South Korea Archives - Where to Kim?

Review: Korean Hanja Bible for Teachers

Kim — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 14:00:00 +0000

Do you like characters? In this Korean Hanja dictionary, you can look up 2355 Hanja and find out what Korean words they are used in.

Why learn Hanja (Korean characters)? It’s not about the Hanja themselves, but about creating understanding. By learning which characters a Korean word of Chinese origin consists of, you will learn new words faster. Let’s take 정 (正) as an example. This part means “correct” and you can find it in words like 정확하다, 정각, and 부정. If you know that correct is a possible meaning of 정 (not the only one), you can sometimes guess the meaning of words you encounter for the first time. You can also infer these meanings by looking at many Korean words, but this is less efficient.

As a Korean language learner, you don’t need this rather expensive book at all. This Hanja Bible is only for those with an (unhealthy) academic obsession with characters and languages (like me!). In this book, you will find an overview of all these characters that are hardly used in everyday life, except for the occasional character in the newspaper (like north 北) and the characters for big (大), middle (中) and small (小) in markets. Hanja is used more in academic books, but most non-Koreans are unlikely to read them. Thanks to the invention of Hangul, Korean is quite easy to read.

Content

Let’s take a look inside.

Hanja

In this Hanja Bible you will find 2355 Hanjas arranged by school level, spread over 1227 pages. The Hanja for the lower levels are more detailed than the later ones. This is only natural because the last few hundred characters in the book are less common and occur only in a few words such as place names.

For each Hanja you see:

The shape of the character plus a drawing of the stroke order and the number of strokes.
The radical.
The Chinese character it corresponds to and the Pinyin. If only they’d included the Japanese characters and pronunciation this book would have been perfect.
The pronunciation and meaning of the character. For 正, this is listed as 바를 정 and 정월 정, where the first words indicate the meaning and the second words indicate the pronunciation. These descriptions help you talk about the characters and distinguish them from other characters pronounced 정. The meaning is further illustrated in a short text box that often includes English translations of the examples.
A list of Korean words in which this character was used as the first or second character. These examples include the Korean word in Hangul, the Korean word in Hanja, the separate meanings of both characters used in the word, an English translation, and a Korean explanation of the meaning.

The design of the entries is very pleasant and you can easily find the information you are looking for. The use of red, black and gray ink, the indents, squares and bold formatting is excellent. The book is quite large, so you will not carry it with you everywhere, nor will you use it anywhere but at a desk. But the positive side of this is that the book has a lot of information and the font is large enough that you can read the text from a distance and tell the characters apart.

Addendum

In the first part of the addendum, you can read more about the origins of Hanja and how they are constructed. This section helps teachers explain the material to their students. What may be more interesting for Korean language learners is the second addendum which explains different ways Hanja can be combined to make Korean words, whether it is a verb plus a noun, an adverb with an adjective, or some other combination. The third addendum lists the four character idioms (사자성어) both ordered by school level and alphabetically.

Since this book is aimed at teachers, most of the information in the addendum is intended to be imparted in the classroom. However, the following sections are also incredibly useful for foreign language learners: they address common mistakes made by Hanja learners.

The fourth section contains some characters with more than one pronunciation. Remember how the negative (不) before a word can sometimes appear as 불 or 부? Don’t worry, it doesn’t get as bad as it does in Japanese.
The fifth section then explores the characters with multiple pronunciations some more by listing the most common mistakes made by not using the correct alternative meaning.

Section six is perhaps my favorite addendum because it lists characters that are very similar and are often confused with one of the others. A perfect study tool to help you finally tell these characters apart. If you are also learning Japanese or Chinese then it will be very helpful if you improve your character recognition skills in this way.

Indexes

At the very end of the book you find two indexes (sections seven and eight):

Hanja ordered by school level
Hanja ordered by pronunciation

Both indexes list the Hanja’s pronunciation, character shape, school level and page number. You will use the second index the most because it is perfect for quickly finding characters and also for studying a specific morpheme. If you want to know what meanings to expect for words containing the 정 element, you can study the thirty characters pronounced 정. Don’t let this number discourage you: not all of them are used often.

Interested?

Are you interested in learning more about Hanja at a more academic level? Then this resource is perfect for you. If you are a casual learner, then you can safely ignore this book. You can buy the Hanja Bible for Teachers from Gmarket.

Also read: Best Textbooks for Learning Korean

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6x Try If You Dare Korean Food

Kim — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 14:00:00 +0000

Have you tried Baby Octopus Sashimi, Sea Pineapple and Makchang BBQ? Try to eat them in South Korea. If you dare.

Let me start by managing expectations. This list is written from my own perspective. These dishes might not seem daring to you at all and perhaps you eat them regularly. But for me, the sannakji (#1) and sea pineapple (#2) were especially challenging. In fact, the people I traveled with to South Korea didn’t even try #1, that dish was all mine!

So challenge yourself and try some food from this list. Let me know in the comments if you love or hate them.

1) Sannakji (산낙지)

Have you tried Korean Baby Octopus sashimi? Don’t worry: it is dead. The nerve system just doesn’t know it yet. The severed tentacles move freely on your plate and also in your mouth, where they attach themselves to the inside of your mouth. This feels very interesting. If you chew on it a few times, it stops and you can swallow the tentacle safely.

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At Daecheon beach near Boryeong, I saw one of the cooks take the baby octopus out of the tank and slice it up right before serving. You can’t get fresher than that. Funnily enough, I didn’t even order sannakji: I ordered a different kind of sashimi and got the sannakji as a side dish.

If you are visiting Seoul, you can find sannakji at one of the fish markets, for example Noryangjin Fish Market.

2) Sea Pineapple (멍게)

Sometimes you stumble upon some very interesting food and you don’t know what it is. You can guess that it comes from the sea because the stall selling it is right next to the sea and you do recognize other objects in the fish tanks and bowls. So what do you do? You point at it and order it.

