KoreanClass101.com Blog

Walking around in Korea, among many other interesting shop names, you will see a lot of names that have the letter "존" in it. But even if you look up the dictionary, you wouldn't find just the right meaning for what you see in some of the store or product names, other than the meaning of 'respect' or 'existence', and of course they're not what 존 means in most sign boards. Look at the name of this PC Bang. It says 존앤존 PC방 and in English it's written Zone&Zone. But what does Zone&Zone mean and where does it come from? And look at the beverage below. What does 모메존 mean? What does 모메 mean and what's the meaning of 존 here? Of course you can't find any of those words in the dictionary because this name is also a word... Show more

안녕하세요! I'm Taliana, and a new member of this blogging team. Every Tuesday, I'll be bringing you entries about the Korean music scene. Music in general has always been a big passion of mine. I am almost always listening to music - while I'm travelling, while I'm studying, while I'm sleeping, while I'm just doing my usual daily things, while I'm reading... all the time! I'd even go as far as to say that I'm addicted to music since if I don't listen to any for a few days, I get really restless and aggravated. For several years now I've been interested in Asian music. Like most people I know, my interest started off with Japanese music, but over the past couple of years my interest has changed to Korean music. In fact, it's almost all I... Show more

This past summer we hosted the 여도초등학교 traditional Korean orchestra. The students ages ranged from 8 to 12 years (3rd through 7th grade). The 여도 elementary school is a private school funded by multiple chemical companies in the 여천공단. The orchestra came to the United States to promote the World Ocean Expo 2012 bid. (Congratulations to 여수시 for winning the bid!) For the two weeks that the students spent here we had two boys, two girls, and the school principle and his wife stay at our house. We arranged for the remaining 40 students to stay with various families in the area. Finding host families was not easy in this small community but everyone that hosted these children had a very memorable if not experience. The children had a total of... Show more

One of our listeners, Auntie, requested Hanja in the PDF's. We had a forum post, we had discussions going back and forth, and gathered feedback. And now we here at Team KoreanClass101.com are in the process of adding this function to our PDF's! Another great leaning tool for Korean education from KoreanClass101.com! This will be an indispensable aid to learn Korean and build up their vocabulary! This will build up your vocabulary exponentially! So thank you Auntie 씨 for bringing up this topic, and for generating some buzz about Hanja! This feature should be available after the New Year. We will send out a news feed to describing the way this feature is used, and the way it is intended for use. 여러분.. let's get excited about Hanja!! ... Show more

Christmas is not quite the same in Korea. Christmas Day is a recognized holiday, but many schools aren't closed during the week that follows. Gifts are exchanged, but not to the degree that some of you might be familiar with in Western, Judeo-Christian environments. Christmas at the orphanage is somewhat special though. Several different organizations and companies donate gifts to the kids. My church arranges funds to buy some new clothes for the pre-schoolers. Today was the shopping day. Each volunteer was given an envelope with 100,000원 (roughly $100) to spend on the kids. $100 goes a long way, and if you go shopping at the right places, like 동대문 (where 현우 and I went a couple weeks ago), you can REALLY stretch it. In 동대문... Show more