The core.

©️Jason.

The verb “know” looks simple.

It is short, familiar and used in almost every sentence we speak. Yet the more I think about it, the more I realize how layered it is. Working at a tea room in Seoul, I often explain ideas that come from another language and another way of seeing. During those moments, I notice how each language carries its own logic of knowing and how that logic quietly shapes the way we understand culture.

In many languages knowing is divided into two kinds. In German there are “wissen” and “kennen”. One means to know a fact the other to know through experience or familiarity. Spanish has “saber” and “conocer”. Finnish and Chinese also make this separation. But in English all of these meanings fall into a single word “know”.

This is not a weakness or a simplification. It is the result of history. Old English once had two words just like German does now. “Witan” meant to know a fact or truth and cnawan meant to recognize or to be familiar with someone or something. When Norman French came into England in the eleventh century the language began to change.

The two verbs slowly merged into one and French and Latin words such as “understand”, “recognize”, “realize” and “comprehend” took on the more specific meanings that “witan” once covered. What remained was know which became a broad flexible word that could mean both kinds of knowing. English did not lose detail it reorganized it.

That reorganization mirrors how languages and cultures evolve. The same concept can be divided merged or reshaped depending on what a community values. English built one general term that can adapt to context. Korean kept one word that already had depth built into it.

In Korean the word for knowing, “알다” comes from a root that means the inside the core the essence. It once meant to see into “the core” of something. That image describes how understanding works in Korean culture. To know something is not simply to collect data about it but to look into it carefully until you grasp its character.

When guests visit Heesum Tea Room they often ask why each gesture in the tea ceremony exists. Like, why the water is poured twice. I can explain the steps, but the meaning is not in the explanation.

It is in the experience. When someone watches carefully listens to the water and notices how their breathing changes they begin to understand in a way that words cannot teach. That is the kind of knowing that matters to me, the one that grows through attention.

There are two English words that help describe what we aim for “special” and “distinct”. “Special” means something rare or exceptional, something that stands out, as you know. “Distinct” means something defined by its nature, something that remains true to itself.

At Heesum we try to be both. “Special”, because we offer an authentic tea ceremony in Seoul and “distinct”, because our purpose is not to only perform tradition but to preserve its authentic core.

When I translate during a session I think about this every time. My job is not only to find equivalent words but to carry understanding from one side to another.

Sometimes that means pausing before I speak to be sure I have understood what is being said. Knowing in that moment feels less like information and more like connection.

That is how we understand tea culture here at Heesum Tea room in seoul. It is knowledge that settles slowly like warm water soaking into leaves.

It never rushes. It simply teaches quietly from the inside out.

From the core.

Jason.

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Jason manages Heesum Tea Room, a serene space in Seoul dedicated to the art of the Korean tea ceremony. At Heesum, guests can join an immersive Hands-On™ Korean Tea Ceremony, exploring Korea’s tea culture in an intimate and thoughtful way.

With a background in journalism and experience working as a writer for a global Fortune 10 company, Jason brings a storyteller’s eye and a deep sense of hospitality to every session. A lifelong tea enthusiast as well as a painter and photographer, he approaches each ceremony as both art and dialogue.

Together with certified tea master Songna, who studied the Korean Royal Court Tea Ceremony, Jason invites visitors to slow down and rediscover the beauty of attention and stillness. For people seeking an authentic Korean tea ceremony experience in Seoul, Heesum offers a personal encounter with tradition, craftsmanship, and calm.