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Student life in Korea is very different from student life in the U.S.. The difference is very apparent in the years before college. First, the concept of homework is less emphasized in Korea. Students aren't really given homework because they are simply expected to study. Once the student gets home, they would only have enough time to go to bed. High schoolers in Korea would go to school early in the morning and come back late night. That is because they would have classes during the day and self study sessions after school in the school. The thing about these self study sessions is that students are expected to stay and study as if it is a class. This long day does not only account for high schoolers but even elementary and middle schoolers. Young ones would go to class and commonly go to private tutors right after. This concept of private tutor is not like in the U.S.. It is actually just school all over again. Because they study so much anyways, homework is meaningless in Korea. Korea also has a ranking system whereas U.S. has an excellent merit system. The ranking of each student becomes very important during college application time and due to this ranking system, competition is very hard in Korea. 

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art that is mainly focussed on various types of kicking techniques. In Korea, Taekwondo is so popular that you'd be an outlier if you've never tried it. Not all continues the practice, but it is a sport that everyone has tried in their childhood. Although it is a martial art, it focusses on a lot more than just physical fighting. Parents in Korea would send their child to Taekwondo to learn to respect and train their mind. It wouldn't be wrong to say that Taekwondo is a internal/mind training rather than a physical training. I also did Taekwondo when I was young and continued for about 10 years. In my opinion, it does lose some practicality as many would say the techniques are for show, but it is a great exercise for both internal and external. 

Korea is really well known for street food. In every outdoor street markets, there would be a lane of various food where you would walk and eat as much as you want. These are constantly made fresh and usually you would see many elderlies holding their stand. The food culture in Korea is very convenient. It has 24 hours delivery of almost anything you can think of. 

Here's a small tip. If you are nice to the seller, they would give you a little more for free. In Korean culture this "service" is quite common between the buyer and the seller. The seller would give you "service" if you are nice, pretty, or just out of good mood. Even the buyers usually asks for "service" and most of the time the seller would give you that "service". Whats a bit odd is that the buyer can ask for "service" as it is quite weird to ask for more in U.S.. Even in Korean restaurants in the U.S., the restaurant might give you something as "service" ("on the house").

This is one of my favorite Korean dish and you can easily try this at Grandmart. It is a meat dish with pork and various vegetables inside. It is spiced with Gochujang (spicy sauce) and it really makes your taste buds go crazy. Like a lot of Korean dishes, you would simply eat it with sticky white rice and that is a fine meal itself. I would get this menu at least 50% of the time I go to Grandmart and I hope everyone can try this delicious food. It is quite a bit spicy so I recommend people who aren't so good with spicy food try eating bulgogi which is beef and vegetable mix spiced with soy sauce. 

On April 4, 2019, there was a really massive forest fire that destroyed the town of Goseong in Gangwon province. It destroyed 120 homes and caused two deaths. Almost all residence within this town were elderlies and the damage was devastating. There has been a lot of donations and support groups so far and I really hope the situation gets better.

One story of a victim truly touched my heart. This old grandpa had been saving money for his entire life to give it to his son, but the fire turned it into ash over just one night. He was hopeless, and it was decided that it wasn't even allowed for compensations by the government. 

Short Article:

https://www.bbc.com/korean/news-47823400

Link to news:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEP8a2u5PbA

This is the most popular spring song in Korea. It is by far the most played song in Korea during the spring season, especially during the cherry blossom period. Everyone in Korea knows this song and it is always played in festivals and outdoor events during the spring. It is very easy to sing along and creates a happy mood immediately. I hope everyone can get a chance to listen to this amazing song. 