This is how I met a sea pineapple on Jeju Island and at many other fish markets in South Korea. A sea pineapple is a beautiful orange sea squirt that is most commonly eaten as sashimi in South Korea and Japan. If you look it up online you will see the flavor described as “something like iodine” and “rubber dipped in ammonia”. This seems pretty accurate and luckily they served it with some alcohol (Soju) and red pepper paste (Gochujang). You’ll need it! Combined with the peppery and burning taste, the flavor of the sea pineapple is somewhat neutralized. I did not like the taste and would not recommend it to anyone. However, you’ll have to agree with me that sometimes you just have to try the unknown, especially when it looks as intriguing as this sea pineapple.

3) Chicken Feet (닭발)

At Gwangjang Market in Seoul, you can try chicken feet. If you are from Asia, this may not seem very exotic to you, but for me, this is something I cannot order at home. Chicken feet are a little spicy and chewy with a bite. There are no bones in them. It can be a challenge for amateur chopstick users!

If you order from one of the restaurants in the market, you can also order Tteokbokki, Mung Bean Pancake and Gimbap and try many popular Korean street food snacks all at once!

4) Sea Cucumber (해삼)

Sea cucumbers are found worldwide at the bottom of the sea, but I doubt many people from my country are aware of it. A sea cucumber has an elongated body and a leathery skin. You can buy them in most fish markets and they are on the menu in Chinese restaurants in South Korea. It was one of those things I saw everywhere, didn’t know the name of, and ended up ordering randomly from a photo. Combined with pork belly in one dish, the sea cucumber by itself didn’t have a very strong flavor. Do try this one!

5) Makchang (막창)

Instead of pork belly, you can also grill pork intestines on the Korean BBQ. This is called Makchang and the city Daegu is famous for it. You can find many Korean BBQ restaurants serving Makchang near Anjilang (안지랑), a street in Daegu filled with restaurants specialized in Makchang. It is a bit out of the way, but don’t worry: most Korean BBQ restaurants around Dongseong-ro also serve Makchang. You can often also order samgyeopsal (grilled pork belly) if you or one of your party prefers to eat something else.

6) Dotorimuk Acorn Jelly (도토리묵)

Dotorimuk is a jelly made from acorn starch. It is often eaten as a side dish, seasoned and mixed with other ingredients such as carrots and sesame, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, red chili pepper powder, and sesame seeds. This is necessary because the acorn jelly does not have an interesting flavor by itself; but it does charm you into trying it at least once with its smooth flubby texture.

Now you also know what the little brownish cubes or slices are called that you sometimes get as a side dish. If the jelly is white in color, it is made from mung beans; if it is light brown, it may be made from buckwheat or acorn starch.

Have these dishes left a bitter taste in your mouth? Then look for Korean desserts or sweet snacks to restore the balance.

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10x Korean Sweet Snacks and Desserts

Kim — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 14:00:00 +0000

What are the most interesting Korean sweet snacks and desserts to try in South Korea?

Eating dessert in South Korea is a little different than what I’m used to in my country. Where I live, dessert is the last course of the meal and you usually eat it at the restaurant that you’re having dinner at. In South Korea, you have to go to a restaurant or cafe that specializes in desserts or to a street food stall. In a way, this is very good for your health: moving around promotes digestion and you get a chance to reconsider your intention to eat dessert. After all, you have already eaten a delicious main course with many side dishes.

Read on for the sweets and desserts to try during your trip to South Korea.

1) Shaved Ice Dessert (팥빙수)

Shaved ice is the dessert that most comes to mind when you think of Korean desserts. There are many places that specialize in serving shaved ice with all kinds of toppings. The most common toppings are fruit and red bean paste.

The portions are very large, so people usually share one dessert. Except for first-time visitors to South Korea, who start by ordering one per person. I’ve been there…

You can find this dessert all over the country, for example at Suncheon Wetland Reserve (the one on the picture) or Jaman Mural Village in Jeonju.

2) Honey Bread (허니브레드)

This sweet snack will tempt you every time you have a drink at a café and feel slightly hungry. When you order Honey Bread, you basically get a brick of pre-cut toasted white bread, with honey, whipped cream and maybe some chocolate sauce, fruit and seeds on top. If the cafe attendant is adept at toasting bread, the result is delicious.

3) Honey Glazed Walnuts & Walnut Cookies

When I went to eat Buddhist temple-style food at Bukchon Hanok Village in Seoul, I was very surprised when they served two honey-glazed walnuts with some tea as the last course of the meal. This turned out to be both a brilliant memory and a savory experience. I have never been so happy with a dessert; it was the perfect way to end a well-balanced meal.

Another sweet snack with walnuts is Walnut Cookies/Cakes (호두과자). These round mini pancakes are filled with red bean paste and walnut pieces. You won’t find these in a traditional Korean restaurant, but you will at street food stalls.

4) Rice Cake

When you visit a traditional Korean tea house, you can order rice cakes as a snack. This rice cake comes in many varieties. After first trying the steamed rice cake that many teahouses serve, I soon discovered that there are also very tasty other kinds.

My favorite was the grilled rice cake at Seochon Hanok Village in Seoul. The most daring by far was the mugwort rice cake at Ganghwa‘s Jeondeungsa Temple. Made with locally grown mugwort! If you’re looking for something completely different – although it doesn’t go so well with pu-erh tea – you can look for rice cake with cheese and honey sauce in Eungpyeong Hanok Village.

5) Dried Jujube Chips (대추)

Dried Jujube is used as an ingredient in traditional Korean tea, but can also be served as a snack in cafes and tea houses. This sweet, crunchy snack goes very well with many drinks.

The picture above is from a tea house at Bomunsa Temple on Seokmodo.

6) Hotteok (호떡)

Hotteok is one of the must-try tourist snacks in South Korea. This Korean pancake filled with sweet rice and sugar is what you might be craving after eating spicy rice cakes. The hotteok on Myeongdong Street is a bit bland, but you can find pancakes with more delicious fillings elsewhere.

