Dog Poop

As I walk in the park, there are two Korean men walking ahead of me speaking in their language. Because I live in Liberdade, in Sao Paulo, also known as Chinatown, I have learned to differentiate the Korean language from the Chinese and the Japanese languages. Of course there are other factors that help me be sure of my assumption like, eye shape and other body features that I am not going to list here.

Anyway, these two men are engaged in a very lively conversation when all of a sudden in the middle of a sentence one of the clearly says “dog poop” in my language: Portuguese. (The reason they said it is that someone forgot to pick up after his or her dog and people had to walk around it although some runners don’t look down when they run.)My eyes widen because I have recognized a word as I eavesdrop. But then again, I quickly start to wonder whether this word does not exist in their own lexicon. I know for a fact that dog meat is sold in North and South Korea and transformed into main courses. Since they consume meat they do not mention the dog poop when speaking, could it be a taboo in their culture? Maybe they only think of a dog as a stew, roasted, boiled or fried and perhaps they have special words to describe the animal. Like us, we never say that we are eating a dead cow; we call it beef.

Between you and me, I was dying to ask them why they had said it, but then again, some things are best unknown.

Written: December 7, 2014 Todos os direitos reservados a Meire Marion.

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