Happy Chuseok for married immigrants

"Married immigrants from Uzbekistan put the finishing touches on "songpyeon", or half-moon-shaped rice cakes, for Chuseok holiday at the Korea Culinary Vocational School in Singil-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, on Aug. 30. / Korea Times photos by Shim Hyun-chul"

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Married immigrants are learning how to make food for Chuseok, or Korean Thanksgiving, at a cookery school in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul.

They are still relatively new to Korean dishes for the holiday that also varies by family. The Yeongdeungpo District Office invited some 60 multicultural families to the school to explain the origin of holiday dishes such as "songpeyon" (half-moon shaped rice cake).

Eyes concentrated on the hands of the instructor the students busily wrote down ingredients, occasionally looking up words in electronic dictionaries.

Kamaloba Nodira, a married immigrant from Uzbekistan who came to Korea five years ago, said it was the first attempt to make holiday food. "I usually make daily dishes like 'doenjang jjigae' and 'bulgogi', but I am new to such special cookery. I want to make songpyeon for my mother-in-law this Chuseok", Nodira said.

By Shim Hyun-chul