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Archive for 'Culture'

Malbok: The Final 10 Days of Summer Posted by on Aug 16, 2016

The beginning of the end for any summer in Korea starts with malbok (말복), the first of the final 10 hot days as defined by Korean tradition and the lunar calendar. And this summer in Korea, which has been a sweltering, record-breaking one, makes malbok that much more special. Across South Korea, that moment will…

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Surviving Monsoon Season In Korea Posted by on Jun 28, 2016

Koreans will proudly tell you of their four seasons, no matter how much you plead with them that there is, say, the same thing in Michigan or most places in the Northern Hemisphere. But what is left out is one essential, annoying part of those four seasons: Monsoon season (장마). If you’re heading to the beaches of…

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Conan’s Korean Seafood Market Experience Was an Authentic One Posted by on Jun 11, 2016

Korean seafood markets are filled with the sort of edible fish that you wouldn’t see in, say, fish markets in Seattle or Normandy. It’s intense and, like in most languages, the names of fish only enhance language barriers and push translators to the brink. Some are familiar, though, but still not in our culinary past…

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Baekdu Mountain: the Pride of Korea, both North and South Posted by on May 7, 2016

Roughly 70% of South Korea is mountainous land. But for South Koreans, it’s most prized and cherished mountain lies on the border between North Korea and China. It’s a volcanic mountain, capped at it’s peak with a crater lake know as “heaven lake” (천지), named Baekdu Mountain (백두산), the sacred white-headed mountain. The common ties…

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North and South Korean Language Split: Can They Understand Each Other? Posted by on Nov 6, 2015

Over sixty years after North Korea and South Korea agreed to a ceasefire (along with the United States and United Nations participants), the two countries have taken different political pasts, clearly.  But this has transferred into the linguistic fear as well, with North Korean defectors struggling to adjust to South Korean hangul.  Imagine trying to adjust…

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Happy Chuseok! How to Celebrate Korean Thanksgiving Posted by on Sep 27, 2015

Have fun on your Chuseok holidays! (여러분 모두 즐거운 추석 연휴 보내세요!)  Today (Sept. 27) is the iconic Korean holiday of Chuseok (추석), which means Korean Thanksgiving Day.  Each year, the holiday falls on a different day based on the Lunar Calendar.  The holiday celebration is actually three days long, which means yesterday and tomorrow…

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Pig’s Feet: A Korean Culinary Must Posted by on Aug 22, 2015

One must not be shy when entering into Korean cuisine–or alleyways for that matter.  A walk down a neon-lit street or back-alley full of steam will most likely show tanks with unknown seafood piled upon each other, a full pig’s head, and a wooden block of steamed intestine and blood sausage.  But one of the best…

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