JanimeS Forum: Knowledge

Choi Jin-sil ( 최진실 In Korean text ) was Korea's sweetheart. Born on December 24, 1968, in Korea, she was often compared to Jennifer Aniston in terms of popularity and attractiveness.

She appeared in a lot of Korean dramas and her acting was considered almost on Godly level. She also took various types of roles flawlessly, ranging from a shy woman to a mean bitch. She also appeared on hundreds of TV commercials.

She was considered to be one of the cutest actresses until her death. She committed suicide by strangling with a bath towel October 2 2008 (at age of 39). Her decision to suicide came from her failed marriage. She married a baseball player who was some years younger than her. She was financially gazillions more powerful than her husband which caused him to act violent whenever there were fights. Her husband, in the end, even had an affair which was the last blow to her marriage.

Choi Jin-sil's younger brother took custody of his sister's children and family business. However, not being live up to his elder sister's legacy, he committed suicide only 18 months later. This left a national wide debate whether Choi Jin-sil's divorced husband (Who was openly called "The motherfucker" by Koreans at this point.) should take custody of the children as well as her assets.

The couple had two children and her assets were into billions. Since the divorced husband was the children's biological father, by laws, guardianship of the children and her assets would fall into his hands. However, Koreans raged against this, and Korea supreme court agreed that he should not get any of her assets as well as guardianship of her children whose lastnames became Choi instead of their father's.

"Choi Jin-sil law" was created. This law was created only for Choi Jin-sil and the law came in effect only for Choi Jin-sil's court case where biological father was denied of custody/guardianship of his children and any assets of his divorced wife's.

Choi Jin-sil mother, the children's grandmother, took custody of the children and took control of her daughter's assets in the end. Months later, on an interview, Choi Jin-sil mother stated, "The only reason I am here, living, is because of my duty to raise my grandchildren who my daughter left..."

Choi Jin-sil mother, thanks to her daughter, used to enjoy luxury life. However, she fired all maids after taking custody of the children and started to do all house chores by herself.

Her reason for this was, "I felt like I was going insane when I had nothing to do. I had to work. I had to do something. I just had to concentrate on something to keep my mind occupied."

Having lost her son and high profile daughter (Basically her whole family), it is understandable.

After Choi Jin-sil was buried, there were various people claiming that they heard Choi Jin-sil's sobbing in their dreams. An investigation was made and it was revealed that a grave digger had hit her grave and an urn containing her ashes went missing. It also was revealed that she wasn't buried on a spot her will stated.

The grave digger was caught, and Choi Jin-sil's remains were relocated to a proper spot according to her will. Since then, people claiming hearing her sobbing in their dreams ceased.

There are thousands (If not easily more) personal blogs in Korean stating how sad they are that she has passed away. A simple search with her name will reveal the scale of her popularity in Korea.
Read story →    4 comments   

When it comes to people who have little idea of Koreans, they generally wonder what North and South Korea mean and if they are the same country.

Now, the short answer is no. Technically, North and South Korea are of the same root but different governments are installed. Furthermore, North Korea and South Korea are both recognized as two independent countries.

The long answer, however, is a confused no followed by a whisper of "maybe". The best way to understand the two Korea is by understanding Germany unification on 1990 where East and West Germany united.

North Korea is a communist country and South Korea is democracy. That alone sets a huge difference in both countries' economies, politics, and culture.

North Korea is led by a dictator. South Korea is run by a president and his cabinet members.

Technically, North and South are still at war. Therefore KDZ ( Korean Demilitarized Zone ) zone exists to divide the two countries.

You can find Koreans relatively easily outside of Korea. There are a lot of Koreans in major urban area cities of America, Canada, Europe, and even Africa. In Japan, Koreans are well spread out.
Those Koreans you may see from where you live, I guarantee you that over 99.9% are South Koreans.

North Koreans simply cannot leave their country without being shot down and not many have the financial means to even immigrate (Not that they are even allowed to leave). And none has any sort of internet access. Actually, few does but it's heavily restricted. Furthermore, North Koreans are suffering from national wide starvation although it hasn't reached the point of famine.

North Korea and South Korea are completely different countries. They've been divided since 1960 and 60 years has made the once-the-same countries become very different. Culturally, North and South share some traits, but when it comes to modern trends, North and South are very different.

To make the differences easier for you to understand, I will give you an example. North Korean women cannot wear mini skirts (or any other revealing clothes). South Korean women wear them everyday.
Read story →    8 comments   

We, Koreans, call it "사골국". It basically means soup made from bones.

