Observations of Korea

A few fun facts about Korea.

1. Korean doesn't have an F sound, so they replace it with a P sound when saying foreign words. That makes fudge 퍼지 (peoji) in Korean, which is pronounced just like the English word Pudgy. We discovered this by reading the wrappers of our chocolate fudge ice cream bars last night. Fudge = Pudgy. This is truth.

2. Korean homes are, and always have been, heated from under the flooring. This is genius. Why hasn't it caught on in the west, and well, everywhere?

3. Korean girls are required to bob their hair to jaw length during Jr. High. They can grow it out to shoulder length in high school (Japan used to have strict hair rules like this too, but most schools in Japan seem to have relaxed about it). This explains why people act surprised and confused when they find out Mia's age. But it doesn't make her want to bob her hair.

4. Mia looks very Korean with her high broad cheek bones, and when people realize that I can't understand them, they start talking to her, and are confused when she can't understand them either. But I have been informed that her eyes look very Japanese. This is fascinating to me. I hadn't noticed that there was a Japanese or Korean eye shape, but I'm starting to see it now. Noah on the other hand, just looks very Japanese.

5. Hangeul, the Korean alphabet is considered the most logical writing system in the world. It was created by a Korean Emperor in 1446, and there is a national holiday to celebrate it's creation every year. We agree, it is very logical and simple. The only trouble for us is that several of it's letters look like Japanese characters that make different sounds. It's hard to get past that, but we are having fun doing it.

6. "In Korea, everyone is 1 from the time they are born. And everyone gets a year older on New Year’s day. So your Korean age is always either one or two years older than your Western age. And yes, a baby born on New Year’s Eve can be two years old the next day, although in practice people wait awhile before they start talking about somebody’s Korean age.

Working out your Korean age can be tricky. Even more so because Koreans frequently go by the Lunar (Chinese) New Year. And that is when your head starts to hurt."

This is very exciting for our kids who are now 14 rather than 12, 11 rather than 9, and 8 rather than 6......not quite as exciting for the parents

You can figure your Korean age here:
http://waegukin.com/korean-age-converter.html

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