KoreanClass101.com Blog

For your reading pleasure my daughter is going to tell us all about her experience at a 찜질방.  So, in Korea, there are these things called 찜질방. usually, there's a 목욕탕 there too. When I went to korea a few years ago, a few of my friends had talked about a 찜질방, but I didn't know what it was, only that it was 'fun'. So this year I got to find out. I went there with a couple of my friends and upon entering the building, it appeared to be just a 목욕탕. The person at the counter gave us some  pink uniforms (shorts and a T-shirt kind of thing). Then we went up a few flights of stairs and put our things in some lockers and changed into our uniforms outside of a small 목욕탕. Then we went up more stairs and into a big room. There were people (men,... Show more

I spent my Christmas traversing around Korea, so I'm sorry I can't tell you what happened on Christmas Day. Perhaps I'll have some things to report after my next visit. Today I want to share about something I got from them just before my vacation. On Friday that kicked off the winter holiday, my friend Josh and I had a little Christmas party with the elementary boys. We went to Costco, bought some snacks, and rented Harry Potter. That evening, after dinner, I couldn't find any of the official orphanage staff. The kids were a little rowdy, and they don't really listen to us well, so I was looking for a Korean adult. One of the boys told me that 오마 was out "buying clothes." Seems like a strange errand for 7PM on a Friday, doesn't... Show more

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

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

When my wife and I first had children (child actually since you have to start somewhere) we decided to try to raise her by speaking Korean to her at home. This worked for a while, her first spoken words were in Korean (although I can't remember exactly what they were -shame-). She probably said 마마, I'll have to look this up in her baby book now... Some of her first sentences were in Korean as well. I think that my parents were frustrated and amused at her bilingualness. Once her socialization expanded beyond our immediate family her Korean language use decreased to the point that after beginning school she hardly spoke it at all. Now, as a teenager, she is trying to regain her Korean ability. With our younger two children we have... Show more