KoreanClass101.com Blog

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

These children have precious few possessions. Most of what they have is shared. They wear whatever fits, and often it fits several kids. Seems like an unfortunate way to live. But the alternative isn't really any better is it? Simply having lots of stuff doesn't bring happiness or stability to your life either. But it is a real honor to bless the kids with something even if it's just a new pair of awesome Spiderman shoes.  Giving the presents was a real treat.  It was a lot of fun, as you saw in the video from last week's post.  The children were overjoyed, and surprisingly grateful.  They usually don't have the best of manners, so it was refreshing to see them say thank you! 

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