KoreanClass101.com Blog

Saying hello. Okay okay, everyone knows it by now. I'm about as country as they come. I open doors for women, I tip my hat to old people, and I say "howdy" to everyone I meet. Laugh it up and move on, city boy. Where I come from, saying "hello" to everyone is considered normal, if not polite. If I'm in line at the grocery store and I see my friend and his family, it's normal for him to say hello to me and then perhaps introduce my relationship to his family. "Hey Matthew. Good to see you. Dad, you remember Matthew? We went to junior high together. Don't you remember? He was the one who cried in his sleep...you remember taking him back home during that sleepover in sixth grade? The one who was apologizing the whole way home?" Yeah.... Show more

That’s right; we said it! We don’t think you can do it! Oh, don’t get us wrong, we believe you can do anything you set your mind to here at KoreanClass101.com… but how hard will you really try to bleed us of our money? Hmm… I guess we’ll see at the end of August. What are we talking about? Our $10,100 Summer Giveaway, that’s what! And what is THAT, you say? Well, first of all, we are giving away many, many, MANY free subscriptions - $10,100 worth of FREE Premium and 101 Basic subscriptions to be exact! And entering is a piece of cake! You can enter in KoreanClass101.com’s $10,100 Giveaway, by doing one or ALL of the following:  Follow KoreanClass101.com on Twitter  Become a fan of KoreanClass101.com on Facebook ... Show more

Woah. Did I just go there? It's true. I know it's a sensitive subject. I may not be able to do this delicate matter complete justice but I do want to resume dialogue about this matter. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. However, like always, I pledge to be open-minded and sensitive. But, I will have to at least recognize some differences between American and Korean ideas of healthy body types. Please take this entry as my own opinion sprinkled with a generous serving of sarcasm. Eat up. It's good for you. It's safe to conclude that neither country has a single, uniform opinion about what a healthy body looks like. For some, it's being dangerous skinny enough to shop for summertime bikinis in the toddler section. For... Show more

I mentioned pop-rock group FT 아일랜드 (FT Island) back in January (check out that post if you want to know a little bit more about them!), when it was announced that guitarist 원빈 (Wonbin) was leaving them and that his spot would be filled by 승현 (Seunghyun). I was curious to see how things would go with the new member, as well as being quite sad, since I'd followed FT Island since they were preparing to debut and 원빈 had always been there. It was definitely going to be a change. But it's turned out to be a change that I really, really like. 승현 fits in with the rest of the group really well, and he even looks like he belongs there. The change also didn't see FT Island's music changing in any ways that it wasn't already - I feel that it... Show more

Tipping and VAT (부가세). In America, it's what we do. We tip. It's a short discussion at the end of a meal, but just like the credits at the end of movie, who really sticks around and pays attention? Leave the tip and be on your way. Who cares? Answer: anyone who's waited tables before. The tip makes or breaks a server's day. A generous tip will make your shift 20x more tolerable and a dinky tip will leave you wondering why you even try to be nice let alone flirt with that girl who was clearly not your type. What was I talking about? Oh yeah the analogy. So, if we follow the movie theater comparison, then Koreans hit the road as soon as the guy gets the girl and doesn't so much as stick around to see who directed the flick. In short,... Show more