In the city of Busan, you can eat a special Busan-style hotteok: one filled with a mixture of nuts and seeds. If you are heading to the Gogunsan Islands (I know, small chance), you can visit 호떡당커피 to try their hotteok filled with nuts, cheese or vegetables.

7) Strawberry Rice Cake (딸기 모찌/찹쌀떡)

Strawberry Rice Cake is a Korean Glutinous Rice snack stuffed with red bean paste and a strawberry. This street food is perfect if you want to pretend you are eating a healthy dessert. It is fresh and sweet. Treat yourself to this strawberry mochi at the end of your meal.

Myeongdong Street is a great place to look for this snack. It is also gaining ground in Jeonju’s Hanok Village.

8) Red Bean Paste Bread

A visit to Gyeongju, South Korea’s “museum without walls,” is not complete without having tasted its Red Bean Bread. Is it tasty? Anything with a filling of red bean paste is an acquired taste. I’m not a big fan of the sweetness, but if everyone else buys one so do I.

Like Gyeongju, many other cities sell a local delicacy that domestic and foreign visitors like to take home as souvenirs. One example is Tongyeong‘s Honey Baked Bread.

9) Rainbow Cake

This colorful cake will look familiar to fans of Korean TV shows. Not all cafes sell rainbow cakes – in fact, most don’t – but somewhere along your journey you will stumble upon a piece and be tempted to eat it. It tastes like regular cake, so nothing special, but it is beautiful to look at.

10) Traditional homemade confectionery

If you are staying in traditional Korean homes (for example, in Andong), the lady of the house may pleasantly surprise you with a plate of homemade sweets. On your plate, you are likely to find sugared dried fruit, nuts with honey, and steamed rice cake.

Also read: 11x Delicious Lesser-known Korean Food

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9 Must-Try Korean Street Food Snacks in Seoul

Kim — Wed, 26 May 2021 14:00:00 +0000

These are the Korean street food snacks that all tourists go for. You’ve got to try them once, right? You can find all of them in South Korea’s capital Seoul.

You can find most of the street food snacks on this list in Seoul’s tourist hotspot and most famous street food area Myeongdong Street.

If you’re looking for a more substantial meal, then take a look at Korea’s most famous dishes or some delicious lesser-known Korean meals.

1) Tteokbokki (떡볶이)

Spicy rice cakes are a must-try for anyone visiting Seoul. The cylindrical rice cakes are cooked in an anchovy broth along with fish cake, red pepper paste and red pepper powder to create this spicy snack that is one of the most popular street foods in South Korea. If you’re making your own, you can add scallions, sesame seeds and boiled eggs for an even richer flavor.

You can usually find tteokbokki at the street food market of Myeongdong Street (Myeongdong neighborhood) and markets such as Gwangjang market (Dongdaemun neighborhood).

2) Hotteok (호떡)

This Korean pancake filled with sweet rice and sugar is what you might be craving after eating spicy rice cakes. The hotteok on Myeongdong Street is a bit bland, but you can find pancakes with more delicious fillings elsewhere.

3) Mung Bean Pancake (빈대떡)

Another delicious Korean pancake is made from mung beans. This is the most famous snack to try at the Gwangjang market in Seoul. At the market, you will find many stalls that make this pancake before your eyes. Take a seat right in front of the stall or order a pancake from a restaurant on the side. The restaurants will collect your order from the stalls in the market.

4) Chicken Feet (닭발)

At the same Gwangjang Market, you can try chicken feet. If you are from Asia, this may not seem very exotic to you, but for me, this is something I cannot order at home. Chicken feet are a little spicy and chewy with a bite. There are no bones in them. It can be a challenge for amateur chopstick users!

If you order from one of the restaurants in the market, you can try Tteokbokki, Mung Bean Pancake, Chicken Feet and Gimbap all at once!

5) Gimbap (김밥)

Gimbap looks like Korean-style sushi. You can buy gimbap-to-go at markets, food stalls and convenience stores. I described this snack as “looks like sushi” because that is how it probably looks to tourists, even though this dish has been around for a very long time in South Korea. Koreans have a habit of eating rice rolled in dried seaweed.

In Korean Gimbap, cooked rice and many other ingredients are rolled in dried sheets of seaweed called gim and flavored with sesame oil. This snack comes in many varieties: you can buy gimbap with cheese, bulgogi beef, and lunch meat, for example. The specialty of Gwangjang Market is 마약김밥, a gimbap filled with carrots, spinach, and yellow pickled radish.

6) Fish Cake (어묵)

If you’ve ever watched a Korean TV drama, you’ve probably seen the characters eat fish cake on a stick. Does it taste good? It’s probably an acquired taste. I don’t think many tourists will like it, because it can taste a little bland. The broth plays a big role. But as with all the snacks on this list, you just have to try it, right?

You can buy fish cake at many food stalls throughout Seoul, such as on Myeongdong Street. Service points along highways and stores in tourist hotspots (like the Sokcho cable car station) also sell fish cake on a stick.

7) Strawberry Rice Cake (딸기 모찌/찹쌀떡)

Myeongdong Street is a great place to look for this snack. It is also gaining ground in Jeonju’s Hanok Village.

8) Twisted doughnuts (꽈배기)

The name says it all: donuts that are twisted instead of round. They are a bit firmer than the round donuts most of us are familiar with. You can often buy them at markets and festivals. I pretty much ignored their existence in Seoul, but I did eat one from Namdaemun Market. Later, I saw them everywhere, for example at Suncheon‘s market and Jinan’s Red Ginseng Festival.

9) Sweet Potato (고구마) and Chestnuts (군밤)

Sweet potatoes are often used in South Korean dishes, desserts and drinks. You’ll find them in pizza, cakes and lattes, as well as on their own as a roasted (군고구마) or steamed (찐고구마) snack at a street food stall. The same street vendors often sell roasted chestnuts and other nuts.

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11x Delicious Lesser-known Korean Food

Kim — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 14:00:00 +0000

Have you already tried all the famous Korean dishes? Then it’s time to try other delicious dishes that many foreigners have never heard of.

