The last Wednesday in May is turning out to be a busy day online at the KCC: the book launch for Choi Jin-young’s To the Warm Horizon, the first of the K-music online showcases, and now this talk: Understanding Minari Language and life between and beyond Korea and America Wednesday 26 May 2021, 6pm | […]
Category: Language
Selected publications
- Booklist: Language (29 titles)
Korean Speech Contest 2019 at the KCC
The annual speech contest is open for applications until 16 June: Korean Speech Contest 2019 Saturday 22 June 2019, 2pm @KCCUK Apply by midnight, 16 June 2019. Visit the KCC website for further details
Korean Language & Culture Course Launch Party
This is a course and an organisation we haven’t come across before. Launch event is free, but there’s no indication of the pricing for the course itself. Launch Party for Korean Language & Culture Course Venue: European School Of Economics | 4 Mandeville Place | London W1U 2BG Friday 22 March 2019, 18:00 – 20:00 […]
SOAS seminar – Clever Speakers and Flexible Listeners: A Study on Sais-soli in Korean
The first of SOAS’s Friday evening seminars of 2019: Clever Speakers and Flexible Listeners: A Study on Sais-soli in Korean Hae-Sung Jeon (University of Central Lancashire) 18 January 2019, 5:15 – 7:00 pm Venue: Brunei Gallery Room B211 Online registration required Abstract Variation is natural and important part of language. What is fascinating in speech […]
Korean language classes in Raynes Park
If you were unsuccessful in your application for the language classes at the KCC this year, don’t despair: there’s a similar set of classes down in Raynes Park, organised by another branch of the Korean embassy, the Korean Education Centre. More details here: lkl.ink/2kCa5CV Apply by 3 February for this term’s classes.
말 MAL – The 2nd Korean Speech Contest
If you’re not intimidated by the standard of last year’s Korean speech competition – see the below video clip – then get your applications in for this year’s contest, to be held on 6 June. 말 MAL – The 2nd Korean Speech Contest in the UK Let’s Speak Korean Date: 6th June 2015 14:00 Venue: […]
Burberry – the favoured brand of Korean flashers
In the last decade, British fashion brand Burberry manage to rescue itself from the chav associations caused by too liberal licensing of its check design to companies it couldn’t control. But you can’t control the use to which a raincoat is put. And according to the Hankyoreh: Burberry coats have long been sought after in […]
Brighten up your hangeul typeface
Bored with the default hangeul font on your PC? The Korea Blog has a brief article on hangeul as compared with other scripts, explaining some of the difficulties with hangeul typography. But best of all, they provide a couple of links where you can download hangeul fonts for free: Naver’s Nanum font collection (4 varieties) […]
Eating yeot, or not
Ask A Korean has a great post on the reason why a disgruntled fan might want to lob a few toffees at the returning Korean football team. He has a few explanations why “Eat Yeot” is considered an insult. The article promted an LKL reader to add a different story about eating yeot as a […]
Koreans in America: the Slate map of the most popular language in your State
AAPI Voices say that the Slate got it wrong, but at least the Slate article on the most popular language in your State got the Korean states right. So why is it that, after Spanish and English, Korean is the most-spoken language in Virginia and Georgia? One suggestion from an LKL reader is that Virginia […]
Kim Yuna’s Lark of Emergency and other popular classics
Browsing in the Hankyoreh yesterday I came across some charming pictures of Queen Yuna. This particular one, with the famous yellow logo on the CD cover … … got me googling for Deutsche Grammophon compilations of Kim’s backing tracks. And I came across this: Scrolling down to the tracklist I find that the label hasn’t […]
Some Quite Interesting Korean folk expressions
The witty comedy quiz show QI is now in its 11th series for the BBC, focusing on Quite Interesting facts connected with things that begin with the letter K. Plenty of scope for things Korean to crop up, then. In the episode that screened on 21 September, a series of Korean folk expressions came up. […]
Gi: some linguistic trivia
Sancheong, 13 September 2013. Browsing the Donguijeon at the Sancheong international Traditional Medicine Fair & Festival, I learned some mildly interesting linguistic trivia about the word gi. First, some words which use the word gi as a component: 기(氣)분 좋다 Feel good 공기(氣)가 좋다 Get fresh air 기(氣)가 산다 Feel energetic 온기(氣)가 있다 Be warm […]
2013 Travel Diary #27: Last day at the Expo
Donguibogam Village, Sancheong-gun, Friday 13 September, 7am. There’s still a long list of things I have to do before leaving. We have to pay a courtesy call on the mayor to say farewell, plus I want to pay a last visit to the Festival. And of course I need to gather everything together, trying to […]
What the British Say… and what they mean
This has been doing the rounds on the internet for a while, but deservedly: a very accurate dissection of the differences between what the British say, what they actually mean and what the non-native-English-speaker, or indeed anyone not British, might understand. Although the table suggests it relates to the British, it’s probably most accurate of […]
When “going to the valleys” is not a good idea
Many languages have all sorts of euphemisms for death. “He’s gone to meet his maker”, “He’s pushing up the daisies” are a couple of the expressions in English. In Korean, there’s the picturesque phrase “He’s gone to the valleys.” The valleys in question are in the Jirisan region of South Gyeongsang province. Jirisan has always […]