KoreanClass101.com Blog

Korean text input. Insanely logical. The Korean keyboard. Have you ever sat down and thought about how simplistic the setup is? We're talking about a keyboard that originally housed 26 English letters but now logistically houses 한굴. Not bad at all, really Not to mention that if I were to type in English a bunch of random letters such as "awfeiojawcneliawefiawn" the English keyboard doesn't discern between consonant and vowel - even though in English we actually do have rules about CV order. For example, a"normal" English word cannot have three vowels back-to-back (unless of course it has a French origin or other language whose rules are different). But in Korean, there are only nine possibilities for a syllable block. But keep... Show more

If you've known me for more than 15 minutes, you probably know that I really am a 13 year old fangirl at heart. This was proven last week, when Brian Joo from Fly To The Sky came here to NYC. First, let me just say that I've never seen a real live kpop performance. It just didn't happen in Nashville. So, when I moved to NYC, I was hoping to get to see someone (anyone, really) perform here. Then, my first day in the city, I saw a poster saying that Brian was coming! I immediately went online and found out how to buy a ticket. So, the big weekend finally came. Brian was doing an autograph signing at a cafe on Saturday, and I met another non-korean kpop fan here, so we decided to go together. We got in line at about 4pm and... Show more

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