Writing POC 101

Korean Characters - @sallhwa0314

Let me introduce myself. I'm 100% Korean and was born in Korea but have lived in the U.S for quite a few years. I moved back to Korea at the age of 14 (or 15 in the Korean age system) and have been living here for about 5 years now. I attended a little bit of middle school and all of high school here, so my chapter is going to be mainly on school life in Korea.

But let's get some basics down first, shall we?

Now, I'm sure a few of you were turning heads when I mentioned the Korean age system above so allow me to explain. In Korea, you are one year old from the moment you are born because people count the time you were developing inside your mom as around one year. Also, people gain one year of age as soon as it's the new year, not when it's your birthday. That's why I'm technically 18 right now but in Korea I have to say I'm 20. It's also how I am legally allowed to drink alcohol now even though my 19th birthday has not passed yet, probably like the only good thing about this age system xD.

Language: The official language of Korea is Korean (I think that one's pretty obvious) and we use a writing system called Hangeul which is one of the easiest languages to learn from what I hear. While we do learn some Chinese characters as a mandatory class in school, it's not really necessary to know any of them to speak/write the Korean language. Although, I should note that many words in Korean are derived from Chinese characters, or Hanja as it's called here, such as the word for 'recording' <기록 (girok)> which uses two characters that both mean record <紀錄>. As such, some words are pretty similar in Japanese and Chinese which also use Chinese Characters. For example, the word for promise <약속(約束)> is read as <yaksok> kind of similar in Japanese which is <yakusoku>.

Also, teens and young adults tend to shorten a lot of phrases especially when texting. For example, <버스 카드 충전> ((I) have to charge my bus card) becomes <버카충> and <생일 축하해> (Happy Birthday) becomes <생축>. I guess I should also add what Koreans use to express laughter in text. We use a lot of <ㅋ> which is like the letter <k> in English. So if something's funny, you just have to put a bunch of ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. The more the funnier xD.

Food Culture: From being a vegetarian for a year, I've learned that it's pretty difficult to be vegetarian/vegan in Korea. What can I say? Koreans really love to eat meat. You'll probably see some kind of barbeque or chicken place around the corner wherever you go. Some popular dishes are galbi, samgyeopsal, and bulgogi.

Now besides that, Koreans tend to socialize a lot around eating. When you meet a friend or family, you usually ask if they've eaten anything yet almost as if it was a greeting. That's usually the first thing I ask my mom and what she asks me when I come home from school or work. Not to mention, eating together with your friends is a big part of socializing here and something you'll probably do a lot whenever you meet friends.

Lastly, please, enough with the "Koreans eat dogs." Although there was a time when Koreans did eat dogs just because of the shortage of food, nowadays, most people won't dare to touch it. That isn't to say that dog restaurants don't exist anymore. They still do but in small and shrinking numbers.

Transportation: Transportation is amazing here. You really don't need to drive in Korea just because you can get practically anywhere by bus or subway. Not to mention, there are a lot of taxis, sometimes just lined out at the sides of streets especially in busy areas.

Currency: Korea uses Won(원) <\>. We have coins for \10, \50, \100, and \500. And we use paper money for \1000, \5000, \10000, and \50000. Roughly \1000 is equivalent to $1.

And if I'm talking about Korea, I guess I can't leave out K-pop. K-pop is essentially Korean pop music for the few that don't know. It's recently been getting a lot of worldwide fans. There are too many K-pop groups to name and they seem to be multiplying by the minute...(I was recently shocked to see new groups with members that are now my age or younger. It makes me feel like I'm getting old. :( ) A few notable ones would be Girl's Generation, Big Bang, Exo, 2NE1, Beast, Shinee, etc. Although, I should note that not all Koreans are into K-pop (myself included).