HB Ep. 86: 잘난척하지마! Don’t be a show-off!

This week, Youngmi speaks with Jon Kung (content creator, cookbook author) about his practice of hiding his career accomplishments from his parents. Jon traces his aversion to boasting about his success to his childhood, where he felt pitted against his peers in a competition against his will. Jon and Youngmi discuss the confusing rules surrounding boasting in Asian cultures, where one is never allowed to be proud of their own accomplishments, which unfortunately seems to create a lot of passive aggressive “fake humble” behavior. Youngmi explains how the phrase “잘난척하지마!” or “Don’t be a show-off!” (direct translation: Don’t pretend you’re a high born!) is one of the most common insults in Korea whenever anyone is seen doing anything even minimally boastful, due to cultural disdain of show-offs.