Looks like he and I got a little in common. Heh. Hmm, I gotta work out more consistently and watch my diet if I wanna get abs like that. His name is Kwon Sang-woo. Pic from popseoul.com

More reason why I’m studying korean. :-)

From Ask a Korean

Here is ask’in another Korean who’s actually studied the anthropology.

There are certain types of East Asian physical types. Northern Asian, Southern Asian and islander aborigines.

Koreans are essentially of the Northern Asian type, which migrated from Siberia in the last ice age. Northern Asians are characterized by high cheek bones, small flat noses and wide eyes with an epicanthal fold. Northern Asians evolved from areas where it was very cold, and there was a high wind chill factor. High cheek bones and a flatter face helps the heat distribute better in and around the head. wider set eyes helped keep wind out as well.

The Chinese are a blend of Northern and Southern Asians. South Asians have rounder faces, slightly larger eyes and darker skin. It is well known amoung Chinese themselves that people from the North and the South look noticeably different.

The Japanese are a blend of Northern, Southern and islander aborigine (in approximately that order), with the Northern influence being more prominent on average.

No wonders I do like the cold… heh.

Cool commercials by Nike in Korea.

Oh yeah, does anyone know what is the model shoes the guy wore in the commercial?

Nike Plus (Korean Commercial 1)

Nike Plus (Korean Commercial 2)

Nike Plus (Korean Commercial 3)

Heh, cute. The actress is Song Hye-kyo

From http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=hangul

Hangul is the Korean alphabet. It was devised by King Sejong sometime around 1446, when he realized that Chinese was simply too complex for the average joe to learn. Its brilliance is only apparent when you study Korean: it’s 100% phonetic (*) , the characters themselves are simple to write. Indeed, one of the initial criticisms of Hangul (1) was that it was too simple to learn – REAL men learned Chinese ideograms. For this reason, widespread use of Hangul did not come about until the 20th century, as a result of national pride.

Hangul is, as another noder put it, easy to learn, given the proper attitude. The first step is to execute that anal-retentive English teacher that lives in your forebrain as Korean is nothing like English. If you want to learn Korean, the first step is to throw out any English grammar you’ve learned.

The second step is to remember, you are learning an alphabet; by themselves, these are not individual words or any of that crazy Japanese stuff

(more…)

I’ve just made a desktop wallpaper in 한글 so it’d be easy for me to look at the wallpaper and study.

Link is available here for downloading.

Inside Korea

Complete control by the government.

Thank god for Wikipedia.

Dubeolshik is the most common Hangul keyboard layout in use in South Korea. Pressing the Ha/En key once switches between Hangul as shown, and English.

In contrast to Chinese and Japanese, Korean is typed the same way as Western languages. There are two major kinds of keyboard layouts: dubeolsik and sebeolsik. Dubeolsik, based on the QWERTY keyboard, is more commonly used. While Korean consonants and vowels (jamo) are grouped together into syllabic grids when written, the script is essentially alphabetical, and therefore typing in Korean is quite simple for someone who understands the Korean alphabet Hangul. Each jamo is assigned to a single key. As the user types letters, the computer automatically groups them into syllabic characters. Given a sequence of jamo, there is only one unambiguous way letters can be validly grouped into syllables, so this grouping is done seamlessly by the computer, with the result that Korean can be typed in the same way as English or any other alphabetical language.

Great!

Perfect! I’ve found a great learning tool to learn Korean characters.

http://www.aeriagloris.com/LearnKorean/

Off I go.

Saw this from a friend’s blog. I’m beginning to wonder why Asians are so good at skating? probably because our legs tend to be short and strong.

She skated like it’s nothing to her!

Written sometime in 2002., “Back to the Future” was my fave childhood movie about a young guy who goes back in time with a flying car. The best chilldhood movie ever made.

When the 747 Boeing finally put its wheels on the ground, I made a sigh of relief and stretched out my legs, which hadn’t moved for more than four hours. The plane crawled as it looked for a gate to hug. Gazing through the window silently, I wondered if this was actually where my ticket stub said. “Incheon, Korea. Arrival time: 3:37 pm.” If so, I had traveled roughly 7,000 miles from the other half of the world, a 14 hour non-stop flight straight from the United States. The plane paused and I waited to see if it stopped for good. Indeed, it stopped and passengers began getting off the plane. I got up and reached for my North Face backpack in the overhead and stood impatiently as the line slowly made its way out of the plane. My hands began to sweat as I held my backpack and with almost every step, my heart started to beat faster, then into a pounding rhythm. I took a big breath and focused on where I was supposed to be going.

