Category: Korean Culture
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Soju, the distilled drink has been the number 1 drink in South Korea and is also the world’s most popular spirit. For most people, soju is a cheap, simple alcohol with little taste. The drink is only made in South Korea and can be distilled from bamboo or sweet potato. It is best drunk with…
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The Asian ‘girlfriend experience’ in two American movies If we take a look at depictions of Asian women is some famous American films, we can get an idea of how certain ideas and stereotypes have gained a hold in people’s understanding of Asian women. I want to look at two American films that show relationships…
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In 2017 I started working in Korea. I was full of excitement to visit the country I had learned so much about. But after living in Korea , I started to notice subtle forms of racism. The classic example that I can give is when I went to a restaurants and was refused entry as…
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For the first time in my life, I felt that my life had a clear sense of purpose.. I felt there was a clear connection between the spicy heat of pickled cabbage, the green bottles of soju I drank, and Eun-young’s jet black hair, long legs and dazzling crescent moon eyes. My world was good…
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It’s officially the best picture and the critic’s favourite, but there are some surprising gaps and plot holes in the film.
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Say what you will about teaching english abroad, it gets all kinds of comments online. Whatever you think about it, it’s been popular as a way for college students to delay their responsibilities some more, or to experience living abroad. But there’s one reason why so many decide to and teach in South Korea, Japan,…
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Did you ever think about teaching in South Korea? These days, it’s so popular, I can imagine there is a surplus of teachers and that competition for good positions is dropping. Back in 2016, I was interviewed by the company EPIK, with a view to teaching in 2017. When I failed to be chosen, I…
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I’m sure most of you will be somewhat familiar with Gyeongju. It gets listed in the itineraries as a place to visit after Seoul and Busan. If you are wondering what Korea was like in the past it’s worth going to Gyeongju to see some beautiful temples and monuments. Getting there Gyeoungju is 80 kms…
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I recently made a startling revelation and it may blow your mind a little bit. I’m going to tell you something that you might not accept: If you want to meet and date girls in South Korea, you can pretty much forget about meeting them in bars. Now this may come as a shock, but…
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In no particular order: Bars and restaurants One of the worst things is going to restaurants and bars on your own. Koreans have a hatred of doing things on their own. Don’t expect to be welcomed by other Koreans when you go to restaurants as a foreigner, they will completely avoid any interaction with you.…
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‘Finding the perfect coffee in Jangyu Cafe Street Besides being home to Busan’s International airport , Gimhae has many other things to recommend it as a place to visit. There is the excellent Gaya museum and the tomb of King Suro. For shoppers, there is a large Shinsegae department store and next to the Lotte…
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In a nutshell: a seemingly lightweight film is actually a sharp look at the effect of fame and the culture of film acting. When was the last time you watched a film with an all-female cast like this? A must-see for fans of Korean cinema, and cinema in general for that matter.
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I have been here for nine months now and I thought that I would feel more at home here by now. Actually it’s more like the opposite of that situation. It seems that the longer I stay here the stranger it seems. And the things that I don’t like become more unappealing. Not that I…
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How long did it for you to become disillusioned with South Korea? For me, the moment came when I attended my company dinner in March. They got us to come to a big wedding hall venue near Somyeon. We were told to arrive at 5:30 but had to sit around for hours while they kept…
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When everyone assumes that you’re guilty, how can you prove your innocence? Delivery worker and all-round nice guy Kim Gun-woo Gang Dong Won achieved fame unintentionally when he saved a pop star from a serious accident, but he wants to be treated the same as everyone else. His happiest memories are of playing in a…
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This film is a misguided attempt to make a what if? romance. Starting from the fact that the two main leads are too young and good looking to be believable as the parents of a ten year old boy, the film is poorly directed by a director who wastes no opportunity to drown his cliched…
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You know I’ve been in Korea for over five months and although I love nearly everything about living here, there’s just a few things that bother me. Most of them I can deal with. But the number one problem is that in Korea the group is everything. I knew this before I came but I…
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You might think that a news story about a Korean celebrity killing themselves is small news but the recent suicide of actor Jo Min-ki has led to fears that the ever-growing #metoo movement is getting out of hand. Indeed, it has led to many claiming it is a witch-hunt and anti-male. The actor’s death was…
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Bad grades, failed romance and no job options leads Hyweon to relocate to the countryside.
