KoreanClass101.com Blog

As you know, this past week was New Years. We celebrated fairly simply by having some friends over for dinner. The family is a couple similar to myself and my wife; that is an American husband and a Korean wife. They have one son, six years old. The wife is from 대구 (경상도). Until recently her parents lived with them but they have returned to Korea to live now. When the son speaks Korean, he usually speaks in 경상도 사투리. He learned most of his Korean from his grandparents so his 말투 is very hard to understand. His mom's 사투리 is also difficult to understand even for my wife. Like our children, he seems much more comfortable speaking English. We had 떡국, 불고기, 김치, 빈대떡, 쌈장, 쌈 and rice (of course). The cooking was different from what my wife... Show more

Today I'd like to share something else that sometimes bothers me about the orphanage. Last time, I talked about the sanitation of the home. Thanks for your replies! Living in Korea has certainly taught me to look at things with different eyes. So much of what goes on here is related to culture, and it is easy to draw conclusions about right or wrong. I am trying to figure out how to walk the line. Today's issue though is as much about culture as it is about staffing crunch at the orphanage.  Social services isn't a very glamorous job anywhere in the world, and I'm sure it is hard to find high-quality employees to care for the children at the orphanage.  Ideally there would be 2 adults to watch the 22 elementary boys that I work... Show more

Today is the Korean New Year!! And celebrating 설날 (Seollal) is all about celebrating with your family. So we're offering something REALLY special for the KoreanClass101.com family. We are offering: 45% off a 1-year Premium Subscription! - $99 (Original Price $180) COUPON CODE: NEWYEAR45 1 year of Stand Alone Dialogs, Review Tracks, LBL audio clips, Voice recording software, customizable word banks, etc, etc! And if you don't need a full year, or a Premium subscription at that, we are also offering 25% off ANY subscription of your choice! COUPON CODE: NEWYEAR25 This deal lasts for only 3 days, so that's until February 9th!!! Hurry up and sign up!!! Check out the offers here:

Hi everyone. I'm back with another mind map, and it's about the month of February. These are the things that come to my mind as I think of the 2nd month of the year. Would you please share with me what you usually think of when it's February?

The weather at my house has been very cold (by California standards) this past week. We have had snow several times, although it did not stick. Yes, that is my favorite kind of snow, the stuff that says hello and then leaves. The snow in my wife's hometown (여수시) is similar; it typically does not stick for too long. One thing that winter and snow do bring with them is skiing. I never learned to ski growing up as it wasn't very accessible, it was expensive, and my parents aren't skiers. We now live fairly close to a small ski resort and the local schools offer skiing every Friday during the ski season, so my children have all learned how to ski. The Korean children that we have had in our house have also been skiers, including the boy... Show more