Reviews
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My last Korean reading project of 2020
With only one day left of 2020, my last Korean reading project of this year has come to an end. In total, I’ve managed to read 12 Korean novels this year. This averages one per month, and I guess that’s not all bad considering the amount of Korean text and grammar books that I’ve also…
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Saju – Korean fortune telling
Yesterday I tried visiting a saju cafe for the first time in my life. Before I delve into my experience, let me just briefly explain what saju means. Saju, in Korean 사주 and in Chinese characters 四柱, literally means ‘four pillars’. In this case, these four pillars are determined by your four birth numbers: the year, the…
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Gender roles, sexism, and feminism in Korea
Yesterday, I went to the teacher’s lounge for a cup of coffee, when I met one of my older male colleagues. He asked me how I had spent my Chuseok holiday, and I replied that I had mostly spent it in my office, as I had no Korean family to spend Chuseok with. And growing…
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Slow down… reflect and learn
There’s a book that I’ve already read 3 times this summer, once in English, once in Korean, and once as an audio book. Okay, well, then technically I only *read* it twice. Anyway, the book is called “The things you can see only when you slow down” or 멈추면 비로소 보이는 것들 in its original…
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Learn through Korean proverbs (and Naver)
All languages have proverbs that often originate from ancient times and provide an invaluable insight into the culture and mindset of the native speakers. The more proverbs you know in your native language as well as in others, the more you’ll be able to understand the nuances of the language and how the language is…
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Korean vocabulary: Going beyond the intermediate level
While I wrote in my previous post that I had enjoyed learning what may be considered quite basic vocabulary from my Korean children’s book, I still want to keep expanding my knowledge of Korean in all possible directions. When it comes to Korean fluency, one thing is sounding Korean and having the correct intonation. Another thing…
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Learn Korean with the HelloTalk app
I’ve been using the HelloTalk app for quite a while but I never got around to writing a blog post about this awesome tool before now. For those of you who don’t know this app, this really is a neat resource for learning Korean or any other language for that matter. The app can be downloaded for free…
Sofie to Korea 