Everything about: SOUTH KOREA

 

                       

                                          한국 (hanguk) = Korea

Number of people living in South Korea : 51,71 millions (2019 estimate)

Money : Won / ₩ 

Statut :  Developped country, country that belongs to the "4 asian dragons" which is the 4 most developed asian countries that industrially evolved very fast over the years. (South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore). 

Politics : Democracy, President (Not to mix up both koreas: South Korea : democracy and freedom / North Korea: Dictatorship)

Capital City : Seoul / 서울

Official Language : Korean

Grammar : Similar to Japanese grammar (Word order : Subject + Object + Verb) , but different from Chinese grammar. 

Pronounciation : Korean is easier to pronounce than Chinese, but harder to pronounce than Japanese

Writting : 

Koreans use a korean alphabet called Hangul. This alphabet is read with vowels and consonnants, just like the latin alphabet. It is also read from left to right. But sometimes, certain vowels are not located to the right-side of the consonnant, but BELOW it. So some korean words are read from the top to the bottom. 

Many centuries ago, Koreans used to write with chinese characters. But those chinese symbols being too difficult to memorize and being too several of them (more than 2000 chinese symbols), then a certain King, called King Sejong, created an alphabet that is adapted to Korean sounds. Thus then, the rate of people who can't read or write has drastically decreased, since korean alphabet is way easier to memorize (only 30 letters) than chinese characters ( more than thousands of characters). 

Culture and trends :

- Aegyo : Aegyo is like the korean version of Japanese "Kawaii". It is a trend about acting cute. Lot of Korean singers (mainly female ones) use Aegyo in their music videos, which is acting cute and adorable, making cute facial expressions, cute voice and catchy upbeat cute song. But not all korean stars use aegyo:  Some stars use badass/cool style, K-pop is very versatile and use many styles/concepts, so it's never boring. 

- Thin body :  Unlike african countries, being skinny is a beauty standard in Korea. A lot of Korean female stars have a perfect body : Flat belly, Long and thin legs, and small pretty face, I think they're very good-looking. 

Fair skin:  fair skin is also in beauty standards in Korea, unlike in Western world where tan skin is trendy. 

Music : 

Korean music is called K-pop (K for korean, and Pop for pop-music). Korean music have lot of girlbands and boybands, the songs are often very catchy, and the dance routines are amazing. Koreans are known to be the best dancers in Asia, lot of korean singers dance very well, for example BoA, or Yunho (TVXQ), Hyoyeon (SNSD) and also Na Haeun. 

Korean stars also are multilingual. They can sing in Japanese and English, most of the time. Japan being the biggest music industry in Asia, a lot of korean singers start a career in Japan and learn Japanese to be able to sing in that language. So for me, koreans are very talented, they dance well, they learn foreign languages, they're really hard-workers and I applause that. 

TV Series : 

South Korea is also very popular for its tv series. Korean TV series are called K-drama (K for Korean and "drama" is the name of asian series. Just like spanish series are called "telenovelas", asian TV series are called "dramas". 

The most popular ones are : Boys Over Flowers (2009), I'm Sorry , I love You ( 2004), Autumn Tale (2000), Stairway to Heaven (2003), Coffee Prince (2007), To The Beautiful You (2012), etc... 

Movies :  Like all asians, koreans are very talented at making horror movies. The best one for me is A Tale of Two Sisters, which is a psychological thriller movie, released in 2003. 

Food:  Korean food is often very hot/spicy. They use lot of red chilli pepper paste (Gochujang) that they put on most of their recipes/meals.

- Bibimbap: bibimbap is a big warm rice bowl, with minced beef, veggies (carrots, bean sprouts, shiitake mushrooms etc...)  and a fried egg on top of it all, in the middle of the bowl. And with a spicy sauce, of course. The korean customs is to mix well the ingredients in the bowl with a spoon, before eating the bibimbap. 

- Kimbap:  Those are similar to Japanese Maki zushi, but instead of raw fish, they contain meat. 

- Kimchi : Most popular meal in South Korea. Contains chinese cabbage, garlic, soft peppers, fish sauce etc and spices. 

- Tteokbokki : Those are rice cakes in tubular shape, dipped in hot spicy sauce. 

Things to know:  Korean age is different than western age. They consider the pregnancy as the beginning of someone's life, so as soon as they're born, they are already 1 year old. So, if someone is 19 in western age, they are 20 in Korean age. There's always one year ahead.

- In western world, we consider that zodiacal signs make someone's personality, but in Korea, it is the BLOOD TYPES that makes someone's personality or match.