In Korea the family exists, but not the circle. There is no
table around which they gather for meals, no reading nor music,
no evening parties which draw them together, no “At Homes,” no
family pew in which to sit on Sunday, no picnic excursions in
which all members join. The master eats by himself, the wife
by herself, the sons and daughters each separately and alone.
Because of this, our custom of conversing at table, and allowing
the talk and attention to wander all over the universe, while
semiconsciously engaged in the serious act of “eating rice,”
seems very absurd. “When you eat, eat, and when you talk, talk,
but why try both at one and the same time?”--JAMES S.
GALE, “Korea in Transition.”
(1062)