I'm sure you are all aware that 띄어쓰기(spacing) in Korean is just as important as in any other language (with the exception of Japanese and Chinese where spacing isn't necessary). I'd like to introduce some of the most commonly mentioned examples of the confusion that spacing errors can bring about. ^_^ The first one. Let's say you want to write, "My father is going into the room." - father = 아버지 - room = 방 - to go into = 들어가시다 (honorific) So this becomes 아버지가 방에 들어가십니다. But if you change the spacing a little bit and write, it becomes "아버지 가방에 들어가십니다." (My father is going into the bag.) Haha. And here's another interesting example :) Let's say you want to say "I bought a tree... Show more

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,... Show more

Here's another very interesting 간판(store signboard) I found in Seoul, Korea. If you have any interest at all about Japan, you've probably heard of Shinjuku, a major commercial center of Tokyo, Japan. And since Japan and Korea are physically so close, you can say that EVERYBODY in Korea has heard of the name "Shinjuku" or 신주쿠, as it's written in 한글(hangul). But this store cleverly used that fact in making a not-easy-to-forget store name. Before you look at the store name, please look at the pictures below. This is 쭈꾸미(jjukkumi), a kind of octopus, but a smaller kind. 쭈꾸미 is cooked many ways, but mostly with host pepper sauce (고추장) and it's made to be really spicy hot and chewy at the same time. Great taste, and allegedly very... Show more

We spent last weekend at Disneyland. Amazingly, my younger two children did not want to go. My youngest feels clastrophobic in the lines (I don't blame him.) and Alexia would rather hang out with the girls. So it turned out that I went to Disneyland with only Michael and my son. It actually made the park easier to navigate but that is another story. We stayed with some Korean friends while we were in L.A. They live quite close to Disneyland and would have been offended if we came all that way and didn't stay with them. (My sister lives down there too but she was probably relieved that she didn't have to entertain seven extra people!) They have a daughter, five, who didn't speak any English a year ago but now naturally switches between... Show more

Last week all of the kids and staff went out for dinner. Hence "외식." 외 literally means "outside" like in 의국인 "foreigner" or literally "outside-country-person." 식 means food, or a meal. You may remember a culture class from a few months ago where the KClass crew showed us what a typical "희식" looked like. 희 in that case means company, so 희식 is a meal with your co-workers. The orphanage does this at least once a year, and by good fortune I happened to be there this year again. It's really just a fun time with the kids, and I get to seem them in a different setting. I think it's a pretty good day for them, and one they really enjoy. It is one of the rare occasions when they really get to do something special with themselves that... Show more