Korean expressions
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Korea has elected a new president
Yesterday was the presidential election day in South Korea and the past few weeks had indicated that it would be a tight race between the two main contestants – Lee Jae-myeong from the democratic party and Yoon Seok-yeol from the conservative people’s power party (yes that name, I know). There were other contenders but none…
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Korean debate patterns
A skill which truly indicates that one is fluent in a foreign language is the ability to debate in that language. When I was studying at Sogang university, the top levels 5 and 6 dedicated quite a significant amount of time to debate practice. Even though it’s been four years since I was enrolled in…
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The coolest proverbs
I recently had a pretty cool discussion about proverbs with a Korean acquaintance. I always loved proverbs and idioms in any language since I find that they reveal so much about a country’s culture. For example, think about how many proverbs and idioms there are about bread in Western culture. To be the breadwinner, our…
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Happy New Year!
A little late, you think? Not really. Because in Korea, the lunar new year holiday called Seollal (설날) starts tomorrow and lasts through Monday, giving the hard-working Koreans four whole days off. While this sounds lovely, the truth is that this season brings as much stress to Koreans as Christmas can bring in the cultures,…
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Meet Pengsoo
A lot can happen in Korea in a short time. Koreans are quick to adopt new trends and fashions, and it seems that Korea now has a new idol. This time, I’m not talking about an actor or a K-pop singer, I’m talking about the giant man-sized penguin, Pengsoo. Pengsoo is a mascot from the…
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Watching an old classic from a new perspective
I just finished watching the 2014 Korean tv series “My love from the star” (별에서 온 그대) for the umpteenth time. Although I know the story and many of the lines by heart, to say nothing of the soundtrack, this time I watched it with completely different eyes. I watched this show for the first…
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How to suck at things in Korean
My Korean vocabulary was expanded recently when I learned the word 음치(eum-chi) meaning tone-deaf. I started thinking whether there was a connection because I once learned the word 길치 (kil-chi) from Talk To Me In Korean, and used to call my best friend 길치all the time because he had absolutely zero sense of direction. I…
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Stress
스트레스는 만병의 근원이다 – Stress is the main cause of all kinds of illnesses. This is a common saying in Korean and something my best friend used to say from time to time if I ever mentioned anything about being stressed. And he was right, stress is truly the root of all evil. Googling the…
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Korean hand gestures
Koreans use their hands a lot when they speak, but their hand gestures differ significantly from what we know from Western culture. I have no idea why I never thought about writing about this before but in the past few weeks I have experienced all most of these hand gestures first hand (haha, lame pun intended),…
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The sixth Korean sense: nunchi
Nunchi, spelled 눈치 in Korean and literally meaning ‘eye measure’, is a concept you’ll inevitably have to deal with when living in Korea. Nunchi is a set of unspoken rules governing interpersonal relationships and can loosely be translated as ‘awareness of your surroundings’ or ’emotional intelligence’. Generally speaking, you can use the word in five…
Sofie to Korea 