Posts from August 2009

Taekwondo

Posted by Ginny 2 Comments
Aug 31 2009

I think everyone knows this, but just to be sure, Taekwondo (태권도) is a Korean martial art. Just for your information, Kung Fu is a Chinese martial art and Karate is a Japanese martial art. Since this is a Korean blog, I’m going to be discussing Taekwondo (태권도). 태 = means to strike with your foot. 권 = means to strike with your fist. 도 = means ‘way’ or ‘method’. Therefore Taekwondo (태권도) means the way of the foot and hand. The name Taekwondo (태권도) is an accurate description of this martial art, because fighters are allowed to use both their arms and legs.

Taekwondo (태권도) is composed of a philosophical triad of ideals. These principles are called 삼제, which means three elements. The three elements are 천 = sky, 지 = earth, and 인 = person. Taekwondo (태권도) is more than just beating people up. Well, at least that’s how it was first practiced. Today, Taekwondo () is mainly looked upon as a competitive sport. Taekwondo (태권도) has the distiction of being one of the martial art forms included in the Olympics. There is also the WTF or the World Taekwondo Federation, in addition to the ITF or the International Taekwondo Federation.

Taking a Taekwondo class can help you learn a couple of Korean commands. In that regard, you’ll be exposed to both the culture and the language!

Here are some of the commands:

준비 = ready!

시작 = Begin!

차렷 = Attention!

그만 = Finnish!

경례 = Bow!

Korean Pancakes

Posted by Ginny 1 Comment
Aug 26 2009

Korean pancakes are not really pancakes in the American sense. However, they are round, flat, and made of batter.

파전 – is a pancake made of green onions. The green onions are sliced into long strips. Then they are mixed in a batter of flour and eggs, with a little salt. The 파전 is fried and the edges are usually crispy. Like most Korean pancakes, they are cut into squares and dipped into some soy sauce.

김치전 – is a pancake made of 김치. I make this when I have some 김치 that’s about to spoil. Instead of letting it go to waste, I put it in some batter and fry it. The red pepper of the 김치 give the pancake a reddish/pink color.

 

호박전 – is made of squash. The squash can be sliced into thin strips, but most often it’s cut into thin circles. The 호박전 tend to look like mini pancakes. A lot of them are small enough to fit your mouth. One tip I’ll suggest is to chop them into thin round slices, so that they cook all the way through.

 

Additionally, all these ingredients can be put together in one pancake.

사자성어

Posted by Ginny No Comments
Aug 22 2009

A 사자성어 is a proverb consisting of four letter Chinese characters. Today’s 사자성어 is going to be 出嫁外人, pronounced as 출가외인. This character 出 means ‘to leave, exit’. 嫁 = married. 外 = outside. 人 = person. Altogether, this proverb is saying that a person who is married is basically someone who has left her family or is an outsider to her family.

In a larger cultural context, this proverb is referring to newly married girls who leave their family to live with their husbands’ family. It may not apply to the women of today, because many couples are increasingly choosing to live separately from their parents. The idea of living with one’s family after marriage is an old idea that follows the Confucian tradition of respecting your parents. In most cases, when the woman got married, she would move in with her husband’s family. Sometimes the husband would live with the woman’s family, especially if the husband was the younger son.

This proverb can have two similar meanings. It can mean that a woman who has left her own family to be with another family should be considered a stranger to her own family. In other words, once a woman marries, her alliances are with her husband’s family. The other meaning is used to describe how a woman who marries into her husband’s family is considered an outsider by the husband’s family despite the fact that she is basically marrying into her husband’s family.

I think that proverbs like this can be revealing, in that they give us some cultural insight into Korean beliefs and ideas. That being said, a lot has changed since the time when women were considered subordinate beings. It would be wrong to just automatically assume that this proverb is an insight into how Korean people think today.

Gwanghwamun and Gyungbokgung

Posted by Ginny No Comments
Aug 19 2009

This month, Gwanghwamun (광화문) plaza was unveiled to the public after years of construction. Gwanghwamun (광화문) plaza is located in Seoul (서울), the capital city of South Korea. The plaza is a popular place for the natives because it has a huge water fountain. In the sweltering summer, the kids try to run past all the shooting streams of water. It’s an informal place, so you’ll see lots of people relaxing and getting drenched from the fountain.

The Gwanghwamun (광화문) plaza is in front of the gate of the Gyungbokgung Palace (경복궁). Gwanghwamun (광화문) gate is the main gate to the palace. It contains a lot of Korean history. The Gwanghwamun (광화문) gate has been destroyed and constructed many times. The first time it was destroyed was in 1592 by a Japanese invasion. The second time was also destroyed in the early 1900s by the Japanese invasion. By the Korean War, the gate was almost completely destroyed.

The Gyungbokgung Palace (경복궁) has a lot of history behind it as well. Like the Gwanghwamun (광화문) gate, the palace was destroyed by the Japanese invasion. It’s taken about twenty years to restore the palace. The construction of the palace is not finnished yet. It’s estimated that it will take another twenty years to restore the palace the way it was. Even though the restoration isn’t finnished, tourists can still see the palace.

It’s no coincidence that the gate was displayed this month. August 15th was actually Liberation Day or gwangbokjul (광복절). This is a public holiday that commemorates the day Korea was liberated from the colonial rule of the Japanese.

In sum, I guess you can say that there are two things to celebrate this month: 1) the inauguration of the gate and 2) the continued freedom of Korea from colonial rule.

Directional Particles Continued

Posted by Ginny No Comments
Aug 16 2009

Today I’ll teach you how to say ‘from ___ to ____’. All you have to do is learn the particles that mean ‘from’ and ‘to’ in Korean, and insert whatever location or place in the blanks.

As an example, let’s pick two locations: Seoul and Jejudo. Let’s first learn how to say, ‘from Seoul’. In Korean this is, Seoul ehso (서울에서). Therefore the particle for ‘from’ is ehso (에서).

Then let’s learn how to say ‘to Jejudo’. Before I begin, I just want to tell you that if you translate this literally in English, it’s more like ‘until Jejudo’. So the particle we want to focus on is kkaji (까지). To/until Jejudo = Jejudo kkaji (제주도까지).

Altogether the sentence, ‘from Seoul to/until Jejudo’ is Seoul ehso Jejudo kkaji (서울에서 제주도까지).

I’ll provide another example. How do you say, ‘from Busan to/until Ulsan’? This would be: Busan ehso Ulsan kkaji (부산에서 울산까지).

Let’s make a full sentence from these two examples. How would you say, ‘I drive from Busan to Ulsan’? Before I tell you the answer, let’s figure out what we need here. We’ll need the verb ‘to drive’ which is unjunhada (운전하다). Let’s assume this is in the deferential polite. So, it’ll be conjugated as unjunhamnida (운전합니다). If you’re still confused about forming the deferential polite, take a look at the last couple of posts before this post.

Altogether the sentence ‘I drive from Busan to Ulsan’ is busan ehso ulsan kkaji unjunhamnida (부신에서 울산까지 운전합니다).

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