The Yellow Dust

I was really surprised after looking out of the window in this morning because outside was all yellow gray. It was not the sky I saw yesterday, and it seemed very windy too. My mom called me not to go out today because the pollution from the yellow dust was too bad.

It happens annually at this time of the year for a few days. But, it hadn't been this bad so far. I haven't thought that I could see this kind of world in my lifetime not in the movie. It was the weather that it wouldn't be surprising though Harry Potter just shows up today. In the afternoon, I got a text from the government that they recommend us not to go outside often, and we should wear a mask in case of going out.

Lately, I think about the relationship between environment and human being more serious than before. It might be an annual occasion, but if it implies the worse case of the near future, it will be a scary thing related to people's life. I feel like I should do something, really. But, I'm not sure what I should do first, and what I can do.

Expensive Educational Expenses

High educational expense in Korea is not a new problem. As many people know, many of Korean parents are supporting their children as long as they can. There are lots of problems causing expensive educational expenses, but a high tuition fee for universities is becoming the major reason thesedays. Yesterday, I watched the news that one of top-ranking university students put a hand written poster on the wall at the one of her university buildings, explaining why she decided to quit attending the university. She left only one year to graduate, and she said that it was not just because of money problem. She mentioned that she wanted to blame for the social tendency which only survivers having high educational background could be recognized. And, to make students survive, their parents are working harder and harder though their kids are in their twenties.

It appealed to me so much. Because I am the one who is preparing for another higher education abroad. My parents are still working and they are gonna support me until I get a job. It is true that more and more young people are smarter than before, and it is becoming more competitive to make them to be a major social member. From students' perspective, they have to do many things to get a decent job compared to the past. They need higher education not only undergraduate degree but also higher than that. It is also not easy to keep up with studying fast changed high technology knowledge. But, anyway, they might be able to put up with everything to make themselves better. But, the problem is that they are mostly supported by their parents, and it makes them feel so sorry and bad for their parents. They might feel more pressure that they have to achieve something big enough to pay off their parents' efforts. It is good time to be independent in 20s, however, the world is making the smart young generation more dependent than ever.

It seems like it is not the problem only in Korea. I heard that students in America have been staging a demonstration parade against high tuition fee. The universities insist that they need to increase tuition rates in order to make research achievements and high quality education.
It sounds good to have such a good system in the universities, however, I think that universities have to stick to the position as an educational institution. It seems that they focus too much on research achievements and school rankings annually published by major news papers. If students cannot have a chance to study owing to financial reasons, I think it would be better to give more opportunities to more students though they cannot benefit from such a high qualified educational system than providing only some students who can afford to pay high tuition fee with educational opportunities.

Spring is too far to come.

I got an alarming message due to heavy snow overnight from the national weather service yesterday. As they anticipated, snow covered all over Seoul today, and I had to consider what would be faster between a bus and a subway. Fortunately, the traffic was not that bad like last January when we had the most snow in 42 years. However, it was not welcoming either that we had snow in the middle of March. I remember that I saw one person wearing a T-shirt on the street two weeks ago. It was pretty spring at that time. But, it seems like it's time to bring back our winter coats again.

I've seen enough snow in this winter. Now, I'd like to see some beautiful and colorful flowers. I hope winter goes away soon, and summer comes late so that I can have some time to enjoy the weather of spring.

H&M in Korea

Last Saturday afternoon, I went to Myung-Dong, the most popular area in Seoul, to go window shopping. I thought that I could visit the first H&M shop in Korea because it was exactly H&M's opening date.

I used to do shopping in the H&M when I was in Minnesota. Also, I could see many H&Ms when I traveled Norway because H&M was originally from Sweden.

So, I wasn't that excited about the first H&M shop in Korea. I was just curious about the different design of clothes because international clothing firms sometimes provide different style focused on people in different countries. For example, I wasn't a big fan of Forever 21 in America becuase clothes were too sexy for me, and size didn't fit for me well at that time. However, it became the place I should go when I went to Myung-Dong because they provided more cute and comfortable fashion than dressy and sexy clothes in Korea. Of course, I was so happy about the size which was just good for me. It was hard for me to find the appropriate size in other countries.

The H&M shop opened in the middle of Myung-Dong, and it was so crowded. Since it occupied 4 floors in a big shopping mall, I decided to take the second floor to get in. There was a guy in black in front of the second floor entrance, and he told me that I should use the first floor to use the shop. So, I went down, and there were a few guys with the same black suits too. They also told me that I could enter the shop only by going through the main entrance outside. I went outside to find the entrance, but then I realized that a long endless line around the shopping mall all waiting for being entered. So, I had no choice but to give up.

