Korean proverbs
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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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Back to school (…again)
This semester I thought I’d take advantage of having access to unlimited learning since I’m working at a university, so I decided to contact one of the teachers responsible for the compulsory course 읽기와 쓰기 (Reading and Writing) for all the freshmen at Sogang. I wrote an email to her asking if I could be…
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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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Perks of living in Korea: Korean books
Korea is a nation of bookworms (fun fact, bookworm in Korean is 책벌레 – I guess some things are just universal). There are bookstores everywhere, and books are usually reasonably priced too. I’ve already purchased quite a few books here – hard not to when there’s a bookstore right in front of my building (yes,…
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Learning Korean through proverbs
I spent some of my Easter holidays finishing the awesome Korean proverbs book “유행어보다 재치있는 우리 100대 속담”, a book featuring 100 Korean proverbs explained for children. I bought it back in September, but thought it was slightly too challenging at the time. I forgot all about it during my fall semester where the focus…
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Making your Korean come alive
I spent this weekend studying with the awesome book called 유행어보다 재치있는 우리 100대 속담. This is a Korean children’s book with 100 short chapters each explaining the background story and use of a certain proverb. There are many reasons why I enjoy this book. The first and obvious one is that I become more familiar…
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Do you believe in destiny?
I recently learned a very beautiful Korean proverb: “옷깃만 스쳐도 인연이다” This roughly means that even though you just quickly brush by other people, they will somehow become part of your destiny. I honestly never used to believe in destiny, and I still don’t think that I do. However, I do believe that we may shape…
Sofie to Korea 