Life and Travel in Korea

http://sendmetokorea.com - come to my new blog

2009-02-03T05:21:00.000-08:00

Salgyeopsal

2009-01-27T04:04:00.000-08:00

삼겹살 (Samgyeopsal = 3-layer roasted pork)

I don't go to eat meat very often but when I sometimes do go to have some meat, I always go for some Samgyeopsal.
=고기는 자주 먹지 않지만, 그래도 가끔씩 친구들하고 고기를 먹으러 가면, 항상 삼겹살을 먹으러 가요.

At cheaper places it costs about three to four thousand won per one serving and six to nine thousand one at more expensive places.
= 싼 곳에서는 1인분에 3,000원에서 4,000원 정도 하고, 비싼 곳에서는 1인분에 6,000원에서 9,000원 정도 해요.

A friend of mine whose mother runs a meat restaurant told me that a good tip for choosing a nice place when you feel like having some Samgyeopsal is to go to a crowded one.
= 삼겹살을 먹고 싶을 때 맛있는 집을 잘 고르려면, 사람이 많은 곳에 가야 한다고, 어머니가 고깃집을 하는 친구가 말해 줬어요.

Snowy Seoul

2009-01-26T03:46:00.000-08:00

Snowy Seoul.
눈 오는 서울.

Video:

http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=NVEwGvvg1z0

Korean Reading Practice For Beginners #3

2009-01-24T00:30:00.000-08:00

Korean Stationery

2009-01-22T15:08:00.000-08:00

Korean Lesson - Picture Video Vocab Lesson Number 12 - The Stationery Store

You can learn about the stationery in Korea and how it's popular, and some useful vocabulary too!

Video by Hyunwoo
Voice by Keith and Seol

2009-01-21T15:05:00.000-08:00

Korean Reading Practice for Beginners #2

Through this video you can learn how to pronounce the basic vowels in Korean.

Video by Hyunwoo
Voice by Gyeong-eun

Korean Reading Practice for Beginners #1

2009-01-20T15:01:00.000-08:00

Korean Reading Practice for Beginners #1

You can learn how the basic consonants are pronounced in Korean through this video. ^^

Video Made by Hyunwoo
Voice by Gyeong-Eun

깍두기 2008.12.03

2008-12-03T21:49:00.001-08:00

I'm planning to upload pictures of food I had ^^ although not necessarily on that day.

Here's the first one.

This one is called 깍두기 (kkakdugi) - it's a type of kimchi, but made with radish instead of lettuce Smile It's usually just served as a side dish when you order something in a 식당(restaurant), but I LOVE it!

Also posted at
http://www.koreanclass101.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1599&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

Korea University Campus

2008-08-10T12:30:00.000-07:00

This is the university I went to for almost 10 years - including the years that I had to take off because of work and the mandatory military service for 2 years :)

I love my university, but it's more than just a school for me now because i've lived around it for such a long time now - it's like a basecamp where most of my daily routines take place. :P

Thank you for watching! You can subscribe to my personal podcast at http://why-be-normal.com

or by typing my name, 선현우 in iTunes.

Thanks!

My neighborhood (Seoul, Korea)

2008-08-10T04:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a little video showing you my neighborhood :)

I live in Seoul, Korea - it's not my hometown but I've been living here for almost 10 years now since I moved up here to enter college :) Here's a little video to show you what it looks like over here where my house is.

Please watch the video using the higher quality option if possible. :) It looks much much better.

You can subscribe to my personal podcast at http://why-be-normal.com

or

by typing my name, 선현우 in iTunes.

Thank you.

And here are the words that I said in Korean.

약국 (pharmacy)
골목 (alley)
주차장 (parking lot)
병원 (hospital)
전봇대 (telephone pole)
소화전 (fire hydrant)

Cold Noodles - a life-saving food for hot summer days

2008-07-30T00:16:00.000-07:00

This is called 냉면(冷麵 - cold noodles). I'm sure there is a similar dish in every country, but this is the Korean version - the ingrediants are buckwheat noodles, half a boiled egg, sliced cucumber, spiced radish, some meat, pepper paste (고추장), sliced pear, vinegar, special soup that has been pre-made, and a lot of ice :) I had this yesterday and it was REALLY good. I felt cold for about an hour after that. Hehe. A must-try item when you come to Korea. And it's not expensive too. It goes from USD 4 to USD 6. :)

Also posted at http://talkwiththeworld.blogspot.com and http://blogs.koreanclass101.com

Bus Ride in Seoul

2008-07-21T00:52:00.000-07:00

I took bus #144 to go to Gang Nam(강남) from Dong Dae Mun (동대문) - It was raining so you might not be able to see a beautiful view, but at least you can get a brief look! :)

Pictures of Korea

2008-07-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

I've openend up a Flickr Group page for KoreanClass101, which will have photos of Korea shared by users of KoreanClass101 and other Korean friends of mine.

