The Journal, page 6
A place to learn about hanbok and Korean celebrations, at your own pace.
Page 6 of 9.
- Korean Culture
The Calendar Korea Still Lives By
The lunar calendar still runs the Korean home. It decides when the ancestors are set a table, when the first spoon of tteokguk is eaten, when the children put…
- Korean Culture
A Year of Korean Celebrations
Ask any Korean family which day matters most and you will get two answers, sometimes three. Seollal for the elders. Chuseok for the harvest. Children's Day for…
- Korean Culture
The Games We Played on Seollal
On Seollal morning, before the food is served, someone always finds the yut sticks. Four pieces of wood, four possible throws, and an entire room of cousins…
- Korean Culture
Where to Stand Under the Blossoms
Cherry blossom season in Korea opens at the southern coast in late March, sweeps north through Jinhae and Gyeongju, and reaches Seoul in early April. The…
- Korean Culture
Two Weeks of Pink in Korea
The first weekend of April in Seoul, the Han River parks fill with families on picnic blankets, couples in coordinated outfits, and elders sitting in folding…
- Korean Culture
The Year in Korean Festivals
The lantern floats leave Jinju in October, and for a few evenings the Nam River becomes a page of light. Somewhere upstream, a grandmother is folding paper for…
- Korean Culture
What August Fifteenth Means at Home
August fifteenth begins quietly at the Lee house. Youngsook sets the table with a small bowl of white rice, a plate of 파전, a folded flag laid at the head. Her…
- Korean Culture
The Eleventh of November, Four Sticks
Pepero Day is November 11. The date reads 11.11 (four ones standing in a row, like four sticks of the chocolate-dipped biscuit the day is named for). The whole…
- Korean-American Life
How Korean Students Actually Study
It is ten at night in Daechi-dong and the sidewalks are full of teenagers with backpacks, walking from one hagwon to the next. Study cafes are still lit. A…
- Korean-American Life
How Korean Students Stay With It
The senior in our consulting cohort who improved her SAT the most last cycle did not have the best tutor. She had a habit of writing three sentences in her…
- Korean-American Life
How to Study a Korean Weekend
Saturday morning in a Palo Alto library. A junior spreads out three textbooks and a kitchen timer. She has six hours before her tutor arrives, and the plan on…
- Korean-American Life
The Night Before the Suneung
The High Stakes of South Korea’s College Entrance Exams On the morning of the Suneung, younger classmates line up outside high school gates with hot packs and…
- Korean-American Life
How Korean Students Study for Tests
The week before the Suneung, Seoul quiets down. Flights are grounded during the listening section. Parents kneel at Jogyesa Temple with candles that burn all…
- Korean-American Life
How Korean Teens Actually Study
The Study Habits of Korean Students The number that surprises most American parents is forty-nine. Korean youths aged fifteen to twenty-four study forty-nine…
- Korean-American Life
A Day in a Korean Student's Life
Six in the morning in Bundang. The high schooler in the third-floor apartment is already at her desk, half an hour before the school bus. Her mother sets a…
- Korean-American Life
How to Take Notes That Stick
The best notes I ever kept were from a fifth-period AP Biology class in Cupertino. Blue Uni-ball pen, dot grid, one page per lecture. Twelve years later I can…
- Korean-American Life
How Korean Students Actually Study
The hagwon lights on Daechi-dong stay on until eleven at night. Buses queue along the curb, waiting for students who file out with backpacks heavier than they…
- Recipes
Why Korea Stops on November Eleventh
Every November 11, Korean convenience stores build entire aisles out of a single snack. Boxes of Pepero stack chest-high near the register. Middle schoolers…
- Recipes
Korean BBQ at Your Own Table
Ultimate Guide to Easy Korean BBQ Recipe Introduction to Korean BBQ The grill plate is on the burner in the middle of the table. A platter of 삼겹살 sits to one…
- Recipes
Ten Things to Eat on the Street
It is cold in Myeongdong. A vendor pours batter into a fish-shaped iron and clamps it shut over a small blue flame; a minute later, a warm 붕어빵 is in your hand…
- Recipes
The Cider That Is Not Cider
Korean cider is not what an American shopper thinks of as cider. The Korean version is a clear, sweet, lightly carbonated soda (closer to a Sprite than to…
- Recipes
The Toast Sold on Seoul Corners
South Korea is not only a haven of beauty products, fashion, pop idol music, and drama. Even if you’re not an avid fan or follower of Korean culture, you have…
- Recipes
How to Sit at a Korean Table
Korean Food Guide Introduction The rice is steaming. The 반찬 are set out in small dishes across the middle: 시금치나물, 콩나물, 오이무침, a fresh cut of 김치. Mrs. Lee slides…
- Recipes
A Night Walk Through Myeongdong
It is nine o'clock in Seoul. Steam is rising off a griddle of 호떡, brown sugar sizzling out at the edges as a woman flattens the dough with the back of a…