새해 복 많이 받으세요 | Update & Seollal celebrations in Nigeria

새해~Saehae is one of the words that means ‘new year‘, 복~Bok means ‘luck’, and 많이~Maani means ‘many’ or ‘lots of’, 받으세요~Badeuseyo is the honorific way of saying 받다~Badda, meaning ‘to receive’. Thus, 새해 복 많이 받으세요 means Please receive lots of luck this year.

Hello guys,

It has been a while since I wrote on here but I sure did miss it. Life has been quite busy the last couple of months but I am finally back in Nigeria now and I have more time and opportunity to write and make videos for you guys. I have enrolled for the Korean language class at the Korean cultural centre in Nigeria and boy has my language skills improved, spoken Korean especially.

Another big news is that I am currently
interning at the centre so it means I work closely with Korean speakers on a daily basis. This also means I have the opportunity everyday to speak Korean and learn new words. I used to be very shy and conscious when speaking Korean and I think that has greatly affected my ability to speak fluently. But because now I am forced everyday to listen and reply in Korean, I have improved.

I am reminded of my trip to Korea last year, it was, like I have said a gazillion times, one of my best experiences. I was put into an unfamiliar situation where people around had only Korean language in common with me so I was forced to use it. I really want to visit Korea again and explore more places than I did before. I want to visit Busan and Jejudo, with a fresh new perspective of Korea. I wrote my final year project about the development of South Korea and I am curious to just learn more plus I have a newly found fascination with Korean cuisine and Art.

All this has made me realise that I have slowly expanded the Kpop and Kdrama interest in South Korea, and it has evolved into other aspects of the culture and society. The work I am doing now involves looking at books on varying topics relating to Korea and with each book I hold, there is a thing or two that catches my fascination and I just want to learn more. I guess kinda like a kid in a candy store.

The lunar new year also known as Seollal was towards the end of January and so we held an event at the Korean centre here in Abuja to mark the beginning of the holiday. We played games, ate, and observed some key Seollal traditions in the newly renovated exhibition hall. I will be updating the blog with pictures of the gorgeous new hall once all the installations are complete. Without dragging on, check out some of what we got up to below...and look out for a post on what Seollal is about and how it is observed!