When you ask a Korean their age...

When you ask a Korean their age, you will often times be a bit puzzled when I girl who (to you) appears to be 6 tells you that she is 7 or 8. 

In Korean culture, ages are determined a bit differently than in western cultures.  First, when a Korean child is born they are considered to be a year old.  This reasoning for this is that Koreans count the time that the child spent in the womb as one year of life.  The second thing that Koreans do that is different in regard to age is that everyone has the same birthday, New Year's Day (as of right now I do not know if this is on the New Year's Day of the sun calendar or New Year's Day of the lunar calendar- I will have to check that).  The reason for this is because Koreans want their people to have a good sense of community.  In order to prevent a more closeness among its society, everyone has the same birthday.

So, for example, if a Korean child was born on New Years Eve they would be 2 years old by New Years day because they are considered one year at birth and then one additional year at the start of the new year.

Gyeongju World Culture Expo

During my long 4-day weekend for the Chuseok holiday, I went with my friend Steph to the Gyeongju World Culture Expo since my director gave me two free tickets.

The expo is the first cultural fair in the world and there are many artistic events that went on throughout the day.  For a little overview of attractions at the expo, I wrote an article here: Gyeongju World Culture Expo

I posted pictures from the expo here: Gyeongju World Expo Slideshow

Weather

I've had several people ask me about how the weather is here so I thought I'd make a post to explain.

The weather would probably be comparable to maybe Kentucky and other "upper" southern state in the US.  It mostly just feels either hot or cold because of the humidity.  It felt very stuffy to me when I first got here (it has just finally cooled down to 60s this week).  You'll often have little drizzles of rain.  We do get snow here, but it is light and only lasts a couple days.  One trend is that Korean kids will only make snowmen from two snowballs rather than the typical 3 that you'll do in northern state of US and Canada.

You'll hear on the news of Japan and India having earthquakes, typhoons, and tsunamis.  None of those things occur here.  We may get some rain from a typhoon that goes through Japan or India but that's it -- no high winds or anything.

If you don't really know what a typhoon is, here's an article I wrote explaining: Hurricane or Typhoon: A Look at the Difference.

My New Favorite Treats: Kimbop and Shabu Shabu

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In the last week or so, I now have a new favorite treat: Kimbop.  To explain it simply, its like the Korean version of Japanese sushi because if you order it in a restaurant or buy one at the market that's what it looks like.  The picture of one I have here is one of the 80 cent ones from 7-Eleven.  And no -- it is not raw fish.  Actually, in Korea anything wrapped in seaweed like this is called kimbap (or gimbap, in some spellings), while anything wrapped in seaweed in Japan is called sushi.  You can have it filled with just about anything - veggies, beef, tuna, chicken, cheese, etc. All have rice and seaweed at least but there is always something else added.  And no, it is not by any means a "specialty" meal as it is in western cultures (in fact, they find it amusing that we look to it as being fancy - but wouldn't you if China thought cheeseburgers were "fancy"?).  It's what you eat here instead of sandwiches.  Yes, there are some sandwiches here (had a dollar burger from 7-Eleven the other day) but this is more common.

My next few favorite treat is Shabu Shabu.  I think it was originated in Japan, but there are many different variations of it now in all countries in Asia.  They place a big bowl in front of you and fill it with water and broth.  You can choose from beef or seafood as the main dish to add (we had beef) and then they give you a variety of lettuces, mushrooms, carrots, sprouts, etc. to cook in the mix with it.  To eat, you just grab the cooked pieces with chop sticks, dip it in some sauce if you wish, and enjoy!  In Korea, of course the sauces are more spicy and they give you a side of coleslaw and kimchi.  Many restaurants here have the Vietnamese version where you take the meat, veggies, etc. out of the pot and wrap it in a clear rice paper. Once you've eaten most all of the beef and veggies, the server will then come by and fill the bowl with a little more broth and then add rice, seaweed, and an egg to finish up the meal.

