May 2011
43 posts
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Korea Queer Culture Festival / Seoul LGBT Film...
I was over at Chris in South Korea today reading this: chrisinsouthkorea.com
It’s about Korea Queer Culture Festival which from the article sounds like a fun time. If you’re gay/transgendered/questioning/straight/bi it might be a nice thing to visit.
However, from the looks of their website (http://www.kqcf.org/) it’s now going into Seoul’s LGBT film festival which...
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Live in Kazakhstan? Want to be a Kpop star? July...
True facts:
Amazing! If anyone reads this blog auditions in Kazakhstan email me! I want know how it goes! Actually this goes for anyone that auditions anywhere; I would love to get feedback from you on how things go down!
Good luck! Bonne chance! Bon courage! Fighting!
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Big Bang's Daesung Involved In a Car Accident
Daesung from Big Bang was involved in a car accident around 1AM about 40 minutes outside of Seoul.
A motorcyclist who had been hit in a hit and run accident was being assisted by the driver of a stopped taxi. Daesung was unable to stop in time to avoid hitting the stopped taxi and the unfortunate turn events lead to the motorcyclist, already injured from the previous hit and run, dying. After...
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Korea News Report: 'Fake Academic Background'...
‘Fake Academic Background’ Kang Tae Jae, “Sorry, I will not resign.”
‘허위학력’ 강태재 “미안하다, 사퇴안한다”
허위 - fake, false
학력 - academic background
미안하다 - sorry, to be sorry
사퇴안한다 - will not resign
사퇴 - resign
What’s Happening:
Kang Tae Jae had put that he graduated from a certian high school when he in fact had dropped out. He works at the 청주 Chamber of...
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Let's Get Friendly~
I just wanted to bring to everyones attention that comments are enabled on this blog (disqus~) and that Korea District does in fact have a Twitter! (http://twitter.com/#!/koreadistrict) Also, if it is not obvious, you can follow Korea District on Tumblr as well.
Feel free to comment away, do you hate the new layout, love the kpop posts, want to see me review a drama/movie, tell me so in the...
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Girls Day "Scandal" - Are they showing underwear?
I wanted to post something about this because this is how misunderstandings happen and anti fans form: Girls Day were not showing off their underwear in their short-short outfits.
The white shorts you’re seeing are called dancers shorts, or spankies. They’re tight, short shorts and, on the contrary, you wear them in order to hide your underwear. Dancers, cheerleaders, and...
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가요계 부는 걸그룹 열풍 ‘하반기 나올 걸그룹만 12팀’
“가요계 부는 걸그룹 열풍 ‘하반기 나올 걸그룹만 12팀’”
What does this mean? This means 12 more girl groups are debuting this year alone. My gosh, STOP IT. I adore girl groups but oh my gosh 12 MORE THIS YEAR ALONE?!? NO, just no.
Vocabulary:
가요계 - the world of singers
걸그룹 - girl group
열풍 - craze
12팀 - 12 teams
하반기 - the second half of the year
Source:
news.nate.com
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R.I.P Chae Dong Ha
Former SG Wannabe member Chae Dong Ha was found hanging in his apartment May 27th.
Chae Dong Ha suffered from major depression which some believed came from the death of his manager. He had just returned from Japanese promotions and when he was unable to be reached 119 (Korea’s emergency number, like 911 in the USA) was dialed and he was found dead on the scene when emergency personal...
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Do you have a pet?
안녕하세요!
넌 고양이있어요?
둘 고양이있어요!
Translation: Hello! Do you have a cat? I have two cats!
The picture above is my cat Sol~ (솔); Sol is short for soleil which is French for something like sun/sunny.
(Je suis franco-americaine…that feels strange to say since I haven’t ran into many, if any, French-American things. There’s a definite disconnect between the two. However, my...
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Kpop in Japan Round Up: May 25th
Ah~ at this point it’s like reporting on the same artists again and again.
