Time to Come Clean About my other Blog

(FYI, see the same post at Roboseyo here.) OK, readers. It's time to be a bit more honest over here.It all started with a bit of an experiment, playing around with anonymity on the Internet... but I really feel like the lie has gotten too big.See, it started back in 2008, when The Korean from Ask A Korean! (now, with a festive exclamation point!) and I got together to do the "Why Do Expats Complain"...

Traditional Korean Hairdo for Women

Dear Korean,Recently I watched two Korean TV series titled "Dae Jang Geum" and "Hwang Jin Yi". I would like to know about Korea’s traditional hairdo for women. Could you give some explanation about it? It seems very sophisticated.ShintaDear Shinta,There are many, many different variations to traditional Korean hairdo, especially...

Jesus Christ, this really needs to stop. Actor Choi Jinyoung committed suicide yesterday. Choi Jinyoung was a brother of Choi Jinsil, who also killed herself a year and a half ago.Choi Jinyoung was taking care of Choi Jinsil's childr...

How to Persuade Koreans - Take Two

Dear Korean,Whenever my Korean wife and I have a factual disagreement, we often refer to the Internet to settle the dispute. Since I am American, I often refer to western resources like news organizations, Wikipedia and even the UN site first. She's fluent in English, so I can't fudge the facts on her either. However, even...

Hilarious history of Asian men dating non-Asian women. Here is a sample:Philip Jaisohn and Muriel ArmstrongReal or Fake: RealCouple: Philip Jaisohn (a.k.a. Seo Jae-pil) and Muriel ArmstrongWhen: 1893Complex says: Philip was a man of many firsts: the first Korean to become a naturalized U.S. citizen and receive an American medical degree, first person to publish a Korean newspaper using the Korean...

A very nice story about a tribute band, playing mostly swing music, formed to remember the Japanese Internment Camps during World War II.Its fans are mostly elderly. Portland's George Azumano, 92, said he already had been drafted into the U.S. Army when World War II began. Nonetheless, he was forced out of uniform after Pearl Harbor and interned. "Swing music was one of the few joys we had at Minidoka,"...

Ask a Korean! News: English at LG Electronics

In response to the comment thread at The Korean's Guaranteed Best Method of Learning Foreign Language, Strayblog made this comment:The end of the comments section begins to get into the difference between Korean and, let's say, Canadian culture. And that is, the value of discipline. It seems as though Koreans value discipline...

Great Thomas Friedman column on how Asian immigrants high school students are making up the majority of Intel Science Talent Search.The money shot:[K]eeping a constant flow of legal immigrants into our country — whether they wear blue collars or lab coats — is the key to keeping us ahead of China. Because when you mix all of these energetic, high-aspiring people with a democratic system and free...

AAK! Music: Rainy Apgujeong by Brown Eyes (2002)

It's raining in New York. Here is a song for the rain, for the Korean's hometown. Today's selection is Rainy Apgujeong (비오는 압구정) by Brown Eyes.비오는 압구정Rainy Apgujeong비오는 압구정 골목길에서 그댈 기다리다가 나 혼자 술에 취한 밤Rainy Apgujeong night when, while waiting for you in the alley, I got drunk by myself혹시나 그댈 마주칠까봐 두시간 지나도록 마냥 기다리네 Just in case I run into you, for over two hours, I just keep waitingOh rainy day...

A 64-year-old Korean American man from Queens will run from Los Angeles to New York by running 30 miles a day. He is doing this to raise awareness for diabetes which nearly took his life several years ago.The Korean should probably go about getting in shape as well...Thank you Ed K. for the t...

Ask a Korean! News: Why "Yu-Na Kim"?

Korean figure skating sensation 김연아 is known as "Yu-Na Kim" to English-speaking countries, although the proper Romanization of her name should be "Yeon-A Kim". The Korean had previously heard that Kim deliberately chose the wrong Romanization for the ease of pronunciation for anglophones, but he wanted a confirmation. While searching the Internet for the confirmation, the Korean ran into an interesting...

Happy birthday to ...

Ask a Korean! Wiki: How to Tease a Korean Woman

Dear Korean,I'm a white boy dating a fabulous Korean girl. She calls me "Oppa" in a exaggerated whiny voice when she wants to annoy me. I need to get her back... any advice on how to annoy this girl? Nothing seems to work.White Men Can't Tease Korean GirlsDear WMCTKG,Tell her you will call her parents and tell them she is dating a white guy. That'll straighten her up real fast.Readers, any other...

Ask a Korean! Wiki: Korean American Job Sites?

Dear Korean, I've currently been unemployed in NYC for the past 8 months, and was wondering if there were any jobsites or groups I can join within the KA community to get my foot in the door. I graduated from UCSD with a sociology degree then went on to Parsons in NYC, for fashion studies. I graduated at the worst economic times and I'm just so worn out but randomly sending out my resume online and...

For Crying Out Loud, Grow a Sense of Humor

[NOTE: Sorry readers, Blogger is acting up again. Click the title of the post to pull up this post only in order to watch the hilarious videos of Joe Wong.] KoreAm magazine blog recently carried a post by Emil Guillermo, discussing a rising stand-up comic named Joe Wong. Here is Joe on the Late Show with Davie Letterman.The...

Ask a Korean! News: Google Translate Still Sucks

New York Times article about Google Translate:MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — In a meeting at Google in 2004, the discussion turned to an e-mail message the company had received from a fan in South Korea. Sergey Brin, a Google founder, ran the message through an automatic translation service that the company had licensed. The message said Google was a favorite search engine, but the result read: “The sliced...

Korean Language Series - Sino-Korean, Numbers, Counters, Telling Time in Korean

See the index for Korean Language Series here. Please read the previous series before reading this post, because the Korean is writing the series with the assumption that you already know what the Korean provided previously. WARNING: You should be able to see typed Korean language in order to fully read this post. If you are...