KoreanClass101.com Blog

The local Korean grocery store can be a cultural connection that, for many, goes largely untapped. The most obvious link to Korea through the local grocery store is the food. The store can be a source for many spices and foods not found in a regular chain grocery store. These include the mundane like curry powder, red pepper powder, soy sauce, fish sauce (젓갈) as well as the more hard to find like 고추장, 된장, 쌈장, 미역, and Korean soda pop and 요구르트 (my children love that stuff). The best food stuffs to get in the grocery store are the prepared foods. Sure, you can get "Wong's Kimchi" as your local Raleys or Vons but it is horrible, pasteurized, and not much more than pepper and cabbage. Each Korean market will have different tasting 김치 because... Show more

Korean is not the easiest language to learn, and especially when it comes to vocabulary, the speed at which your vocabulary expands is never quite satisfactory. But when there's a will to learn Korean, there will always be a way to expand your vocabulary. Studying with our regular podcast lessons in various levels and using the review tracks and PDFs to study further details is a very good way of course, and here's another way of learning more Korean words that we'd like to suggest. We decided to call it "Korean Word Relay", and we've tried making a few of them, hoping that these videos will help you learn more Korean words and also give our listeners a chance to test their vocabulary! Please give us your feedback on this... Show more

Today I want to start sharing with you some of the "struggles" at the orphanage.  By that,  I mean the kinds of things that go on that I don't think would happen in a similar environment in the Western world.  Some of it is cultural for sure, but other things are just a function of the situation. The floor at the orphanage is dirty.  There is no other word to describe it.  They have a few dogs that do all sorts of unspeakable things on it (including the one that is currently in heat).  The kids are always eating in the living room and spilling things, leaving crumbs and the like for the next guy to find. It gets cleaned each day, but "clean" seems to have a very different definition.  It isn't cleaned with soap - ever.  Usually just... Show more

If you're like me, you Fridays are your 재일 좋아하는 날 not because it's the weekend, (although that is a good reason too ^^) but because our very own 선현우 선생님 comes out with his new audio blog.  It's a great way to catch a glimpse of Korean culture and certainly a great way to practice some listening skills. If you're like me, there is always some new vocabulary in his lessons.  Having an advanced vocabulary is one of the hardest things to develop when learning a foreign language.  Take the blog about blood donation for example.  I probably talk about blood donation once or twice a year in English, but of course, I know the word.  In my Korean life, there is a vanishingly small chance that I would ever need to say that word...but I still want... Show more

We've made a guide video that explains how to enjoy studying Korean with KoreanClass101.com! And here's the youtube video! We hope you enjoy watching it, and also learn some now words and phrases from the bilingual lines! Thank you!