Featured Artists: FT Island, Big Bang, 2PM
Big Bang, as I predicted, took the number one spot in their first week! In their second week Big Bang fell to 5th place, however, there should be no hard feelings because Korean music group FT Island took first place!
Two weeks of Koreans taking the number one spot on...
Anonymous asked: umm... can you teach me how to join super junior daum cafe.. thanks
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Suicide: Song Ji Sun
송지선 사망
Song Ji Sun was an announcer who was caught up in a large scandal recently. She claimed to be dating Doosan Bears player Im Taehoon for a year and six months only to have him publicly deny any relationship between them. She was viciously attacked online and history of her sexual past was made public. She was dealt a huge blow to her image. There are reports that she also had her...
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Back to the Basics of Korean
There is a very useful guide from Omniglot for learning Korean and it even teaches you the characters names. I thought this was essential.
(photo credit: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/korean.htm)
Link: http://www.omniglot.com/charts/print/hangeul.pdf (does not include double consonants)
I decided reviewing Hangul was very important recently. More Back to the Basics soon.
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Wonder Girls - XSports News
‘원더걸스’ 근황 사진 공개, 한층 성숙해진 외모 뽐내
” ‘Wonder Girls’ whereabout photos made public, flaunting a more mature look. “
‘원더걸스’ - Wonder Girls
근황 - whereabout (I got the impression it means that the artist made themselves known like “look, this is where we are at”)
사진 - photo
공개 - made public
한층 - more, more and more
성숙해진 - mature, to become...
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Kpop Korean Lesson: Big Bang - Haru Haru
Video Credit: sayurixchan@youtube
떠나가 - leave, depart
떠나다 - the verb form of leave, depart
가 - subject marker
또 - again
나를 - me (+object marker)
찾지 - find, look for,
지 - again hard to explain the function of 지…it has a wide range of functions apparently and in this case it’s being used to make a blunt statement. It’s a bit informal (which might explain why...
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My adventures with bulgoki!
…and sticky rice!
Does it look like any bulgoki you’ve ever had? It smelled like bulgoki I’ve had before but the ginger in it was very strong and I felt like I needed more onion. My mother who tried the bulgoki said it had a sharper taste than the stuff we’ve had before but said the rice was spot on.
Recipe used:...
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May 18th, 1980
It may or may not surprise you to find out that Korea’s democracy as it is today is fairly new. Even as recently as the 1980’s the people of South Korea were protesting against dictator like presidents.
(photo credits: joongangdaily.joins.com)
One such event of protesting against a dictatorship was during the period of May 18th to the 27th in Gwangju.
The president at the...
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Food Terms
I’m trying a Bulgoki recipe right now and I’m also going to make 밥. If things turn out well (and probably even if they don’t) I’ll post up pictures of everything. Since I am making Korean food I decided to post Korean terms related to food.
밥 - rice
반찬 - all the little side dishes you get with a Korean meal
콩나물 - Bean sprout banchan
겉절이 - fresh kimchi banchan
(콩나물...
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Korea Vocab - School
I’m about to start my summer semester of classes! So here are some Korean terms that relate to school.
연필 - pencial
펜 - pen
책 - book
책상 - desk
수첩 - note book
공부 - study(ing)
대학교 - university
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Essential Korean: Day Three
It appears that I have misplaced the list I was originally working with. When I find it I’ll work with it again, however, this is another list I found of the most commonly used words in Korean. All learning is good learning!
그래 - yes, ok, alright, and if the question is negative it works as a no. (endic.naver.com)
In Korean answering questions are a bit weird at first, for example, if...
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Korean Vocabulary - 화려한 휴가
화려한 휴가 - Splendid Holiday
화려한 - brilliant/ splendid/ colorful
휴가 - holiday
I was flipping through channels yesterday and ended up on the channel that has a three hour block they call “M.Net (Korean Music)” (or something like that) and to my surprise a movie called May 18 (or 화려한 휴가 in Korean) was on. Since this block is only under the title “M.Net” I didn’t know...