Sounds weird, isn't it ? But I reckon bone soup is quite common in East Asia.

As the name indicates, this is soup made from bones. To be more precise, you make this soup by boiling bones for about 4 ~ 6 hours.

The ingredients are very simple. You need (fresh) bones. Being fresh is vital since you want as much bone marrow as possible. As bones are left dead, bone marrow decreases and dies off.

In Korea, we use cow tail bones mostly.



You sock them in cold water for few hours to let blood come loose in water. Once that is done, you put them in a giant steel basket with water and heat it.



Above is what it should look like after about 6 hours. There is nothing much to do during boiling. Once boiling is done, you place the basket in a cold place for over night so that all fat would become solid and you can safely remove it.

Once that is done, bone soup is complete. Well, the basis of it is. Bone soup is a well known basic ingredient of a lot of dishes in Korea. You can simply warm it up and drink it. You can put noodle in it. You can put rice in it. You can even put kimchi in it. It has a very unique taste if you drink it without any additional ingredients. It can be quite addicting.

It is considered to be extremely healthy and nutritious in Korea.
Read story →    6 comments   

There were various sources for this article. I've linked to some of them on the bottom.

Nowadays, it is common for young Korean women to live alone, and some women favor living alone. But there is underlying fears for all single women living alone.

It's men. To be more precise, it's male criminals. There are certain criminals who target only single women apartments.

I've complied a list which single women, living alone, use to counter potential male criminals.

1. Get a pet, dog favored. But there is a problem with that. Some apartments do not allow pets, and small dogs aren't feared anyway. And Getting a big dog is a big chore to look after.

Some single Korean woman have a great tendency to fear any males when they are alone. For an example, in order to establish an internet connection, a technician has to come to an apartment to install a modem and activate its MAC address with their HQ. And such technicians are almost 100% all males. And since all single women have most likely a job, these technicians come late at around 6PM ~ 8PM, which is the perfect time frame for crimes.
In such cases, some single women have few tricks.

2. Keep male shoes displayed, falsely indicating that she may have a boyfriend currently in apartment.

3. Cooking in kitchen. Why you ask ? Well, there are ... weapons ..., um no, knifes in there.

4. Call a female friend to come over which is not always possible. Regardless, 2 vs 1 sounds safer anyway. Then..., again, 2 vs 1 sounds perfect for threesome.

5. If it's at least two room apartment, close a door to a room and turn on TV really loud in there, falsely indicating that someone's in there, and she would occasionally call up and say "Brother (BF or whatever), would you turn it down?! Geez!"

I am sure there are more.


Sources :
http://blog.ohmynews...plepower/310379
http://dogkorea.host...ocument_srl=599
http://blog.naver.co...gNo=70021438376
Read story →    6 comments   

Another weird name to translate. In Korean, it is 순대.

There is no way to translate it properly with one or two words in English, so let's just call it by how it sounds.
It's Sundae.

It is a very popular dish among Koreans as well as in many parts of Asia. But you may not like what it is made of.

The original Sundae in old times was made from pig intestine. You, um, extract pig intestines from a pig. You clean the intestines up inside out. And then you insert rice noodle into the intestines. Once you fill the intestines with pig's blood, you cook it by steaming.

It tastes really nice and it is one of main foods you can find in "covered wagon" I wrote about.

In recent times, pig's intestine is no longer used. Instead, synthetic tubes (mimicking intestines) are used. Pig's blood is still used though.

It's a really nice dish and goes extremely well with liquor.

There are some other variants of Sundae. The most common way to modify Sundae is by using something else other than pig's intestines.

Article source : Me (sura)
Picture source : Korean wikipedia http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/순대
Read story →    14 comments   

I am not sure how to translate this.

포장마차

If I translate it word by word, meaning by meaning, it means covered wagon. But that is not what this is.

In Korea, on streets, especially after evening, you will see many of these. They offer liquor and tasty foods (mostly fish cakes). They do not sell snacks. In general, they never sell anything sweet. They sell what I can only call "deep" taste food. It goes perfect with soju (Rice vodka that Koreans favor).

The same thing exists in Japan also, though Japanese ones offer different menu.

I am not sure why, but food they serve is shcokingly nice. It's often much better than what you eat from 5-star premium restaurants. It is much, MUCH, better in raw taste. It's not fast food as the chef (sometimes operated by two chefs) prepares his food carefully. A famous covered wagon is so crowded that you have to line up.

