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I learned to make kimbap with my friend. We wanted some really good kimbap but could not find where to buy it near us, so we decided to make some kimbap on our own. We bought ingredients like ham, eggs, raddish, carrots, rice, dried seasoned seaweed, fish, and other vegetables. We cut up the ingredients and rolled the white rice and seaweed into rolls with the ham, egg, and other vegetables in the middle. In Korea, kimbap is a must have when you go camping or on trips. It is super simple to make, and there's a tradition that you bring kimbap to field trips or campfires.

Babi Kecap is a Chinese-Indonesian dish made up of pork slow-cooked with onions, garlic, spices, etc. in a sauce based with Kecap Manis (kecap - 'soy sauce', manis - 'sweet'), a variant of soy sauce with added palm or brown sugar. It is my favorite Indonesian dish, and I have made it four times here in the United States, twice in a pot for about two hours, and twice in a slow-cooker for 6 to 8 hours. I have found the slow-cooker method to be far superior due to the way it liquidizes the onion, garlic and spices, penetrates the flavors into the pork chunks, and tenderizes the pork to a point of buttery perfection. 

This dish is popular among many non-Muslim communities in Indonesia, including Chinese-Indonesians, Balinese, Batak, and Minahasan ethnic groups, as well as in the Netherlands.

Ingredients:

I was able to find my spices at two Asian supermarkets - New Grand Mart and Tan-A - both on Broad St. in Richmond. For the other ingredients I went to Kroger. 

• 1.5kg boned pork shoulder, cut into 5cm chunks

• ½ tsp ground black pepper

• 1 tsp ground coriander

• ½ tsp ground ginger

• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon

• ½ tsp salt

• 1 tbsp groundnut or vegetable oil

• 1 large onion, or 6 shallots, thinly sliced

• 5 garlic cloves, crushed

• 20g fresh root ginger, peeled and grated

• 4 red bird’s-eye chillies, deseeded and finely chopped (if you like it spicy!)

• 500ml chicken stock

• 4 tbsp kecap manis sauce (sweet soy sauce)

• 2 tbsp light soy sauce

• 2 tbsp tamarind paste (the non-concentrated sort)

Garnish:

• 2 tbsp groundnut oil

• 4 shallots, thinly sliced

• 2 mild red or green chillies, thinly sliced

• green onions

Instructions:

1. Put the pieces of pork in a bowl. Mix the spices and salt, then sprinkle them over the pork, turning the meat to make sure it is all well covered.

2. Heat the oil in a large flameproof casserole dish, then add the onion or shallots. Fry them gently over a gentle heat until soft and translucent. Add the garlic, ginger and chillies and cook for a further minute.

3. Add the pork to the casserole dish and cook on a medium heat for a few minutes, turning the pieces of meat until they are browned all over. Mix the chicken stock with the kecap manis, soy sauce and tamarind paste and pour this over the pork.

4. Brown the meat for a little while, then take everything and put it into a crock pot. Turn the slow cooker on and cook for 8 hours on low (recommended) or 4 hours on high (also works), stirring occasionally if possible. Turn up the heat or return to the stovetop towards the end of the cooking time if the sauce is still quite liquid. There will likely be an excess of oil, so feel free to spoon some of it off while 

5. To make the garnish, heat the oil in a frying pan and add the shallots. Fry over a medium to high heat, stirring frequently, until the shallots are golden-brown and crisp. Remove them from the pan, drain on kitchen paper and allow them to cool. Serve the pork garnished with the shallots, fresh green onions and sliced chillies.

In process...

The delicious results O.O mixed with nasi putih 'white rice' and kacang hijau 'green beans'

The image is upside down, and I can't get it to turn back.

As I learned about Hanja, the Chinese characteristics, I was curious to see how my name would look like. I knew that Hanja was used to come up with my name, and it had certain meaning from Hanja; however, I didn't know how it spelled out in Hanja. With the help of some Chinese students and Google, I found out how my name looks like in Hanja. The first character is the last name "Kim". The second character is "Won", and this means the best. The third character is "Jun" which mean from that group. So combining the characters together, Wonjun means best of the best. It was really interesting to see my name in Hanja as Hanja was used to come up with my name.