It would be hard to find another country as sensitive as Korea about fashion. In Korea, people have the ability of gathering fashion news, the patience of waiting to get in the newly open shop, and the economic plan for spending money for fashion by season. (It might depend on people though.) I guess that's why large clothing companies such as Zara, Mango, and H&M targeted Korea as a big market by increasing the number of shops and the size of the store. It doesn't seem that it would be decreased in a short while because FTA is waiting for its conclusion between EU countries and Korea in this year. Though it might be fatal for some Korean clothing companies, but I hope to see their stores in other countries soon too.

Korean Workers

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703382904575059120514572794.html?mod=WSJASIA_hpp_SecondTopStories

I called one of my friends yesterday, sunday, to ask if she could hang out with me. She said that she was doing extra works at the PC cafe because she couldn't finish her work the last time. She'd just moved to another place, so she couldn't connect internet yet at her place. She became a new banker two weeks ago in the one of the largest banks of Korea. Bankers and teachers are considered one of the good jobs in Korea because they can have guaranteed pension, benefits, paid parental leave, and sharp closing hours. These benefits are not common for workers working in the private companies. So, it is competitive to get such jobs, so it was my friend's dream job too.

But the reality was not that similar with her dream. She had to arrive at work by 7:30 am because she was the newest and youngest one in the bank so she shouldn't be late than any other. Her leaving hour was also around 9 pm because she was demanded heavy overworks. But she said it was okay because most of them whether they are in high places or not stayed in the bank till late night. Anyway, considering her commuting hours, she had to wake up around 5 am, and she could come back to home around 11 pm. It didn't seem that she could take any rest during the week. What is worse, she was required to pass one national financial exam by this month, and two others by next month. So she had to use her weekend for studying such things to keep her position and to be ready to be promoted. It is a story about one of the dream jobs in Korea.

One of my seniors in the school club, who is working as a sucessful fund manager told his juniors including me that we should not take advantage of the vacations for the first working year. He said it was one of the tips to become a favored worker by the company, and many of new workers had done like that.

It must be a crucial reason that Korea became a powerful economic country by working as hard as possible. But, at this point, I worry that my friends and other new workers might lose their ambition and dream that they have when they start working, as they become too tired of required works to think about themselves and the meaning of work.

Song Pyun

It was Chu-Seok (Korean Thanks Giving day) on 3rd Oct. The date of chu-seok is always changed because we follow the lunar system. It is kind of complicated to explain. I couldn't go to my hometown on that day because it was the day I came back from Japan for GRE. So, my mom sent me Song Pyun which is a Korean traditional rice cake for Chu-Seok. Song Pyun is a little bit sticky, but delicious and easy to make people feel full. I cannot find any western food which can compare with it. As you can see, each color has different taste. The white one is the general one, and the green one tastes more like green tea, a little bit bitter than the white one, but I prefer the green one better. Inside of it, there is the mixture of sesame and sugar or just some black beans. In general, most of young people prefer to eat sesame one because it is more sweet. When I was you, I was scolded by my mom because I did not eat the leftover of the Song-Pyun once I checked the inside of it with black beans. (It is hard to guess which has sesame and which has black beans)

Here is the picture of the inside of Song Pyun.

I guess Korean traditional snack (because it was not a main meal, the main meal for Asians is always rice) is way too far different from the current snacks.

Hwang, Jin-Yi

Hwang, Jin-Yi (황진이)... She was a famous gisaeng (Korean Geisha, a singing and dancing girl) in Joseon Dynasty. (1520c~1560c) She was distinguished in poem, playing geomungo (Korean zitherlike instrument with six strings) and dancing. Korean people still love her and her works of art. Her poems are so beautiful, ardent, and easy to understand. All of gisaengs had their own nicknames that are called by their customers. Jin-Yi's nickname was Myeongwol (bright moon), so she used to make a poem by quoting from the moon. There is a famous part of poem of her about lost love. I feel sorry that I couldn't find full version of the poem, though it is still sad and beautiful. The name of this poem is 'the deep midwinter night'.


Oh that I might capture the essence of this deep midwinter night
And fold it softly into the waft of a spring-moon quilt,
Then fondly uncoil it the night my beloved returns.


Some people tend to think gisaengs as a bargirl or a prostitute, but in my opinion, they were entertainers who were good at sing a song, playing music, making a poem and speaking volubly. In 2006 and 2007, the TV drama and movie about Hwang, Jin-Yi were released in a row. The TV drama, Hwang, Jin-Yi, was a great hit in South Korea; I think it described the life of Hwang, Jin-Yi well. Besides her life story, there are so many things people could enjoy such as traditional Korean custome (Han-bok), Korean dancing and wonderful scenery of 4 seasons of Korea.
Here are some clips of Korean TV drama, Hwang, Jin-Yi, that I picked up from the youtube.







Here is a modified version of Han-bok in these days, and Korean people still wear Han-bok for wedding feasts.