Part of its charms comes from its nature. You are drinking on streets. You hear cars, and occasional chatters from bypassers. There is no music in the carriage. There are you and the chef and additionally other customers. But there won't be more than ten people at once since their size is small.

Imagine you are leaving from work. You are single. No one is at home to welcome you. (or to have sex with you. Whatever floats your goat.) You are beat. You are hungry. You want mood and tasty food. There is absolutely no reason for Koreans to refuse these mobile restaurants.

You soak yourself in liquor with such wonderfully tasty treats. It's literally heaven in its own right. (Coming from my personal experience.)
You can talk to other customers casually who you've never met. You may also talk to the chef.

While in there, enjoying your food at cheap price, you are a king of your own domain.

Article source : Me (Sura).
Read story →    9 comments   

Soju.

Yes, Soju. The Korean vodka. The most popular alcohol in Korea. There are gazllions of brands of soju in Korea. Since all taste pretty much the same, whoever has stronger marketing wins. (At least in Korea)

Soju is a weaker version of vodka. They taste roughly the same and almost all times, it's consumed neat. Soju has 20 ~ 25% alcohol while Vodka has 40%.

In Korea, Koreans almost exclusively drink soju as their alcohol of choice. Beer comes in the second place. Only rich dudes have a tendency to drink something more exquisite. (Whisky and such)

Soju is also known as the ultimate medicine to youngsters where they will drink soju whenever they feel ill, which occurs everyday.
Some Koreans firmly believe that drinking soju with red pepper powders is the cure for a cold.

Soju is also to be had with almost any dishes. However, some will prefer O-sake over soju when having sashimi. One of main reasons for this is that O-sake has a very distinct and special taste when it is warmed to a very specific celsius, which when combined with sashimi, it creates a very unique taste.
O-sake is Japanese rice wine. (or Japanese vodka for easier understanding)

There are some bad behaviors involved with soju and Koreans.
Read story →    6 comments   

Nurungji is a traditional Korean food. It is considered as a snack in most cases.

It is a byproduct of cooking rice. Nurungji can occur only if rice is cooked traditionally since rice has to be scorched in a pot. Usually, only a small amount of nurungi can be produced per cooking.

Nowadays, it is nearly impossible to make nurungji since almost everyone use electronic rice cooking machine. Therefore, there are companies that produce nurungji as a snack.

Nuringji is basically a scorched rice pie. And there are various ways to consume it. The most basic way is by simply eating it which itself is good enough as a snack.

Some people will add salt. Some will choose to make a rice tea out of it by soaking it in warm water.

In older times, some students carried nuringji as their main food source.
Read story →    8 comments   

Previously, I talked about "Oppa-nim". ( http://www.janimes.c...ge/oppa-nim-r24 )

This time, it's nuna.
Nuna, or "누나" in Korean is what males use to address older females. The term "Nuna" is generally used by boys before they reach their adulthood. Once they become adults Nu-nim ( 누님 ) is used to refer older females. However, nu-nim isn't used for complete strangers. If an older female a man needs to address is complete stranger or business-related, he will use "ssi" (씨) after her full name. "Ssi" is a general suffix used for both male and female when dealing with strangers.

I suppose Nu-nim could also be used if a wife is older than her husband just like how Oppa-nim is used. However, personally I've never seen a man addressing his wife nu-nim.

Nu-nim is also used when a man tries to get friendly with a woman. When a man doesn't know a woman's age, and he wants to show her some kind of respect, they can use nu-nim to temporarily regard a woman with respect.

Nu-nim is also used when referring to young female celebrities by young men although such usage is much less frequent compared to how girls use "Oppa".
Read story →    0 comments   

There are certain professions in Korea that are valued and regarded higher than other jobs.

These are doctors and public servants.

Pretty much every parents in Korea dream of their male offspring becoming a doctor. Doctor is highly regarded profession in Korea. It is paid extremely well and it is one of "Sa" (사) professions.

Doctor in Korean is 의사.
Lawyer in Korean is 변호사.

"사" (Sa) is used at the end of every high end jobs.

Another profession that has been gaining women's popularity when they pick their husbands is public servants because they can never be fired which means steady income no matter what.
Besides, becoming a public servant is hard as hell. (Understatement) Exams people have to pass is as hard as being admitted to Seoul University (The best university in Korea).

Those two professions are the most sought-after by women. In essence, those men who have such jobs and are single have a nice privilege of picking their wives with ease.
Read story →    8 comments