During Thanksgiving, I gathered with my friends and celebrated our own Thanksgiving but more Korean style. We made Kimchi and other Korean foods as well as American foods like turkey and spaghetti. This was more like a mixture of the 2 cultures, but I had a great time. It was my first time making kimchi from scratch. First, I had to wash and cut the cabbages into edible sizes. Then, I added the already prepared sauce into the cabbage. Next, I mixed the kimchi very thoroughly. And last, I stored them into containers to eat them when they go through fermentation. Even though this process sounds simple, this took almost 3 hours to finish. It was an amazing experience to make kimchi for the first time.

In addition to being the #3 producer of coffee, Indonesia is also the #3 producer of rice, or nasi. Rice is the central food of Indonesian cuisine, and a meal without rice is considered a light snack. This dependence on rice as a base for almost all meals consumed by Indonesians of all classes, and the growing rice cultivation industry that has been developing for at least 1500 years, is reflected in the Indonesian language by a rich vocabulary of words related to the crop:

Padi - rice in the field/as a growing plant

The rice terraces in Bali featured in this photo are likely fed by Subak, a complex irrigation system which originated on the island in the 9th century CE and feeds many rice fields from one source, usually designated with a water temple. It is a cooperative system, and inhabitants of Bali work together to keep the water in the many canals and aqueducts that make up Subak flowing.

Gabah - unhusked, raw rice grains

Beras - raw, uncooked rice as one buys from a pasar 'market'

Nasi - cooked rice (in this case topped with bawang goreng 'fried onions' on a plate of nasi campur 'mixed rice')

There are other forms of cooked rice in addition to plain steamed rice, including (but certainly not limited to):

Nasi Uduk - 'mixed rice' in Betawi dialect - rice cooked in coconut milk, clove, lemongrass, cinnamon and pandan leaf.

 Nasi Kuning - 'yellow rice' - rice cooked in coconut milk, tumeric, lemongrass and pandan leaf

Ketupat Nasi - 'rice diamond' - rice cooked in a woven packet made of palm leaves

Lontong Nasi - 'rice cake' - rice cooked wrapped in banana leaves

Rengginang - meaning unknown - sweet sticky rice flattened into a disk, sun-dried, then fried

In Korea, delivery services are so well organized that you can literally deliver almost any kind of food in Korea. This is BBQ chicken that I ordered in NOVA, and it is probably the best fried chicken I've ever had in my life. In Korea, there is a super famous saying "치맥" this means chicken and beer. Chicken and beer combination is so good that people in Korea came up with a slang to say this combination. So you may ask: what's the difference between Korean fried chicken and American fried chicken? Well, to answer that question, Korean fried chicken is made to better suit the type of sauces that Koreans like, so it is very subjective because all people can like that sauce. Korean chicken is so well known in Korea that people have chicken for midnight snack almost everyday. You've got to try it when you go to Korea. 

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This is my first conversation with Ertugrul, the really nice and patient pen-pal Merve Hocam, our language partner, helped me find! Speaking with him gave me plenty of Turkish practice and helped me get accustomed to what actual Turkish people commonly say. In my opening message, I say “Hello Ertugrul! My name is Azin, I am Merve’s student” when translated to English. Ertugrul replied with “Hello, Azin! Nice to meet you. Yes, Merve told me.”

This is an example of an Ezan. If you ever take a trip to Turkey, you will commonly hear the Ezan, or Muslim call to prayer, in any town or city you visit. The ezan is chanted six times a day, commonly originating from a mosque in the city. The times are called İmsak, Güneş, Öğle, İkindi, Akşam, and Yatsı, which translate to pre-dawn, sunrise, noon, mid-afternoon, evening, and night respectively. The locations and exact times for these calls are subject to change depending on the season and geographical relationship of the location to Mecca. The Turkish government, specifically the Republic of Turkey’s Presidency of Religious Affairs, provides information for all these times and locations on their website.

The Ezan is conducted as the Salaah, or fixed ritual of Islamic prayer, is conducted in many other Muslim-majority countries. A majority of people in Turkey are Sunni Muslims, about 80.5%, whereas Shia Muslims make up 16.5% of the population. In Sunni Islam, individuals are expected to pray 5 times a day for Salaah, to which Ezan follows rather than the Shia Islam ritual of praying 3 times a day.

