Tag Archives: ajumma

Ajummas are cheering for the Garlic Girls! (Korea’s women’s curling team)

Uiseong county is very famous for garlic in South Korea. So our women’s curling team is called as garlic girls because four of them (the team) are from Uiseong. They’re friends and sisters each other whom were born and grew up in the same town, Uiseong.

This is our first time that our curling team went to the final (and even semi-final) so our nation is very exciting to watch their match and especially their hometown is now enjoying this winter olympic because of those amazing Garlic Girls. Many of international reporters reported about them (e.g. NYT) and their hometown through different types of media during last few days. And they were very interested in the people of Uiseong and how they’re cheering for their hometown girls. Most of them are ajummas and they brought their homemade signs, screamed and even danced together! This is amazing!!! When I read their articles and watched videos on YouTube, I was so glad to know that those international reporters filmed about our energetic and sweet ajummas. They are not mothers of garlic girls but they are those girls’ neighbours so they prepared homemade signs and danced together to cheer for their ‘hometown daughters’. Because they feel like those garlic girls are their daughter (even though they’re not their biological mother but they’re mother!).

These ajummas are cheering for their daughters because they want to share their ‘Jeong’ with those girls, I think. This video of people in Uiseong makes me laugh and cry. Beautiful ajummas with warmheartedness.

Ajumma EXP!

This is amazing! I found ‘Ajumma EXP’ and they’re lovely ajummas doing flash mobs and various performances. The most important thing is that this lovely community has the exact thought about our ‘ajummas’ –middle aged women. I’m still reading their blog and other social media sites so I will upload more about them asap. I’m so happy to know them and I feel like I can do something more exciting thing for our ajummas. (Even though I got rejected email from one of journals this morning but I’m still happy because of this community. ^_^ Go AJUMMAS!!!!

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Click the image above to visit Ajumma EXP website

indie-visual Ajummas

 

An ajumma is the unique word and, at the same time, it represents the group of middle-aged women and their culture. As Beauvoir, Butler, and Haraway note (1989:12, 1999 and 1991) gender is constructed culturally, ajumma should be understood and discussed within Korean culture that this ‘ajumma’ group was involved and created in.

“One is not born, but rather becomes a woman”

With this idea, I would like to say that, “an ajumma is not born, but rather women in Korea becomes an ajumma”. Thus, knowing who an ajumma is, what an ajumma do and how an ajumma is represented in Korea will be triggered to understand women in Korea and more than that. They are represented in Korea with various a biased point of view, however they’re now representing themselves with the usage of social media and creating their own way of  social media culture.

People regarded ajummas as just an ajumma without knowing well about them. When we look at them carefully and know more about them, we can find how each ajumma is a person of distinct individuality.

12/04/2017, An Ajumma in the bus

This folder is for ‘An illustrated of Korean Smart Ajumma’.

이 폴더는 앞으로 ‘스마트아줌마 도감’이 업로드될 예정입니다.

Enjoy! 감사합니다!

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Digital Ppal-let-ter [again]

It’s been almost 1 year since I’ve submitted my PhD project. Now I’m waiting for the graduation ceremony in this Dec. YAY!!!

I planned to start doing a new project from this year but I haven’t started it yet because there’re so many things to be done by end of May. But I will try to start doing a new project asap. Also I should keep writing blog entries as well. FOR SURE!!

About this project: https://smart-ajumma.com/2016/03/03/digital-ppal-let-ter-project/

In my case…

 

I went to Hongdae (Hongik University district in Seoul) and everyplace swarmed with people. There are a variety of shops, cafes, restaurants and small galleries in Hongdae area so I sometimes visit there to see what’s going on. (because cafes and shops are changing frequently) And on the street, I found so many street stalls are selling ‘mobile phone cases’ with various designs and characters. People in Korea keep changing their mobile phones cases because they think the cases are one of fashion accessories. So if you’re in Korea, especially in Seoul you can see many street stalls that sell mobile phone cases.

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I read several journal articles before that are about the relationship between mobile phone accessories and personality. And I also agree that those mobile phone accessories are certainly showing every personality. So it might be interesting to investigate how  different mobile phone cases characterise each person. (and what differences between different countries, culture, gender and etc.) And there will be ‘Ajummas’ favourite mobile phone cases, too!!!

5-day market and our ajummas

I and my parents love going to 5-day market. 5-day markets (Oiljang Markets) are held every 5 days usually in the countryside of South Korea. In 5-day market, we can buy regional specialities that hardly found in a supermarket in my town. Especially, I love having local foods that local ajumma sellers cook with ingredients from their own farms.They look plain but the flavours of them are too beautiful for words.

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Dotorimuk (Homemade Achorn Jelly) Ajumma

I can meet so many ajummas in 5-day markets as well. Ajumma sellers bring and sell their harvests in this market to support their children’s education. And ajummas also purchase things they need in this market, too. These 5-day market is similar to the wash place in my PhD research, it is a kind of places where ajummas do social economy activities. Maybe I need to think more about the relationship between a 5-day market and our ajummas. But one thing that I can say is that 5-day market is another women’s place, especially place for ajummas.

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Ajummas are waiting for their turn to extract the sesame oil in the mill

Mum’s style?

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Mum’s style tote bags on 50% sale!!

Then, what is mum’s style?

엄마스타일 가방 세일문구. 그나저나 엄마 스타일은 과연 뭔가? 물론 엄마스타일 청바지 이런것도 있긴 하지만 저런 표현을 볼때마다 좀 그렇다. 그리고 너무 촌스럽다. 왜 항상 엄마 스타일은 촌스러운게 대부분인가? 엄마들도 최신유행 좋아한다.

엄마스타일…? 이런 표현은 뭔가 좀 그렇다.

 

 

MINA2016 and smart ajumma

I just came back home. MINA (Mobile Innovation Network Australasia) 2016  was an amazing experience to meet other researchers and their fabulous works. I also presented my PhD project in MINA 2016 and I feel glad people who were there know who ajummas are and why ajummas need to be considered as smart ajummas today. 15 mins weren’t enough to talk everythinf about my project in detail, but thank  MINA, I could’ve shared my beloved research project with other researchers.

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New blog entries about ajummas will be coming soon.