Lyrics with translation:

그대여 그대여 그대여 그대여 그대여

오늘은 우리 같이 걸어요 이 거리를
밤에 들려오는 자장노래 어떤가요
몰랐던 그대와 단 둘이 손 잡고
알 수 없는 이 떨림과 둘이 걸어요

봄바람 휘날리며 흩날리는 벚꽃 잎이
울려 퍼질 이 거리를 둘이 걸어요
봄바람 휘날리며 흩날리는 벚꽃 잎이
울려 퍼질 이 거리를 둘이 걸어요

그대여 우리 이제 손 잡아요 이 거리에
마침 들려오는 사랑 노래 어떤가요
사랑하는 그대와 단 둘이 손잡고
알 수 없는 이 거리를 둘이 걸어요

봄바람 휘날리며 흩날리는 벚꽃 잎이
울려 퍼질 이 거리를 둘이 걸어요
봄바람 휘날리며 흩날리는 벚꽃 잎이
울려 퍼질 이 거리를 둘이 걸어요

바람 불면 울렁이는 기분 탓에 나도 모르게
바람 불면 저편에서 그대여 니 모습이 자꾸 겹쳐
또 울렁이는 기분 탓에 나도 모르게
바람 불면 저편에서 그대여 니 모습이 자꾸 겹쳐

사랑하는 연인들이 많군요
알 수 없는 친구들이 많아요
흩날리는 벚꽃 잎이 많군요 좋아요

봄바람 휘날리며 흩날리는 벚꽃 잎이
울려 퍼질 이 거리를 둘이 걸어요
봄바람 휘날리며 흩날리는 벚꽃 잎이
울려 퍼질 이 거리를 둘이 걸어요

그대여 그대여 그대여 그대여 그대여


English Translation:
You, you
You, you

Today, let’s walk together on this street
How is this lullaby that
You hear on this night?
I hold hands with you, whom I didn’t know
As we walk together with this unknown trembling

As the spring wind blows
The scattering cherry blossom petals
Spread out on this street
As we walk together

As the spring wind blows
The scattering cherry blossom petals
Spread out on this street
As we walk together

Oh yeah

You, now let’s hold hands on this street
How is this love song
That you hear right now?
I hold hands with you, whom I love
As we walk together on this unknown street

As the spring wind blows
The scattering cherry blossom petals
Spread out on this street
As we walk together

As the spring wind blows
The scattering cherry blossom petals
Spread out on this street
As we walk together

When the wind blows
My heart sounds to
Pound without knowing
When the wind blows
From way over there
I keep seeing you
When the wind blows
My heart sounds to
Pound without knowing
When the wind blows
From way over there
I keep seeing you

There are many lovers who are in love
There are many unknown friends
There are many scattered cherry blossom petals
I like it

As the spring wind blows
The scattering cherry blossom petals
Spread out on this street
As we walk together

As the spring wind blows
The scattering cherry blossom petals
Spread out on this street
As we walk together

You, you, you, you

Link to "Cherry Blossom Ending" by Busker Busker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXV7dfvSefo

I learned how to draw the Korean flag in my class. The top left has 3 blocks, the bottom left has 4 blocks, the top right has 5 blocks, and the bottom right has 6 blocks. You would do it in that order (down-up-down) and in the format like the picture below. The white background means bright, peace, and love. The middle circle means the positive and negative balance. Finally, the 3 bars represent the sky, the 4 bars represent fire, the 5 bars represent water, and the 6 bars represent earth. 

During our seventh meeting, we worked on 2 packets that contained reading comprehension and answering questions related to the readings. We learned about the Yonsei University (연세대학교) and its history. We also learned about very famous, old Korean art pieces. It was interesting to learn that an American missionary established the university and there are remnants of American culture rather than Korean culture, such as the main color of the university which is blue and the mascot which is a tiger. 

During our eighth meeting, we learned about two ancient Korean artworks including 연화도 and 일월오봉도. The "연화도" art work contains lotus flowers and a pair of ducks. It is an artwork that parents used to gift to their children as a message to be humble, prosper, and have lots of children. 일월오봉도 is an artwork that "awakened" the king to remind the king that he should not be above the civilians but that he was sent to humbly rule.

The past two weeks, we studied about the Korean flag and the national anthem. I remember learning how to draw the flag when I was in second grade in Korea and have forgotten about it until now. Each symbol and color mean something and that was a fun recap of what I learned when I was so young. We also studied different ways that the flag is set for different intentions and I never knew that there was a reason to different methods of hanging the flag up. In addition, we examined each verse in the national anthem and defined what it implied, including studying some vocabulary within the national anthem. I only knew a small part of the first verse, but learning the whole song was quite difficult. I grew up in the U.S. and have never given a thought about these two subjects. However, now that I learned both how to create the Korean flag and how to sing the national anthem, it made me reevaluate myself as a proud Korean citizen. This exercise itself was not so nearly focussed on language, but it truly was a big step in getting my self closer to Korean culture. 