1) Chuotang (추어탕)

Chuotang is the Korean nickname for Mudfish Soup or Pond Loach Soup. You’ll also find it on the menu as 미꾸라지탕. This is my favorite dish! The boiled and afterward sieved loach is added to a beef or chicken broth and boiled again. The seasoning consists of gochujang (red pepper paste), doenjang (soybean paste), ginger and black pepper. The vegetables vary per restaurant.

Although Namwon is famous for this dish, you can also order this on islands like Jeungdo and Ganghwa. In the mud on the terrain of Jeungdo’s Salt Farm, you can see the mudfish in action.

2) Raw Marinated Crab (게장)

With this dish you are in for a challenge. Unless you are a pro at dissecting crabs.

Fresh crabs are marinated with either a soy sauce to make 간장게장 or a spicy marinade to make 양념게장. As before, the best chance of finding these dishes is on islands like Ganghwa and Yeosu. Restaurants specialized in this dish will also serve tiny raw marinated crabs as side dishes.

3) Beef Patties (장산적)

Beef Patties are a mix of pork, beef, tofu and seasoning. These patties are then broiled in teriyaki sauce. A good place to order beef patties is in Jeonju’s Hanok Village where you will get them with pineapple slices and cheese on the side.

4) Sundae (순대)

Sundae is Korean style blood sausage usually made with pig’s intestines stuffed with rice and other ingredients. You can often buy sundae as a snack on the street or at festivals. Do give it a try! Sundae soup (순대국) is very delicious.

In Sokcho’s Abai village you can try a variety with squid instead of pig’s intestines.

5) Naengmyeon (냉면)

Naengmyeon is a cold noodle dish that is very popular in summer. You will often find thin, long and handmade buckwheat noodles inside an icy broth, though other types of noodles are used as well.

6) Sundubu-jjigae (순두부찌개)

Sundubu-jjigae is a spicy soft tofu stew. It is delicious, easy to digest, and perfect for every occasion. The basic ingredients are soft tofu, mushrooms, onions and red pepper paste or powder. You’ll find this stew in many varieties, for example with seafood (clams, mussels, shrimps) or meat (beef or pork). It is served sizzling hot.

If you prefer a less spicy stew, choose Doenjang-jjigae, a stew flavored with soybean paste.

7) Gomtang (곰탕)

Gomtang is a beef broth soup made with parts of beef like oxtail, ribs and brisket. A healthy soup with a milky (or brownish) color perfect for days when you have a low appetite.

8) Gyeran-jjim (계란찜)

This steamed egg side dish can easily be made at home. Gyeranjjim is made with eggs, anchovy broth, salted shrimp or salt and scallions. You can add more vegetables (zucchini and carrots are good choices) if you like. It is often served in an earthenware pot. Other varieties use chicken broth and fish sauce or soy sauce.

9) Abalone (전복)

Abalone is not a dish but deserves an entry because Korean abalones are delicious. Wando is known for its abalones (and seaweed). If that’s a bit out of the way – it’s in the far south after all – you can also eat abalones in fish markets like Seoul’s Noryangjin Fish Market.

10) Grilled Eel (장어구이)

If you are visiting Busan, then Eel Street near Haeundae Beach should be high on your list. This street is home to all kinds of seafood and I even found a restaurant that served bulgogi as a side dish (for the only non-fish lover in our party). The grilled eel comes in many variations, both in taste and presentation. If you can choose, try to order one that is boned. When I ordered my dish, the bones were still in it and the restaurant owners expected me to wrap them in lettuce and eat them whole. That still baffles me.

11) Bossam (보쌈)

If you order Bossam, you will be served thinly sliced pieces of pork boiled in spices like star anise and ginger; the exact mixture varies. Like Korean BBQ, you wrap the pork with ssamjang (sauce), garlic, kimchi, lettuce or perilla leaves in one delicious package.

Traditionally, this dish is associated with the process of making Kimchi at the beginning of winter: a festive meal to thank the workers.

(Don’t mind the picture: the restaurant wasn’t that fancy. It can look way more delicious).

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11 Most Famous Korean Dishes

Kim — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 15:00:00 +0000

These are the eleven most famous Korean dishes; the dishes you simply have to try when you travel to South Korea.

And even if you are determined to choose a lesser-known Korean dish, restaurant owners will suggest these dishes to you if you take too long (say one minute) to decide what to eat from the Korean menu. You’d think they’d be impressed that you made an effort to translate and understand the menu….

1) Korean BBQ

The number one spot on this list goes to Korean Barbeque. If you have ever watched a Korean TV show or movie, you will have seen this one. So go find a Korean BBQ restaurant and grill your own meat. If they let you… Restaurant staff are very helpful, and as such, they will go out of their way to help you grill and cut the meat.

The most common meat to put on the grill is samgyeopsal (pork belly, 삼겹살), but you can often buy other cuts of pork, or beef and chicken. On Jeju Island, you can try black pork, and if you go to a seafood restaurant, for example in Boryeong‘s Daecheon beach, you can grill shellfish and snails, or eel.

When the meat is ready, take a perilla leaf or lettuce, add some garlic, ssamjang (spicy sauce), kimchi, rice, the meat you grilled, and whatever else you like to wrap it up in a delicious package.

2) Korean Fried Chicken (치킨 / 닭강정)

The Korean Fried Chicken is a contender for the #1 spot on this list. Ideal for takeout or delivery, but also lots of fun to eat in a restaurant. This dish often comes with radishes and tastes very good with beer. You’ll need the beer and radish if you order one of the spicy flavors. The crispy coating is what makes Korean Fried Chicken so delicious.

3) Bulgogi (불고기)

Bulgogi – nicknamed Korean BBQ beef – is thinly sliced beef marinated in a sweet sauce. It is the number one dish so helpfully recommended by restaurant staff and other customers when you seem to be having trouble deciding what to eat. And by difficulty, I mean that it takes you more than a minute to decipher the all-Korean menu.