Any doubts of actually being in Korea were put aside when I saw the airport signs in Korean and couldn’t understand any of them. I followed a crowd of passengers as my guide to the baggage claims area and waited for my luggage to emerge. As I looked around the huge void and noticed that the airport wasn’t as crowded as many of the major U.S. airports were. I had expected a full traffic of people but here, only passengers were waiting to pick up their luggage.
(more…)

Learned something new about this guy from my native country. He scored a 210 on the IQ test.

From Wikipedia,

Kim Ung-Yong (born March 7, 1963) is a Korean former child prodigy. He scored a 210 IQ on the Stanford-Binet test according to the Guinness Book of World Records. He began to learn differential calculus at the age of three. He was able to read and write in Japanese, Korean, German, and English by his fourth birthday. At the age of four, on November 2, 1967, he solved complicated differential and integral calculus problems on Japanese television, demonstrated his proficiency in German, English, Japanese, and Korean, and composed poetry.

Kim was a guest student of physics at Hanyang University from the age of three until he was six.[1]. At the age of seven he was invited to the United States by NASA.[1]. He finished his university studies, eventually getting a Ph.D in physics at Colorado State University [1] before he was 15. In 1974, during his university studies, he began his research work at NASA[1] and continued this work until his return to Korea in 1978.

When he returned to Korea, he decided to switch from physics to civil engineering and eventually received a doctorate in that field. Kim was offered the chance to study at the most prestigious universities in Korea, but instead chose to attend a provincial university.

As of 2007 he also serves as adjunct faculty at Chungbuk National University.

I still wonder why Koreans tend to be smart. Four languages by his fourth birthday? Shit and that makes it no excuse for me not to learn how to read/write Korean. At least I know two languages, ASL and English. :-)

In Japan, a yen among women for `Seoulmate’

TOKYO — Thin and gorgeous in a slinky black dress and Mikimoto pearls, with a diamond Tiffany pendant, 26-year-old Kazumi Yoshimura already has looks, cash and accessories. There’s only one thing this single Japanese woman says she needs to find eternal bliss–a Korean man.

The Italians of Asia

Entertainment industry leaders in Seoul credit the phenomenon to good marketing coupled with an uncanny response throughout Asia to the expressive nature of the South Koreans–long dubbed the Italians of Asia. A hearty diet and two years of forced military duty, industry leaders and fans insist, have also made young South Korean men among the buffest in Asia. Most important, however, has been the South Korean entertainment industry’s perfection of the strong, silent type on screen–typically rich, kind men with coincidentally striking looks and a tendency to shower women with unconditional love.

Very interesting article!

This forum thread is amusing.

“I want a Korean boyfriend” from D-addicts forum

I’ve always thought that Korean males aren’t very desirable but it appears that I may be wrong.

Some excerpts from the thread:

I live in Korea and I happen to think the reason why Koreans are the most desired Asian males is simply because they tend to be the tallest well-known Asian. I’m not claiming that they are the tallest Asians, period; however, they ARE significantly taller than the majority of people I saw in Japan and Taiwan, and according to official statistics, they are a good deal taller than the average Vietnamese and Thai as well. Given the many different people in China, I’m sure that a few groups of them will be taller than Koreans, but the thing is that they are not well-known among Westernised Asian drama fans.

Korean men, unlike Japanese or South East Asian men (I think.. though admittedly, I don’t know much about South East Asia. Correct me if I’m wrong), also have to complete a mandatory military service lasting for over 2 years. During that time, their bodies achieve a level of fitness that is hard to find in any other Asian country I have visited and many stay fit well after their military service.

I actually met 2 German girls in Seoul who have completed half a year of Chinese language study in Beijing and have travelled extensively through China and Japan. They looked at me starry-eyed and said, “Korea is incredible. The country has Asian men with broad backs and shoulders!!”

I work as the assistant manager of a student housing apartment complex near a major university. We have A LOT of international students and quite a lot of them are Korean. I sit at my desk and get treated to eye candy all day long. I live on site and get a really good discount on my rent. Maybe I should get an I want a korean boyfriend t-shirt and start innocently wearing it at home but outside of work. See what happens? ^_^

It’s true that Korean males tend to have broad shoulders and jaws too. They also become muscular easily after a few weeks of weightlifting. Cool, I’m proud of my country but I’m still very much American inside. :-)