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Archive for the 'Korean Culture' Category

Digital singles – when downloading mp3s is legal!

I've spent the past week wondering what to write about for today's blog entry. I don't want to start writing about specific groups or even specific genres for another couple of weeks, so I was wondering for most of the week what I could write about. It's one of those things where there's just so much to write about that you end up not knowing what to write at all because you don't even know where to start I have that problem a lot XD But when I signed on today, I found that a couple of artists that I like have released digital singles, and so in that I have found my topic for today :D Digital singles - tracks that you can legally download from the artist's/label's website - are something that certainly aren't exclusive to the... Show more

Is your belly button bigger than your belly?

Hi everyone, did you all have a good start of the new year? From reading the signboard, can you guess what this pub is emphasizing? :) If you can, you really understand a lot of Korean! But even if you don't, don't worry because it's an old saying, and it's only a part of the original saying. The saying goes "배보다 배꼽이 크다." which means "Your belly button(navel) is bigger than your stomach." Korean people say this when someone forgets what's really important and ends up making or doing more of something that is extra. For example, when you see someone taking a taxi and paying 100 dollars in order to go shopping to a cheaper mall and save 50 dollars, or when you see someone cooking just for three people and buying the amount of... Show more

2007’s releases

I decided that for this entry, I would take a look back over 2007 and talk about my favourite releases of the year. I'll even be linking to some of 2007's MVs! And a couple of my friends are into slightly different artists, so I even asked them for some of their own highlights of the year, so that I could bring you guys a bit of a variety. 2007 saw the release of a lot of good stuff. I hate to think how much money I've spent this year buying new releases as well as older ones. We'll start off with a couple of albums that were the highlights of 2007 for me. (HipHop) The year started off with a bang, with the release of Epik High's fourth album, Remapping The Human Soul. It was 2 discs packed full of amazing hiphop, and I really,... Show more

존 = zone?

Walking around in Korea, among many other interesting shop names, you will see a lot of names that have the letter "존" in it. But even if you look up the dictionary, you wouldn't find just the right meaning for what you see in some of the store or product names, other than the meaning of 'respect' or 'existence', and of course they're not what 존 means in most sign boards. Look at the name of this PC Bang. It says 존앤존 PC방 and in English it's written Zone&Zone. But what does Zone&Zone mean and where does it come from? And look at the beverage below. What does 모메존 mean? What does 모메 mean and what's the meaning of 존 here? Of course you can't find any of those words in the dictionary because this name is also a word... Show more

Ever heard the saying “Music is my drug”?

안녕하세요! I'm Taliana, and a new member of this blogging team. Every Tuesday, I'll be bringing you entries about the Korean music scene. Music in general has always been a big passion of mine. I am almost always listening to music - while I'm travelling, while I'm studying, while I'm sleeping, while I'm just doing my usual daily things, while I'm reading... all the time! I'd even go as far as to say that I'm addicted to music since if I don't listen to any for a few days, I get really restless and aggravated. For several years now I've been interested in Asian music. Like most people I know, my interest started off with Japanese music, but over the past couple of years my interest has changed to Korean music. In fact, it's almost all I... Show more