4) Jjajangmyeon (짜장면) / Jjajangbap

Have you also spent some time wondering what the noodle dish with black bean sauce (춘장) is called? It is Jjajangmyeon (with noodles) or Jjajangbap (with rice). It is usually served in Chinese restaurants in South Korea, or tiny restaurants that specialize in this dish. You will usually find cubes of pork and vegetables in it, but you can also order a seafood version with octopus, shrimp and the like.

5) Dakgalbi (닭갈비)

The city of Chuncheon is famous for its Dakgalbi. There is a whole street – Myeongdong street – that specializes in this dish. It consists of pieces of chicken, cabbage, rice cake, sweet potato and, of course, spicy sauce. In the Hongdae neighborhood of Seoul, I found a restaurant that serves cheese on the side.

6) Bibimbap (비빔밥)

Bibimbap is rice topped with thinly sliced vegetables and meat or seafood. You can often choose from different toppings, including vegetarian options. The city of Jeonju is famous for its Bibimbap with raw beef tartare.

What makes Bibimbap such a great choice is that you never know what vegetables are going to be used. In Sokcho I ate this dish with wild mountain vegetables and in Tongyeong seaweed was added to the rice (and sliced sashimi).

7) Stir-fried Spicy Pork (제육볶음)

You will find this dish on the menu in most restaurants and it always tastes delicious. The degree of spiciness and the side dishes vary from restaurant to restaurant, so you can order this dish over and over again.

8) Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup (삼계탕)

This soup is great for your health, so if you feel like you’re about to get a cold, have some Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup (Samgyetang). See if you can find a specialized restaurant because this dish deserves to be eaten at its best.

What makes this chicken soup so special is that you find a whole chicken in your soup bowl, which you then get to dissect with chopsticks and a spoon. The chicken is stuffed with rice, Korean ginseng, jujube, chestnuts, ginko nuts and garlic.

9) Army Stew (부대찌개)

When you lack inspiration, you can’t go wrong with a skillet filled with army stew (budae jjigae) in front of you. This may not be the healthiest dish on this list, but it will fill your belly.

In the stew you will usually find spam, sausages, tofu, enoki, rice cake, and a variety of vegetables.

10) Porridge (죽)

Porridge is a light meal and is therefore often served to sick people. A porridge of pine nuts or one with abalone does wonders for health. It is also a good option for breakfast, as porridge restaurants open early. You can also buy porridge as a quick meal or sweet treat (red bean porridge and pumpkin porridge) at a traditional market.

11) Seaweed Soup (미역국)

Seaweed soup is often served on birthdays, but if you visit Korean islands like Wando and Bogil, you’ll get it as a side dish to your main meal. Nothing beats a seaweed soup with an assortment of locally grown seaweed.

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Learn These 8 Advanced Korean Grammar Points before Reading Your First Novel

Kim — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 15:00:00 +0000

Advanced and uncommon Korean grammar points that you should know as an intermediate learner of the Korean language. Very useful when you start reading novels!

It is tempting to start reading a real Korean novel when you’ve only just started to learn Korean. As a beginner or lower intermediate Korean language learner, you have probably studied lots of grammar, but you are as well-versed as your textbook or grammar book decided to teach you.

Upon starting to read novels that aren’t meant for young kids, you’ll come across many more grammar points – some more frequent than others – that can prevent you from understanding the nuances of the story.

Below I’ll explain some grammar points that I wish I had known before I started reading. Some of them were not easy to look up (and took time away from reading), and other endings kept confusing me because they looked so similar to grammar points I did know.

Still, the biggest challenges are offered by the stacking of ending upon ending. When you’re just starting out, be happy with capturing the general idea of the sentence, and aim for a full understanding of the nuances when you return to the book after reaching a more advanced knowledge of the Korean language.

Also read: Where to watch Korean stories and songs for children?

Grammar points

1) -구 instead of -고

The ending -구 is a written substitute for -고 and reflects how the ending -구 is pronounced in many areas. In the first example below you will also see 같애 for 같아. In the second example you can see the use of 니 that is more commonly written as 네 or 너의, and -대루 for -대로. All this has to do with the everyday pronunciation of Korean.

Examples from 종이밥 by 김환영:

그리구 어떨 땐 껌 씹는 것 같애. “And sometimes it’s like chewing gum.”
으이구. 니 맘대루 해라. “Aigoo. Do as you please.”

2) -소/-오 instead of -아/어요

If you have ever seen a Korean historical tv drama, you’ll have come across this ending. -소 (after consonants) and -오 (after vowels) are used in 하오체. This is a Korean speech level that is very common in historical tv dramas and in books. In manhwa, you’ll often find this ending as well, for example when deities are speaking among each other.

It is a polite ending that a speaker uses to pay respect to the listener without humbling himself. You can compare this ending to the textbook ending -아/어요.

Examples from 해리 포터 혼혈 왕자 by JK Rowling:

걱정할 것 없소. “It is not something to worry about.”
다시 만나서 반갑소. “Let’s meet again.”
그렇소. 물론이오. “Yes, of course.”

3) -곤 하다 versus -군

-곤 하다 is used to express an action’s repetition. This can either be that someone has a habit of doing something, but also that a person never does something. This grammar point is in the last chapter of Korean Grammar in Use Intermediate, but I wish I’d learned this grammar point before starting my first real Korean novel as I came across it very frequently.

Example from Korean Grammar for International Learners:

기회가 있을 때마다 그 친구를 만나곤 했어요. “I used to meet that friend whenever I had the chance.”

Try not to confuse this ending with -(는)군 / 구나 / 군요 which is used to express surprise.

Example from 해리 포터 저주받은 아이 by JK Rowling:

고맙군, 친구. “Thank you, friend.”

4) -자꾸나 and -자

Let’s compare the above -구나 to -자꾸나. -자꾸나 is similar to the ending -자 that means “let’s”.

