KoreanClass101.com Blog

삼일 운동 (만세운동). Two days ago was a very important holiday for Korea. Like most nations, many historically important holidays mark a day that symbolizes a particular feeling or thought. In Texas, we have the Battle of the Alamo. This was a tragic military loss in every sense of the word during the Texas Revolution. Yes, a failure - the well-trained Mexican army outnumbered the beleaguered defenders 10 to 1. In fact, Mexican Army General Santa Anna even gave the defenders a chance to surrender. If you know Texas, then you can guess which finger the defenders raised in response. Essentially, the Mexican army ended up slaughtering just about everyone inside. However, this seemingly foolish decision to fight the organized Mexican army ended... Show more

As Matthew explained in his last post, kids in Korea have a lot of pressure to perform well in school, and not only in normal classroom activities but also in extracurricular studies, sports, foreign languages, music, etc, etc, etc.. What he didn't mention, however, is how much Korean mothers like to brag about their friends' children, and how well they are at the aforementioned etc, etc, etc.. A very interesting expression has come out of this phenomenon: 엄친아. This is short for 엄마 친구 아들 (mom's friend's son). As any Korean child would know, your 엄친아 always gets perfect grades, speaks perfect english, and french, and japanese, plays at least 3 musical instruments, plays soccer, volunteers every week, and is absolutely gorgeous... Show more

Korean children's daily life. These snot-nosed little brats sweet little angels are the cutest things on Earth. Proof. But make no mistake - these kids get more than their daily dose of school. The sheer number of hours spent in the classroom is enough to raise Western eyebrows. They get plenty of instruction in and out of school. The Korean educational system consists of six years of elementary school, three years of junior high, and three years of high school. School semesters are seasonal (like in America) but start in March and ends in February (Spring to Fall as opposed to Fall to Spring). One overall educational goal is to make them bilingual in Korean and English; if they can fit another language into that sweet little... Show more

Really Simple Korean Conversation #2 Featuring Gyeong-eun (Host of KoreanClass101.com) Hyunwoo (Host of KoreanClass101.com) Emily (Listener/Blogger of KoreanClass101.com) Matthew (Listener/Blogger of KoreanClass101.com) Max (Listener of KoreanClass101.com)

안녕하세요~~ 여러분 잘 지내시죠? If you have ever been to any Korean entertainment websites and looked at the comments, or seen any online chatting dialogue between korean people (especially young girls), you have probably noticed that it can seem like people are speaking an entirely different language. One of the big differences is the rampant use of abbreviations. While these kinds of abbreviations are also used in casual conversation, they are even more prevalent on the internet and in text messages. One of the first abbreviations I learned about was a different way to talk about different kinds of students. Let me explain: Kindergarten Students = 유치원생 = 유딩 Elementary School Students = 초등학생 = 초딩 Middle School Students = 중학생 = 중딩... Show more