So if you've come to this blog by searching for info on Korean and would like to see some photos of Korea, please visit this Flickr Group.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/koreanclass101/

I hope this will be helpful !

Thank you!

KoreanClass101.com Youtube Group

2007-09-02T08:59:00.000-07:00

URL : http://youtube.com/group/kclass

I've made a group on Youtube to share videos of people (mainly ourselves) speaking some Korean. Please come and check out the videos and join the group!!

Korean Currency Exchange Rate

2007-09-01T21:02:00.000-07:00

You might be wondering 'Why is Korean currency so BIG in number?" but I'd say it's only a matter of getting used to ^_^ LOL, although the reason behind it is the surge in prices back in 60s ~ 80s during the process of rapid development.

As of today(2 September 2007), the currency exchange rate is

Dear readers,

2007-08-06T01:18:00.000-07:00

Dear all my readers,

I want to apologize to all of you for the prolonged delay in updating this blog. I've been in China for the past 6 weeks for some work and also on personal expeditions :-) but I will be going back to Seoul, Korea in exactly three weeks. So please wait until after I am back in Korea for more updates on this website.

The more I travel abroad, the better I realize what I know about Korea and what I do not know, and this summer I realized once again how unique and different the Korean culture is, and how little is still not known. I will write on a more regular basis once I'm safely back in the comfort of my own house in Seoul, so please wait until then.

Thank you everyone for reading this blog!

But there IS some updates going on from time to time on my other blog why-be-normal.com so please check it out there as well.

Jazz dance means going on a diet for many weight-conscious women

2007-06-16T08:12:00.000-07:00

I don't know since when, but the words jazz dance and belly dancing have changed their meanings for many Korean women, notably in their 30's and 40's, from their original meanings as two different kinds of dancing, to a new common meaning of 'the same kind of ways to lose weight'.

As you walk along the streets in Seoul, Korea, you can easily spot these types of banners advertising dancing schools, but their subtitles are not how fun or worth trying these dances are, but about how much weight you can shed within how short time.

This particular banner that I took photo of didn't go as far as to 'promise' that you will lose 10kg a month or they will refund the money, but some other banners that I've seen were putting up such impossible promises. And I don't know how they manage. Well, truth to be told, I don't really want to know.

But I can say with certainty that this is not right because what they teach you in these types of schools is not how to enjoy dancing and enjoy a more healthy life, but they offer to become your 'trainers', who will keep you moving, just like trainers at gyms.

All this comes from the national craze for thinner and thinner legs and waistlines, and as a man I must admit that some of my friends actually did look much better after their three months of hardcore training in dance schools, but please, as a person who loves dancing myself, I don't want to see the publicity lines like "8kg a month guaranteed" or "full refund on failure" along with a beautiful word like dance~~~!

Military Service in Korea

2007-06-06T07:03:00.000-07:00

Military service is an obligation for every Korean man whose body functions are not limited by any physical disabilities or whose mental status is not unstable or potentially dangerous. So that means, almost everybody. But just because it is mandatory for everyone, it doesn't mean that it's easy.

In a word, it sucks. Pardon my language, but if you think about it this way, who would want to give up two precious years of their sparkling youth to do something they never even imagined they would be doing? But, as I said, it's an obligation, and a national obligation is not just made up to give all the young people in the country some hard time to grow up through, right? It was made for a reason, and it's maintained for a reason. But I wouldn't really discuss the pros and cons about the necessity of the current military service system.
But what I would, however, like to mention here is what it means to those young men who finally decide to bite the bullet and do it, so that they can get done with it.
Well, if you apply for an officer position and choose to be a soldier by profession for quite a large part of your life, that's a different story. You get paid well, your job is secure, and you receive good social and health benefits.