Useful Korean Websites

After I came to US, I was surprised that there were so many people who didn't know about South Korea well, even less than North Korea. (They recognized North Korea negatively though..) I think I feel sort of patriotism more when I'm in abroad than in Korea. In Korea, I was the one who criticize Korean politics, life style and norms. But, here, I feel thankful if I meet someone who show interests in my culture and my country. And if they ask me something about Korea, I feel a sense of duty that I have to inform correct information to them. So, I started to look up some Korean sites in English, which were useful to introduce Korean culture to foreigners. And, I'd like to introduce some of them to you.

1. Korea. net
http://www.korea.net/
This site introduces some general information about Korea such as Korean history, politics and economy. So, it would be helpful if you want to know overall information of Korea or have to research Korean information in a short time.

2. Korea Sparkling
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/index.kto
It is a traveling information site for Korea. There are some explanations of what you can do, join and taste in Korea. It would be useful if you have a plan to visit Korea, but you don't know how to make a plan. Make sure it is quite different to just travel Seoul with to travel other parts of Korea.

3. Arirang
http://arirang.caption.imbc.com/
I think the best way to know how Korean people live and think is to watch a Korean TV drama. I have watched a lot of TV dramas from different countries such as US, China, Japan, and UK. Korean TV dramas do not fall behind the other countries in my personal opinion. If you don't know what to start watching, I'd like to recommend you to watch 'Couple in Trouble' or 'My Lovely Sam-Soon' first. They are very funny dramas, and the background is current Korea, so it would be helpful to understand how Korean people live and think nowadays.

4. JoongAng Daily
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/list.asp?cat_code=030101
It is the one of the translated in English-newspaper website which is attached to JoongAng Ilbo (Korean news paper). You can check what is a hot issue in Korea or how Korean people deal with world wide issues through this website.

I hope they would be helpful for you if you have interest in Korean culture.

Yu-Na Kim

I would like to introduce the most famous sport star in Korea, Yu-Na Kim.
She is a Korean figure skater. She have just won 2009 World Championship.
I watched her last final contest at least ten times in this week. I cannot believe she is just 18 years old. It seems like she turns to a different person when she skates on the ice.
As I said, she is really famous in Korea now. She is appeared all the news everyday, and sometimes TV entertainment shows too. I can say there is no anti-fan of her in Korea. I think all of Korean people love her. She is not a cheerful and talkative type of girl, rather she is quiet but charismatic by public image. That is why people like Yu-Na because she was not restless even though she became a world famous star. She is a favorite for the next Winter Olympic. I hope I could see her fascinating performance again next year.

This is her last contest of 2009 World Championship.
(Camille Saint-Seans "Danse Macabre")

Korean idols

A few days ago I had dinner with Korean friends. We talked that it's already been 7months since we came to United States and then we changed the topic of conversation to some Korean news. Of course most of our conversation was about which singer is famous and what drama is the most popular now in Korea. And I was a little bit embarrassed because I couldn't get what my friends were talking about. After I came to U.S.A, I tried to keep away from Korean news and Korean pop culture and I even haven't call to my friends in Korea so far. I sent them a letter for Christmas but that was all. Sometimes I really missed my Korean friends but it was pretty helpful to adapt myself to new life here.

Anyway I was surprised that there were many singing groups that I had'nt heard about their names. My friend showed me some music videos of them while she was making fun of me that I'm not gonna catch on what people are saying after I go back to Korea. The singing groups were Korean idol groups which usually are consist of young pretty teenagers. Maybe if you are an Asian, you will understand easily what I'm talking about. I think they are distinguished with American idol groups.

Anyway those idol groups are pretty young as I told you above, they are mostly 15~18. And they are likely to focus on appearance and fashion style rather than singing ability. I don't wanna criticize them that they are not good at singing though they are basically singers. Because I think it is one of pop culture and people like them though they know that they are not good at singing.

But, the side effects are enough to consider. Many teenagers want to copy the idols and they are easy to be collectivize that leads teens plastic surgery and judging people by appearance. In addition, some of young idols also have difficulty to survive in competive entertaintment world when they are so young and cannot adapt school life. Moreover, their popularity is just up and down and up and down.

Ah, I didn't intend to talk about social problems in Korean pop culture. I just wanna share with some newest popular Korean idol groups. Actually two groups, 소녀시대 (girls' generation) and Cara. They are all girl-idol groups. As you see, the number of members mostly more than 5. Maybe because of 'the more the better' way of thinking. Although some people don't like one member in the group, but then they might like other members of the group. Other characteristics are that the lyrics are repeated over again and dance composition is not that difficult. It is because of an attempt to make teens to copy them easily.

Ok, here is 소녀시대 and the name of the song is 'Gee'.


Another one is Cara's 'Honey'.


Enjoy!