KoreanClass101.com Blog

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

This is a photo I took in 광주(Gwangju), the city I was born in, when I visited my parents the other day. I always love the humor found in these kinds of signboards and store names because they make it so much easier to remember the names and also show the effort that the store owner(or someone else) must have made to come up with such phrases or names. What you see is , which means nothing in English. But if you pronounce it, it's a different story :D The mathematical sign " =(equal) " is read as "는" in Korean, as in "저는 ㅇㅇㅇ입니다" So if you read it in Korean, it's "티(t)는 아이(i)". And as you can see in the bottom part of the signboard, the name is supposed to mean '튀는 아이'. Of course there's a clear distinction between 티 and 튀... Show more

Most of my family was in Korea for three weeks prior to my arrival. I travelled with my parents and my oldest daughter. My younger children attended elementary school while in Korea and generally were treated very well. Since we were travelling with my parents and only in Korea for a short period of time, we wanted to do as much sightseeing as possible. We started our tour from 여수 and worked our way back up to 서울. While in 여수 my parents did a separate tour while I took care of some dental work. I am not that fond of dentists and generally have pretty good teeth but I did have to get a crown two years ago. It cost a small fortune and didn't last all that long. I fell out two days before I left for Korea. I did not have time to get it... Show more