KoreanClass101.com Blog

Stephanie will be back home in two weeks.  This coming week will be her last week to volunteer in the school, so she got many gifts from the children she’s been around. Her favorite foods in Korea are 삼겹살, and 장어 샤브샤브 so far (I’m not really sure what that is but I guess it is popular among the people she is hanging out with).

Last week she went to the market place and saw a 아줌마 killing (filleting) a big live fish on the cutting board. That was really was an interesting sight for Stephanie. She said that the fish didn’t die until the 아줌마 cut the other parts too.  She sent a video but it was broken so I can only tease you with her description. Sorry.

She wanted to buy 상 (table) and 가스레인지 for 삼겹살 요리. She thought it would be cool to sit on the 방석 on the floor and cook 삼겹살 on the 가스레인지. We have one of those 가스레인지 and a 돌반 but we haven’t used it in quite some time. We had some friends over and used it for dinner a while back, thinking it would be cool; they thought it was very 촌스럽다.

Stephanie has been very busy so I really don’t get too much news from her. This coming week after she finishes up her lessons at school she will be headed for 부산 to visit some family. She will probably be doing some other touring as well before heading up to 서울. I will keep you posted.

Stephanie says it is raining every day and she feels like she is in a 찜질방 all of the time. I am not sure if she likes the weather in Korea or not but she is not complaining about it. Sometimes she mentions that she would prefer to live in Korea. She is getting better at teaching English and the children like her a lot. They like her so much that someone made off with her shoes the other day. I understand that this is a common problem at this particular school because everyone wears expensive shoes. Hers were Converse. She was happy to get the opportunity to go shopping. She picked up some Adidas shoes to replace her Converse.

She admits to having caught 공주병. She says we won’t like her when she comes home because she is so spoiled… She has three more weeks to go… She has settled into a routine that includes some late-night studying of her own. She has been studying Korean quite a bit (I sent her with a mp3 player full of KClass lessons). When she IMs with her mother her Korean typing is pretty good. It makes me wonder how much texting she is doing in Korean…

She had the opportunity to go yachting last week. I don’t think that is helping her with her condition (공주병) but it sure sounds fun. I wonder if she got seasick. She didn’t say. It was probably a nice break from the rainy season weather though. The humidity is the worst part of rainy season. I recall times when it was sunny one minute and before you could get your umbrella up you were wet from the rain. But then the sun would come out again and heat up all that moisture on the ground and create a sauna. Yes, that is Korea in the summer time. Life sounds interesting for 우리 공주님.

Last week Stephanie experienced some interesting cultural differences.

She has been staying at a house with twin girls about her same age. One day, after breakfast, she was helping to clear and wipe the table and the twins stared at her like she was doing something wrong. It turns out that the twins don’t do any sort of housework or chores. They were amazed that she would help (like it wasn’t her place).  She has noticed that the school children don’t get home until late and then stay up even longer doing homework. But they don’t do housework.

We have noticed with the children that have stayed in our house too, especially boys, that they don’t do chores. Now it may be that chores have disappeared from American society too and I am just a relic but we have had homestay children do chores here. In fact, the boy who just went home said that he was helping his mother dry dishes (but I think he may have been joking).  The “gentlemen first” attitude seems to be fairly normal in Korea, as opposed to “ladies first” here in the states. But Stephanie was somewhat surprised to find that children are not expected to do chores at all.

Another thing Stephanie was impressed about was that Korean children’s study habit.  She amazed that even seven to ten year olds would study until 10 o’ clock at night without much parent superivsion, and that middle school students (중3) wouldn’t get home from 학원 until after 11:00pm. She really has a hard time understanding how they do it every day.

One parent wanted Stephanie and her son to go out to the movies together; he is one year younger than her. Stephanie thought that is felt like a “date” and it worried her a little. We had to explain that it wasn’t a date, just that his mother wanted him to get some more opportunities to practic his English.

Despite all that she really enjoys life in Korea. This past week she has gone to 노래방, made 김밥, had 산낙지 and 개불, and taken a tour on a sailboat. I think she is doing so many things that she doesn’t have much time to fill us in on everything.