Example from 해리 포터 혼혈 왕자 by JK Rowling:

“자, 그럼 호그와트에서 다시 보자꾸나, 해리. “Okay, let’s see each other again at Hogwarts, Harry.”

5) -느니 versus -(으)니

-느니 means “rather than” or “instead of”. It is used to indicate that the second clause is preferable to the content of the first clause. When -느니 is used twice it indicates a choice or a deliberation on which option is better.

Example from 해리 포터 저주받은 아이 by JK Rowling:

죽일 수도 없는 사람을 죽었느니 살았느니 할 수 있는 거요? “Can you live rather than kill someone that you can’t kill?”

Don’t confuse -느니 with -(으)니 that implies a result (“since”, “and so”) and can be compared to -(으)니까 in one of its uses.

6) -길래 and -기에

The ending -길래 is used to signify that the content of the preceding clause is the reasoning for what is said in the following clause. You’ve probably come across -기에 already: both patterns are interchangeable.

Example from 세가지 소원 by 박완서:

그러고 나서 얼마 안 있다 슬기가 잊어버리고 안 가지고 온 준비물을 가지고 슬기 엄마가 학교에 오신 적이 있길래 선생님은 혹시나 슬기 아빠가 슬기에게 너무 무심한 게 아닌가 걱정이 되어 넌지시 그 그림 얘기를 하셨습니다. “It’s not long after that, that Seulgi’s mother came to school with the supplies she forgot and didn’t bring, so the teacher hinted at the painting because she was worried that Seulgi’s dad might be too indifferent to Seulgi.”

7) -다니 versus -더니

You use -다니 to express that you are surprised about something and can hardly believe it. The disbelief part of the meaning makes this ending different from the exclamatory -(는)군 discussed above or -네요 that can be used to express surprise when you learn something new.

-더니 on the other hand is used to express some past experience that is relevant to what is said in the following clause. This past experience can either be the cause of what follows or simply a recollection used as an introduction to express an observation or the result of changes that happened over time. What is important is that this past experience is something the speaker directly experienced or witnessed.

Examples from 복원가의 집 11 의뢰 71 by 김상엽:

심지어 왕실의 친척인 진씨 일족을 건드리다니. “He even touched the Jin clan, a relative of the royal family.”
왕실에 충성적인 척하더니 전쟁 준비를 하고 있었다 그건가? “He pretended to be loyal to the royal family and was preparing for war. Is that it?”

8) -끼리

This ending means “among” or “between” and is often used after nouns referring to persons. It often bears a nuance of exclusivity: the persons mentioned and no one else.

Example from 해리 포터 저주받은 아이 by JK Rowling:

쟤랑 볼드모트 아들은 저희끼리 놀게 내버려 둬. “Let him and Voldemort’s son play amongst themselves.”

Did you come across any grammar points that you chose to ignore when you first started reading novels in Korean?

The post Learn These 8 Advanced Korean Grammar Points before Reading Your First Novel appeared first on Where to Kim?.

Where to watch Korean children’s stories and songs online?

Kim — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 15:00:00 +0000

Learn Korean with songs and stories for kids. This way you can start improving your Korean language skills with real content as an intermediate learner.

Every language learner – be it Korean or another language – reaches a point where he or she is temporarily stuck between an intermediate and advanced level. This is a plateau that is hard to escape. Textbook stories start to bore you, but real Korean tv shows and movies still confuse you. Does this sound familiar?

While it is getting easier to follow Korean tv shows with English subtitles, you are not maximizing your full learning potential by doing this. If you want to take it one step further, you can watch Korean tv shows with Korean subtitles. This is possible at Netflix and Viki. Viki has a handy learning mode, but for it to be effective you have to choose a language you don’t know as the second subtitle. Otherwise, you can just lazily guess the meaning from the translation. It is better to force yourself to only listen to and read Korean.

There is one other source that you can consider for your Korean learning material and that is Korean tv shows and videos for children. While using this resource, you can both experience the joy of being able to understand a story, and the frustration of not being able to 100% understand what a 3-year-old can understand without effort.

You can find stories and songs for kids on YouTube or a portal like Naver. Below I will share with you a mix of cartoons, songs, and fairy tales.

Korean stories and songs for kids

1) Kebikids YouTube Channel

The Kebikids (깨비키즈) YouTube channel contains many short clips about many different subjects. Not all videos have embedded subtitles (it is mostly the songs those containing songs do), but the auto-generated close caption can be of some help here (not completely accurate, but you’ll get the gist of the sentence).

While the Kebikids website is a bit easier to navigate, the YouTube channel is easier to access as you don’t need to create an account.

In the example below, you can learn all about the cold noodles dish Naengmyeon (냉면) while practicing your Korean listening skills.

2) Genikids YouTube Channel

At Genikids (지니키즈) you will find many more videos. The videos on this channel are often slightly – or an hour – longer than those on Kebikids. At the bottom of the page, you can find the GeniSchool History channel that can be very educational to Korean kids and foreigners alike.

3) Naver Junior Portal

Naver Junior is an amazing resource. On the Naver Junior portal, you can find a huge amount of videos including videos from Kebikids and Genikids. The fairy tales read out loud (읽이주는 돈화) are quite interesting.

4) Hello Jadoo YouTube Channel

At Hello Jadoo TV (안녕 자두야) you can watch cartoons and songs, many of them quite easy to follow.

5) Stories at Yes24

Yes24 is a portal like Naver. The stories on Yes24 are more advanced because the images don’t illustrate the meaning as well as the images in cartoons do. I used to really like this resource, but lately, I have been having some trouble streaming the videos.

6) Wekiz song YouTube Channel

A good YouTube channel for Korean nursery rhymes is wekiz song.

7) SkySea.TV YouTube Channel

On the SkySea.TV (하늘이와 바다의 신나는 율동 동요) channel you can find sing-alongs of Korean children songs.

8) Korean Fairy Tales on YouTube

The Korean Fairy Tales channel offers, as the title suggests, fairy tales retold in Korean. I recommend using this channel for listening only. Alternatively, you can block the English subtitles (scroll your screen in the right way) for better immersion.

