Korea

[keatonatron]

Hangul is actually a lot easier than kanji!

It's an alphabet just like ours, only arranged into 3-letter groups. Learm all the radicals (letters?) and you can read anything.

[Jim]

Sounds interesting actually.

Looks like I've something else to learn when I get better with Japanese eh?

[Oyaji]

So how was the trip? I can ask for the time in Korean, and thank the person who answers me, but I don't understand the answer, so little good it does me.

Every time I go to Korea I relearn the hangul for pulkogi and bibinba so I can point them out on the menu.

[two_heads_talking]

keatonatron wrote:

TrilinguisT wrote:
they eat live octapus!

Anyone seen "Old Boy"?

I have a few Korean friends who have told me a bit of what it's like there, but I haven't actually been myself (Yes, they do eat dogs... But as my friends pointed out, it's not the cute pet dogs, but the scrangy mutt dogs ) Apparently they also eat monkeys in some areas.

well to be honest, dog meat is similar to bear meat.. it's got alot of fat in it, so it's very greasy and gristly.. other than that, it's meat.. i wouldn't buy it, but i told myself i would try things once to determine whether i liked them or not.. i didn't particularly like this, but it tastes better than rat does..

[DuffMan]

Kurisuchan wrote:
North Korea? I wouldn't visit a country thats communist/hates americans/wants to or has (whatever) developed nuclear weapons, I also heard North Korea is the most persecuting country in the world against Christians. I do agree though after it would become safer that would be a cool place to visit. I don't know much about the topic of North Korea, maybe I'm being ignorant. I dont really know and don't want to be, maybe someone can tell me some truths about north korea?

Why wouldn't you visit a communist country?:) I would like to just to see the difference. Actually if I get a little older I plan on going to Cuba (for vacation) heard they had one of the best health cares and stuff... I think all these communist states are represented to us much worse than they actually are

anyway I read somewhere that Korean also uses Chinese chars (Kanji?) but in a very small number, is this true?

[Jim]

I think all these communist states are represented to us much worse than they actually are

Welcome to propaganda I'm not a communist myself but I know fine well capitalist reigmes are as unfair as any socialist one if not more in certain aspects of society I'd love to see North Korea with my own eyes. Your also right about cuba, and in comparison to the western countries, particularly Britain and Ireland, the health care is a joke compared to what cuba is dishing out apparently. Cuba is a best example of socialist one party state. I could talk about this all day because I'm a politics student but I'm going to end it there :p


Actually, I have a question too. If Koreans use some chinese characters can they understand what a chinese or japanese person would be writing if all three used ONLY the chinese characters (i.e, didnt use hangul or kana)? and visa versa..

[Sachi]

Jim wrote:
I could talk about this all day because I'm a politics student but I'm going to end it there :p

I can tell I don't really know politics, but it's pretty interesting to listen to.

Actually, I have a question too. If Koreans use some chinese characters can they understand what a chinese or japanese person would be writing if all three used ONLY the chinese characters (i.e, didnt use hangul or kana)? and visa versa..

I don't think so... You can understand some things (when I go to a Chinese restaurant I can understand a few things, and almost always get the translation close-to or right), but in the end, not too much, I'm guessing. Think of it like evolution: The character sets were separated, and each evolved in different ways over time. New characters were inevnted, and characters were altered, or deleted. Grammar evolved in many shapes and forms. After many, many years, I think there's now a pretty big gap. Even if you can get many or most of the characters, the grammar would throw you totally off, ne?

[Jim]

Hmm, thats what I was thinking, makes sense I guess, thanks.

[sonova]

I've been. spent a year there. can tell you what you wanna know

[hiraikotsu]

i've been there too.. but only during the korea-japan world cup 4 yrs back
there's the Dong Dae Mun and Nan Dae Mun shopping districts (one's a day & the other's a night district... cant rem which is which now..)
there's also the theme parks Everland and Lotte World... but then again, u've already got Disneyland
if time permits u can take a domestic flight to the southern island of jeju.. that was my fav part of the trip... beautiful little island famous for honey and mandarin oranges... even the koreans go there for a short holiday.