Visiting the Hello Kitty Cafe in Sinchon, Seoul! - These Temporary Tents by Aadel Bussinger Can you guess where we went this week?! If anyone was exited to move to Korea, it was Denna. She did a lot of research before we left on what fun things there were to do and explore. We made a bucket list of all her favorite choices. Number 1 on the list? There are several Hello Kitty locations in Seoul, but we just happened to be going to Edae to a yarn shop (it was an emergency – you have to believe me) and the cafe was just one subway stop away. We got the directions and a great idea of what to expect from the Cute In Korea blog. Since we got off at the Edae station, we ended up just walking down to the Sinchon station and start our search from there. This area of Seoul was very interesting – all kinds of fun little shops to stop and browse in. The Hello Kitty cafe itself was on the 2nd and 3rd floors of a building right off a major road. I didn’t really expect much out of the experience. We were going for the novelty value. I was pleasantly surprised by the food and drinks we ordered.
UHS Thursday: Gwacheon Science Museum! - These Temporary Tents by Aadel Bussinger At some point Jay and I may or may not have promised Gus that we would find a place where he could see life-size dinosaur bones. And we might have freaked out a little afterwards with the thought that there might not be anything like that here in Korea. But never fear! We found an amazing science museum that not only had dinosaur bones, but animated dinosaurs! And tons of other cool stuff! The Gwacheon Science Museum (aka Scientorium) is located just South of Seoul at the Seoul Grand Park subway station. View Adventures In Seoul in a larger map Hands-on, family science fun! While doing my research to find dinosaur exhibits, I read about the museum on the Korean tourism site and on Kids Fun in Seoul. I was very intrigued by the variety of the exhibits, and by the price! It cost our entire family 10,000 won to get into the museum! And we had so much fun! Most everything was hands-on and there were museum workers at several places giving demonstrations and helping you play the games. 안녕히 계세요!
UHS Thursday: Pyounghwa (Peaceful) Park - These Temporary Tents by Aadel Bussinger When you hear the word park – what is the image that comes into your mind? When I was a kid, it conjured images of swings, fields of grass to play sports, and maybe a sand pit for volleyball. Living all over the country, we noticed that the word park could mean different things. Sometimes we were very disappointed when discovering that a park on a map was really just a glorified playground. Or the kids would find it weird that a park was just a walking path and no real place to play. Here in Seoul, there seems to be two distinct kinds of areas you can find. And then, there is a park. We’ve been to several parks here in Korea. Last week we went further down subway line 6 than we had ever gone to check out the parks around the World Cup Stadium exit. View Adventures In Seoul in a larger map There are actually five parks in the area, but we only explored Pyounghwa Park that day. A peaceful bridge leading to one of the other parks The park was a bit of a walk from the subway station.
10 Great Apps That Teach Hangul It’s pretty important to recognize that when you are learning a language like Korean, Japanese, or Chinese that you are not only learning a new way of speaking – but also of writing. A lot of the online sites and curriculum that we tried for Korean expected us to already be able to read in Hangul. That is frustrating, which is one of the reasons I highly recommend the italki community as well as Talk to me in Korean for getting started. But at some point, you have to break down and learn the alphabet. The good news is that there are some great apps for Ipad/Iphone and Android devices that help you and your kids learn Hangul! Here are 10 apps that we have downloaded, tested, and can recommend to you. I’ve provided the links to the apps on Itunes but please note that we haven’t tested them on apple products, only on Android. Jump Baby Korean Alphabet This one is more for younger children. App on Google Play Jump Baby on my Samsung Galaxy 2 Gaon Hangul Step 1 App on Google Play Play With Korean
Daemyung Resort in Danyang - These Temporary Tents by Aadel Bussinger Driving up to our resort Read the other posts about our vacation: Leaving Wonju We are back at our motel room to dry off and relax after a long day of walking and exploring. Wednesday The next morning we wake up early so we can go buy our train tickets. View from the Wonju train platform I buy our tickets and since the train doesn’t leave for about an hour, we decide to grab some coffee in a dusty little cafe about a block away. The air is once again serene. On this train, we get regular class tickets and are able to rotate our seats to face each other. View from the train – valleys nestled among the mountains The train pulls into Danyang just after 11am. Danyang – a lazy town that follows the river Our first objective is to find our hotel and orient ourselves, so we ask our driver to take us to Daemyung Resort. View of the resort from the bridge Even though we are early, we have no trouble checking in and getting our key. The hotel is 17 stories – with mostly rooms above the first floor.