A huge part of understanding a culture is immersing yourself into that culture’s environment. Every part of the world has its own unique sound environment, or soundscape, filled with sounds special to that place. Istanbul is no exception. Sounds of the Istanbul ‘nostalgic tram’, a historic tramway that travels across Istanbul, Turkish bagel vendors calling out to customers and selling their baked goods, tea stalls, calls to prayer, car horns, the sea, and so much more make Istanbul sound different than any other part of the world.

Istanbul’s soundscape is notably a mix of the old and new, with pieces of traditional Turkish culture, such as those of the call to prayer or vendors, coming into contact with sounds of modernity such as car horns, smartphone notification sounds, and construction (usually being done to make renovations on many old structures in Istanbul). Istanbul is also notably ‘louder’ than Western European cities, with many of the sounds old and new produced in the city creating an environment with more and louder sounds than those commonly found in Western European settings. I personally find the quiet to be boring, so I certainly do not mind!

The song “Üzülmedin mi?”, which translates to "Are you not upset?" in English, by Simge is one of my favorite pieces of modern Turkish music. Even prior to taking Turkish here at UR, I was listening to this song. It is awesome! This song is a good example for what modern Turkish music commonly sounds like. Modern Turkish music often infuses modern popular, standard pop music sounds with sounds unique to traditional Turkish music.

If you look at the viewer count for the video right now, it is at a staggeringly high 99,557,511 views. If you look at the comments, in addition to all the posts in Turkish, you see people from all over Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Central and South Asia proclaiming their love for Turkish music. Turkish music is amazingly popular and has a huge impact all across not only Turkey but its neighbors both near and far as well. Everyone knows how awesome it is!

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During week #12 and week #13, Jimin and I simply reviewed material for the final. She answered any final questions that I had concerning the material and also asked me if I had any requests for the next semester. I asked her if we could do more sessions about Korean history because it was a topic of interest of mine. Jimin also gave me the basic format of the final exam and arranged a meeting time for it. Overall, we discussed our thoughts on the past semester and recapped on what we accomplished. In addition, we discussed the goals from my learning plan that we were not able to accomplish and further discussed how to achieve them during the next semester. It was nice to wrap up the semester with this discussion because it made me realize how flexible and focused this language learning class is. It also gave me insight on how much I had learned in just one semester and gave me hope in my future language learning plans.

During week #9, Jimin and I talked about Korean history based off of a timeline that she created. It had the major historical events such as the different dynasties, the 6.25 Independence War, the different presidents who reigned, and the corresponding details for each event. It was particularly interesting for me because I have always been interested in Korean history due to how different it is from US history. We also researched more in-depth about certain events that I was especially interested in during our session, for I was interested in the Japanese regime in Korea.

            During week #10, Jimin taught me about Korean writing and grammar. She first had me write a paragraph about a randomly chosen topic and then corrected it. Then, she proceeded to give me different variations of words that had the same or similar pronunciation. She also quizzed me on how to spell words that could have multiple spellings. It was motivating to see that I got most of the spelling right and also gained clarification on some spellings that I had always struggled with.

During week #7, Jimin and I viewed the popular Korean film called “Along with the Gods 2.” Although I had heard about it and its popularity, I had not had the chance to watch it yet. We both watched it without subtitles and stopped the film whenever I had a question about the dialogue or plot itself. It was a very engaging and relaxed way of learning the Korean language, for I heard words that I did not know the meaning of, and I also picked up on different sayings that the actors used. During week #8, we finished viewing the movie because it was too long to finish during our first meeting. After finishing it, Jimin had me write a paragraph in Korean about my thoughts on the film itself. She also corrected any grammatical errors I had and replaced words with better and more advanced vocabulary.

During week #5, Jimin and I made a trip to Grandmart to experience Korean culture in terms of food. As I have been to Grandmart multiple times with my friends, I was familiar with the menu and the types of Korean food that they serve. While normally I have tangjjamyeon, which is a dish split in half between tangsooyook and jjajangmyeon, I decided to try something new as well. In addition to my normal dish, I also tried the bossam, which is steamed pork meat cut in slices. It was a rather fun way of experiencing the Korean culture, and I made sure to incorporate Korean dining etiquette while I was eating with Jimin.

