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Archive for the 'Korean Culture' Category

김家네

Hi everyone. Back with another Korean 간판(signboard). This is not "funny" but very interesting. I live just across the street from my university so it's very convenient whenever I receive a last-minute phone call to cancel an appointment and also when I want to meet someone around school. One day, a friend of mine from Australia called me and asked, "Do you want to have lunch together?" So I said, "Yes, where shall we meet? Where do you want to go?" So she said that she wanted to go to "김네" but I had never heard of such place near my university so I asked her back, "김네? (wondering what it could mean) Where is it? I don't think I know the place." She sounded surprised that I didn't know this place because it was... Show more

Korean artists as entertainers

In last week's entry, I mentioned briefly how Korean artists, at least those of the pop music scene, often branch out into acting and other such activities between - or even during - albums. This week, I thought I would expand on that. Something that I always found interesting to note about many artists in the pop music scene is that they aren't just singers, but entertainers. Many of them at least dabble in acting, while many others have an acting career that seems to be as much a priority as their singing career. Their extra activities don't stop there; some of the most popular artists can be seen on variety shows week after week, and many also take up positions as radio show hosts and music program MCs, or even have their own TV... Show more

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