Korea Train Express. Public transportation at a cool 186mph. Not bad. Thanks France. The official KTX website has some sweet animations (best viewed in IE - sorry world). It's an experience for sure. Kudos to 현우 for providing an overview. And here. He's awesome. Since 2005, daily commuters totaled a little more than 100,000. There were 450,000 more commuters in the second half of 2008 than of the first half due to rising oil prices (and thus higher ticket prices). The Korean government says there were about 38 million total passengers on the bullet train in 2008, a 1.9% increase from 2007. Apparently a lot of people like their speed. Now, not to freak out anyone, but some people think we should take things a bit slower if the... Show more

Politeness levels. 반말, 존댓말, 높임말. Essentially, this is the socially appropriate form of language that is used depending on the situation. Think "Please" and "Thank you" times a million. But if you think about it, we have this concept in English - just not as heightened. I feel that Spanish has a little more in common with Korean politeness levels. For that matter, dozens of other languages have this concept, right? Either way, it's not an easy concept to transfer. In all honesty, this was probably the most difficult transition for me when first actually speaking Korean. But like all things, I like to make a game out of it. Let's pick one of my favorite genres, the RTS. In Company of Heroes, if you want to decimate a wondering group... Show more

Korean blind dating. Awful. Painful. Haven't quite figured it out yet. I'm going out on a limb here to present my lack of confidence personal experience on the subject. I hope you'll forgive me for being frank. 소개팅 is just about as comfortable as a root canal. It's a standard game - single guy and single girl meet up in a safe, well-populated environment in hopes of finding a relationship. But it wouldn't be Korea without a twist. Let's talk about the third wheel. This person is a mutual friend that hooks the two people up. Perhaps this person might meet both people together at a cafe - and all three might sit down for a cup of coffee. The friend will try to stimulate conversation and sort of acts as a temporary match-maker. If... Show more

Before I say anything else: over on KoME we had the chance to interview the very successful, and my personal favourite, hiphop trio Epik High. We asked them about their upcoming album Map The Soul, their musical influences, and they even gave us their opinions on issues such as censorship in the Korean music industry (something I wrote about last year right here), and music in the digital era. You can check out the interview here. They had plenty to say! So. 서태지 is on a mission to foil my plans every Wednesday. The MV for Juliet still isn't out yet (okay, so I have no idea when it's even supposed to be released, but considering how long the single has been out now I just assumed the MV would be out already too). But there is a 15... Show more

김치. Delicious. Bold. Distinct. (see also: Smelly. Spicy. Scary) It's true, not everyone likes kimchi. Then again, not everyone likes soju. Or chocolate for that matter. If you detest kimchi, I weep for you. Moving on. Yes, I'm being biased. Of course I am. I frakin love kimchi. It's comfort food. It goes with any dish. It smells good. It's dynamic. It's essential. What was my life before kimchi? We don't speak of that time... My history with kimchi is a sad one. We got off on the wrong foot - kimchi and I. See, when I got in trouble as a small boy, my father used to say to me, "You're in deep kimchi now, mister". Well, it didn't take much for me to put two and two together to assume that kimchi was something bad (in this case, a... Show more