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Recently I have been thinking a lot about my diet. It’s hard to say why, but I’m beginning to lose interest in meat. Although I’ve eaten meat my whole life, I find myself questioning whether I should continue to do so. But in Korea at least 90% of the restaurants serve meat, and it’s hard…
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You might have noticed if you had visited the cinema last month that there was one advert that stood out from the rest, which was shown before the main features of several major films in Korean theaters. Nestled between familiar commercials for Maxim coffee and insurance companies was a short clip for a company called…
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I realised recently it was naive of me to think that I could go to Korea and make all my problems disappear. cause when you move to a new country, you replace your old problems with new ones. When i was living in London, I though that everything about Korea was good but now I…
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Actually its already been longer than a month since I moved out here from England, but only a month since I have actually been working. Rewind: I made the move out here to work for a Hagwon (teaching adults English) because I wanted to see the real Korea, and live in a foreign country. I…
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Programme Announced for the 12th London Korean Film Festival / 26 October – 19 November 2017 The London Korean Film Festival (LKFF) unveiled the lineup for its 12th edition today running 26 October – 19 November with multiple UK and International premieres, a special focus on Korean Noir and including everything from Indie Firepower and…
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It had all started so well. Recently I got speaking to a nice Korean girl and we were getting on so well that we exchanged numbers and got Kakao talk ids. Instead of calling it a day we continued talking and I asked if she wanted to go on somewhere. The cinema was down the…
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The latest rounds have been fired in the battle of the sexes. Far from being a land of calm, South Korea is currently undergoing a gender war. it was an innocuous t-shirt that lit the fuse for the recent conflagration. When a voice actress for a video game tweeted a picture of herself wearing a…
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1 week ago, Robert Kelly was living a fairly anonymous existence. I guess few people knew anything about him. This was until an unexpected incident involving his two kids and an unlocked door. in the interview Kelly was responding to some serious questions about the possibility of a shift in North Korean relations when the…
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For a small country, South Korea has a very healthy film industry. It is sometimes considered to be one of the healthiest from industries. South Korean films have always done well at the Home Box office, often doing better than American giants such as Star Wars and Titanic. The measure by which a film is…
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A recent survey for Global Citizenship claims that South Korean young adults report some of the highest levels of dissatisfaction of any country. The study gives South Korea a net happiness score of 29%, which was the second lowest out of the 20 countries represented in the study.Yet if you look further down, you can see…
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In the last few years, there have been several first point accounts of survivors who have left North Korea. Now, I don’t happen to have read all of them but I can give a fair summary of the typical scenario. Many of the recent testimonies, alhough not all, come from young women, who had to…
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Now this post may upset people so I will ask the question straight away: Why are so many fans of K-pop music so freaking ugly? If you think about it, the fans you normally see listening to k-music, attending concerts or looking at fan merchandise are hardly attractive. But when it comes to the musicians…
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It’s not as cheap as people say Having said that, the food is cheaper than in most other countries. Particularly Japanese and Korean. But if you want to eat imported food, I’m sure its more expensive. Travel is cheaper than many countries, but accommodation can be expensive if you want to stay somewhere comfortable. I…