But if you don't, which is most of the case, you receive a letter when you are 18 that says you are 'summoned' for a physical check-up, to figure out what physical 'grade' you are, so that the authorities can decide whether you are 'fit enough' to do the service or 'week enough' to be exempted. :-) There are four grades. Grades 1~3 : normal / Grade 4 : special service / Grade 5~7 : exemption. Special service(grade 4) means that you can work among the civilians instead of being able to come out of your military unit for only about 40~50 days for the entire two years. So a lot of people dream of getting Grade 4 because they can commute to work(service) and continue at least a few hours' worth of their own life.

Lots of celebrities and sons of politicians and powerful entrepreuners(we call them 'the sons of the sky') are obviously creating a lot of controversy by being easily exempted when they don't seem to have any apparent disabilities, and you can find loads and loads of parody comedies on the Internet of these people.

But I have no intention to criticize or blame them, because that's their choice, and if they really believe they lived a better life for the two years than other people by sending one weaker person than themselves to the service, let them think so.

Regardlesss of all the unnecessary and unimportant things that I did in the army, I firmly believe that I gained the experience that I would never get anywhere else in the world, and if you think the two years you spent in the military have been wasted, your two years would have been wasted anyway even if you had been exempted.

Of course it is not fair to judge anyone because there are those whose professions are really 'screwed' by their going to the army, such as sportsmen and scholars who are not in school. But generally speaking, until the government comes up with a better plan than to employ 'everyone' to do their share of the national defense, it is a duty that boys will have to fulfill for a long time to come.

Then, what happens to a boy when they go to the army?

First, they have to quit school or work temporarily, and select a date on which they will go. They can also apply for special positions such as the Navy, the Air Force, or the augmentation troop to the USA army, but much depends on luck and most of them end up serving in the Army(600,000 soldiers nationwide). After the basic physical training of four weeks at one of the few training base camps, they are dispatched to their respective units where they will serve for the remainder of the period, which is also where they will meet their dreaded senior soldiers. Haha. And this is where it all really begins. There's a million different stories for a million different soldiers. Nobody experiences the same thing, but what's in common is that they learn to really appreciate they had before - school, work, family, girlfriends, friends, 'paid' part-time jobs, and more than anything else, 'free time'.

But the Korean Army is changing a lot recently, becoming a more democratic and open-minded environment for young soldiers to develop themselves as well as defend the country, and the salary has shown an incredible increase from something like 10 dollars a month when I was a private soldier first class to more then 40 dollars now. Isn't that amazing? :D

I'm writing this for those of you who are wondering about the miliary service in Korea and who might be thinking "why are all the soldiers so young and why do they have so little discipline when I see them walking outside?" It's because they are having the time of their life, out on a paid leave to enjoy the best of their free time for anything from 2 days to 1 week. :D

Getting off the bus

2007-05-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

I'm sure it is the same with other countries, but I just wanted to mention a little bit of the little buzzer you have to press to let the bus driver know that you are approaching your stop.

The little red light that you see in the left part of the photo is the buzzer and it's on now, so obviously someone is getting off at the next stop. So far it's the same as in anywhere else in the world, but what if you FORGOT to press the buzzer and the bus is almost about to pass by the stop you want to get off at? What will you say(or shout) to the bus driver?

You can say "내려 주세요(Nae Ryo Joo Say Yo)" to mean "Let me off here, please", or add "죄송합니다(Jae Song Haam Nih Dah)", meaning "I'm sorry" in front of that.

Now practice : 내려 주세요. or 죄송합니다, 내려 주세요.

Got it? :D

Going to the movies in Korea

2007-05-27T20:20:00.001-07:00

Although it's certainly a lot more convenient to just rent a DVD and watch it in the comfort of your own room and your laptop, but sometimes you feel like you could use some big screens and some strong surrounding sounds. So here's how you can go to a CGV theatre, the biggest cinema chain in Korea and actually the best in my opinion, and get a ticket and watch the movie you want.

Unless you go to their webpage http://www.cgv.co.kr/ and book your tickets online(which is not easy because everything is in Korean), you will just have to go to the nearest CGV theatre to your house and do the following :D

Once you get to the lounge, what you want to do is to find this 'number ticket distributer' and pull one from the machine. In Korea it's written "순번대기표(Soon Bun Dae Gi Pyo)".

Or 순번발권기(Soon Bun Bal Gwon Gi), which means the same thing.

Once you have your number ticket in your hand, wait for your turn. You can check the numbers that are being called on the screens above the theatre staff.

A ticket for a movie in Korea is on average 7,000 won, roughly 7 USD, so it's pretty expensive. But it's cheaper than buying an authentic DVD(15,000 won), and it's not too much more expensive than renting one (2,000 won), so it's not bad after all.

