Archive for the year 2009
Gaecheonjeol Posted by Ginny on Oct 7, 2009
This year Gaecheonjeol (개천절) was overshadowed by the Chuseok festival. Gaecheonjeol is National Foundation Day. It celebrates the first state of the Korean nation. This year, the two holidays happened to be on the same day. The first official nation of Korea was called Gojoseon (고조선). There is archeaological evidence that the Gojoseon kingdom really existed…
Chuseok Posted by Ginny on Oct 4, 2009
The third of October this year was the Chuseok (추석) festival. The date changes every year for Chuseok on the solar calendar. However, on the lunar calendar Chuseok is always celebrated the fifteenth of August. Long ago, Chuseok was called Hangawee (한가위). Chuseok is an old festival that celebrates the autumn harvest. When Korea used…
Pansori Posted by Ginny on Sep 29, 2009
When I was a child, I had the pleasure of viewing a pansori (판소리) performance in Korea. Pansori (판소리) is a type of traditional Korean music using vocals and instruments. The singer of a Pansori (판소리) performance is called a 소리꾼. The 소리꾼 is usually accompanied by a drummer called a 고수. Both the singer…
Prestigious Korean Universities Posted by Ginny on Sep 26, 2009
This fall, as new students in America enter their first year of college, I thought I’d talk about SKY universities. Many Korean parents dream of sending their children to a SKY university to further their children’s future. Have you ever heard of the acronym SKY? The letters come from the first letter of three prestigious…
Korean-English Guessing Game! Posted by Ginny on Sep 23, 2009
Hopefully you’ved had some time to guess about these words: 1. 카리스마 (charisma) 2. 볼펜 (ballpoint pen) Be careful of the the word 팬 which doesn’t mean pen, but a fan or an ethusiast. 3. 카메라 (camera) lots of names for high tech items are derived from English. 4. 핸드백 (handbag) lots of names for…
ㄹ Ending Verbs Continued Posted by Ginny on Sep 20, 2009
Hopefully you’ve had some time to think about the ㄹ ending verbs in detail (published on September 14th 2009). I’m going to go even further and show you how to conjugate these verbs in the deferential polite form. In the first post on ㄹ ending verbs, the verb 놀다 was conjugated as 놀아요 in the…
Korean Words Derived from English Posted by Ginny on Sep 17, 2009
The following words are Korean words derived from English. See if you can figure out the English word from the pronunciation of the Korean word. 1. 카리스마 2. 볼펜 3. 카메라 4. 핸드백 5. 카드 6. 컴퓨터 7. 헤어 스타일 8. 테니스 9. 텔레비전 10. 프로그램 11. 커피 12. 헤드폰 13. 엑스레이 14. 노트북 15…