to win Grammy for 3rd consecutive year

  • 20

    US literary agent reflects on personal journey to discover Korea in new book

Close scrollclosebutton

Close for 24 hours

Open
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
Opinion
  • Yun Byung-se
  • Kim Won-soo
  • Ahn Ho-young
  • Kim Sang-woo
  • Lee Kyung-hwa
  • Mitch Shin
  • Peter S. Kim
  • Daniel Shin
  • Jeon Su-mi
  • Jang Daul
  • Song Kyung-jin
  • Park Jung-won
  • Cho Hee-kyoung
  • Park Chong-hoon
  • Kim Sung-woo
  • Donald Kirk
  • John Burton
  • Robert D. Atkinson
  • Mark Peterson
  • Eugene Lee
  • Rushan Ziatdinov
  • Lee Jong-eun
  • Chyung Eun-ju and Joel Cho
  • Bernhard J. Seliger
  • Imran Khalid
  • Troy Stangarone
  • Jason Lim
  • Casey Lartigue, Jr.
  • Bernard Rowan
  • Steven L. Shields
  • Deauwand Myers
  • John J. Metzler
  • Andrew Hammond
  • Sandip Kumar Mishra
Wed, February 8, 2023 | 19:27
Jason Lim
Cardi B is 'ajumma'
Posted : 2019-02-17 17:47
Updated : 2019-02-17 17:47
Print PreviewPrint Preview
Font Size UpFont Size Up
Font Size DownFont Size Down
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • kakaolink
  • whatsapp
  • reddit
  • mailto
  • link

By Jason Lim

A Facebook friend posted, "I just realized Cardi B actually reminds me of a Korean ajumma. She has an ajumma spirit."

This post got me thinking about those words in one language that really have no equivalent in another. For Korean, the first example that pops into mind is the word, "Han." Many attempts at translation have been tried, but all are unsatisfactory. Han is less a word than a shared sense of Korean zeitgeist.

If I had to convey the meaning, it would be something like, "a collective melancholy shared by all past, present, and future Koreans over historical tragedies and victimization as a people but tinged with poignant pride over having endured and the will to inevitably endure." It's very optimistically pessimistic. Of course, this is my own personal take on the word. Everyone will have a different take on it yet understand when I use the word in a Korean-specific context.

And that's the nature of language. A single word can convey a shared understanding of a common experience. Further, a word reflects the evolving nature of the society that uses it, imbuing it with layers of symbolism and connotations that builds upon each other.

Ajumma is another such word, commonly understood to mean something in general yet very difficult to accurately convey its Korean context because it's so layered. I personally experienced the evolution of the word ajumma as I left Korea in late 1970s as a child and went back for the first time in mid-1990s. When I left, ajumma was a word used to refer to an older, married woman who wasn't kin. It was a catch-all term for any stranger woman. For example, a waitress would be called Ajumma.

But when I went back in the 1990s, waitresses were no longer ajumma but "Unnie," which is what a younger sister would call an older sister. I, as a young man, calling a waitress unnie was definitely awkward and strange. But that was the new norm. Also, in the two decades that I was gone, I noticed that ajumma had taken on a more pejorative connotation. An ajumma was a woman who was anachronistic, aggressive, parochial, emotional, self-centered, and rude, mostly likely to be uneducated and uncouth. Most of all, sexless. An ajumma was not someone to emulate. Granted, I was experiencing the word as a young man, not a child. Yet, the evolution of the word was difficult to ignore.

In fact, other words like "Missy" tribe was created to denote a class of married women who were still fashionable, educated, and sophisticated: an anti-ajumma. Previously, they would all have been ajumma's. Admittedly, Korea in the 1990s was all about different "tribes" from "orange" (well-to-do young people in Apgujeong), "yata" (Get-in-my-car) and "kingkang" (wanna-be-orange) tribes, etc.

But ajumma wasn't all negative. There was a subtle but a definite, grudging respect for a. It was a respect for the resiliency, forth-rightness, and don't-mess-with-me type of self-centeredness. As the 1990s gave way to the IMF crisis and a wholesale shift in the socioeconomic narrative that Koreans bought into during the miracle years, ajumma's survivability through thick and thin became a more attractive countercultural trend.