Once you have your ticket, :D all you have to do is just sit back and enjoy your movie! :D

Buddha's Birthday in Korea

2007-05-20T04:14:00.000-07:00

Do you know whose birthday it is this coming Thursday? Yes, you're right. The 8th of April in the lunar calender is Buddha's Birthday, and this year it falls on the 24th of May in the Julian calendar. With 1/4 of the Korean population believing in Buddhism(I'm not a Buddhist myself, but my grandmother is.), this day is being celebrated nationwide. If you are in Korea now and if you've been wondering what these round-shaped things hanging on the lines are wherever you go, they are paper models of lotus flowers celebrating the 석가탄신일(Buddha's Birthday in Korean).

To make up for the long silence on this blog, I'm giving you an in-depth view into the festival scene of Korean people celebrating this day. Buddhism is not merely a religion to most Korean people but it's been a part of their lives and I'm sure these photos will help you understand how big a part of Korean culture it is.

Grab a quick kimbab to go

2007-04-13T06:20:00.000-07:00

Go to a nearby subway station in Seoul between 8 and 9:30 in the morning, and you will see these ladies selling something out of white boxes, right outside the exit. Have you ever wondered what they are selling?

What they are selling is non other than Kimbap. And it's pnly 1,000 won (roughly 1 US dollar) for one big roll! There is no way I can guarantee the quality or the taste of the kimbap you get to buy from them, but what's for sure is they are very fresh.

Since kimbap doesn't stay good for a long time, it's best if you consume in within a few hours after it's made, so the sellers can't make kimbap today in advance for tomorrow's sales. Naturally, they have to make them very early that morning, just like a mother would get up really early to cook everything for breakfast.

If they are lucky, they will sell everything they brought for the day, and if not, they won't, so it's important for them to find a very good location, and also figure out exactly how much they can expect to sell, depending on various factors such as the day of the week and the weather.

Let's have a closer look at the little letters written on the white box. That's the menu :D

What's written there are "맛있는 김밥(Ma Shin Noon Kim Baap)", "김치 김밥(Kimchi Kim Baap)", "참치 김밥(Chaam Chee Kim Baap)", and 샌드위치(Sandwich)".

맛있는 김밥 means 'delicious kimbap' :D

which is the basic and cheapest menu at 1,000 won.

김치 김밥 means of course 'kimchi kimbap', adding kimchi on top of the basic ingredients. It's more expensive than the basic 'delicious kimbap' but I'm sure it's more delicious than the 'delicious kimbap'. Haha.

And this is my favorite, 참치 김밥, meaning 'tuna kimbap', adding tuna to make it even better. :D This one is also 2,000 won, but it's worth trying, so go for it!

And of course they also sell small and simple sandwiches, but remember, depending on what part of the world you come from, you might find sandwiches in Korea very different from what you are used to. What's mainly different is the bread, because you will find much less cheese and bacon in them, but more eggs and ketchup instead.

If you are asking yourself 'why do I have to go to a subway station exit in the morning just to buy such kimbap, when I can go to a proper restaurant?', my answer is because you can sort of experience what it is like for the company employees, officer workers, university students, and pretty much everyone else who go to work or school early in the morning but who are too busy to have proper breakfast. This is a significant change in Korean people's life style because traditionally, breakfast is VERY important in Korea.

Lost? Need info? Call 1330.

2007-04-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

If you ever get lost in Korea, find yourself in trouble, or just can't get the information you desperately need about a place you need to go or something you want to know, here's what to do. Call a friend of yours and ask, or try to find someone around you who looks like he/she can speak English.

But in case neither of these works, you can call 1330.

1330 is a telephone number by calling which you can get all the info you need just about anything in or about Korea. Isn't that cool? And what's even better, it's available 24/7. Don't worry, the operators will speak your language, or if not, put you through someone who does.

If you are calling on a cellphone, add "02" and dial 1330 in case you are in Seoul, and other area codes in the place of "02" if you are in other cities. And the other area codes are as follows : Seoul 02 / Gyeonggi 031 / Incheon 032 / Gangwon 033 / Chungnam 041 / Daejeon 042 / Chungbuk 043 / Busan 051 / Ulsan 052 / Daegu 053 / Gyeongbuk 054 / Gyeongnam 055 / Jeonnam 061 / Gwangju 062 / Jeonbuk 063 / Jeju 064.