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Kpop in Japan Round Up: May 14th
Featured: MBLAQ, SNSD, Kara, Big Bang, and Jang Geun Suk!
MBLAQ took SECOND PLACE on the weekly Oricon! However, as of May 14th they have fallen completely out of the top 20 and 30. Which usually means it was just their fanbase buying the single…not a good thing (it usually means a flop, however second place on the weekly Oricon will still garner attention). They actually fell out of...
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I never mentioned it did I?
Korea District was accepted into Korea.com’s blog feed thing (classy English right there). That’s actually part of the reason I haven’t moved this blog yet because I don’t want to tell them “hey, I moved” when I’ve only been on their feed thing for less than a week. I feel like that’s a little much. (However, the post about moving got 2 dittos.)
...
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Kpop Korean Lesson: 2NE1 - Lonely (Part One)
I’m hooked…hard. I love this song!
I don’t know I don’t know 내가 왜 이러는지
내가 - I (+ subject marker)
나 and a subject marker becomes 내가.
왜 - why
이러 - to be like this
는지 - not translation: this thing is confusing. I found one place that means it indicates a question (make sense in the sentience) and another that states that it makes the verb into the object. Confusing!
...
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V Magazine - Asian Issue
Before you go “why is Gaga here?” this is simply only the cover of V Magazine where Kpop does make an appearance.
vmagazine.com Click that link for more details but if you are a JYJ fan in particular this magazine should get your interest. If you are a girl group fan (like me) then this magazine should get your interest. Feel the hallyu ❤
This magazine is also available as a...
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Essential Korean: Day Two
Sorry, day two is late. Life has been busy with hospital visits for various family members in the last 24 hours. However, this isn’t the place to explain all that.
Day Two:
되다 - to become, get to be (endic.naver.com)
우리 - we, us, our
The catch with uri - often times Koreans will use 우리 instead of na (I, my, mine) for things. You may hear people say “우리 엄마” to say...
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Kpop Korean Lesson: Kara - Pretty Girl
어디서나 당당하게걷기
Anywhere you go, walk confidently.
The video I was watching has it translated as “Walk confidently anywhere you go.” Same thing, no?
youtube credits: gossipwhatever
Anyway, breaking down 어디서나 당당하게걷기 is actually kind of fun.
어디서나 - anywhere
당당하 - confident
게 - makes confident an adverb, aka it’s now confidently. The general rule of thumb is that...
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Korean Food This Weekend
This weekend I am getting Korean food for the second time in my life. Exciting, 녀? I’ve had bulgogi and galbi; does anyone have any suggestions on what I should try this time? I don’t like fish…of any kind. I hate seafood, but everything else is fair game.
What do you recommend?
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Essential Korean: Day One
Recently, I stumbled up sites discussing “한국어 학습용 어휘 목록” as decided by the National Institute of the Korean Language (NIKL). They (NIKL) decided on around 6000 words that a Korean learner must know in order to establish some sort of fluency in the Korean language. This was decided on back in 2003 and as such I am having some difficulty finding the list. However, if you keep...
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How to Use a Daum Blog; The Basics - Part One
How to Use a Daum Blog; The Basics - Part One (Click Images for Bigger Pictures)
What’s going on here? On the far left there is a drop down box that says “Category” with a button with a check mark next to it. This check mark button when clicked will provide you the opportunity to add new categories. By default you have a category that says “My Story” (in...
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The Next Step for Korea District
Yesterday, Tumblr (where I operate this blog from) went down for a couple hours. Since I was already considering moving this blog, yesterdays outage guaranteed that the main content of this blog will be moved somewhere more reliable.
The next step for this blog is a domain name and being moved somewhere that won’t go down as often. I actually finished part one of the Daum blog tutorial...