This is only a selection of what’s out there. With the increasing popularity of the Korean language, many more resources are created every day.

What is your favorite YouTube Channel for stories, songs, and fairy tales in Korean?

The post Where to watch Korean children’s stories and songs online? appeared first on Where to Kim?.

Milestones to ace when learning Korean

Kim — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 15:00:00 +0000

Learning a language like Korean – a language that can be very unlike your own – provides a rewarding challenge. And with every challenge and success come milestones. Have you aced all milestones below? Are you stuck anywhere and need help? Let me know in the comments below.

1) When you finally understand how to use 것

This was my biggest hurdle as a beginner. 것 was literally everywhere and it seemed like the new uses just kept piling up until it suddenly clicked one day. Going forward I understood Korean sentence building. This was the magic key and still feels like my greatest achievement.

2) Mastering 것

After understanding how to use 것 in sentences you’ll come upon the next challenge: not forgetting to write the rest of the word group first. Even if your mind is aware of the fact that the other words should come first, your hand is not. The alternative is to come up with even more challenging sentence structures to fix your mess in an elegant way.

Did you master 것? Time to start using it many times in a single sentence. 것s within 것s. Good luck!

3) Escaping the dictionary

That first time that you can read a whole paragraph or page without a dictionary. It helps when you avoid onomatopoeia and mimetic word heavy texts with words like sparkling (반짝반짝) and smiling brightly (방글방글).

4) Guessing a word from the context

Now you can learn new Korean words from real texts!

5) Laughing out loud because of a word

Try reading fantasy. Magical terms rock. For example, 지팡이 for wand: 지팡이를 겨누어 (“he aims his wand at…”) sounds so charming.

6) Reading Hangul quickly enough to follow subtitles

Romantic comedies are your savior here. Maybe one step back: realizing Hangul is an alphabet and no longer identifying the frequent ㅇ with anything artificial and IT related. Don’t you agree that some words look like a computer chip? Think of the dots and lines…

7) Grasping 은/는/가/이

I’m not quite there yet, but am slowly making my way towards this one. I hang onto the thought that I can just drop them if the topic and subject of the sentence are clear (to me haha).

8) Korean abbreviations

Just when you thought you could follow conversations, they start shortening their sentences. Though if I analyze the way I speak my language, changing sounds and merging words to speak quicker: my speaking style is not Dutch-learner – and grandparents – proof at all.

9) Saying yes and no: 네/아니요

Brainbreakers. If you would affirm the truth of a negative question with ‘yes’ in your language, do remember to do the opposite in Korean. Do not follow your intuition. Yes?

It is easy to understand when listening to the conversation but can be quite hard when speaking.

10) Finding your nemesis everywhere

That one word that you just can’t seem to remember. You don’t want to know how many times I had to look up the word owl (부엉이) in Harry Potter. Seems like a word you would remember considering its frequency, right? I still can’t remember it.

11) Guessing genders

How are your guessing skills? Do you intuitively know if a person is male or female after reading his or her name? In my head, most personal names remain gender-neutral. And just when I think I know one, it is uncommonly used for the other gender.

12) Tense pronunciation

That moment when you thought you could hear the difference between ㄷ/ㄸ and the like only to find out that the ㄷ gets tense after certain consonants. Now you have to study the pronunciation rules once again.

What are your biggest challenges when learning Korean?

The post Milestones to ace when learning Korean appeared first on Where to Kim?.

5 Easy Practical Korean Conversations to try on your trip to South Korea

Kim — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 15:00:00 +0000

Easy Practical Korean Conversations you can try in everyday situations on your trip to South Korea. Make Koreans understand you in no time.

Perfect Korean sentences contain more words, but that is not what you’re going to use at your first attempts at conversation. What you need are the practical parts of the sentences, the triggers, so to say, which will help Korean people understand you if your pronunciation is a bit off.

My tip for you: stick to the basics. You can make your sentences pretty towards the end of your trip. Focus on communicating and getting your message across. It doesn’t matter if they don’t understand you the first time, just try again with the next person you meet. The less English they speak, the more willing (or adept at) they are to understand your Korean phrases.

And if nothing works, you can always resort to pointing and raising your eyebrows. The universal non-verbal language.

These practice conversations are meant for those who already have some basic knowledge of Korean. The expressions used are based on what I have heard Koreans say around me in all these situations.

1) Asking the price

이거 얼마예요? (igeo eolmayeyo?)
이만 삼천원 (iman samcheon-won; 23000)
감사합니다 (gamsahamnida)

Let’s break this down word by word.

How much is this thing? If the object is further away you can replace 이거 by 그거 (far from you near the listener, for example behind the counter) or 저거 (far from both of you). 얼마 means ‘how much’ and 예요 comes from the verb ‘to be’.

Pay attention to the first words of their response. This will be the number you need to process in your head. You can slowly repeat the number out loud to give yourself time to think. The shopkeeper can correct you if you didn’t hear it right. This might be hard at first, but you’ll get the hang of it after a few days. In the example: two (이) times ten thousand (만) and three (삼) times thousand (천) won (원). Pay attention to 만, 천, 백 (hundred) and 원 so you can chop the number into pieces.

Be polite when thanking the seller with 감사합니다. Unless you have a five-year-old kid in front of you in which case you can be less formal and say 고마워.

2) Buying tickets

세명 주세요 (semyeong juseyo)

At a ticket booth, you can order tickets by telling the salesperson the number of people in your group. For me, it was 세명 as I usually bought three tickets. For two it would be 두명. Add 주세요 for more politeness.

They’ll respond with the amount you need to pay, but it might be easier to find the individual ticket price at the information board near the counter. You can also just hand over one or more 10k won bills if you are lazy.

3) Saying how big your group is when entering a restaurant

They ask: 몇분? (myeotbun?)
Your answer: 두명 (dumyeong)

They’ll politely ask you how big your group is using the polite people counter 분. When replying you use the less polite counter 명 as the more formal one shouldn’t be used when talking about yourself.