During the last two weeks of class, we studied a recent forest fire incident in Korea. We watched and read the Korean news and interviews of the victims. We got to read a lot about the incident and learned new idioms and vocabulary that were used in the news. This forest fire was devastating and basically destroyed a whole city in Korea. It was very hard to see elderlies with their home destroyed. We also talked about donations and recovery acts in response to this massive incident. We wrote reflection writings to practice different writing skills and the vocabulary and analyzed variety of news articles about the same incident. One thing that I am still having trouble with is that the Korean news goes by so fast. It is hard to pick up information as fast as it is saying. I can definitely improve by regularly watching Korean news and learning its pattern. 

    One of my goals was to finish reading the book that my learning partner and I have been working on last semester and we were able to accomplish this goal! Along with this initial goal, I also had an associated cultural goal, where I wanted to learn about the cultural topics addressed in this book. I am happy that I was able to address this goal at least twice in my past cultural posts. I learned more than two culture ideas through this book, but I was only able to talk about it twice. First, I learned more about “Hanja” by connecting the days of the week to the solar system, which was really cool because I never heard about this before! It is so fascinating to see that you can learn about the Chinese characters and relate it to the actual Korean words.

    Through finishing this book, I also learned about the concept of having dyed hair that was linked to being rebellious. I think I actually heard some relation to this topic before, but I didn’t know that it was actually a known idea. As mentioned in my previous cultural posts, I do not necessarily agree with this relation, but it was interesting to learn about!

    Overall, my cultural goals were met, but I can always work to learn more about the culture of South Korea! I hope to explore more culture ideas in my cultural presentation, so I am looking forward to that!  

During our fifth meeting, we learned about a very important day in South Korea, which is March 1st, 1919. The movement is called 삼일절 which literally translates to March 1st. 삼 means 3, and 일 means 1. The movement was a day where  the South Koreans peacefully protested against the Japanese Imperialism by waving South Korean flags. We learned about a South Korean hero, who I am familiar with. Her name was 유관순, Gwan-soon Yu. She was only 17 years old. One of her most memorable moments was when she was taken to court and the Japanese said that if you admit you are at fault, we will spare your life; however, she declared that the Japanese were at fault for killing innocent civilians and she passed away in jail. 

For our sixth meeting, we watched a movie called "Swing Kids". It was an interesting plot because the movie took place in a prisoner of war camp that contained both North Korean and South Korean POWs, that was divided by a fence. The main character is a North Korean that is gifted with the ability to tap dance, a South Korean girl who can translate Korean to English and also tap dances, a fat Chinese man, a South Korean man yearning for his lost wife, and an African American American army officer. 

For the third and fourth week, we learned more metaphors/idioms and vocabulary, and geography. We learned words that were interesting because each "character" had a meaning, derived from Chinese characters. For example, 선악 means good and the bad. We watched a Korean weather news clip and paused frequently- Jimin quizzed us, and we also asked questions. For the fourth week, Jimin printed out a map of South Korea and we learned about the geography. We learned the names of all the provinces and major cities and what they are famous for. For example, Jeju Island is famous for the wind, rocks, and women. This lesson was extremely helpful because I will be going to Korea this summer, so it helped me visualize where all my relatives was and how I will plan my route in South Korea. 

For the last two weeks, my classmates and I reviewed all of our previous material to prepare for our final exam. The material includes vocabulary words, idioms, geographical regions, topics from readings, and historical facts. I'm very prepared for the final exam because of the strategies that I used to practice Korean. These strategies include speaking and writing Korean. I'm confident that everything that I learned will naturally translate into the final.

During the first two weeks of our Korean class, we first planned out what everyone's interests were and prioritized what we wanted to learn in the semester. Then, we learned about Korean metaphors and idioms with vocabulary that is not used commonly in everyday language. For example, one of my favorite metaphors that I learned was "입이 가볍다", which literally translates to "the mouth is light". However, it has a deeper meaning, which is that someone is bad at keeping a secret, or is a blabber-mouth. For the vocabulary not commonly used, I was surprised because many of the vocabulary we learned is commonly used in the Korean news. 