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First, let’s get past the over-familiar, guidebook cliches written about South Korea: It’s a land of contrasts (often the first sentence of many travel guides); its one of the most rapidly developing of Asian countries (actually it was, but the economy has been slowing down in the last few years; the country doesn’t have any…
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It’s now been more than three years since I moved from East London to London’s Koreatown and although I occasionally think about leaving, I have never made any serious attempts to do so. I’ve lived in many different places since I left home. But the first time I managed to feel that I lived in…
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What’s your passion? Is it an interest that you enjoy sharing with others or is it an activity that you pursue alone? Maybe you enjoy meeting up with people who also share your passion. Or is it difficult to find someone who likes the same things as you? I am a huge fan of Korea…
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Books reviewed: Koreatown A Cookbook – Deuki Hong & Matt Robbard K Food – Da Hae and Gareth West Korean Food Made Simple – Judy Joo Our Korean Kitchen Rejina Po and Jordan Bourke
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You may not have heard about this unless you have been following the Korean news online. You certainly wouldn’t find anything about it in the crap blogs that think the only interesting things going on in Korea are k-pop and couple t-shirts. But this is really worth paying attention to. It concerns Geun-Hye’s advisor,Choi Soon-gil,…
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As the financial Times reported on Friday, President Park is facing the biggest challenge to her presidency. The allegations are that two of her closest advisers forced donations from two of the largest conglomerates into non-profit organisations. Her approval ratings are now at 26%, the lowest since she became President in 2013. It’s claimed that…
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The first ‘scandal’ concerns Kim Min Hee’s affair with the much older and married director Hang Sang Soo (Ha Ha Ha). Ever since the affair was confirmed, the actress has suffered negative publicity with many refusing to watch her films in the cinema. The situation has become so bad that she has been forced to…
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You may think you know all about zombies but have you wondered what it would be like to be on a train with fifty of them all running after you and gnashing at your ankles? Zombies on a train is the premise of this film, a big hit in South Korea. If you had no…
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With so many white men in relationships with women from Asian countries, I thought it would be interesting to document some of the most famous of white/asian couples. To be honest, we all no the stereotype of the geeky white guy who can’t get anywhere with women of his own kind, so he finds more…
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It doesn’t seem long ago when Korean film makers were dazzling the world with prizewinners at International festivals such as Oldboy and Pieta. As well as these harsh ,violent films there were gentle odes to Buddhism (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring) and the magnificent Untold Scandal, which set the story of Dangerous Liaisons in the…
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A language exchange can be a great way to improve language learning and sharing each other’s culture. Oh, but before you get carried away, here are some things to be aware of. First of all, its good if you are both at a similar level. Some of the language exchanges I have been on have…
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If you’re Korean, you’ll almost certainly have heard of Korean Englishman, a young priest who has made dozens of massively popular Youtube videos. When I say popular, I’m talking in the 100,000s of views for videos such as 처음 써보는 한국 어플 “스노우”에 푹 빠진 영국 친구들!! In Korea, it seems there is a fascination…
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The main markets for Korean entertainment has been in other Asian countries but as they develop their own entertainment (or simply improve the ones they already have) there will be less dominance by Korean culture. This is particularly true of Japan and China who have often been fiercely nationalistic.
