Published by Swiss James on 25 May 2007 at 12:12 pm
K is for Corea
So yes, Korea. I spent three years there in the Glorious Land of the Morning Calm- all of them in Seoul, all of them working at Incheon airport.
Korea is notable for many things, the delicate nuances of its food (which stinks, burns your tongue and tastes fantastic), the passive, sweet nature of its inhabitants (who will force alcohol down your neck and run riot through town on a Monday night at the drop of a hat), and the Cosmopolitan nature of it’s population (99.5% Koreans - 0.05% OHMIGOSH- LOOK, THERE’S A FOREIGNER!!!).
Last weekend (at a toy / hip-hop clothing market on Changle Lu) there was one shop with a Korean flag over it. I went in and pretended to look around, then asked the guy (in Chinese)-
“Are you Korean?“.
He was. So I said:
“Hello!”
in Korean, and then tried to say something, anything in hangukmal (i.e. Korean, keep up).
a toy/ hip-hop clothing market at 190 Changle Lu.
All that came out was a stuttering mess of three languages (mostly English swearing).
Can my Chinese after 4.5 months (admittedly including lessons twice a week) really be better than my three years worth of Korean ever was? Apparently so.
I blame the Soju. The sweet, sweet, Soju.
That’s either 1) really weak or 2) very cool that you have learnt so much chinese in such a short time. I’d go for the latter to avoid crying over a glass of soju. Have a good weekend and get stuck into that ace red soup that made me sweat from places I’ve never sweat from since. God that stuff was great.
Straight up? Chinese is easier to learn than Korean? I cracked hangeul pretty quickly. The only problem was
I couldn’t understand what I had so cleverly spelled out. Still end up pointing to something on the menu and hoping
it doesn’t come with antennae or tentacles. Bundagae, however, I quickly memorised.
Seoul chumal jal jinaesoyo.
I went the other way….4 years of chinese at university soon obliterated by trying to understand sweet nothings being whispered in my ear by a korean beauty….
I seriously hate KIMCHI, it’s so nasty.
my mum loves it though
I sooo want to go to seoul, my friend is from there and she always talks so good about it.
Is there a Chinese soju equivalent?
Utterly irrelevant but it’s made me smile on this dark dark sunday of pain.
http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com
liam- Dwengjjangchigae! My Korean came back pretty succesfully once I was back in the RoK, I think basically I have a bigger Korean vocabulary but not learning any grammar or whatever has really held me back.
Champers/Owly- yeah the writing is easy, and it seems like half of the time you’re just spelling out an english word that’s been Koreanified (Puh-ried-eh Chi-ken-eh etc.) but I was just way too lazy about studying properly.
Shopgirl- I think you’d really like it, all the girls get really dressed up and the guy’s are a lot more groomed and trendy. Kimchi is delicious once you get into it.
Shellend- yeah, it’s called Baijiao and it’s grimmer than grim. I wrote about it on one of my first blog posts, except that was baijiao flavoured with Snakes. rather than just the regular nonsense.
I wonder how long it is before we see http://TurtlesThatLookLikeMao.com ?
Hi,
just passing by and saw the photo of the ” toy/ hip-hop clothing market at 190 Changle Lu.” im not sure where that is, but was wondering is it on the pudong side and is there any shops like that on the pudong side? or even just any shops hip-hop related.
thanks =)
Nope, it’s in Puxi- where the good stuff is.
I couldn’t really tell you what’s on the dark side, but that’s what the subway’s for hey?
LOL thanks, im not too familiar with shanghai, but if i were to go to Changle Lu, is that where i would find hip-hop type shops? is the stuff they sell real or fake? because im looking to buy some real stuff. one more thing if i were to give my driver the name of that road would he be able to get there or would i need it written in chinese ect.
sorry for all the questions, im going back this holidays and wanna do some shopping. as i have bought nothing the past 4 times i been ! ! !
I have to go there some day