            After eating, Jimin and I also shopped at Grandmart. They had an array of Korean snacks, spices, frozen goods, and ramen. I was happy to see many snacks that I had while growing up, along with frozen goods that my mom used to cook fresh. Upon looking through the spice section, I realized how much Koreans value spices in their dishes, for there were countless types for all kinds of dishes. For week #6, due to Thanksgiving break, I did not have a lesson with Jimin. Instead, I tried to practice my Korean speaking skills over break with my parents via video chat instead.

During week #3, Jimin and I learned about Korean proverbs that were basically common sayings and sentences that contain an underlying meaning. Proverbs function to give wisdom and depth of meaning to others. One of the ones that I learned was “등잔 밑이 어둡다,” which means that one can be blind or oblivious to what is right beside one’s self. Another proverb that I thought was meaningful was “s가는 말이 고와야 오는 말이 곱다,” which translates to the fact that what one puts out is ultimately what one receives. It was helpful to also write down the literal translations of the sayings in addition to the more figurative translations.

            During week #4, I learned about a different type of Korean proverb. These were four-letter words that derive from the Chinese language, for they can also be written in Chinese characters. We proceeded with a slightly different method from the week before, as these proverbs were more complex and difficult to translate. Instead, Jimin explained the meaning of each proverb, and I wrote down my own version of the meaning in Korean. One of my favorites was “고진감래,” which basically means that once the hardships are gone, reward most definitely comes.

During my first meeting with my Korean tutor Jimin Yoo, I established a learning plan for the semester and also discussed how to achieve my learning goals. My learning plan consisted of being able to understand Korean news, watching Korean movies without subtitles, speaking without an American accent, learning Korean slang, going to a Korean market to shop and eat, learning more about Korean culture, learning more Korean phrases, learning about Korean history, learning about Korean celebrities, and talking only in Korean during lessons. We discussed different ways to accomplish these tasks, such as watching popular Korean movies, picking out the latest Korean slang, creating a timeline of major Korean historical events, and creating different “punishments” if either of us spoke in English during our lessons.

            During the second meeting with Jimin, we went over Korean slang terms based on an extensive list that she created. First, I was to translate all the ones I knew of or could guess on. Afterwards, we went over each slang term individually and wrote down both English and Korean translations. Oftentimes, they were either abbreviations that condensed more complex phrases into a three-letter word. It was rather fun to learn Korean slang because I had always wished to incorporate them into my conversations with my Korean friends.

The Korean dating culture has always been a topic that interested me from seeing Korean couples walking around the streets. In Korea, people often get introduced to potential partners through meetings. These blind dates are rather common compared to the US, and they can be set up by friends or parents. PDA (public display of affection) is also frowned upon in Korea, although it is completely normal in the US. Due to its conservative and traditional culture, showing affection in public is considered disrespectful and tacky to others. Another culture shock that I received upon living in and visiting Korea was the prevalence of couple items such as couple shirts, couple shoes, couple phone cases, and couple accessories. Koreans take pride in having a partner, and thus although they do not public show their affection towards one another, they state their relationship status through attire. Lastly, Koreans emphasize holidays and anniversaries, no matter their frequency. Korean couples often celebrate their 100^th day, 200^th day, and 300^th day by going on a date or romantic dinner. As I have not experienced this type of dating culture myself, it would be rather difficult if I tried to.

Korean public transportation is a highly cost and time-efficient system that includes 8 international airports, 6 domestic airports, the KTX high speed train system, and an abundance of buses, subways, and taxis. The Korean railway allows for citizens to travel through the country easily and at low cost, for the system links all of the cities together. The KTX high speed train was established in April 2004 and can reach a top speed of 300 km/hr. It is more expensive than the average train but is very popular due to its comfortability and speed. The Korean subway system fully operates in the cities Seoul, Busan, Daegu, and Incheon, with Gwangju and Daejeon having subway systems under construction. The subway system is very popular among commuters to work and school, and thus becomes very packed during rush hour. Based on my personal experience, I had to take the subway to go into the city or to go to my research job. It became so crowded to the point that I was squeezed in between people and could not exit the subway at my stop. Lastly, the Korean bus service is divided into three main networks, including the regional service, local service, and Incheon airport bus service. The regional service has gosok buses that can operate over long distances with few stops, and shioe buses that operate over shorter distances with more stops. I used the bus system in Korean when I attend school there for 3 years, and it made commuting to and from school fairly easy. However, it was nerve-wracking when I sometimes forgot to get off at my stop and had to run to school from the next closest stop.