Test your knowledge of Korea with our weekly quiz on the language, culture, history or anything K-related. Answer: ⓓ South Korea is technically still at war with North Korea and most men here are trained shooters, stemming from their experience as active-duty conscripts.     But not even the president -- the most powerful elected official and chief military commander -- can freely carry a gun.  Only authorized personnel in security-related fields, such as poli

In Korea, people often use honorifics and appellations such as eonni (older sister) and oppa (older brother) when speaking with someone else.  This is because Koreans generally follow the Confucian tradition of speaking differently with someone who is older versus someone who is younger. This is why Koreans will often ask others their age or the year they were born at the start of a conversation.  Korea's millennial generation is less likely to ask about age when first mee

Stigmatization around Korean equivalent to ma’am leaves a large number of Korean women without proper terms of address

From muddy farmland to vertical metropolis -- Seoul’s most dramatic transformation

Seagulls are seen as pests elsewhere, but in Korea city dwellers sometimes pay to feed them

Test your knowledge of Korea with our weekly quiz on the language, culture, history or anything K-related.    Answer: ⓒ With summer just around the corner and the pandemic losing its grip, people are starting to make plans on where to go for their vacations and for how long. In 2021, Korean workers took an average of 3.7 days off for summer holidays, according to a survey conducted on 720 firms by the Korea Enterprises Federation. Despite the pandemic having brought travel to a

If you are invited to a housewarming party in the States, you might bring food, snacks, or a bottle of wine. But housewarming parties in Korea known as jipdeuri have a different tradition. Koreans bring rolls of toilet paper or laundry detergent, the two most common jipdeuri gifts. The meaning behind giving toilet paper is that the giver is wishing the recipient continued success and good health, just as easily as the paper unravels from the roll. If you are worried your host might rece

Metro operators selling more station names to cover deficits amid a yearslong freeze in fares, free ride offerings to seniors

Test your knowledge of Korea with our weekly quiz on the language, culture, history or anything K-related.  Answer: 아니 아직 Ani, I have not. “Ani,” which usually means “no” in Korean, may be one of the most versatile expressions in the Korean language. The most common usage of “ani” is as an exclamation you say in order to disagree. You can say “ani” as the response to a question or to correct a statement someone said to you.  But bear

People often use pet names for their significant others, but “brother” or “sister” is usually off the table. In Korea, many young women will call the person they are in a relationship with “oppa” -- the same word that Korean people use for “older brother.“ It may sound strange to foreigners, especially if you are watching a TV drama, but for Koreans, it merely means that they are referring to their partner as someone older or wiser than them. It

Honorific titles can be tricky in many cultures, but can be particularly baffling in South Korea -- where various factors like social status, age, work experience and even social prejudice can be factored in. This is part one of a series on the myriad ways people address each other in the Korean language. -- Ed. In a scene played for laughs in the 2016 movie “Doctor Strange,” the titular protagonist keeps correcting those referring to him as “Mr. Strange” by saying, &ld

Did you know that a South Korean baby born on New Year’s Eve is already 2 years old when the clock strikes 12? Yes, believe it or not, how Koreans calculate their age might leave you startled if you have never heard this before. In South Korea, a newborn baby is already 1 year old on the day of their birth and then gets an additional year when the calendar hits the new year. This is because in Korea, age is calculated from the day of conception. Boom! That means you become a year or t

Test your knowledge of Korea with our weekly quiz on the language, culture, history or anything K-related. Answer: c Like in other countries, there are family names in Korea that can be traced back to royal lineages or aristocrats, known as “yangban,” during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). For example, a person with the last name Kim originating from Gimhae is part of the Gimhae Kim clan. This person can theoretically be descended from the bloodline of the ancient Geumgwan Gaya

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s name can be pronounced in more than one way. Some pronounce his name in Korea as “Yoon Seo-kyol” while others call him “Yoon Sung-nyeol.” Neither is technically incorrect, according to the National Institute of Korean Language. But his name is not alone in having more than one pronunciation. Olympic gold medalist Kim Yuna also can be pronounced as both “Kim Nyeo-na” and “Ki Myeo-na.” Take Jongno 3-ga

Test your knowledge of Korea with our weekly quiz on the language, culture, history or anything K-related.    Answer:  ⓑ   　 South Koreans can travel to far-flung, exotic destinations if they want, but there is one place that remains off limits -- North Korea. The irony of this is that the two countries are just 195 kilometers apart, from capital to capital. By road, it would be around a three-hour drive. 　 To put this in context, the distance between Seoul