I am going to try to get Stephanie to post about her trip experiences. Here are some of her thoughts about teaching English in Korea: 

So, after I got out of the hospital (the surgery went great, actually, the IV hurt more than the surgery itself) I went back to teaching little kids at the elementary school. They all stared at me like I belonged in a zoo and when I spoke korean they looked at me as if I was like a talking zoo exhibit. They all find it rather amazing that I understand anything at all. It’s really different how they all go “우와” when i say something in Korean. When our exchange students speak English, no one here (in America) is really that amazed at their “wonderous ability” to say hi and where’s the bathroom and I’m hungry.
 
So I had my first “class” with “John” who is 10, I think, and “Shell”, two students that I tutor. I had Shell, who is 8, change her name to Shelby because I explained to her that Shell might be a little weird. I could see how a name like Shell would be pretty in Korean, like 나비 or something but I have a Hmung friend whose name is Honey and her sister’s name is Butterfly and her other sister’s name is Angel (which is a normal name, but next to her sibling’s it’s kinda weird), and when you hear your teacher call someone ‘Honey’ it’s a lttle weird. So there was my American culture lesson. I also gave them some vocab words including ‘weird’ and ‘cool’ and ‘kind of’, because since those are the words I pretty much say the most, I thought it would be important for them to know.
 
Halfway through the lesson, this moped man came in (helmet and all) and delivered 김밥 and ramen. It was like exactly how the delivery guys in 궁  looked like!! I thought it was just some random thing incorporated into the drama… “Anywho” that’s pretty much the only cool thing that happened during my lesson. I also taught a few other people and sat in with some lessons that my aunt taught. What I noticed most among the kids was that they were all super shy. Like, they would say stuff but they would either whisper it loudly or whisper it in my aunt’s ear. What one of my students did was stare at the table while he was talking to me, and I thought that was weird too. I noticed that the kids who are not shy usually learn the best, or are better at English, maybe because they get more practice, or I never hear the full capabilities of the shy ones. My first lesson with the kids is usally just a “don’t be shy, lets just chat” lesson.

So, that is all for now!

Stephanie has been in Korea about a week and a half now. Before she left she dislocated her knee. It popped back in but left behind a lot of swelling and a loss of function. She didn’t appear to have torn any ligaments and x-rays didn’t show anything other than the obvious soft tissue swelling. Her pain was decreasing as her range of motion was increasing up until she left and we all felt comfortable sending her.

One of the sponsors for the school where she is teaching is a medical doctor who is the owner of a local private hospital/clinic. We sent her to the clinic for an MRI to rule out any significant internal derangement of her knee. Stephanie called us and asked why they were doing blood work and more x-rays at the same time. We just reassured her and told her to not argue…

The next day the head of the clinic spoke with us regarding the MRI findings. He said that it didn’t show much more than the x-rays but that there was some cartilage that was loose in the joint capsule and he recommended surgery to clean it up. In fact, he was prepared to operate in two hours!

Stephanie was stressed out about surgery but was reassured when they gave her the option of a local anesthetic. She consented when they told her that yes, she could video tape the operation if she wanted. (As it was, the surgeon emailed us about 50 photos from the arthroscopic procedure.) The surgeon said that the surgery would only take about 20 minutes; it took 40. He also said that she only be staying over night and would be walking around the next day.

As it turned out, she spent the next four days in the hospital, two days letting the knee drain and two more concentrating on rehab. She loved it! I know, you’re thinking, “What? How could she love it? She was stuck in a hospital for five days!” Yes, but she was treated like a queen. She was probably the most popular patient there. She had t.v. (of course) internet (만원 for her stay) and one roommate.

She got out of the hospital today (퇴원) and will get right back into the routine that she never got into in the first place. So far it has been an adventure for her (and her parents..).

This has been an interesting week. Last week we sent Michael home. He was ready to go. As soon as he got home he was headed for a week long field trip to 제주도. We Skyped with his mother before he left. She missed him a lot but it looks like she had to wait another week before she got to see him.

We, on the otherhand, just sent our oldest daughter to Korea. She will be there for the next seven weeks. She is doing a “service project” for school credit here where she will be volunteer teaching at an elemetary school, helping out with English instruction. Her first day will be tomorrow.

She is feeling a bit overwhelmed with the lack of English interaction already. Not understanding anything that is said around you can be headache inducing, especially combined with jet-lag. Typical for her though, she has commented at how fashionable everyone is, especially their shoes!

Hopefully, I will be able to post updates about her stay in Korea on a weekly basis. I am sure that her Korean will improve. It will have to. I should have a full update next week!

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.

