KoreanClass101.com Blog

Korea Train Express. Public transportation at a cool 186mph. Not bad. Thanks France. The official KTX website has some sweet animations (best viewed in IE - sorry world). It's an experience for sure. Kudos to 현우 for providing an overview. And here. He's awesome. Since 2005, daily commuters totaled a little more than 100,000. There were 450,000 more commuters in the second half of 2008 than of the first half due to rising oil prices (and thus higher ticket prices). The Korean government says there were about 38 million total passengers on the bullet train in 2008, a 1.9% increase from 2007. Apparently a lot of people like their speed. Now, not to freak out anyone, but some people think we should take things a bit slower if the... Show more

Are you committed to studying Korean? Do you study on the train? At home after a long day of work? While at the gym? Any moment of free time you can find? We know how serious our students are. Studying a language takes time and commitment. We know you have the commitment to study. Now we're providing you with the time to study Korean for 2 full years, hassle free! You can now study with KoreanClass101.com with our new 24 Month Subscriptions! After studying Korean with KoreanClass101.com for 24-months you can take the leap from Beginner to Advanced, have flowing and fluent conversations with native-Korean speakers, and rread books, novels, magazines, and newspapers. We want you to be able to reach those goals. That's why we've... Show more

Hi Hyunwoo here. I hope everybody is having a wonderful day and enjoying your Korean studies. Some might think there's enough variety to the list of categories on this blog already, but I've just added one more category to it. And as you can see, it's about how to translate certain words or phrases between English and Korean - sometimes from English to Korean, and other times, the other way around. I'd like to start with a very basic word describing a very important behavior, which, however, is not translated very correctly all the time. It's  'to eat.' What's the Korean word for it? It's very easy. 먹다. But the thing is, when you use it in a sentence, you always need an object noun. So for example, if you want to say "I'm... Show more

Politeness levels. 반말, 존댓말, 높임말. Essentially, this is the socially appropriate form of language that is used depending on the situation. Think "Please" and "Thank you" times a million. But if you think about it, we have this concept in English - just not as heightened. I feel that Spanish has a little more in common with Korean politeness levels. For that matter, dozens of other languages have this concept, right? Either way, it's not an easy concept to transfer. In all honesty, this was probably the most difficult transition for me when first actually speaking Korean. But like all things, I like to make a game out of it. Let's pick one of my favorite genres, the RTS. In Company of Heroes, if you want to decimate a wondering group... Show more

Korean blind dating. Awful. Painful. Haven't quite figured it out yet. I'm going out on a limb here to present my lack of confidence personal experience on the subject. I hope you'll forgive me for being frank. 소개팅 is just about as comfortable as a root canal. It's a standard game - single guy and single girl meet up in a safe, well-populated environment in hopes of finding a relationship. But it wouldn't be Korea without a twist. Let's talk about the third wheel. This person is a mutual friend that hooks the two people up. Perhaps this person might meet both people together at a cafe - and all three might sit down for a cup of coffee. The friend will try to stimulate conversation and sort of acts as a temporary match-maker. If... Show more