As you know, this past week was New Years. We celebrated fairly simply by having some friends over for dinner. The family is a couple similar to myself and my wife; that is an American husband and a Korean wife. They have one son, six years old. The wife is from 대구 (경상도). Until recently her parents lived with them but they have returned to Korea to live now. When the son speaks Korean, he usually speaks in 경상도 사투리. He learned most of his Korean from his grandparents so his 말투 is very hard to understand. His mom's 사투리 is also difficult to understand even for my wife. Like our children, he seems much more comfortable speaking English. We had 떡국, 불고기, 김치, 빈대떡, 쌈장, 쌈 and rice (of course). The cooking was different from what my wife... Show more

The weather at my house has been very cold (by California standards) this past week. We have had snow several times, although it did not stick. Yes, that is my favorite kind of snow, the stuff that says hello and then leaves. The snow in my wife's hometown (여수시) is similar; it typically does not stick for too long. One thing that winter and snow do bring with them is skiing. I never learned to ski growing up as it wasn't very accessible, it was expensive, and my parents aren't skiers. We now live fairly close to a small ski resort and the local schools offer skiing every Friday during the ski season, so my children have all learned how to ski. The Korean children that we have had in our house have also been skiers, including the boy... Show more

The local Korean grocery store can be a cultural connection that, for many, goes largely untapped. The most obvious link to Korea through the local grocery store is the food. The store can be a source for many spices and foods not found in a regular chain grocery store. These include the mundane like curry powder, red pepper powder, soy sauce, fish sauce (젓갈) as well as the more hard to find like 고추장, 된장, 쌈장, 미역, and Korean soda pop and 요구르트 (my children love that stuff). The best food stuffs to get in the grocery store are the prepared foods. Sure, you can get "Wong's Kimchi" as your local Raleys or Vons but it is horrible, pasteurized, and not much more than pepper and cabbage. Each Korean market will have different tasting 김치 because... Show more