Cost of Living

After living here for a month now, I have now received my first paycheck.  Along with this, I also got my bills for the month.  To give an idea what the cost of living is here (and to further explain why so many foreigners teach ESL here) here are my monthly costs in Korean won:

Gas = 4,700 KRW
Electric = 8,930 KRW
Garbage = 27,000 KRW
Pension = 67,500 KRW (which I will get back once contract is completed)
Health insurance = 45,070 KRW (the country has a public plan)
Cell phone = 13,220 KRW (with a phone given to me by the school)
Internet = 9,900 KRW

I know you're asking "But what is the conversion rate of KRW to USD?"  This is probably the easiest currency to convert.  Wherever you see a coma just replace it with a decimal point and that's the cost in USD.  So, my electric for the month was $8.93.

What about rent?  Well, the school pays for that.

Chuseok - Korea's Thanksgiving

This past weekend was Korea's Thanksgiving, also known as Chuseok.  The holiday follows the lunar calendar, so the date (according to the sun calendar) is variable each year.  Most Koreans travel throughout the peninsula to visit family, so many businesses are closed and cities are not as "busy" as they normally are.  I certainly knew it was Thanksgiving in this country when I went to HomePlus (the British version of Walmart) and you could barely move.

Here's an article I wrote about the customs and origin of Chuseok:

Celebrating Korea's Thanksgiving

Pictures from Chuseok Weekend Round 2

Ice Box

Rice Fields

Visits of my 4-day weekend

This past weekend was Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving.  I will explain the holiday itself in a later post, but right now I'm just going to post some of my pictures that I took around Gyeongju this weekend.

A store window of traditional Korean dresses.

The bread that Gyeongju is famous for - Hwangnam bread

Hwangnam bread!  Its basically little white bread rolls filled with beans.

A pond in a tomb park.

Other side of the pond.

A tomb

Lack of Annunciating

After learning and practicing a few Koreans words during my lesson with my great Thursday evening group of 4th graders, I have learned one main thing about the Korean language...

Annunciation does not exist. 

When I asked the kids how to say "right" in Korean (with the right turn meaning) I heard one say "orlenjo", "orango", "ordujo", etc.  I guess I'm just going to be sure to say "or" and "jo" and mumble some other sounds in the middle because that's what they do.

Everybody has said that once you get the alphabet memorized it makes it much easier.  I should probably get started on that because so far my motivation for it hasn't been there.  I would like to know enough though to interpret some signs and be able to order food the right way.

It is also a bit interesting to talk with other foreigners here and some can already tell where you are from by the accent.  According to this guy I met from Wisconsin and a girl I met from Georgia, I have a "rural, northern Illinois, Chicago mixed accent".

Accents in Learning a Language

Learning and translating between languages can really be a funny thing.  This weekend while visiting with some people who teach English at the university in town and some others that have been here for several years, I have been able to hear some humorous stories.

Today I opened my bank account and had lunch at McDonald's with a fellow Korean co-teacher.  We started talking about how to communicate with a taxi driver and we started going over a few words.

One of the biggest things I'm seeing in learning any language, is not entirely the sounds but it truly boils down to how you annunciate and where you place the accent.  For instance, I told my co-teacher how I said my neighborhood to a taxi driver.  When I said it, I had placed the accent on the second syllable when the correct way to say it is really on the first.  So what I was saying (by placing the accent on the second syllable) is a type of portable toilet.

I was also able to clear up how to say little words when giving directions.  From talking with my foreigner friends, I was told that left is "winjo" and right is "orangjo".  Saying left was correct, but how I said right was a bit off and it should be pronounced "oredjo" - or something rather similar with a "d" sound (I'll have to check on that).  The two super easy ones to say were "straight", which is basically pronounced "cheek-chin" and "stop here" that is "yogio".