4) Ordering food

4a) Full order

불고기 하나 순두부 하나 소주 하나 밥 두개 주세요 (bulgogi hana sundubu hana soju hana bab dugae juseyo)

This is just an example. If you say the above you will order one bulgogi, one sundubu, one soju and two bowls of rice. You can also point at the menu and say 이거 하나 for every picture or menu item you point at.

Of course, you can use more words to create a more textbook sentence (like using 하고 or (이)랑 in between), but this already works great wherever you go.

In theory, you should use different counters for bowls of food (그릇), glasses (잔) and bottles (병) etc. but make it easier for yourself and just use the general counter 개 for everything.

If you’re with two other people and they ask if you want three bowls of rice (세개) you can say 두개 if you only want two.

Also read: Best Textbooks for Learning Korean

4b) Asking for something else

불고기가 없어요 (bulgogi-ga obseoyo)
삼겹살 있어요? (samgyeobsal isseoyo?)

They might reply to your order by saying a menu item is not available (없어요). You can then reply by asking if they have something else – even something that’s not on the menu – with 있어요 in order to replace your original order.

Even when you visit a fish-only restaurant, you can always try asking for meat. Many restaurants can serve bulgogi, samgyeobsal, or tteokgalbi on the side.

4c) Confirming your order

네 / 아니요 (ne / aniyo)

Servers at a restaurant will often repeat your order to you. You can reply with 네 if it is correct or 아니요 if it isn’t.

4d) Adding something to your order

저기요 소주 하나 주세요 (jeogiyo soju hana juseyo)
네 (ne)

You can add another item to your order by first calling for attention with 저기요. Once they are at your table, or if it is quiet at the restaurant you can just ask for the extra item as soon as they look at you. They’ll confirm your order – in this example one soju (소주 하나) – with a short 네 or by immediately bringing it to your table.

5) Saying where you’re from

Country answer: 네덜란드 (nedeollandeu)
How long does it take to fly from your country to South Korea: 열 시간 (yeol sigan)

It helps if you formulate your answer and look up the words before the first Korean person has a chance to ask you this question.

Nearly every day some random person would ask me where I came from. Too unprepared to answer with a full sentence … (or rather too scared to raise their expectations) I would answer with the name of my country 네덜란드 (Netherlands). This was usually followed by an expression of ‘wow, that’s far’ and the question how long it takes to fly to South Korea from there. Ten hours (열 시간); that’s how long it takes in the most optimal direction.

Looking back at my trip, these were the Korean conversations I had most often. And with that I mean nearly every day, all five of them, sometimes multiple times a day. If you master these five situations, you will gain enough confidence to speak Korean on your trip to South Korea.

The post 5 Easy Practical Korean Conversations to try on your trip to South Korea appeared first on Where to Kim?.

South Korea Archives - Where to Kim?

Review: Korean Hanja Bible for Teachers

Content

Hanja

Addendum

Indexes

Interested?

6x Try If You Dare Korean Food

1) Sannakji (산낙지)

2) Sea Pineapple (멍게)

3) Chicken Feet (닭발)

4) Sea Cucumber (해삼)

5) Makchang (막창)

6) Dotorimuk Acorn Jelly (도토리묵)

10x Korean Sweet Snacks and Desserts

1) Shaved Ice Dessert (팥빙수)

2) Honey Bread (허니브레드)

3) Honey Glazed Walnuts & Walnut Cookies

4) Rice Cake

5) Dried Jujube Chips (대추)

6) Hotteok (호떡)

7) Strawberry Rice Cake (딸기 모찌/찹쌀떡)

8) Red Bean Paste Bread

9) Rainbow Cake

10) Traditional homemade confectionery

9 Must-Try Korean Street Food Snacks in Seoul

1) Tteokbokki (떡볶이)

2) Hotteok (호떡)

3) Mung Bean Pancake (빈대떡)

4) Chicken Feet (닭발)

5) Gimbap (김밥)

6) Fish Cake (어묵)

7) Strawberry Rice Cake (딸기 모찌/찹쌀떡)

8) Twisted doughnuts (꽈배기)

9) Sweet Potato (고구마) and Chestnuts (군밤)

11x Delicious Lesser-known Korean Food

1) Chuotang (추어탕)

2) Raw Marinated Crab (게장)

3) Beef Patties (장산적)

4) Sundae (순대)

5) Naengmyeon (냉면)

6) Sundubu-jjigae (순두부찌개)

7) Gomtang (곰탕)

8) Gyeran-jjim (계란찜)

9) Abalone (전복)

10) Grilled Eel (장어구이)

11) Bossam (보쌈)

11 Most Famous Korean Dishes

1) Korean BBQ

2) Korean Fried Chicken (치킨 / 닭강정)

3) Bulgogi (불고기)

4) Jjajangmyeon (짜장면) / Jjajangbap

5) Dakgalbi (닭갈비)

6) Bibimbap (비빔밥)

7) Stir-fried Spicy Pork (제육볶음)

8) Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup (삼계탕)

9) Army Stew (부대찌개)

10) Porridge (죽)

11) Seaweed Soup (미역국)

Learn These 8 Advanced Korean Grammar Points before Reading Your First Novel

Table of Contents

Grammar points

1) -구 instead of -고

2) -소/-오 instead of -아/어요

3) -곤 하다 versus -군

4) -자꾸나 and -자

5) -느니 versus -(으)니

6) -길래 and -기에

7) -다니 versus -더니

8) -끼리

Where to watch Korean children’s stories and songs online?

Korean stories and songs for kids

1) Kebikids YouTube Channel

2) Genikids YouTube Channel

3) Naver Junior Portal

4) Hello Jadoo YouTube Channel

5) Stories at Yes24

6) Wekiz song YouTube Channel

7) SkySea.TV YouTube Channel

8) Korean Fairy Tales on YouTube