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Of course, in an ideal world, there would be just one country, a combination of the two called “Japorea” or “Korpan”. There is so much these great countries have in common. They have similar environments and climate. They like similar music and films. Let’s put it to the test. Starting with: Language Japansese is a…
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Recently I have watched two live stand up comic shows by well known American female comediennes who both have Asian ethnicities. I don;t normally enjoy watching full-length stand-up acts. I find them to be very self-indulgent. However, being a lover of anything Asian, I felt I had to give them a try. Ali Wong…
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The recent news coming out of Korea has not been good. Aside from the prospect of Kim Jong-Un’s nuclear weapons build-up, there has been the continuing controversy of the government’s response to the Sewol ferry. In the last two weeks there have been two articles from Western publications which have highighted the limits which women…
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Two years ago a passenger ferry carrying 476 people sank off the coast of Jeju Island, South Korea. 304 lives were lost, including 250 high school students who were en route to Jeju Island for a school trip. To this day, no government body or official has accepted responsibility for the event or given any form…
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Authors: Deuki Hong & Matt Robbard Clarkson Potter New York 2016 If you’ve never eaten Korean food, try to imagine a less-refined, spicier Japanese cuisine, or rather, Chinese food with less MSG. The profile of Korean food (Hansik) has risen immeasurably in the past few years. It’s now possible to eat Korean food in many Western…
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After having lived in New Malden for over two years, I’ve become a total Korean connoisseur and a little bit obsessive about everything 한국어. I started blogging about New Malden in 2014, specifically relating to the Korean establishments. New Malden has changed a lot since then, with the arrival of Pizza Express and Nando’s, not…
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Let’s start with the packaging: all Korean CDs come packaged in lavish cardboard folders that are closer to hard back books than the standard plastic jewel cases used by Western manufacturers. This one is no exception: the cd comes in a hard book with several glossy photos of Ailee looking very seductive. The CD itself…
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The founder of the blog Dedicated Polyglot has published an ebook in which she explains how using non-traditional methods of language learning can be more effective than textbooks and formal lessons. Her book starts with the idea that learning a language is more about experiencing a country’s culture than simply learning grammar and sentence structure.…
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If you’re not already loving this great 8-piece girl group from Korea then you damn well should be. For the uninitiated, here are five great songs to start off with: ‘Gee’ The one that got things going in a really big way. If you sing just a few bars of this song to anyone…
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Here are some tasty Korean snacks I have tried recently. Most are made by the giant conglomerate Lotte, one of Korea’s biggest companies. It was named after the heroine of Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther. Choco-Pie Kind of like a Wagon Wheel, the Choco-Pie has a chocolate coating with a marshmallow and biscuit middle.…
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Here much of the press haven’t been sure how to respond to the recent news that North Korea has detonated another hydrogen bomb. On the one hand, the view that North Korea is a failed state, with a leader with a ridiculous hairstyle has been very successful and seems to be related to making as…
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A few years ago I felt as though my life was stuck in a rut, that nothing was exciting to me any more. I had had this feeling for a long time. I was in a pattern of repetiveness. you could say that I was feeling bored with life and it didn’t give me any…
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Self-made billionaires are unusual in South Korea, even more so when they exist outside of family business or chaebols. The founder of popular chat app Kakao Talk has invented an app that is used by three quarters of South Korea’s 50 million population. He chairs Kakao, the operator of KakaoTalk, and has become one of…
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Wow, I didn’t have any expectations on this album as Christmas release can be a bit of a novelty but I was more than pleasantly surprised. The first track Dear Santa starts off with slow, ballad singing before launching into a bouncy Christmas jingle at the one-minute mark. Vocals are mainly in Korean with some…
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Here are some of my favourite Korean dishes that I have tried so far… Bibimbap This is a hot-stone bowl with julienned carrots, courgette, seasoned beef and other namul. Its served in a hot stone bowl so the rice is still cooking, and comes with a fried egg on top. Stirring it all together prevents…
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At the heart of this terrifying portrait of a madman is the scarcely believable kidnapping of the most famous South Korean actress and Director, both of whom were forced against their will to come to the North and make propaganda films for the Supreme Leader.
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Director: July Jung Doona Bae, Sae-ron Kim, Sae-byeok Song There is a reason why all films have long credit seequences. The list of personnel involved in making a film is invariably long and most end titles for even a modest film like this are at least 3 minutes of the film’s duration. It could also be…
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Phone (2002), starring Ha Ji-won and Eun Seo-woo, directed by Ahn Byeong-ki Coming after the internationally successful Asian horrors Ring and The Grudge, Phone is another film that finds supernatural horror in objects that are all around us. Ceverly, the film makes use of the ringtone as a motif for the film’s scary moments. The…
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Here’s how I began my journey into learning Korean. I’d always considered myself a poor language student. At school I learnt French from the age of 8 until 13. I barely got past the stage of being able to order an ice-cream. The languages on offer when I took my GCSEs were French, German and…
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