I know I promised that this site would be a world cup free zone. So I claim that this is a business story, not a sport story. Tom Coyner’s excellent Korean Economic Reader service sent me the following editorial from the Korea Herald a couple of days ago. As it was a sports story I … [Read More]
Category: Life & Leisure (page 41)
The world’s biggest bibimbap?
From the Chosun Ilbo: Students make Korean traditional dish bibimbap, an assortment of vegetables and rice, for 1,000 people during a spring festival at Ewha Womans University, which marked its 120th anniversary on Wednesday. [Read More]
Korean driving
Anyone who has been in a taxi in Busan will understand completely how Korea can be second in the OECD car accident rankings. (The mystery is: why only second, and how come there are any cars left on the road?) It must be something in the blood. Thanks to Tom Coyner for circulating this image … [Read More]
Football fever grips Seoul
With the world cup kicking off in Germany on 9 June, South Koreans are hoping for a repeat of their 2002 success: An image from the BBC’s website (above) and one from the Chosun Ilbo (below). [Read More]
Wake Up for the World Cup
Good luck to the Red Devils as they prepare for football’s ultimate tournament. May their metatarsals remain intact. To cheer them on their way, ZiNi has written a theme song. Just go to ZiNi’s blog to hear it. The song’s title, Wake up for the World Cup, reflects the fact that because of the time … [Read More]
Korean boffins develop space kimchi
What would we do without the Chosun Ilbo? In preparation for the journey into space of the first Korean astronaut in 2008, scientists are working on a way to make kimchi without having the little friendly bacteria turn into space aliens. The solution is gamma radiation, plus special packaging to ensure the red juice doesn’t … [Read More]
Think Korea: Taekwondo demonstrations
Two taekwondo demonstrations as part of Think Korea 2006: Taekwondo demonstration 14 May 2006: London Brunel University, Borough Road, Isleworth, Middx, TW7 5DU 15 May 2006: Cambridge, Wellcome Trust genome Campus site in Hinxton, CB10 1SD [Read More]
Sport and nationalism: YMCA Baseball Team
We’ve just witnessed the triumph and then despair following the ups and downs of the Korean team in the baseball world cup. And the TV commercials are now full of football references. So I just put my copy of YMCA Baseball Team in the DVD player (it’s been on my to-watch pile for rather too … [Read More]
Eric promotes Spam
Not the unsolicited email, but the processed pork luncheon meat so ridiculed in the Monty Python sketch. As Rowan Pease said in her recent talk on the hallyu in China, the only way for stars and studios to make money out of hallyu is via celebrity endorsements; but it’s certainly puzzling that such a (to … [Read More]
Koreans and sport #2
Korea has now crashed out of that international baseball tournament, after a 6-0 whitewash at the hands of Japan [Read More]
Koreans and sport #1
They’re doing very well in some baseball tournament or other, of which the highlight was beating Japan. The Korean team’s leading player is the star Park Chan-ho. Must feel good to beat the old rivals across the East Sea. Meanwhile, not only the prime minister but now the vice-minister for education have been forced to … [Read More]
62% of Koreans can’t use chopsticks
According to the Chosun Ilbo, “only 38 percent of [Korean] adults, split almost evenly between male and female, [are] able to use chopsticks in the correct manner.” The problem could threaten Korea’s future intellectual prowess. Professor Kim Phil-soo at Daelim College who conducted a survey of 252 Korean adults said: “chopsticks require a person to … [Read More]
Fourth most ideal rear belongs to transgender star
Sorry to be a bit tabloid, but I just had to preserve this article from the Chosun Ilbo, which illustrates the Korean obsession with plastic surgery. Visitors to a plastic surgeon’s website were asked whose bum they would most like to have. The preferred posterior profiles were owned by the following celebs, in order: Jeon … [Read More]