Especially, for women tired of keeping up with the Joneses (or should it be the Kim's here) in the hypercompetitive society driven by conspicuous consumption, always looking over the shoulder on who might be watching them and trying to cater to the latest fads, ajumma represented freedom ― albeit still crass and often conflicted freedom ― from that societal cage of expectations. Moreover, ajumma began to mean self-empowerment, the courage to live life as oneself without being beholden to others, and confidence to show the world the real you without the fear of losing face.

But what I find most interesting about ajumma is the unspoken concept of it as the pillar of strength and glue that binds society. In this context, ajumma is the mom that keeps the family together through a philandering and abusive husband, the immature and complaining children, the henpecking and entitled in-laws, and the sneering and dismissive male bosses, while being taken for granted for all the things that she does to keep her family cohesive and intact. She is the adult in her room, not out of choice but necessity. She has no choice but to become uncouth and aggressive because to be anything else would be a luxury that she can't afford. This is actually very reminiscent of the myth of the strong black women in America, the one that carries on through the travails of an unfair life, victimized doubly by racial and gender discrimination, yet standing strong for her family as the no-nonsense matriarch.

Maybe that's what my FB friend meant by Cardi B having the ajumma spirit. But, frankly, I don't really know who Cardi B is, and I am just guessing. So, I don't know what he means, but, strangely enough, I think I understand what he's trying to say. And that's the magic of language.


Jason Lim (jasonlim@msn.com) is a Washington, D.C.-based expert on innovation, leadership and organizational culture.



 
Top 10 Stories
1Coupang reveals Asia's largest fulfillment center in Daegu Coupang reveals Asia's largest fulfillment center in Daegu
2'Celebrity forests' emerge as new K-pop trend in Seoul 'Celebrity forests' emerge as new K-pop trend in Seoul
3Seoul city zeroes in on foreign residents' unpaid taxesSeoul city zeroes in on foreign residents' unpaid taxes
4Tiger endures 3 years of solitary confinement in closed zoo Tiger endures 3 years of solitary confinement in closed zoo
5Ex-justice minister, daughter blamed for unrepentant attitude over academic fraud Ex-justice minister, daughter blamed for unrepentant attitude over academic fraud
6[INTERVIEW] 'Korea, US can create synergy in space industry': NASA ambassador INTERVIEW'Korea, US can create synergy in space industry': NASA ambassador
7Seoul narrows in on new slogan Seoul narrows in on new slogan
8Korea to allow currency trading by offshore firms, extend market hours Korea to allow currency trading by offshore firms, extend market hours
9Chainsaw Fest set to rip apart Club SHARP Chainsaw Fest set to rip apart Club SHARP
10Korea could resume issuing short-term visas to Chinese visitors soon Korea could resume issuing short-term visas to Chinese visitors soon
Top 5 Entertainment News
1Decoding success factors of NewJeans: How is it different? Decoding success factors of NewJeans: How is it different?
2SM in internal feud over founder's exit from producing SM in internal feud over founder's exit from producing
3The Boyz member Hyunjae apologizes for wearing hat with Rising Sun flag design The Boyz member Hyunjae apologizes for wearing hat with Rising Sun flag design
4Peak Time: Survival show for lesser-known K-pop boy bands to hit air Peak Time: Survival show for lesser-known K-pop boy bands to hit air
5K-pop stars and dating K-pop stars and dating
DARKROOM
  • Turkey-Syria earthquake

    Turkey-Syria earthquake

  • Nepal plane crash

    Nepal plane crash

  • Brazil capital uprising

    Brazil capital uprising

  • Happy New Year 2023

    Happy New Year 2023

  • World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

    World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

CEO & Publisher : Oh Young-jin
Digital News Email : webmaster@koreatimes.co.kr
Tel : 02-724-2114
Online newspaper registration No : 서울,아52844
Date of registration : 2020.02.05
Masthead : The Korea Times
Copyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.
  • About Us
  • Introduction
  • History
  • Contact Us
  • Products & Services
  • Subscribe
  • E-paper
  • RSS Service
  • Content Sales
  • Site Map
  • Policy
  • Code of Ethics
  • Ombudsman
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Service
  • Copyright Policy
  • Family Site
  • Hankook Ilbo
  • Dongwha Group