And if you don't have a cell phone and want to call from a pay phone, just dial the number 1330 only. Unfortunately you will have to pay a small amount of money for the local call, but a few 100 coins will do the job, so no need to worry.

And you can even call this number from abroad, by calling 82 + 2 + 1330 from whatever part of the world you are. If you are using Skype or some other service to make international phone calls at a cheap price, this might be more worthwhile than hours of searching for a specific place you need to go on your business trip or a short visit. :D

Korea Univ students playing traditional Korean percussion music

2007-04-04T06:16:00.000-07:00

Among the few places in Korea that you can get to hear Korean traditional percussion music are university campuses. This type of music (called 풍물 = Poong Mool) used to be traditionally played among farmers from hundreds of years ago, and every univeristy (and many highschools) has at least a team or group for keeping this tradition by learning to play the traditional instruments. The beats are very strong and loud, and needless to say, very exciting!

Three punches for 500 won

2007-03-19T18:06:00.000-07:00

Some of you might have seen this elsewhere but probably not all of you. But even if you haven't seen them before, it's pretty easy to guess what they are - Yes, they are a punch game machine and a kick game machine.

It's 500 won to play one round (three punches or kicks), and if your punch is stronger than usual, you will get an extra round to hit the sack. Under 'normal' circumstances, it's not much fun and it's even just painful to hit a sack fixed on a steel stick like that, but if you are hanging out with your friends and therefore a little bit 'tipsy', that's a differet story. It's usually men who play it than women, and haha, the alcohol in your brain will convince you that you don't feel any pain from the finger-breaking punching or the ankle-spraining kicks when you can't really focus well under the influence of alcohol. :D So be careful!!

The phrase that's written on the machine in the right picture is "체력은 국력", meaning "your physical strength is the strength of your country". A campaign phrase that every man in Korea gets used to hearing in the Army. But is it still really true? :D

But you can spot at least one punch game machine of this kind if you go for a drink where many bars are located close to one another - because people who install these machines know that after drinking you get more courageous and brave, and you would definitely want to give someone or at least something a hard punch, without having to go to the police.

KTX and subway running along together

2007-03-14T14:06:00.000-07:00

This footage was taped inside a subway train in Seoul, going from the "NamYoung" station to the "Seoul Railway Station" station, and you can see that a KTX, Korea's fastest (express) train, passing by, slowing down as it arrives its final destination of Seoul, probably coming from Busan, the 2nd biggest city in Korea.

Riding an Escalator in Korea

2007-03-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

This is a short video footage on the escalator on the way up to the Seoul Railway Station from the metro station of "Seoul Station".

Korean people usually stand on the right side of the escalator to let people who are in a hurry pass by on the left side - so if you are standing side by side with a friend on an escalator in a crowded area like the Seoul Station or actually pretty much everywhere, you are likely to be knocked on on the shoulder and told "excuse me? let me pass." :-)

More about the Seoul Railway Station itself is to be uploaded later. Thanks.

Subway in Seoul

2007-03-03T04:28:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of the entrance to a subway station in Seoul.

I prefer taking the subway to taking the bus and I believe a lot of people do too, and it's because you can go just about anywhere in Seoul by subway.

So what you have to do to get to your destination is just remember the name of the subway station name that your destination is closest to, (no matter where you are in Seoul, most of the times, you can find one or two subway stations within a walkable distance. And this is why Korean people would ask 'what subway station is it near to?' when they are asked to come to a place in Seoul they've never been to.) and know how to buy the ticket, and where to transfer if you need to.

There are currently 9 subway lines in Seoul, and the fare start at 900 won, and as you go further the fare will go up, but most areas can be covered with less then 1,000 won, so that's pretty cheap if you think about how fast and effective it is. :D

Once you get into the subway station you will see a ticket office on one side and an array of ticket vending machines on the other, so if you want to practice your Korean and want to see if you can pronounce the station names correctly, go to the ticket office and say the name of your destination, or if you are in a hurry and you don't want to stand in line or don't want to have to explain anything, you can use a vending machine, which is very easy to use.

The distance levels are devided using the word 구간(Goo Gahn), and we have 1구간(eel googahn), 2구간(eeh googahn), 3구간(sahm googahn) and etc. depending on how far you are traveling, but like I said earlier you can go to almost all the places in Seoul within 2구간. (구간 means a section or a division.)

What you have to say at the ticket office is simple.