UHS Thursday: Insadong and Hanok Village - These Temporary Tents by Aadel Bussinger Welcome back to another Unschoolers Have Seoul Thursday! Writing about our vacation took a lot out of me, so I took a little blogging break and got caught up in other areas of my life – college assignments, crafts and reading with the kids, and some cleaning and organizing. Before the weather got too cold, we wanted to take a few more little day trips around Seoul to visit some of the places on our bucket list. So a couple weekends ago we all headed for the Anguk subway station to visit a traditional neighborhood (Hanok village) and the crafty area of Insadong. Rows of traditional houses – Hanok Bukchon Hanok Village Raven and I are big fans of K-drama (Korean drama shows) and some of the series we have watched have featured gorgeous traditional hanok 한옥. We looked and looked for the address to the house where the show was filmed, but the kids got tired of walking and so I decided that a picture of a few hanok was good enough. Peering inside the courtyard of a stately hanok
Learn About Seollal! {Korean Lunar New Year} - These Temporary Tents by Aadel Bussinger We couldn’t leave out Korea in our study on the Lunar New Year! Koreans celebrate two New Year celebrations – Sinjeong 신정 is the solar new year on January 1st. Then they celebrate again on the lunar near year, called Seollal 설날. This holiday is all about family – the roads next week will be packed with people travelling to their hometowns (or people coming to Seoul). Businesses and restaurants will be closed, much like Thanksgiving and Christmas day in the states. Learn about Seollal {Korean New Year} We watched videos from Asia Society and Professor Oh (she is so funny!) The kids have seen a lot of people dressed in traditional hanbok since we walk right by three wedding halls on our way to church each Sunday. I created a printable board game with simplified rules so the kids and I could play yutnori 윷놀이- a very fun game where you get to throw sticks in the air! And we learned how to say “may you receive many blessings in the new year” in hangugeo (Korean). 새해 복 많이 받으세요! 새해 복 많이 받으세요.
Namsangol Hanok Village - Unschoolers Have Seoul Welcome back to our Korea adventure series! Spring has sprung here in South Korea, and that means moods are better, the scenery is greener, and people are venturing out in droves! February was just kind of a blah month for us, even though we celebrated Denna’s 9th birthday and had some fun bowling and playing MtG as a family at the local USO. But now that the weather is the picture of paradise, we have been able to walk to the park more and go on some family trips on the weekends. A couple weekends ago, just as the cherry blossoms were starting to appear, we took a short subway ride over to the other side of Namsan mountain. Our plans were to visit the Namsangol Hanok village, a group of traditional houses in a free park. Each of the hanok, or traditional Korean houses are furnished in the historical style and have openings that you can peer inside to get an idea of what life was like back in the Joseon Dynasty. The park is set up like a village, complete with outdoor features.
Lesson 1: Basic Korean sentences and Korean particles | How to study Korean Click here for a workbook to go along with this lesson. This Lesson is also available in Español and Русский. Jump to:VocabularyGreeting WordsSentence Word OrderKorean ParticlesTo be: 이다That thing/This thingThis thing is a book Click here for a free PDF of this lesson. Vocabulary The vocabulary is separated into nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs for the purpose of simplicity. Hover your mouse over any word to see examples of that word in use (you probably won’t be able to understand the grammar within the sentences at this point, but it is good to see as you progress through your learning). A FREE PDF file neatly presenting all of these words and example sentences in addition to common usages and specific notes can be found here. Want to give your brain practice at recognizing these words? Verbs:이다 = to be (acts like an adjective) Adverbs:안 = not Other:네 = yes아니 = no For help memorizing these words, try using our Memrise tool. Greeting Words 안녕하세요 = hello 잘 지내세요? 제발 = Please Sentence Word Order