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Have you been following the Daum tutorials? →
Here’s why the blog tutorial in particular is taking so long! There’s SO MUCH TO IT. I need to sit down and really write it all out and make the needed pictures. Everything on that blog has been modified by Daum’s click and chose features. For example the map is not part of that blogs original layout and the layout format is also not part of the blogs original layout....
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Daum Tutorial Series: Make a Daum Blog
Yes, another post in the Daum tutorial series! Today we’re going to make a Daum blog!
Click the blue button. The second drop down box is too much for me to translate…sorry.
You’ve now created a blog!
I am going to make a separate tutorial on how to use your blog tomorrow. There’s a lot going on here! But now you know how to make one and how to...
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Iljimae Series Review
I’ve been meaning to post this for a week or so now but part of me was very upset to leave the Iljimae universe.
Final Verdict: 8/10
Worth a watch, has some unusual elements and melodrama, and is an action adventure with attempts at romance.
I felt like it had a lot of death in it and I still remember how quickly my heart beat when they started doing what they did to Yi...
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Daum Tutorial Series: Join a Fan Cafe
I realize the reason why most Kpop fans join Daum is to join their favorite artists official fan cafe. Yes, the cafes that are ranked every month to determine who has the biggest group of fans. So today, we’re going to join a fan cafe and then leave a fan cafe. However, you may join more than one fan cafe!
(Need to join Daum? Here’s that tutorial: koreadistrict.tumblr.com)
...
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Random Useful Grammar Related Phrases
These may or may not be useful when it comes to talking about Korean grammar. Depends on how deep into grammar you get.
동사 - verb
명사 - noun
부사 - adverb
형용사 - adjective
전치사 - preposition
전치사 구문 - prepositional phrase
This was inspired by Korean Word a Day’s tumblr. He provides a new word of Korean everyday and, in the definition/usage stuff he provides for the word, there are some...
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TOPIK - Beginner Test Version B (Number 22)
The 22nd TOPIK test for download. Before anyone whistle blows this is from the official TOPIK website. I am re-uploading it because TOPIK things are hard to find and this is the complete, audio and questions, test. This is the B version which means the version used over in Asia.
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?oblpiaui3bxff62
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Tutorial: Join Daum
Want a Hanmail account? Want to join a fan cafe? Here’s how it’s done!
After this I need to provide some directions. When you click a box is going to pop up. You need to check your email for an email from Daum that will have a code in it. (Check your spam folder if you can’t find the email.) This code needs to put into the box that pops up. The button next...
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Kpop in Japan Round Up: May 5th
This week includes: SNSD, Jang Geun Suk, and MBLAQ!
This week was a firece battle on the Oricon between SNSD and actor Jang Geun Suk, who landed first on the charts? Find out that and more under the cut! (Includes pictures and videos)
Who came out on top of the charts this week; Jang Geun Suk with his debut single “Let Me Cry” while SNSD had to settle with second place with...
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We're officially "open!"
I’ve been posting a lot previously but since my finals are done I’m officially calling this place open!
What does this mean?
- Expect regular blogging! At least once a day barring some exceptions.
- Contests when I receive more traffic. (I’m playing with a couple ideas already. I really want to do a successful contest at some point.)
It’ll be a little more active...
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Kpop IS a valuable learning tool (Song Jieun -...
Song: Song Jieun (family name is Song) - Going Crazy
Korean Title: 미친거니
Meaning of Korean Title: something like “have you gone crazy?” going crazy is a nice translation for the title.
The rap is much too fast for me to follow but for other parts there are words that are repeated enough to be learned and memorized. Phrases like “where” (어디), “why” (왜),...
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...because history being made provides lessons
사망 - death
파키스탄 - Pakistan
서 - from/is happening in
사살 - shoot/shot (to death)
돼 - I’m not sure sorry. :/ Naver translated to be/is/not so yeah…T_T
빈 라덴, 파키스탄서 사살돼 - Bin Laden, In Pakistan is Shot to Death