Annunciation and accents is a consistent issue that I keep seeing in class.  In order to break kids of this and make them known of the error, I stole a little idea from something I did in HS.  In sophomore year English with Mrs. Skutt, we always used to "pound out" the vocabularly words in order to be more aware of where the accent mark should be placed when we took the vocab quiz.  Before she taught us this in class, I always struggled at this section of the quiz.  After pounding out the words I would easily pick up on the rhythm and then remember where to mark it on the quiz

So I started doing this with my 3rd-5th grade students after we complete a reading or I am reviewing some words with them.  With several of these students since they are at school all day already, their attention spans are fairly short so trying to keep their attention for them to learn something can also be a challenge.  The activity of pounding out words or to "make a song" out of them appears to not only help them annunciate and accent the words correctly, but keep them motivated as well.  So instead of getting the common reaction of "Agh, I have to go over more words.. can't we play a game now?" I get the reaction of "Yay - I get to pound on a desk".

What exactly is kimchi?

I'm sure after some of my posts now, some of you are left wondering "Ok, so what exactly is kimchi? Why is it such a big deal in Korae?"  I asked myself these questions a bit as well before coming here but now that I've had it I can explain.

Basically, kimchi is the traditional dish of korea.  As Russia is known for having borscht, Korea is known for kimchi.  The oldest references to kimchi were from about 3000 years ago in Chinese poetry texts.  The name was originated from the Three Kingdoms of Korea (I don't understand all the history of the kingdoms yet, but since I live in where probably 90% of the history is, I'll learn soon enough).  Kimchi was originally only made with cabbage and beef stock.

Today, kimchi is made with napa cabbage (a variety native to southeast asia).  There are other varieties available today that may include asian radishes (that are MUCH larger than the variety in the US), green onions, and cucumber.  The main vegetable of choice is then fermented by painting it with salt and then having it sit out overnight or for at least 5-6 hours, cleaning it, and then applying the sauce. Depending on the recipe, you may have some garlic and other vegetables in the sauce, but for most all of the traditional sauces used red pepper flakes is the main ingredient.

From my experience, I can't say that there is any good comparison.  Some people say that it is similar to sourkraut (since that is fermented as well), but I don't notice much similarity once you add the sauce.  Because of the red pepper flakes, some batches can be quite spicy at first but you can eaily tone it down by eating some rice or drinking some water after each bite.  In the Gyeongju area (and more southern part of the peninsula) it sounds like it tends to be on the spicier side than up on the northern part by Seoul.

Kimchi is the most common banchan (side dish) of Korea.  It is normally served before your meal or as a side treat to add with your meal.

Kimchi does also have many health benefits (more than yogurt), which I outlined in an article here: Health Benefits of Korean Kimchi


*Random trivia: In Korea, when you take a picture you do not say "Cheese!", instead you say "Kimchi!"

First home-cooked Korean meal (Americanized)

After almost 3 weeks of being in Korea, I finally gave in and decided to start eating in my apartment what most Koreans eat at home -- rice.

In the last two weeks my diet mostly included: sandwiches (with the fresh bread I'd buy from the bakery since they have no bread isle), yogurt, cereal, fruits that I can buy at home (apples, bananas, peaches, grapes), and eating out at either Korean restaurants or western culture-based restaurants.

It worked well for a while except for one big problem: All of those things are expensive.  Why?  There is no demand -- nobody here buys it.  For instance, a box of Kelloggs cereal is about $7 and the little 500 ml of milk was $3.

Since I was done at work by 6:30 tonight, I took a quick 3 block walk to the supermarket to buy some more cost-effective items.  Cooked my first batch of non-instant rice (since that doesn't exist here) and sauteed some vegetables with a teriaki sauce.  To top it off, I even bought a small package of pre-made kimchi for 90 cents (fermented cabbage) to replace the yogurt that I'd normally have (since it has more probiotics than yogurt).

To make it complete, I sat on the floor and ate on a traditional Korean table with traditional utensils -- a spoon and chop sticks.  And yes, I may be finally mastering the art of chop sticks -- I've come a long way since my first horrid attempt in 3rd grade during our "trip around the world" and continued to struggle even during college when trying to eat chinese food with them.

So long milk, cheese, bread, yogurt, cereal, and raviolis -- its been fun, but I have to enjoy other things right now.