Have you ever eaten Korean strawberries?

Have you ever eaten the Korean strawberry? Strawberry("딸기[ddal-gi]" in Korean) is one of the most delicious fruits that can be tasted in Korea! It is the mainly season of strawberry from January to May! Strawberry is very popular in South Korea because its flavor is very sweet and rich. So, I can say “Every Koreans love Strawberry :)” No doubt!
You can enjoy Korean strawberry even through cakes, pie and jam! But, it is better taste a strawberry to eat as it is just wash with running water. You can buy fresh strawberry for KRW 10,000 ($10) to 1 kg on any market or super market! Tips for selecting good strawberries are as follows: The stem shouldn't be dark or dry, choose the strawberries which are whole ripe red colored!
If you have a plan to visit Korea from January to May, please come to enjoy the delicious strawberries!

Souvenir from Korea

Are you going to buy presents for your family? Want to use less money but more "Korean" things? Here I suggest REAL Korean stuffs, some of which may sound weird but possibly upgrade your friends' quality of life!


1. Green tea
Like Japanese and Chinese, Koreans also make and consume green tea. If you were from western countries, I swear our green tea is much better & fresher than the green tea in your country. Why? Simply, we drinks more green tea so we make more! If you have time and money more than usual, visit Boseong for the best quality green tea!
Where to purchase? Just visit any grocery store or big mart. You can find a 25 tea bag box for $3, which will give 1 month morning calm to your friend!

2. Nail clipper
One South Korea company is making world best quality nail clipper(yes! which you use meet every week). It is funny to think of giving a nail clipper for a souvenir. However, it can be one of the most useful gift which can stay alive in your aunt's closet for a DECADE!!
Where to purchase? You can purchase one nail clipper for about $2~3 at any convenience store! Also cosmetic shops sell nail clippers set for $6~15.

3. Gim
Gim is a kind of sea weed. Koreans and Japaneses enjoy eating gim in various way. Koreans usually toasted dried gim with rice. Fresh gim is really healthy and tasty(depends on your taste). If it is your taste, you can also eat gim as snack with beer. Other countries never produce this food. Isn't it the perfect precondition for the souvenir?
Where to purchase? visit any grocery store or big mart. 16 pack(1 pack is for one meal with rice) is for about $8

4. Socks
Korean socks quality is, just gorgeous. You can never buy that quality socks for that price in any other country. Just buy it. You will never regret this. Also, If you loves k-pop, you can try Psy, Super Junior, SNSD... any k-pop stars on your feet!! You can do this: "Yoona, I choose you today!"
Where to buy? Any big mart(E-mart, Homeplus...) sells nice socks. However if you are looking for cheaper, more(lots of) character designed socks, try visiting big arcade markets. $1~3 is usual for each pair of socks.

Structure of Korean Names

Today I'd like to post about the shapes of Korean names. Very basic things for me and all Koreans but I am sure it will be interesting to you, who visited here!

Do you know any Korean? Probably PSY will be the best known Korean these days. However, that "PSY" word is definitely not a Korean name. So I would give another world-famous example. Rising star, the man of 2012, Pyongyang style Kim Jong Un(김정은)~!!

First let's check which part is the family name and the given name.
Can you guess what Kim Jong Un's family name is? Usually globally, given name first, family name last so Un is his family name right? Definitely not. If you remember his father's name(also world-famous or infamous) Kim Jong Il, then you will notice that "Un" is the only part changed from his father's name.
Then the answer came out! "Kim Jong" has not been changed so its their family name! No, went too far. Almost every(not all but 99%) Korean family name is consist of one Korean character(which usually is one English syllable). So in this case, Kim(김) is their family name.
Also almost every Korean given name(again, 99%) is consist of two Korean characters, 2 syllables. So "Jong Un" is his given name. We use family name first and given name last every time in Korea. Never use given name first.
But outside Korea, we usually follow westerner's rule, first name first. If you ever heard "Yu Na Kim"(figure skater) or Ji Sung Park(football player), or watched any sports game versus Korean team, they are probably using family name + given name style. Kim Jong Un is very rare case. His whole name has already been used as one specific word following his father's name.

There are one more thing happening by the translation from Korean to English. Koreans do not give spacing between characters of names(for example, "Lee Dong Hae" is written as 이동해, no spacing between first and last name). When somebody converting his/her name, for example 이동해 to English, he should choose which spacing type he will use.
At first, many Koreans used their given name without spacing, like "Donghae". However it confused people who do not know Korean naming. Probably he meant it to be read as "Dong Hae" but someone could think it as "Don Ghae". Someone possibly give a call to speak to Mr. Don Ghae.
So recently many Korean uses hyphen(-) between the 2 given name characters like this: Dong-hae. There is another type I used in this article, giving spacing between every single character of given name. However, as you have seen from the case of Kim Jung Un, it could result more confusing. Someone might find Mr. Un on phone.
I prefer and would suggest inserting hyphen between characters of given name. In this way, people can tell each Korean characters and are not confused as middle name.