KoreanClass101.com Blog

Our exchange student, Michael, goes home this week. We spent this weekend in Yosemite. For an 11 year-old I was surprised at how impressed he was with the sights. The typical response we have gotten from children and adults alike has been something along the lines of, “that is nice and all but we have rocks and trees in Korea too…”

We asked him what he enjoyed or found different about his time in the United States and here are some of his thoughts:

He was surprised that younger children needed a babysitter, that they couldn’t stay at home alone for extended amounts of time. In Korea this is no big deal.

He was also surprised that we don’t have any 학원 here to speak of whereas in Korea everyone takes some kind of after school class. The schools here are broken up into separate, single story buildings, whereas in Korea, his school is one multi-story building. He liked his teacher here and made some good friends.

While he was here he enjoyed several holidays: President’s day, Valentine’s day, St. Patrick’s day, Mother’s day, Easter. Easter was his favorite. He also liked “pajama day” at school (but I don’t think he wore his pajamas to school).

Generally, he liked American food but there were some things that he didn’t like. He didn’t like artichokes or pears. He said that we (as a society) eat too much meat. He doesn’t like tri-tip; it’s too rich. He really liked clam chowder and stew.

My daughter got a guinea pig for Christmas. At first Michael was scared of it but now he really likes it. He says that he wants one when he goes home. We have noticed, especially with the Korean orchestra last summer, that Korean children are very apprehensive around pets. Most of them warmed up to them though. Michael was no different in that regard.

On Friday there was a rattle snake (방울뱀) sitting next to my back door when I got home from work. I readily dispatched it with a shovel. Michael thought that was really cool. I just reinforced the spring-time rule of not going outside without shoes on…

Unfortunately, you can’t see the tail. It had two ‘buttons’.

So, that is Michael’s impression of his time in the United States. I think he had a fairly well rounded experience. For only being here for four months his English speaking ability has improved a lot, mostly because he was forced to interact in English. Now let’s interact in Korean!

I had a really long weekend recently and decided to take a short personal vacation. I headed off to 강원도 a province on the north-eastern edge of Korea. It is famous for the mountains and beaches, but I was just looking to get out of 서울. All of my long-distance travel within Korea has been by train or car, so I decided to take busses this time around. I boght a ticket for 강릉 and settled in what turned out to be a 4hr drive. It should have taken around 2~3 hours, but I guess everyone else had the same idea! I was hoping to speak as little English as possible on this trip, and since I was travelling alone, I stood a pretty good chance to getting to do just that. When I got to 강릉 the first thing I did was find a PC방. When travelling in Korea, it’s always a good idea to go there first. I used it to get my bearings in the city using Naver maps, and try to locate a good 찜질방 to spend the night in. With all my information, I sat out to get a taxi. I wanted to practice a particular pattern in the real world, something new from my class: It works out to “what’s a good thing to…….?” or “what’s the best way to…….?”

So, I started my conversation with the taxi driver:
저는 강릉에 처음이라서 뭐 하는게 좋을까요?
This is my first time in 강릉, what should I do?

He responded by listing all the things that were on my tourist map, so I guess I had sucessfully asked the question. He recommended going to the beach, seeing some old traditional houses and temples, etc. And of course eating 회 fresh, raw seafood. So he dropped me off at the 찌질방 and I went off to find dinner. I stumbled across a 왕갈비집 a few blocks away. They were advertising one serving for 8,000 원. However, I haven’t had much success at these places ordering by myself. They aren’t so into that, and usually require that you order two servings. But since I was eating alone, I had to ask the 아줌마 about that:

안녕하새요? 혹시 혼자서 주문하면도 돼요?
Hello, excuse me, but is it alright if I order by myself?

She turned around and looked at me and imediately responded with:
돌어오세요! Come on in!

I ordered a mamoth sized portion of marinated pork with all of the fixings. It was delicous and I had a really pleasant conversation with the 아저씨 who was cooking my meal for me.

In the morning, the weather was looking pretty awful. I went to a convienience store to have some yogurt and juice and get a recommendation about what to do.

ME: 오늘 날씨가 안좋아서 뭐하는게 좋을까요?
Today’s weather isn’t so good, so what is there that’s good to do?
CLERK: 어린이날이라니까 어린이랑 놀았으면 좋겠죠?
Today is children’s day, so wouldn’t it be good to play with your kids?
ME: 사실은 어린이 없으면…
Actually, I dont have any kids…
CLERK: 없으면은 그녕 여자친구랑 지내 보새요
If you don’t have kids, then just spend time with your girlfriend.
ME: 근데 혼자서 왔어요.
I came here alone!
CLERK: 혼자서 왔군요. 그런데 바다에 가보고 경포대에서 구경해 보세요.
Oh you came alone. In that case, go to the beach and also do some sightseeing at 경포대.

I didn’t really leave that conversation with anymore information than before, but I headed to the beach. (The weather cleared up just a short while later) That’s where the picture came from! There isn’t much more to say about the trip. I also went to the nearby town of 속초. But I really enjoy travelling around Korea outside of Seoul. It is where I can really see the benefits of my Korean study.

Here’s another very interesting 간판(store signboard) I found in Seoul, Korea. If you have any interest at all about Japan, you’ve probably heard of Shinjuku, a major commercial center of Tokyo, Japan. And since Japan and Korea are physically so close, you can say that EVERYBODY in Korea has heard of the name “Shinjuku” or 신주쿠, as it’s written in 한글(hangul).

But this store cleverly used that fact in making a not-easy-to-forget store name.

Before you look at the store name, please look at the pictures below.

This is 쭈꾸미(jjukkumi), a kind of octopus, but a smaller kind. 쭈꾸미 is cooked many ways, but mostly with host pepper sauce (고추장) and it’s made to be really spicy hot and chewy at the same time. Great taste, and allegedly very good for health.

And on a different note, “spicy hotness” (매운맛) is often expressed in this Chinese character.

辛

And in Korean, this Chinese character is read “신”, thus the name of the most famous Korean ramyeon, “신(辛)라면“.

Now look at this store name And guess what it sounds like.

Yes, it’s 신(辛) + 쭈꾸, and it reads very similar to 신주쿠(shinjuku).

And if you look at the meaning behind this name, it means “spicy hot 쭈꾸미”.

So you can guess that this place serves spicy hot 쭈구미 but probably doesn’t have anything to do with Shinjuku in Japan. But while I was standing there thinking about the meaning and smiling, I realized that I had already memorized the name. That’s half the success for them in attracting customers, I guess.