KoreanClass101.com Blog

Electronics. Korea is pretty much the Mecca of electronics. Samsung is here. LG is here. Both Hewlett-Packard and Energizer have Korea-based facilities. Iriver and SK Telecom are domestic-based companies that do serious sales just within Korea itself. This is one hooked up company. So much so that Korea's cell phone companies still use proprietary frequencies and encoding. Meaning that fancy new phone you bought in Yongsan probably won't function in America. Japan had been the more notorious country with this problem for travelers but recently has started to integrate worldwide carriers. Even the best VoIP software available comes at a premium for users in Korea. Skype has a pay-to-use feature that allows Skype users to call any... Show more

Last week I commented on "Culture Class #17 - The Bathhouse" that there are Korean saunas here in New York, but I didn't know how soon I'd actually go check it out because I'm not a huge fan of getting naked in public. I actually posted that on Saturday morning, but nonetheless, I found myself at 찜질방 later that same afternoon! I still haven't quite figured out how I was talked into it, but it probably had something to do with my friend saying, "Come on, 누나~ I don't want to go all by myself~" However he managed to persuade me, I'm glad for it. It's one of the best things I've ever done! Here is how the day went: I didn't know what to expect and I was quite nervous, so the entire time on the way there was spent by me being nervous,... Show more

Rice. Come on, you know Korea has some good rice. Tell me you know this and we can get along. Quick review! So we have "밥" as a rice but primarily as a meal (which could entail any type of food). There's also the rice itself, "쌀". Moving on, let's get a country bumpkin's perspective on rice, shall we? Growing up in central Texas meant that rice took on a bit of a different form that what is the norm in Korea. We're talking Tex-Mex rice - Spanish rice - the yellow-redish with tomato goodness that isn't quite Mexican but certainly not Texan. I also enjoyed (and still do) Dirty rice - a Cajun staple from our border-neighbor Louisiana (or as some Texans say "that one state to the right"). Now there was also two other kinds of rice... Show more

My cousin is visiting for a while. I thought it would be interesting to get his thoughts on what it is like to learn English here in the United States. He has only written in Korean but I will post a translation in the comments later.  Enjoy.  내가 여기 미국온지 25일정도 됐다. 처음여기에 올때에는 오면 영어정도는 쉽게 배우고 내뱉을수있다고 생각하고 왔다... 미국하면 흔히 무법자들이 흔하는도시...or  법이지배하는도시라고 생각하고 미국에 왔다. 그런데 영화나 내가 듣고 생각하는 미국과는 다르게 .조용하니 사람살기에는 참좋은 곳이라고 생각하고있다. 지금 내가 있는곳이 도시의 중심가가 아니기때문에 그럴지 모르겠지만. .사람들과 만나고 고모식구들과 생활하면서 많은 영어를듣고 배우고 있는중이다..흔히 한국에서는 미국가면2.3개월이면 듣고 6개월이면 말하고 1년이면 대화가 된다고 하는데 흔히 이건 한국에서 어느정도의 영어실력을 가지고 미국가서 유학을 가서 공부를 하는사람들의 기준이다. 나와 같은 경우는 형편없는 영어실력으로 미국에와서 듣고 배울려고 왔는데 막상 부딪혀보니 한국에서 쓰는 영어와 많은 차이가 있었다. 내가 생각하기에 한국에서 "너 영어 매우 잘한다" 라는 소리를들을 정도에서 여기오면... Show more

Last week I wrote about the Korean experiences I had during my first week here in NYC. It's been another week, and I've had many more experiences that I can share! Here we go.. First, I went to the larger Korea Town area in Flushing Queens last Saturday for a few hours. It was just me and my trusty map (in Korean, no less) and the 7 train.. As soon as I stepped out of the subway station it was like I had gone to Korea instead. All of the signs were in Korean, everyone was speaking Korean; It was much more "Korean" than the area in Manhattan. There were quite a few amazing shops that I found - a few bookstores, The Face Shop (it's the Korean version of The Body Shop, basically), and a little novelty store called Magic Castle. ... Show more