Sometimes, I include a little information about North Korea, though I am not focused on the North and really getting in-depth. This blog is about South Korea and learning the language! For more complete information, I’d suggest looking into it on your own. This is just for some fun facts and interesting differences!
Today I want to get into Korean dialects! South Korea while being small in size, is quite big in population and history of culture to build their own dialectal variences. I’ll cover the major dialects, where they are from, any notes about them, the pronunciation differences, and then some interesting slang or expressions!
Today is 한글날 or Hangul Day, which is a Korean holiday dedicated to celebrating the Korean writing system and its creator King Sejong! So to commemorate, I’ll go through a bit on Hangul’s history, King Sejong, and some resources on how to learn Hangul yourself.
Podcasts can make a great resource for learning Korean and practicing your listening no matter what level you are at! Using podcasts to learn Korean is a great option because you can do it while doing chores, menial tasks, on the bus or train, or in many other situations.
Happy December! December is a big time for holidays and celebrations world-wide and Korea joins in- though the celebration in Korea is a bit different. South Korea also celebrates Christmas but instead of the traditional focus on family the focus is more on romance!
You probably already know the 4 seasons but seasons in Korean can go more in-depth than that! Following the Chinese lunar calendar Korea’s traditional calendar has a solar system for seasons too, spaced approx. 15 days apart these dates mark specific points in the seasons.
추석 also known as 한가위, is Koreas autumn harvest festival, similar to thanksgiving or other such celebrations. Its celebrated in both North and South Korea and lands on the 15/8 on the lunar calendar so it changes each year, but for 2023 it lands on September 28 – 30th.
Korean Liberation Day on August 15th marks the anniversary of South Korea’s independence from Japanese rule on August 15, 1945. This is also a key date because it’s one of the few holidays that both the North and South share in common.