Archive for the 'Korean Vocabulary' Category

Feb

My Hanbok

As I’ve written before, the hanbok is the traditional Korean dress. In the last 18 months I’ve lost 80 pounds. In a way, it’s a rebirth for me and I wanted to celebrate my womanhood. I’m lucky enough to be friends with a fabulous photographer, Ally of AllyD Photography. Here are some pictures.

posted by Kathryn in Korea,Korean Vocabulary and have Comment (1)

Feb

Happy New Year!

Today is 설날 (Seolnal; Korean New Year). It’s the first day of the lunar calendar. Although Koreans do celebrate January 1st, 설날 is probably one of the most important holidays for Koreans. Traditionally, children wish their elders a happy new year with a deep bow called a sebae. It was interesting to watch the kids do it at school on Tuesday. This site has a nice illustrated guide on how the bow is done for boys and girls.

In our celebration at school, the kids also made a lucky pouch, which is used during the sebae bow. Elders typically give the children money. Upon asking some of my older students how much they typically get, my jaw about hit the floor. I’d say the average is between 150,000 ₩ and 200,000 ₩. I’ll let you do the currency conversion on that one.

On 설날 people traditionally eat 떡국 (Ddeok Gook) a soup made with rice cakes (the chewy kind from Korea, not the crunchy kind westerners think of).

There is a traditional song that children sing on New Years called 까치까치 설날은 which translates to Magpie, Magpie. New Years Day. Traditionally seeing a magpie is an indicator of luck.

Some excellent sources of material:

Teaching guide (pdf)

Culture

Overview

Another Overview

posted by Kathryn in Celebrations,Food and Drink,Korea,Korean Vocabulary,Teaching Resources,Web sites and have No Comments

Jan

Jokbal

We, as a staff, went out to dinner last night. This was my first experience with Jokbal (족발). Simply put, it’s pig legs that are boiled in some spices and stuff, then deboned and sliced. I was skeptical when my boss told me what we’d be eating. I have to say, it was quite delicious. Apparently the collegen in the meat/fat is good for your skin. I think I’m still feeling the fat coursing through my cardiac arteries. But hey, it was something new and I really enjoyed it. I don’t think it’s anything I’d seek out on my own, but I had fun at dinner.

By ayustety

Not a picture of mine, but this is esentially what we ate. There was kimchi (2 kinds) plus a couple of other salads (one with onions and cucumbers and one with daikon). There were a couple dipping sauces and lettuce leaves to wrap the meat in.

posted by Kathryn in Daejeon,Food and Drink,Korea,Korean Vocabulary,Maple Square,Off time and have No Comments

Sep

Pre-Chuseok Party

Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) is next week. Since we’re on vacation next week, we had our party today. Yay for parties!

The kids wore their hanbok (traditonal Korean clothing). We made songpyong (rice cakes stuffed with sesame seeds). We played yootnori (a game played with four sticks) and jaegi (kind of like hackysack). The kids did the ganggangsullae (a traditional dance).

The kids looked wonderful in their hanbok. The songpyong were delicious. I think a good time was had by all.

posted by Kathryn in Activites,Celebrations,Food and Drink,Fun things,Games,Holidays,Korean Vocabulary,Maple Square,Pictures,Staff,Students and have No Comments

Jun

Cheese Rabokki

How to describe it? Cheesey. Noodley. Fishy. Chewy. Spicy. Yup. That pretty much sums it up. My version of this is a somewhat modified version of this recipe I found on the net.

It’s a pretty easy dish to make. One pot and a plate to serve is all it takes. Start by gathering your ingredients (the brown sugar is missing from this picture because I forgot about it).

Here are some better views of everything…

Odang in Bag

Odang

Dduk

Brown Sugar

Ramen Noodles

Mozzarella Cheese

Gochujang Container

[

Gochujang

Start by turning on the stove to low. Addi about 1.5 cups of water to a saucepan. To that, add about 3 tablespoons of brown sugar and 3 tablespoons of gochujang. I also (sometimes, not always) add a bit of garlic and some salt. I use a whisk to mix it all together as the gochujang is kind of sticky.

Then add your noodles. Here in Korea we can buy raman noodles without any sort of seasoning packet. They’re about half the price of the other kind.

Cut your odang into bit size chunks.

And add it to the pot.

Stir and then add your dduk.

Let cook until the ramen is done. Stir every minute or so to keep it from sticking to the pot. The ramen cooks fast, this should only take a few minutes.

Then dump your cheese on top. This is completely optional, but ever so yummy.

Stir and dish out.

Believe me when I say it… This makes enough for 3-4 people/servings. It can be reheated. Don’t try to eat it cold. Cold dduk is like trying to eat a very gummy rock. The microwave works well to reheat. I’ve never tried to reheat on the stove. You could probably make a bit of just the sauce and then dump the leftover rabokki in to reheat.

posted by Kathryn in Food and Drink,Home Life,Korea,Korean Vocabulary,Off time,Pictures and have Comments (2)

Feb

Happy New Year!

Today is Seollal (설날), or Lunar New Year. It’s a time when Koreans travel to the homes where they grew up and celebrate the new year. In that way, it’s similar to Chuseok. They dress in Hanbok, the traditonal Korean dress. One traditional food eaten during Seollal is tteokguk, which is a soup with rice cakes. Although I didn’t have it this year, I did make it last year. A student’s mother gave me a number of packages of rice cakes as a gift.

One traditional activity is kite flying. I was wandering around Ulsan today, but I didn’t get to any of the parks. At least that’s where I assume people would be flying kites. Another tradition is called Sebae. Children show respect to their elders and wish them a happy new year by bowing deeply and saying “saehae bok manhi badeuseyo” which translates to “please receive many blessings in the new year”. Children are rewarded with money, usually in the form of brand new bills.

More information can be found at the following sites:

posted by Kathryn in Celebrations,Food and Drink,Holidays,Home Life,Korean Vocabulary and have No Comments

Oct

Songpyeon

In my post on Chuseok, I talked about songpyeon.

I was at Lotte Mart this afternoon doing my weekly grocery shopping. I was actually having a songpyeon craving. Does this mean I’ve been in Korea way too long for my own good? I don’t know.

So I bought a small package of them. The homemade ones (as provided by my students in the past) are better. But these were passible. There were white ones and green ones in the package. I’ve also eaten pink ones.