The Real Measure...

Koreans are very hardworking people who strive for excellence but there's also a lot of pressure in their society to look beautiful and to be perfect in school. This is why there's a high rate of suicide among students and a high rate of plastic surgeries done even amongst the youth. Let's pray for them and I think this is why Koreans need to hear the Word of God. Isn't it written "Charm is fleeting and beauty is deceptive but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised"?

The Pressures and Measures of Korean Youth

korean-vs-north-american-beauty-standards 

Running Man (런닝맨) and Family Outing (패밀리가 떴다)

Okay so as part of my efforts to learn the Korean language and culture, I began watching Korean variety shows. I've watched several titles already but I have to say, Running Man (런닝맨) and Family Outing (패밀리가 떴다)are my favorites. MC Yoo Jae Suk and Kim Joong Kook both happen to be cast in the two shows. I really really like the cast of Running Man because they have different personalities that often either clash or compliment each other, depending on the mission. 

In Running Man, the cast face several challenges to complete missions and gain Running Balls so as to avoid punishment. The format of Family Outing is pretty much the same, minus the Running Balls. What helps me learn Korean by watching these shows are the Korean texts and subtitles displayed on the show. So I can constantly hit the pause button, try to read the Korean text/words being used on the show and try to translate and understand it better. Lastly, watching and hearing how Koreans actually converse in all its speedy glory helps me get a good idea of the context these words are used.  

And did I mention that these two shows are soooo darn entertaining? I've had many dull weekends turned brighter and happier because of these shows. I can't say that I have only one favorite in the cast because there's always something to love and hate in each cast member. I like Ha Ha's comic timing but he's too careless on missions. I like Spartakook's genius but he can be very irritating at times. He tends to bully other members. I like MC Yoo Jae Suk's gift of gab but he seems very weak when it comes to missions. So on and so forth. But anyway, 감사합니다 Korea!!!

Korean Food in Banchetto

Banchetto used to be a weekly food trip for me. Originally, Banchetto (which means Feast) was located within a stone's throw away from where my office is. But due to some unexplainable event, the local government decided to move the Banchetto site to a more inconvenient one. So from then on, our weekly Friday feast ceased. Until...Ate Charrie happened. She was missing the food from Banchetto so she decided to reminisce out loud within my earshot. The deciding factor was when the guy next to me mentioned that there was a new Korean food stall right smack in the middle of the new Banchetto with authentic JapChaeng and Korean BBQ. Who can pass off a Korean food trip like that, right?

So me and two other friends decided to check out the Korean food stall in Banchetto. The stall is operated by two Korean girls. They offered JapChae(잡채) which is like Pancit, DokBokKi (떡볶이), lots of Korean ice cream popsicles (메로나), spicy chicken BBQ, Beef BBQ (kalbi?), Kimari, Kimchi and many more. Most notable for me was the Korean bread that had bean paste filling..I think it's called Soboro or maybe HoDuk, I am not sure. I researched for pictures online to match what I saw and this was the closest ones I could find:

Korean Street Food 

Korean Bread by Misty Yoon 

Let's Learn Korean with Professor OH

When I first started learning Korean, of course I chose to start with the basics: the ABCs.

I looked through a lot of resources online and found a lot of helpful sites and videos. The one YT channel that's really helped me learn to read Hangul letters  (consonants, vowels, double consonants and dipthongs) was sweetandtasty's channel on YT. In fact, I learned it all in a weekend. I also like the worksheets she provides in AnyongKorea.com. You can print them out and practice writing Hangul while watching the video. 

Let's Learn Korean with Professor OH

Jumpstarting My Korean Project

안녕하세요! 

I haven't made it clear in my previous posts but I'm actually doing a self-study when trying to learn the Korean language. I'm a young working professional and work schedules take up most of my day so I don't really have the time to enroll and attend formal language classes. I think that if you really want to achieve something, you will try your best and seek out alternative resources in order to achieve that goal. So what I did over the past few weeks is to really maximize whatever time and resources available to me and research about the Korean language. Let me share to you some of the steps/tips I took in my studies. I made sure to seek out fun learning materials over the internet. 

1. Google and Youtube it, Baby!

You will find sooooo many websites and videos on the internet with tutorials about the Korean language. If you were to see my browser's Bookmarks or Favorites folder, you wouldn't believe all the sites I regularly visit for my language lessons. Unlike studying a book, the good thing about these sites is that you get to ask the "teachers" questions by leaving comments or sending email to them on their respective sites. Thankfully, these good-hearted online teachers respond to their subscribers so the learning is still interactive even though you're not in a formal classroom. Here are some that I found very helpful:

Learn Korean 1: Pronounce the Alphabet

KWOW (Korean Word of the Week)

Hyun Woo's Talk to Me In Korean

KBS World Radio

Hangul a Day

2. Fangirl/Fanboy Benefits

Immersing oneself in anything and everything Korean seems a little taxing or maybe boring but anyone who has ever seen Korean movies or dramas will know that flower boys and k-pop stars can be an obsession. Listen to as much K-pop songs and watch Korean dramas as you can. This can help familiarize you to the language as well as the culture (not to mention it's so entertaining too!)

3. Language Exchange Partners and Facebook Groups

You might be surprised as to how many of your friends actually want to learn Korean. Try to create a Facebook Group dedicated to practicing or learning Korean or you can also go on the web to find Language exchange sites where you can converse or write to Korean native language speakers. 

So anyway, I hope you found my methods very useful and please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions. 

힘내세요!

김현중

One of my motivations in studying the Korean language...

죽을래???

"죽을래??"

It's odd that this is the first thing added to my Korean vocabulary. Before I even learned 안녕하세요 or anything from the Korean alphabet, I already knew 죽을래.

"jug-eullae" (romanized) means "You want to die?" This is repeatedly asked in the Korean movie My Sassy Girl and it's pretty much the only thing you will hear people mimic from the movie even many years after. Okay, I'm exaggerating. Unfortunately, no one can survive conversing in Korean with just 죽을래. Ironic much? (^___^)\\//

안녕하세요 !

안녕하세요!  

환영합니다! 

Welcome to my new blog. For years and years now I've started and stopped blogging many times. I've done food reviews, movie reviews, book reviews, travel blogs, etc. Hopefully this time I will have more focus and patience in documenting a particular field of interest. On this one I'm gonna start blogging about My Korean Project. It's been about a month now since I started studying the Korean language and I hope to be a fluent speaker and writer soon. 

So join me on this journey and hopefully we can learn together!

안녕!