Proverbs bridge Korean, Arabic cultures

By Chung Ah-young

There seems to be little similarity between Korea and Egypt culturally, geographically and socially. However, Egyptian author Neveen Kedis found common things between the two cultures through proverbs.

She recently published “Humanity Is Similar: Arabic Vision on Korean Proverbs” in three languages — Arabic, Korean and English.

It took around a year for her to release the book, which consists of seven chapters covering proverbs about animals, education, wisdom, relationships, food and the human body, as well as modern Korean expressions in 205 pages and 180,000 words.

Kedis found that Korea and Egypt both have Eastern cultures and are family-oriented societies and thus share many things culturally and socially.

“The message is that all cultures have similar experiences and wisdom collected over the time. The significant similarities in many of the Arabic and Korean proverbs were exciting and led me to believe that the proverbs can be a bridge to reduce the culture gap with the two nations and also the proverbs can minimize the language and the cultural barriers and provide people from both sides with a useful communication tool,” Kedis said in an email interview with The Korea Times.

She worked as a part-time Arabic tutor for the Korean community in Cairo, which was the beginning of her relationship with Korea. While teaching her native language to Koreans, she found an obstacle as both teachers and students used a third language to communicate with each other.

“So I decided to study the Korean language. I succeeded in teaching around 100 Koreans working from all walks of life. The experience of teaching Korean students and dealing with different Korean backgrounds enriched my life and I owe all of them for introducing me to the beauty of the Korean culture through my life,” she said.

She got the idea of the book while talking with her Korean friends about the similarity of the proverbs and their importance in both cultures in daily life.

For example, “A boat with two captains will sink,” “There is no smoke without fire,” “He dug a pit for someone else, and he fell into it,” “A journey of one mile begins with a single step,” and “A drowning man will clutch at straws.”

Kedis tried to translate the Korean proverbs and add explanations of their cultural meaning and usage in daily life in addition to the Arabic and English equivalents.

She noticed the similarities in common customs and traditions. During wedding ceremonies in Egypt, most of the guests give a white money envelope (Nokta) in the same manner as “chukuigeum” in Korea to one of the couple’s parents whom they know.

“The parents make a name list of all the guests who give an envelope. And if the new couple or their parents are invited to the weddings of sons or daughters of the guests, the same amount of money is usually given to them. The concept behind the money envelope is that weddings are big family events so Egyptians used to give this congratulatory money to help the new couple pay for wedding expenses and starting their life,” she said.

In most Western countries, when women get married they take their husband’s family names. But in Egypt women officially never change their names when they get married — just like in Korea.

Also, among close friends, colleagues and neighbors communities in Egypt, there is a financial system called Gama-aya similar to “gye” in Korea. People get together every month and collect a certain amount of money from all members and give it to a different member each month. The group leader manages this job. This customary system still remains among Egyptian middle-aged people to collect money for the weddings expenses, children’s school entrance and other situations which need a large amount of money.

“Today’s rapid changes reflect how the world is coming together as one and the importance of intercommunication is indispensable. The first step for mutual understanding is to understand oneself but this cannot be achieved without interaction with others. As such, the sharing of our proverbs and culture as it represents the wisdom of ages has a cyclical effect,” she said.

“This book is a humble effort to build a cultural bridge between Korean and Arabic nations to introduce the Korean proverbs and culture to the Arabic world in addition to introducing the Arabic and English proverbs to Korean readers interested in learning Arabic through the proverbs.”

She plans to write a book about Korean culture and literature. “My dream is to further study Korean in order to fulfill my dream of playing a role of bridging between Arabic and Korean cultures.”

Those who are interested in the book can contact the author at neveen48@hotmail.com or visit the website of Diwan Bookstore at www.diwanegypt.com.