중학교 영어 3 (미래엔 최연희) 연계 글

Last November, my family drove to my grandmother's house for kimjang. I had never joined in before, so I did not know what to expect. When we arrived on Saturday, Grandma had already salted sixty heads of cabbage. They lay in rows across the yard.

I asked Grandma where all that cabbage would go. She laughed and said that the kimchi was not just for her. My aunt's family and Mr. Seok from next door were coming to help. Then Grandma told me how she had gotten ready. She had bought salted shrimp in the spring and salt in the summer. In late summer, she had dried red peppers and ground them into powder. Kimjang, I realized, had begun months before that day.

My aunt and Mr. Seok rinsed the salted cabbage, while my cousin Bitna and I cut radishes into thin strips. Grandma mixed the pepper powder with garlic, the shrimp, and our radish strips. Then we spread the red mixture between the leaves, one leaf at a time. By late afternoon, my arms ached, and I wondered how many people would eat all this kimchi. Grandma counted on her fingers: five families, including her own. "Every family gets the same share," she said.

That night, I read about kimjang. In late autumn, many Korean families gather to make kimchi for the winter. They also share it with relatives and neighbors. In 2013, UNESCO added kimjang to its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The name on the list includes the words "making and sharing kimchi." Many families also pass down their own recipes from one generation to the next.

Before we drove home, I asked Grandma how she knew when the cabbage was salty enough. She tore a small piece from a leaf and handed it to me. "Taste it," she said, "and next year, your tongue will remember."