For example, you are going to ShinChon, (a famous district in Seoul where young people like to go out and also shop a lot,) you say "신촌 한 장이요."(ShinChon Hahn Jahng Ee Yo.)

With that you give the clerk a 1,000 won bill and get your ticket with your change (and no change if your ticket is worth 1,000 won). If you don't have a 1,000 won, that's okay too - they will give you change anyway. You just can't use your credit card here. :D

And the next thing you do is go through the turnstile, although most of the old-fashioned turnstiles have now been replaced with these automatic 'blockers' that seem open at first but suddenly shut to block people from going through without paying the fare :D

If you bought a normal ticket, you just put it into the slid and wait for it come out on the other side of the machine, and pick it up again, so that you can use it to get out of the subway after you get off. Don't lose or misplace your ticket because you will have to pay once again if you don't have the ticket with you when you get out of the subway station.

If you are going to be in Korea for longer than a week, it is always wiser to buy a transportation card, which is named "T-money" and you can buy this card in ticket offices in metro stations and also in convenience stores which of course you can find every 100 meters in Seoul.

The card itself is 2,500 won, and you 'top-up' or charge balance on the card, and you can use it until your balance runs out, and you get an automatic 10% discount off every time you use it, and what's even better is you can get 'free rides' if you transfer from subway to bus / from bus to bus / from bus to subway (except for subway to subway) within 30 minutes. Isn't that great?

It was only Seoul that had this kind of free transfer system but now other cities in Korea are also changing their systems to bench-mark that of Seoul, apparently because... who wouldn't want free rides?

Taking a Taxi in Korea

2007-02-28T04:28:00.000-08:00

You wave at a taxi, get in the car, tell the driver where you want to go, and when you arrive at your destination, you pay for ride - that is the same taxi-ride principles all over the world.

But what matters here is this part - "tell the driver where you want to go", right?

What exactly would you have to say?
This is going to be a Korean language lesson. :D

It is always good to memorize the exact name and its correct pronunciation of the place you want to go to, and let's say it's ABC, then you tell the driver -

ABC로 가 주세요. (ABC low gah zoo say yo)

ABC까지 가 주세요. (ABC kkazi gah zoo say yo)

That's it. While some taxi drivers will ask you which and which road you would like him to take, but as long as he knows you are a foreigner, he won't bother you with those questions. But it's always a nice try to start a conversation with the driver, isn't it? I do that all the time when I'm abroad. (and I say he here because more than 90% of taxi drivers are still men.)

The fares will of course depend on the distance you travel, and the basic fare starts at 1,900 won. (currency converter here)

One expression you should know if you are carrying a heavy luggage and you want to put that in the back trunk of the car is :

트렁크 좀 열어 주세요. (Too Run Koo Chom Yol O Zoo Say Yo

And that's it. Once you get to the destination, you pay the fee, and get off the vehicle, saying a nice "감사합니다" or "고맙습니다." (Kahm Sah Haap Nee Dah / Goh Maap Soop Nee Dah)

Rice - one thing Korean people cannot live without

2007-02-25T21:23:00.000-08:00

One of the first things that Korean people find different when they go abroad is food, and I'm sure it's vice versa when foreign people come to Korea. So here's what I want to tell you about the food that Korean people eat everyday.

In Korea, you can basically find almost all types of food from all over the world, but that's only when you go to special places to buy those particular items. You just won't find any European cheese in an around-the-corner store.

So, what do Korean people normally eat?

More and more Korean people are now starting to eat bread and cereals (especially for breakfast, in order to save some time), and of course you can find good bread in local bakeries and different types of cereals in supermarkets or convenience stores.

But it was only a few decades ago when Korean people started really eating bread (I mean the western type of bread - Korean people also had similar foods to bread, but I will cover this in a different posting), and it was very recently when bread started to be considered as a 'proper meal'.

And even now, if you tell people that you have bread or cereal for breakfast, most 'older' people will show sympathy since they tend to think that you are not eating properly and being 'malnourished'.

As you know, the most important food in the stape diets of many Asian countries is rice. But how the rice is cooked and served and even the type of rice itself varies depending on the country. The type of rice you will see and eat here in Korea is different from the rice you know in other parts of the world, except for Japan, China and a couple of other countries.

Rice in Korea is mostly steamed rice, so it's very sticky, and it's served in a bowl called 밥그릇(Bap Goo Root), meaning rice bowl, and you eat it with a spoon.

