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A Thai farm in Korea where dreams grow – An Yujeong 

An Yujeong

An Yujeong, who is from Thailand, is better known to her Korean neighbors as a veteran farmer. After arriving in Korea 20 years ago, An began thinking about pursuing a new dream—running a Thai farm—with support from her new family. As in the Korean saying “Crops grow by listening to the farmer’s footsteps,” An devoted herself to farming. After a long trial-and-error process, An’s farm is today full of painstakingly-grown vegetables. For the November issue, the ACH Newsletter team interviewed An Yujeong, who calls herself “a farmer who plants dreams.”

Q. It must not have been easy to decide to operate a Thai vegetable farm in Korea, which has a very different climate and soil composition than Thailand. What made you want to import and grow Thai seedlings here?

I started farming to feed just my own family. Korean supermarkets usually don’t sell Southeast Asian vegetables. I got the chance to obtain some seeds and so tried growing them. But things did not go well at first. There were a lot of problems—the seeds didn’t sprout, leaves withered, etc. I failed several times, but I kept planting anyway. (laughs) I believed that there was a possibility for success, because Thailand’s weather is similar to Korea’s summer. And from a certain point, the vegetables started to grow beautifully. I was so excited that I started to plant more, which produced extra harvest that I decided I could sell through my “Thai farm.”

Q. Who was the first person to support you in this endeavor?

Abeoji (Korean for “father”). Oh! I mean my father-in-law. I call my father-in-law abeoji. He is really good at farming because he started at a young age. I was a novice, never having farmed in Thailand. But my father-in-law nevertheless had faith in me and patiently taught me what he knows. It’s what has made me an experienced farmer who knows exactly what to do.

Q. What vegetables are you growing right now?

What I grow the most is Thai peppers, which are smaller and thinner than Korean peppers. The plant I produce the second-most of is Thai eggplant. I also grow small quantities of lemongrass, morning glory (water spinach), and kailaan (also called Chinese broccoli). I try to only grow as much as can be handled by one person, because I do everything myself. You can’t overplant vegetables because if you don’t harvest them on time, they grow flowers and become unusable.

Q. When you grow Thai vegetables in Korea, do you ever discover similarities between the two countries’ vegetables?

Yes. In fact, there are quite a lot of similar vegetables. Most are similar in taste, with slight differences in shape. For example, Thai peppers are thinner than Korean ones and come up out of the soil while growing. They taste pretty much the same, except for the fact that Thai peppers are a bit spicier. Adding a few thin slices of Thai pepper to doenjang jjigae (bean paste stew) gives it a clean aftertaste. You can now find choy sum, a vegetable grown in many Southeast Asian countries, in Korea. The shape is slightly different, but the taste is much like Korea’s cheonggyeongchae.

< pic 2 >An Yujeong, working at her farm

< pic 3 >Thai peppers

Q. When did you feel the most satisfaction about farming?

When my mom visited Korea a few years ago and saw my farm, the first thing she said was: “You did all of this? How on earth did you manage?” I never farmed in Thailand. I had no idea how the sweet potato I bought at a supermarket grew in the soil or how it emerges from its seed. My mom was completely surprised that I am now an experienced farmer in Korea. The best thing was that, while she was in Korea, I taught my mom how to grow Thai eggplants at my farm. She now grows her own eggplants at home. (laughs) Isn’t it wonderful?

Q. As a veteran farmer with 12 years of experience, do you have any rules or principles that you strictly adhere to?

My general rule is to never use pesticides. We can’t see pesticides when eating, but they are very harmful to the body. This summer, the vinyl greenhouse was flooded because of the heavy rains. The bugs that came in with the water ate up all of the leaves. Because of my philosophy about pesticides, I “fought” three wars with the insects. The first time I found them, I said, “I’m not going to use pesticide. Eat as much as you want” and forgave them. This resulted in the insects laying eggs on the leaves, which grew up into insects that ate the newly-sprouted leaves. I removed the vegetables that were too poor in quality to sell but did not use pesticides. These days, the insects are bigger and eat up almost everything. It’s a bit excessive, don’t you think? (laughs) I yelled at them, saying that I am going to make them regret it if they come back. I don’t know if they heard me. (laughs)

Q. When your now-husband first visited Thailand, before you got married, he was unpleasantly surprised by the spiciness of Thai peppers (which we were told he ate raw). Can you tell us more about that day?

I’m shocked thinking about it right now! My husband took a Thai pepper in one hand and just put it in his mouth. Whole. In Korea, people often eat raw peppers without any seasoning or dipped in soybean paste. In Thailand, peppers are almost never eaten raw. Because they are so hot and spicy, peppers are sliced into thin pieces or ground up to use as seasoning. They are always seasoned or cooked. No one eats peppers raw! To use the Korean expression, I could almost see flames coming out of my husband’s mouth. (laughs) There were tears flowing from his eyes, and he was sweating profusely—all in all, in a lot of physical pain. Today, my husband is even better at eating Thai peppers than me.

