JIJEON Korean

짜장면Jajangmyeon is one of the soul food for Koreans. I believe most Koreans eat it quite often and it won't be easy to find the one who hates it, just like we love Kimchi. The sweet and salty black sauce, it's also my favorite food!  Though its origin is known as China, the Korean Jajangmyeon is now a unique Korean dish, totally different from the Chinese one with the same name. In my parents' generation, it was a special food that you can eat only in some events: birthday or graduation. Today, it is one of the most popular delivery foods that you can order and eat anytime, anywhere thanks to the well-developed delivery system in Korea. There's still a special occasion to eat it. Koreans usually eat Jajangmyeon on the day of moving in. I guess it's because the house isn't ready to cook and they must be busy cleaning the house, moving and arranging things so they just simply order and eat it. 짜장면 used to be written as 자장면[Jajangmyeon] even though almost everyone i...

Do you know that there are a lot of homonyms in Korean? Homonyms are words that share the same spelling and pronunciation but have different meanings .  For example, 말 has two meanings, 'word, language' and 'horse', but they are written and spoken exactly the same. A long time ago, Koreans used to speak the two homonyms in different accents or lengths of the pronunciation. They spoke 말(word, language) in a long sound and pronounced 말(horse) shortly. However, today, most of the Koreans don't know the different length between homonyms and spoke the same. So, when you hear some homonyms, you have to distinguish them by the context.  Homonyms in Korean 말 [Mal] 1. word, language 2. horse 눈 [Nun] 1. eye 2. snow 배 [Bae] 1. pear (fruit) 2. boat 3. stomach 차 [Cha] 1. car 2. tea 팔 [Pal] 1. arm 2. 8 (number) 풀 [Pul] 1. grass 2. glue 개 [Gae] 1. dog 2. item, thing (counting unit) 점 [Jeom] 1. dot, mole 2. fortune-telling 다리 [Dari] 1. leg 2. bridge 사과 [Sagwa] 1. apple 2. apology...

Today is Sunday and our weekend is about to finish! What did you guys do this weekend? 이번 주말에 뭐 했어요? :D In Korean, a week can be divided into two periods: 주말[Jumal]  평일[Pyeong-il] 주말 means 'weekend', referring to Saturday and Sunday. And 평일  means 'weekday', referring to 'Monday to Friday'.  So, you can describe your schedule in a week like this: 평일 에 학교[회사]에 가요.  I go to school[work] on weekdays. 평일 에 공부해요[일해요]. I study[work] on weekdays. - 이번 주말 에 시간 있어요? Do you have time this weekend? - 네, 주말 에 영화 보러 갈까요? Yes, shall we go to the movies on the weekend? - 주말 에 뭐 해요? What are you doing on the weekend? - 주말 마다 보통 운동해요. I usually work out every weekend. However, technically, 평일weekday is the opposite concept of 주말weekend, but not an antonym of it. 주말weekend, as a Sino-Korean word, is written '週末' and it means 'the end of the week'. So, its antonym must be 주초 which means 'the beginning of the week', referring to 'Monday' or 'Tue...

1. 치맥 [chimaek] ‘치킨' literally means ‘chicken’ but in Korea, it means the food ‘fried chicken’. Almost every Korean people love this food and always craves it in any situation!  As ‘치킨' always comes together with ‘맥주(beer)', Koreans call them in one word ‘치맥[chimaek]’. It’s an acronym of the two words:  ‘치킨[chikin], fried chicken)’ and ‘맥주[maekju], beer’. 2. 소맥 [somaek] ‘소맥’ is the most popular boilermaker in Korea. It’s a beer cocktail made of Soju(the most common Korean liquor) and beer. The word ‘Somaek’ is an acronym of ‘소주[soju]’ and ‘맥주[maekju]’.   Korean beer is not that strong so people usually mix the soju with beer. It has a certain proportion of those two but it depends on one’s taste. When these two alcohols are mixed up, you get more easily drunk!  3. 콜! [call] ‘콜' is a broken English which means ‘deal’. It’s often used to accept the suggestion between young people when they make an appointment.   4. 짠! [jjan] ‘짠' means...

Do you know how to say the word 'vegetable' in Korean? There are two words to say it ; 야채  and  채소 But technically, they have different meanings. 야채 is the wild plants that you gathered from outside 채소 is what you grow and get from the farm or garden However,  most of Koreans don't really know their difference  and use them randomly. So, You can use both of them as you want.

윷놀이Yut Nori 윷놀이 is the most representative Korean traditional game. It is usually played between family on holiday, especially in the New year. This board game has four wooden sticks, a board that is usually made of stitched cloth and some small tokens called 'mal'. The wooden sticks are used as a dice. The players throw the sticks in the air and can get six patterns from them : 도, 개, 걸, 윷, 모, 빽도. E ach combination of the four sticks has a certain number to move forward and the player(or a team) who first reaches the finish line is the winner of the game.