In U.S. grocery stores, the “Asian Cuisine” aisle is typically dominated by one item: ramen. With its bright packaging, cheap prices, easy preparation, and salty taste, it is an immensely popular item that has grown to become an over $50 billion industry worldwide. While the global instant ramen boom started in Japan with the creation of Nissin’s famous Cup Noodles, Korean ramen has become more and more widespread in recent years. South Korean company Nongshim with its Shin Ramyun constitutes over a quarter of U.S. instant ramen sales, and products like Buldak and Jin Ramen are also on the rise. However, as cravings for Korean ramen and its bold flavors grow, ramen manufacturers in South Korea have returned to a longtime question about how to market their products: should they advertise their instant noodles as “ramen” or “ramyeon”? This is not a simple marketing question; it is a linguistic debate over the use of the Japanese language in Korean contexts, and is representative of a larger cultural conflict spanning decades.
Korean culture fundamentally changed during the 35 years it was under Japanese rule. Japan limited the expression of Korean culture through a number of harsh laws. It opted for the “Japanization” of Korea, imposing Japanese cultural elements, including language, onto Korean society. During the first years of Japanese occupation, the use of the Korean language was permitted, but over time it was banned in schools and was ultimately replaced by Japanese as the official language. Therefore, by the time Korea was liberated in 1945, the Korean language had grown to include a number of words derived from Japanese. For example, the word for “part time job” in Japanese is アルバイ ト(pronounced “arubaito”), while in Korean it is 아르바이트 (pronounced “areubaiteu”). Liberation prompted Koreans to experience a surge of pride in their own language. Despite fears of its extinction, the Korean language’s persistence in the face of Japanese regulations was viewed as symbolic of the strength of the Korean people. “Hangul” (the Korean alphabet) continues to be a huge part of Korean nationalism, with “Hangul Day” celebrated on October 9th as a public holiday.
This strong nationalism associated with Hangul combined with the profound anti-Japanese sentiment in Korea have led to efforts by many Koreans to distance themselves from Japanese loan words by replacing them with uniquely Korean terms. For example, Korea adopted 요지 (pronounced “yoji”) to say “toothpick” as a shortened version of the Japanese word 爪楊枝 (pronounced “tsumayoji”) during Japanese colonial rule, but later replaced the term with 이쑤시개 (pronounced “issushigae”), which sounds nothing like the original Japanese word. The Korean government itself has played an active role in these efforts, suggesting Japanese loan words to replace with Korean words. Although its stance on linguistic purism (the idea that natively Korean terms should be used over foreign loan words) has shifted over time, the Korean government, with linguistic organizations and the mass media at its side, has been highly effective in changing Korean speakers’ vocabularies when deemed necessary.
When it comes to noodles, however, the farthest the Korean language has gotten from the original Japanese word “ramen” is “ramyeon” (sometimes romanized as “ramyun”). The word “ramyeon” is commonly used within South Korea itself, but because other countries are more likely to recognize and use the word “ramen,” many Korean instant noodle manufacturers choose to use the Japanese term to refer to their products. Many, however, advocate against this. Not only is using the word “ramen” to describe Korean instant noodles culinarily inaccurate (Korean ramyeon is viewed as fundamentally different from Japanese ramen due to its characteristic emphasis on spiciness and the fact that it is only in the form of instant noodles), many Koreans also want to more consistently refer to their instant noodles as “ramyeon” in order to distance themselves from the Japanese language that so often dominates branding. Even though “ramyeon” is a loan word, it is at least one step removed from the original Japanese terminology.
Many other Korean products, however, use English loan words without nearly as much pushback, suggesting that this effort to eliminate loan words is specific to Japanese. 90% of Korean loan words are borrowed from English, but the majority of the efforts of linguistic purists are focused on Japan. Although Koreans don’t necessarily look at English loan words favorably, Korea’s history with Japan makes the elimination of Japanese words a much bigger priority. Furthermore, while English loan words tend to relate to modern technologies and developments that Korean doesn’t already have the vocabulary for, many Japanese loan words are ones that could be easily replaced by preexisting (but less common) Korean words.
While there has been a back-and-forth among Korean companies and citizens alike regarding the use of the words “ramen” and “ramyeon” in instant noodle packaging for decades, now, more than ever, is the best time to make the permanent shift. With the so-called “Korean wave” becoming more of a Korean tsunami, having uniquely Korean branding could be an advantage rather than a deficit. People all over the world watch K-dramas, listen to K-pop, or otherwise take an interest in South Korea, and want to experience the culture in any way possible. For lots of people, that looks like taking a trip to the grocery store and selecting the spiciest (and cheapest) Korean dish. This is a golden opportunity for Korean instant noodle companies to take advantage of to protect Korea’s linguistic heritage and stay true to its culture, all in the form of a simple package of ramyeon.
Featured/Headline Image Caption and Citation: Maruchan Ramen Cup, taken on Jan. 30, 2020, Photo by Mike Mozart | Image sourced from Flickr | CC License, no changes made