Q. You told us you have two dreams. One is to make Thai peppers more widely known in Korea and export your crops, the other is to operate a farming experience center for children. Please tell us more about both of these dreams.

The first does not have a high possibility of success, but I’m going to keep working to achieve it. It’s going to take some time because you first have to be certified as an organic farm. An institution that is in charge of certifying organic crops carries out multiple inspections of your soil to ensure that you are really not using any pesticides. After the inspection, you need to be trained and pass an exam. I have failed this exam several times already because my Korean isn’t so good. (laughs) Once I get the organic certification, I am going to promote Thai peppers to Koreans and hopefully export my crops to Korea’s neighboring countries.
   This year, I finished everything I had to do for the farming experience center, including getting a permit from South Chungcheong Province’s Office of Education. In spring, I prepared pepper seedlings and a facility for children to have a hands-on experience of planting vegetables, but we didn’t open this year because of COVID-19. After the COVID-19 situation improves, I will be opening the experience center to allow kids to learn how to grow Thai peppers and plant their own at my farm. When the seedlings bear ripe peppers, I want to have the kids taste them and talk with them about the peppers’ shape and how they taste. I really hope to open this facility to the public in 2021 to make up for this year.

Q. We heard that your son has decided to major in the Thai language. Was there a particular reason for this decision? Which, do you think, is better: your Korean or your son’s Thai?

Cheonsang’s goal is to study Thai as hard as he can and enter the Department of Southeast Asian Studies at BUFS (Busan University of Foreign Studies). Each year, BUFS operates an exchange program with universities in Thailand. I recently learned that one of them is my alma mater, Srinakharinwirot University. Korean and Thai students can earn regular credits from each other’s universities. I think it’s the partnered classes that got Cheonsang interested in BUFS.
    My son speaks Thai better than I speak Korean. I’ve lived here for 20 years, but I am still not that fluent. People who have just come from Thailand are actually better than me in terms of language because they study Korean-very diligently!-at multicultural family support centers. I don’t go to the multicultural support center much these days because I am a seonbae who has been in Korea for much longer than my hubae but don’t speak Korean very well. (laughs) When they ask how long I’ve lived here, I’m too embarrassed to say “20 years!” I guess this shows that multicultural support centers and other facilities for marriage immigrants have improved a great deal.

Q. We heard that your father-in-law was moved by your diligence and ended up teaching you all of the farming skills that he gained over a lifetime of farming. We also were told that he still changes parts on your farming equipment himself. What is your secret to maintaining a close relationship with your father-in-law?

When I first arrived in Korea, he took care of me and helped me with a lot of things. What he taught me about farming is now my life’s foundation: it is not only how I make a living but also my dream for the future. Whenever I made a mistake, my abeoji pretended not to have seen it. Whenever I did something well, he complimented me generously. I have many shortcomings, but my abeoji made up his mind to only see my strengths. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my abeoji for everything he’s done for me. Without him, I would have had a much harder time adjusting to life in Korea. It is because of him that I have a good life in Korea today.

Q. You said in another interview that becoming part of the same family as your parents-in-law is one of your greatest fortunes. What was your late mother-in-law like?

My mother-in-law was a really sweet person. She loved my abeoji and did as he said. If he said, “go left,” she went to the left. I, unlike her, make sure to go to the right if my husband says to go left! (laughs) After seeing my abeoji treating me well, she followed his example and was really good to me. Korean TV series about mothers-in-law are scary, but my mother-in-law never nagged me. She was a beautiful person—the kind that is very rare in this world.

Q. Is there an aspect of Thai culture that you would like to introduce to our Korean readers?

Thailand is well-known as “the land of smiles.” It’s true: Thai people laugh easily and make jokes no matter what the situation. In Thailand, we say that if both the hands and mouth are working, it’s too taxing. But if your hands are working while your mouth is smiling, it makes things a lot more bearable. To Koreans, we may look like we’re working too slowly, but I think it is due to a difference in cultural perspective. To me, Koreans finish things very quickly but do not enjoy their work. Thai people work a bit slower, but they tend to enjoy themselves. How about mixing Korean and Thai culture for the perfect balance?

Q. In addition to you, there are many people from Thailand and other ASEAN countries who are living in Korea. As our last question, do you have any advice for them?

As they say in Korea, “fighting!” That’s the only (and best) advice I have, to be honest. Living in a country far from home is never easy, especially at first. Whatever happens, have patience and never be afraid to take on a challenge. As long as you don’t give up, you will one day be rewarded for your hard work.