Monday, 2 December 2013

The Food: What I've tried so far

Korean food is something different, and yet so good at the same time.

I have only had the chance to taste a few Korean foods; whether it be snack foods or a dinner of some sort.

Snack Foods:
I have had Pepero (both original and almond), and a sweet potato custard. Both of these snack foods were provided by my friends in South Korea. Pepero was really good and I wish I had more of it, but I don't. It is a light snack, but if you are not careful, you might just end up eating the whole package instead of a few. The sweet potato custard was something new to me, as I had not heard of it before. I tried it, thinking I wouldn't like it, but I surprised myself by liking it a lot.
 
 
 
Dinners:
To be honest, the only thing that I have eaten so far that Koreans eat as well is rice. At this time, that is the only thing that I have eaten that is somewhat Korean. I will update when I have had more Korean foods, whether it be snack foods or dinners.
 
 
Works Cited:
Pictures:
 

Sunday, 1 December 2013

Kpop: Artists & Songs I Love

My Favorites in Kpop.

Fave Kpop groups:
1. EXO (both EXO-K and EXO-M)
2. SHINee
3. B.A.P
4. Teen Top
5. MBLAQ
6. GOT7
7. NU'EST
8. Block B
9. Big Bang
10. Super Junior
11. TVXQ/DBSK
12. Beast
13. Infinite
14. After School
15. VIXX
16. 2PM
17. U-Kiss
18.FT Island
19. f(x)
20. Girls Generation
21.

Fave Solo Artists:
1. G-Dragon (Big Bang)
2. Taeyang (Big Bang)
3. T.O.P (Big Bang)
4. Henry (Super Junior)
5. Yoseop Yang
6. KangNam (M.I.B)
7.


Favorite Songs by Group:
EXO: to sum it up: All of their songs. (I used to not like Wolf, but after listening to it a few times, it grew on me.)
SHINee: Why So Serious?, Orgel, Hello, Sherlock (Clue & Note), Ring Ding Dong, Lucifer, Juliette, Aside, Dream Girl, Destination, Everybody, SHINe (Medusa I), Evil, Sleepless Night, SHINee Girl, The SHINee World (Doo-Bop),
B.A.P: One Shot, Power, Badman, No Mercy, Never Give Up (Bang and Zelo), Stop It,
Teen Top: Rocking, To You, Supa Luv, Miss Right, Lovefool, I Wanna Love,
MBLAQ: This is War, Cry, Mona Lisa,
GOT7: Girls Girls Girls,
NU'EST: Face, Hello, Action, Sleep Talking,
Block B: Nillili Mambo, Nalina, Very Good, Halo, Freeze,
Big Bang: Fantastic Baby, Bad Boy, Tonight, Monster, Blue, Haru Haru, Beautiful Hangover, Tell Me Goodbye, Love Song, My Heaven, Lies,
Super Junior: Bonamana, Sorry Sorry, Sexy, Free and Single, Mr. Simple, Spy,  Gulliver, Super Girl, Oppa Oppa (Eunhyuk & Donghae),
TVXQ: Humanoids, Keep Your Head Down; DBSK: Bolero, Why did I fall in love with you,
Beast (B2ST): Beautiful, Mystery, Shadow,  I'm Sorry,
Infinite: Before The Dawn, Destiny,
After School: Bang,
VIXX: (G.R.8.U), Hyde, Girl Why?,
2PM: Heartbeat,
U-Kiss: DoraDora,
FT Island: Because I Don't Know How to Love, Don't Love,
f(x): Electric Shock, Rum Pum Pum,
Girls Generation: The Boys,

Favorite Songs by Solo Artists:
G-Dragon: Coup D'état, Heartbreaker, One of A Kind, That XX,
Taeyang: I'll Be There, Wedding Dress,
T.O.P: Doom Dada,
Henry: Trap,
Yoseop Yang: Caffeine,
KangNam: Say My Name,

My Biases:
EXO-K: D.O, Chanyeol, Suho,
EXO-M: Tao, Chen,
SHINee: Onew
B.A.P: Zelo, Bang, Himchan,
Teen Top: Niel, L.Joe, Chunji,
MBLAQ: To Be Determined
GOT7: JB, ( but I LOVE all of them)
NU'EST: Ren
Block B: Zico
Big Bang: Taeyang, G-Dragon,
Super Junior: Kyuhyun,
TVXQ: no bias, like both members
Beast: No bias at this time
Infinite: Sungyeol, Sungjong
After School: No bias
VIXX: To Be Determined
2PM: To Be Determined
FT Island: No bias at this time
f(x): Amber
Girls Generation: No bias at this time

What I love about you, South Korea.

 
What do I love about you, South Korea?

Well, that question can be answered in so many different ways.

Firstly, I fell in love with the language. Korean is a really nice language and is a bit easier to learn than Japanese or Chinese, as there aren't that many characters. Hangeul is their writing system and it can easily be memorized in a few hours or days. Learning the sentence structure and grammar is the hard part, as it is so different from English. In a way, it is almost backwards.
At this time, I am self teaching myself Korean, as there are no Korean classes or teachers where I live. I know how to say: Hello/Hi, count to 4, I love you, thank you/thanks, How, Why, What, My name is..., my name/nickname, I am from Canada, This is War (Thank you MBLAQ), Growl (Thank you EXO), I'm sorry, and a little bit more.

Secondly, I fell in love with the music. For me, it is easy to remember and really catchy. I started out with listening to one group, Big Bang, and then I found Super Junior, then SHINee, and from there, I found more and more groups that I really like. Most of them are Boy Groups, with a couple Girl Groups. The longest it took me to learn a song was a week, but most of the time, I am able to learn most, if not all of the lyrics in a couple of days. Also, the choreography to these songs range from being easily picked up (e.g. SHINee Hello) to taking a really long time to learn (e.g. EXO Mama).

Thirdly, I fell in love with the food. It may be on the spicy side, but it tastes really good. However, not everything is spicy. Some food may be sweet or salty, or a little spicy. There are many Korean foods that I have not yet tried, but I look forward to trying them one day.

A snack food that I really like is Pepero. It is like the Japanese Pocky, but different. A few differences are: Pocky is a little bit longer and thicker, while Pepero is a little shorter and not as thick. However, I can't comment on what Pocky tastes like, as I have only had Pepero.



My hopes is to one day travel to South Korea to see and meet all of my friends and to try something new and different. When will I get there? Who knows, just as long as I get there one day.


Works cited:
Hangeul in Korean: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx9g9HfUmnK5ezCaSlpmjuq7imYr4GfhP9EVTJuolKCFKf5BPh1ADh8cYyLyYdT-l32_rhKw5v86VY8nBwEQPy7DWJ11FmCusH5lfNmOps8SPwZnAc4DdpNQx37rOudgi0TiiC9oo7us8/s400/hangul-1.jpg
Pepero/Pocky: http://askory.phratry.net/skoreapics/okashi09.jpg
South Korean flag: http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs41/i/2009/041/d/b/South_Korea_Grunge_Flag_by_think0.jpg
Pepero: http://runawayjuno.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Pepero-Day-Korea-Nov-11-2011.jpg