My Family's First taste of Korean Food.

우리 가족을 한식은 처음 먹었어다

Mini Korean lesson before we start!!

우리 ~ My/Our

가족 ~ Family

한식 which is the short form of 한국 음식 ~ Korean Food
처음 ~ First time

I have been interested in the Korean culture for about two years now. It all started when a friend recommended the drama 'Boys Over Flowers' as a sort of "break" after a long study session. It was a nice distraction and the start of my love affair with Korea. My family eventually caught on to my love for Korea, well I guess it was pretty obvious because I couldn't shut up about it. Coming from Nigeria where there isn't that much Korean presence, my family wondered at how I ended with such fascination for this country. But they eventually got used to it.

I had always told them about Korean food but they never got to try it because you can't find Korean food in Nigeria. My mum however went on a business trip to Ethiopia and was delighted to come across a Korean restaurant, she then told her colleagues about my interest in Korea and suggested they have dinner at the restaurant. Unfortunately she didn't know the name of the dishes they were served because the waiter recommended it­— well except for the BBQ which by the way was served with lettuce, but they didn't know you were supposed to wrap the meat in the leaves so they left the leaves untouched ­— but they liked it.  Most Africans like 매운 음식 (Spicy Food) so there was no complain with that. I told my mum that I will take her to a Korean restaurant when they come to London so she could try my favourite dishes ­— and maybe know what she ate this time around.

Mum was hooked, time to work on the rest of the Family. 

My birthday was a few weeks ago, my only wish was that I wanted my family to go to a Korean restaurant to celebrate my birthday. Luckily my family was in London, I knew it was a rare opportunity to have them try out all the food for themselves rather than having to hear me gush about it. I decided on Kimchee restaurant because it was reviewed as a fusion Korean restaurant. I thought it will be more suitable for their palate and help to ease them into the Hansik flavour.

The first thing we noticed when we walked into the restaurant was this spectacular wall covered in Hangul

Have you heard of 사투리~Satoori?

As you learn a language, one of the things you come across especially with a language that is being spoken throughout a country is 'dialect'. We even see this with the English language where British English differs in a way from American English both in tonation and vocabulary. This is also the case with 한국어~ Hangugeo ~Korean Language.  

Dialect in Korean is referred to as 사투리 ~ Satoori. The standard South Korean dialect and the most widely used is 서울말~ Seoulmal ~ Seoul speach. The chart below shows the different classification of the Korean dialect according to regions

Korean	Continental Northeastern Hamgyŏng Ryukchin Northwestern P'yŏng'an Central Hwanghae Gyeonggi ~ Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi Yeongdong Chungcheong ~ Chungcheong, Daejon Southeastern Gyeongsang ~ Busan, Daegu, Ulsan, Jinju, Pohang,Changwon Southwestern Jeolla ~ Jeollabuk-do, Gwangju, Jeollanam-do Insular Jeju

 Source: Wikepedia. A chart showing the classification of dialect in the Korean Peninsula

The northeastern and Northwestern as well as Yeongdong dialects are used in parts of North Korea and Northeastern China. The rest are all part of the South Korean dialect and is widely spread between the eight regions. Just like the English language, the most noticeable difference between these dialects is tonation. There is also a major distinction in some of the vocabulary where some words are completely different. The Korean grammar has what is referred to as word endings, this can be used to identify the distinctions in these dialects. An example

Chris Rathore Interview: A photographer is Born!

Chris Rathore is a 19 years old Business student at Brunel University, London. He is a photographer for the University's Newspaper. Chris is a Nature, Portrait and Landscape photographer with a knack for creative photography. He uses his pictures to create stories of memorable and stunning pictures. 

Chris draws inspiration from English Photograher extraordinaire Kirsty Mitchell she does well orchestrated photo shoots and she's been working on one project for two years now. She builds these really bizarre setups which usually are in the forest and creates the most beautiful and enchanting photos. His other inspiration is Russian photographer Stanislav Puchkovsky.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Chris about his passion, creative process and inspiration. Keep on reading to get inside the mind of this creative genius...

Ambitious or Distracted | By Chris Rathore for Chintan|MrPixels .

"Ambitious or Distracted?
A question we must ask ourselves every now and then. The paper bird depicts high aspirations, ambitions and the confused look reflects the distractions in our lives."

 

What was the first thing that drew you to photography?

Surprisingly it all started from instagram! I had no clue whatsoever about cameras let alone DSLRs and its workings, until about 3 years back. I was fascinated by all the creative pictures on instagram and the editing process. When I first discovered photography, I posted around 10 pictures a day. I got so into it which led me to ask the popular photographers on instagram how their pictures came out so well. 

I got into landscape photography first and then gradually moved to portraits. Taking pictures with my iPhone and experimenting with the varieties of apps on hand helped me to hone my editing skills. After doing this for two years, I made the decision to buy my first proper camera, which led me to organize some themed photo shoots. I started with landscape but ended up finding my true passion for portrait photography.

Howth, Ireland | By Chris Rathore for Chintan|MrPixels .

Learn korean using kpop and kdrama

For most of us, our first introduction to Korea was through entertainment which led to a penchant for the Korean Language also known as Hangugmal~한국말. There are plenty of ways to learn this language but what about learning through the first reason why we got into Korea.

First and foremost, to be successful in studying this language there's a need to learn the alphabets known as Hangul~한글. This will not only make learning faster and easier, it also makes for a more accurate pronunciation. What I have found with the romanization of Korean words is that when it is pronounced the English way, it doesn't always sound correct and in some cases it changes the meaning of the word.

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As cheesy and unrealistic as soap operas can be, there are a thing or two we learn from them. My years of watching Korean dramas has made me a sort of expert at deciphering them and predicting outcomes, although once in a while I do come across that odd one that knocks me off my feet.

Most Korean dramas are centred around love. Be it a romantic love or other types. Seeing this situations over and over again, I have been able to learn a thing or two about love. You see love is as universal as it can get, however, I have come to the realisation that we all love in our own special ways, but there are things that are always the same. 

From the mythical land of the Korean drama I have been able to acquire the following wisdom...

Korean Diary Entry #1

안녕하세요,

Interesting title right?

I was just doing some major reflecting on my language study and it has slowed down a bit. This is mostly due to how busy other aspects of my life has been. 

I have made up my mind to post diary entries in Korean in order to help me with the following

• Think in Korean
• Learn new vocabulary
• Learn to express myself in Korean
• Learn to sound natural (although this might take a while seeing as I'm using the dictionary for now)

2014년 9월 11일 

오늘 많이 하지 않았어. 난가지고 두통이 아주 있었어.   

이번 주말에 런던에서 기념을위한 갈거야.

레이디스 코드 리세와 은비의 기념관.

솔직히 알고  없는데 그들 하지만

케이팝 가족을용 나는 갈 것이요.

굿나잇 친구들!

meera 

Restaurant Review: Assaha Lebanese Traditional Village, Paddington

Image source: Assaha Website

 As I mentioned in an earlier post, my family was here in the UK for holiday so we did a lot of touristy things which I can't wait to share with you guys :)

One of the things we did was try out different cuisines (my two younger brothers were on a mission to try out cuisines from around the world). Luckily for them London is just the right place...

Seeing as the first half of their holiday was during Ramadan (holy month of fasting for Muslims), we could only go out for iftar (breaking of fast). On one of those days we were debating on where to eat when my dad mentioned a Mediterranean restaurant that his friend took him to on one of his business trips. A quick phone call to said friend, and we got the name, ASSAHA.

Before we went to the restaurant, my dad was already giving great reviews, I was intrigued at this point cos the last time he was there was a few years ago but he could still remember the place.