I usually write about my experiences with Korean orphans, but I’ve just spent a week in Taipei, so I decided to switch things up a little bit…

Of course, the language of Taiwan in Chinese, but a lot of Koreans travel there, and my Korean came in handy at least once. I was entirely unprepared for the Chinese… I should have spent some time with SurvivalPhrases.com before the trip. Alas, I was hopelessly lost, except for the precious few Hanja I understand and recognize.

In Taipei, there is a section of town called Snake Alley. It must have been much more exciting in it’s hey day, but now is just another street market. The name comes from store fronts where the guy will pull out a large (2m) long snake and bash it’s head to stun it, hang it by the “neck” and then slice open the main artery to drain all the blood. I guess they serve the meat as well - but I didn’t try. We also weren’t allowed to take pictures…which is where my Korean came in handy. I was standing in front of one such snake butcher, and recognized some Korean tourists. After living in Seoul for a while, Koreans can be pretty easy to identify. But they were also speaking Korean. I stepped over to one woman and said:

“혹시요..뱀고기를 목고 싶어요? ” (Excuse me.. do you want to eat snake meat?)

She responded by shaking her hand and head, and saying in English “”No.” She ran back to her friends, who must have said something like “I think he just spoke Korean to you!” She came back, and we proceeded to have a pretty standard conversation about how well I supposedly know Korean, where I live, what I do for a job, etc. Then she wanted to take a picture of the snake gutting. But the man behind the counter said “No Picture!” I guess these Koreans don’t speak English, because she kept right on clicking. So I stepped in:

“사진 찍지 마세요” (Don’t take pictures)

-”왜요?” (Why?)

“저 남자가 찍지마래요” (That man said not to take any)

So, you never know when your Korean will come in handy! Have any of you had some great experiences with Korean outside of Korea?

Hi everyone. I’m back with another picture of a Korean bar/restaurant but this time I’ve labeled this post under “Travels in Korea” instead of “Humor in Korean” because it’s not so much about ‘humor’ this time.

Here’s a pic of a small bar that’s located between the two subway stations 강남역 and 논현역 in Seoul. If you look at the name of the shop, it’s CASTLE PRAHA. And for those who travel to Korea and see this and wonder “Why Prague?” or think “The owner of this bar must like Prague very much”, I’d like to introduce to you a nice Korean TV Drama.

Here’s a link to the MV of the theme song of the drama :

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5HPQXxpCGtk

And here’s the link to the official webpage of the drama :

http://tv.sbs.co.kr/praha/

The drama was such a hit in Korea in 2005, and from 2005 to 2006, Korea was one of the major countries that people visiting Prague were from, and they even made a new direct airline from Inchon to Prague because of the Prague boom. Interesting, huh? No wonder there are still a lot of shops and bars named after the city.

There was another Korean TV drama named “파리의 연인(Lovers in Paris)” that sent A HUGE number of people to Paris after the last episode was aired, but that’s another story.

We do a lot of shopping at the local Korean grocery store. It isn’t that local–about 40 minutes away–but whenever we are in the neighborhood we stock up on the essentials, namely, 라면, 초코파이, 김, 된장/고추장, and 김치.

We typically buy our 김치 rather than make it more out of convenience than anything. My wife does make good 김치 but finding the time to get it all done is the hardest part, so we buy. Usually the 김치 is pretty good, not great, and the flavor changes according to the season. The flavors can change according to what part of the 배추 leaf is used as well. This last bottle of 김치 was not my wife’s favorite. She likes the yellow leafy 배추 but that bottle of 김치had green leaves. She said it was not as flavorful and it went sour in a bad way. The bottle is still sitting in my fridge. She can’t throw it away for some reason. You know the saying “when life gives you lemons make lemonade?” Well, I say when life gives you bad 김치 make 김치찌개. One day…

일숙씨: My favorite 김치 that I remember when I was a young girl are 오이김치 and 굴김치(baby oyster in 배추김치) I say when you like to eat the food the natives enjoy you will learn the language easier. Koreans love food and 김치 is a staple of the Korean diet. If you like to eat Korean food then you will have more opportunities to be with the natives and see the culture or characteristics of the people. The language is a living thing that evolves and changes according to the situation and changing culture and ideas in that society. Good luck learning Korean. I’m still learning Korean even though Korean is my mother language.

Enjoy all kinds of 김치!

화이팅!!