Look at these photos below - photos of what my mother made me a couple of days ago when she cooked for me. You can see that from my side I have this 밥그릇(rice bowl) right in front of me and all the other sides sides are filling the top of the table.

So this is what you can safely call a typical meal Korean people have at home, although the side dishes will vary from household to household.

And actually, most of the times, these 'sidedishes' are what Korean people refer to when they are talking about 'what to eat for lunch' or 'what to make for dinner', because the fact that they are going to have a bowl of rice is taken for granted and you don't even have to mention it.

For example, when I say to a friend of mine 'what do you want to eat?', 70~80% of the time, I mean 'what do you want to eat along with your rice?', but I don't have to say that. Be it Kimchi stew, egg scramble, or whatever it is, rice will be served with it.

While more and more younger people are eating 'western-oriented' foods like pizzas, hamburgers, or sandwishes, if you are Korean, you know you just can't go on eating bread everyday. So, while rice isn't really discussed or even mentioned that often, it is in the center of Korean people's lives, and that's why most Korean mothers will still ask their kid who just came back from a friend's birthday party and obviously had a lot of snacks there to 'have some rice', since rice is traditionally (and of course half-jokingly) considered to be the only 'proper source of energy' for Korean people.

So if you are coming to Korea, be ready to eat a lot of rice, but don't worry because I'm telling you, Korean food is really good. :D

Where To Stay in Korea

2007-02-19T04:27:00.000-08:00

Once you've decided to come to Korea, the first thing you have to deal with is of course to figure out how much it will cost you (I will cover this in a later posting), but the biggest factor in deciding how much money you will have to prepare is none other than - accommodation.

Where should you stay? is the question.

If you are visiting for a few days on a business trip or for a family trip, you can just look for hotels that meet your budget needs, just like you would do almost anywhere else in the world.

But if you want to see/experience more of Korea, you're going to need to stay longer than that. If you are coming to Korea to attend a school, you probably already have a dormitory room arranged for you to move into, but if you are coming here on your own, what would you do?

There are mainly 5 types of accommodations you can take into consideration:

(1) Hotel/Motel/Inn/Youth Hostel
(2) Homestay
(3) Guest House for Foreigners
(4) "Ha Sook"
(5) "Go Shi Won"
(6) "One-Room"

The reason I'm putting hotel, motel, inn, and youth hostel all together in category (1) is because it's the same as else where - you can search for them on the internet. If I need to, I will cover them seperately and give you recommendations on the best hotels/motels/inns/youth hostels in Korea along with the info about their prices, but not in this posting.

So what's your best choice?

If you don't have much luggage and you are mainly traveling during the day, youth hostel can be a good choice (also look at some guest houses here), but what I would personally recommend is number (4) and number (5).

(4) Ha Sook
(5) Go Shi Won

What do they mean? What are they? Why do I recommend them?

Ha Sook(하숙) or Ha Sook Jip(하숙집) (집 or Jip meaning "house") is like B&B (Bed and Breakfast) but dinner is also provided - so you can call it a B&B&D.

And these are the words you want to look for:

or

An average 하숙집(Ha Sook Jip) will be a 3~4 story building with 4~8 (or more) rooms on each floor, and the landlady lives either on the top floor or the first floor of the building. You have breakfast served between 7:00 ~ 9:00 AM (it varies) and dinner served between 6:00 ~ 8:00 PM (also varies).

You can't really expect to have what you normally eat back home, but that's what travel is all about, right? And since it is not a franchise restaurant where you can't change the menu, you can always talk to the 아줌마(Ah Joom Ma = a way to address all the middle-aged women in Korea) of the 하숙집(Ha Sook Jip) about what you want, and in most cases, you won't have too many a problem.

The average price of a Ha Sook room is between 350,000 Korean won (about 350 ~ 400 US dollars) to 500,000 Korean won (about 500~550 US dollars) per month, depending on how big your room is. You can of course share a room with a roommate but I recommend not to because Ha Sook rooms are usually not big enough for two people.

A Ha Sook room is just empty before you move in, and in most cases you have to buy all the furniture you need. You might find some furniture that the previous tenant had used and left there, and there are some Ha Sook houses that offer some basic furniture, but you may as well not get your hopes up too high.

So what kind of people live in a Ha Sook room in Korea?

Mostly university students who leave their hometown for a different city to attend school.
And some company workers who are temporarily leaving away from their family or who prefer to have breakfast provided every morning instead of having to cook for themselves and of course there are many other reasons that people live in Ha Sook rooms.