Hanbok is one of Korea’s oldest and most visible traditions. It is the traditional clothing worn on a daily basis, as well s for special events. Hanbok is made up of a top, called jeogori, and a skirt, chima, for women or pants, paji, for men. There are many accessories to be worn with hanbok, for example jewelry and hair pins. Lower classes traditionally wore white or tan colors, while the upper class wore bright colors. Hanbok can be made from many different materials, which are determined by the temperature and the wealth of the person owning it. Traditionally, the sewing and embroidering of the hanbok carried a lot of meaning for the wife and the family.

https://coreesud.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/korean-traditional-clothing/

The past two weeks, we have studied a popular song in Korea and its influence in Korea. There is a really popular spring song in Korea called "Cherry Blossom Ending" by Busker Busker. This song is by far the most played song in Korea during the spring season. We looked at vocabulary and the meaning of the whole song. The thing about music is that the lyrics imply more than its literal meaning. By dissecting this one music, I have learned ways to approach the study of other songs. Korea is very big with its music and learning the music culture is very interesting. We have studied the vocabulary within the song in similar ways as any other vocabulary study, but the fact that it is a song makes it a lot more fun. Singing the lyrics while knowing its full meaning enhances dramatic presentation and that can be applied to many other things. Of course speaking and writing correctly is important, but I believe that having the intention and the expression like a native speaker is another level of proficiency. Singing and hearing songs can really improve pronunciation and speaking skills and I think music is an amazing language learning tool to expand your knowledge in different dialects. 

We looked at recent Korean news to become more familiar with the Korean culture today. The language in news is a lot more formal than what you would encounter in a normal social conversation. I have noticed in news articles that many words that are used in a social conversation are replaced with more complicated vocabularies with the same meaning. I think this is partly due to its large stress in formality. Also, by examining news articles, I was exposed to a lot more business languages which is something that I wanted to get familiar with. Not only does this improve my vocabulary, but my comfort level and ability to have an intellectual conversation with another person is greatly enhanced. To be able to read new articles allows me to stay on top of current events in Korea with a deeper understanding of the event, expanding my conversation choices with anyone that I speak to. Vocabulary cards and regular reading of the news will help me familiarize specific business languages in the future. In addition, I think reading news from different industries will allow me to have more options with different business terms. 

We looked at Korean idioms the past two weeks. It's always so fascinating to see how these complicated phrases were made with specific Chinese characters. After looking and studying so many idioms, I'm starting to recognize specific Chinese characters and its meaning. The thing about Korean phrases is that you can dissect the phrase by letters and you simply have to know the meaning of each Chinese characters to know the full meaning of the phrase it self. With my growing knowledge in Chinese characters, I can now look at a new phrase and come up with an educated guess of what it means. I keep a note to my self when I see a new letter and try to apply it when I see new phrases and I have about 50% chance to guess what it means which is a big improvement from knowing nothing about the use of Chinese characters in the Korean language. These phrases are hard to use in a real conversation and are only applicable in certain situations which is why it is so important to study many examples for each new phrase. There are many popular ones that are used often in Korean variety shows, and to know what they mean brings my journey in Korean learning to a new phase.  

These past two weeks, we have focussed on one of the popular Korean legend and the creation of the national holiday (삼일절). We read articles and comics to learn about the details of the folk tale and the national holiday. We also examined some documentaries to see some artifacts of the history behind the creation of the national holiday. This holiday means so much to Koreans as it is the first national march against the Japanese when Korea was under the control of Japan. Many people have sacrificed to bring freedom to Korea and they are still honored today in Korea. This holiday represents freedom and unity in Korea. We did a lot of reading and vocabulary exercises, but the most important aspect from the past two weeks is the cultural knowledge within this national holiday. I would have never thought of learning Korean history, but it is in fact very interesting and to see that it has such a big influence in Korea today brings me back to my roots. I'm starting to appreciate history and to see the reason behind how Korea came to have its culture today is beyond just a language lesson for me.