Then what is number 5, Go Shi Won?

Go Shi Won(고시원) is basically a building with dozens of small rooms inside - and the name comes from the fact that in the past, the majority of people living in this kind of Go Shi Won rooms were people who were studying for the governmental employment examinations, which are called 고시(Go Shi). But now there are more and more people living in this kind of place because it's cheaper than anything else, and if you don't have a lot of stuff, it's the perfect place for you to live for a couple of months before you move into a better/bigger room or house.

The prices vary depending on what kind of furniture the room or the building has, but it's usually between 250,000 Korean won to 350,00 Korean won (per month). In most cases, a Go Shi Won room doesn't have a private bathroom and you have to use a shared one, but more and more Go Shi Won rooms now have at least a private shower.

But if you are looking to move into a Go Shi Won but the price is actually too high (some of them are very expensive because of the convenient location or the high land price of the area), you might as well consider moving into a One-Room.

One-Room might sound funny but that's the word we use in Korean to usually refer to a studio room, a relatively big room equipped with more facilities and furniture than a Go Shi Won room, and the price starts at 300,000 Korean won and can be as expensive as 600,000 Korean won (per month), again depending on the size of the room and what the room already has.

Naturally these accommodations are fast evolving to be better and better to attract more customers, (and there are some Ha Sook houses that have air conditioning for hot summer days and even free Internet cables, but air conditioning and Internet-wise, Go Shi Won rooms are usually a better choice because you don't have to make a subscription to the Internet service provider yourself) there are many new names being made one after another to call thses kind of accommodations.

Go Shi Tel(고시텔) obviously came from the combination of Go Shi Won and Hotel,

while One Room Tel(원룸텔) probably means One Room + Hotel.

What about homestay(number 3)?

If you are looking to experience living with a Korean family and get more exposed to the Korean language at home, it's a great idea. Try searching(here), but I can't really recommend it if you don't know anyone in Korea because you get to pay commission fees which can end up being much higher than a month's rent for a Ha Sook room or a Go Shi Won room, or even a One Room.

It would be ideal if you find someone who can help you find a family for you and talk to the family yourself(even if you need help with translation) and thoroughly discuss what you and the family agree on and want, and what you don't.

So, overall, what's the best choice?

1. If you would like to really be part of a Korean family while you are in Korea, go for homestay. (But then you would be living in the same house with the family, which means you will naturally have a curfew, because you don't want to wake everyone up in the middle of the night by making noises.)

2. If you would like a little more privacy and freedom(without curfews) but want to have a healthy Korean breakfast and dinner every day, and make some Korean friends inside the house, go for Ha Sook(하숙).

3. If you want a private room at a cheap price but wouldn't really want to have Korean breakfast every morning, and want free Internet service, go for Go Shi Won or One Room.

But unfortunately, there is no website (as far as I know) where you can easily search for these types of local accommodations in English since there haven't been many foreigners looking for them so far, so you will have to make some local Korean friends first and ask them to help you find a place for you, or at least send you some links of some websites in Korean where you can have a look at the photos of the rooms.

Check out http://www.lifeinkorea.com/ and http://seoul.craigslist.org/ to do that.

If you cannot find any help, first book a cheap hotel for a couple of nights and go out searching for the rooms yourself. It's not all easy, but just ask people around, you will always get help.

Life and Travel in Korea

2007-02-15T01:18:00.000-08:00

How much do you know about Korea?

Planning to come to Korea sometime soon? Or living here already? Or have you been to Korea but never had a chance to really understand what kind of place it is?

I'm into learning new languages and experiencing new cultures and customs, but the more I travel and see the difference, the more I get to know about my own country and culture.

I've tried several times to write about other cultures - but I've realized that's not the way I can make the most out of my passion about cross-cultural understanding and traveling. If there is one country in the whole world that I can say I know well about, it's my own country, Korea.

And at the same time, if I need to choose one language to share my knowledge as a local Korean person about this country in, it has to be English.

So I'm starting this blog to tell you about Korea, for those who speak English and are planning to come to (or already living in) Korea, so that you get to know more than just what the travel guide books tell you.

I'm in Shanghai, China at the moment, but I'll be going back to Seoul soon, so I'm looking forward to look at my own country both from a traveler's point of view and from a local's point of view.

If you have any questions about any of the blogs I'm posting, please don't hesitate to contact me at ever4one@gmail.com or leave comments to the relevant posting thread.

Thank you very much.