Thursday, February 26, 2015

Coffee Addicted: DropTop

It's been sooo long that I didn't have a sip cup of coffee!ㅠㅠ.. Last weekend, as festive seasons I've been so busy plus one of my family member admitted in ward, I was so tired!ㅠㅠ What a hectic days!!ㅠㅠ After struggling with my work yesterday and today, finally I got a chance to relax, listening to the music and having my coffee! Wee ^^

While having sip cup of coffee and listening to random K-Indie songs, my mind suddenly fly away to Korea!ㅋㅋㅋ Not to Seoul, but to GWANGJU! My favorite spot in Koreaㅋㅋㅋ Owh how I miss Gwangju so much!!ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋThat dangerous sentiment (some Korean says its such "black spot") didn't stop my love to Gwangju city though!~ ^^

Gwangju, such a sleep motion city at night is actually full of love, warm and friendly faces! Even though their dialect is quite hard to understand!ㅋㅋㅋ It's a city where I had my THIRD cup of coffee in one day and gain my COFFEE INTEREST!~ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ  I still remember when one of my Korean friend (live in Gwangju) told me, lets have a cup of coffee at DropTop! My mind was @-@! Ok that name is quite weird! I wonder why the founder choose those words despite so many other words!ㅋㅋㅋ

DropTop is one of the best cafe in Korea as it received many awards in 2012, one of the award is Grand Prize Franchise Cafe Section at Korea Economic 2012, Korea Customer Confidence Representative Brand.^^ Apart from that, DropTop cafe is different from any other brand! Why I said its different??! O-o Anyone who had been to this cafe would like to answer?? :P The answer is DropTop is the only cafe in Korea that express its interior features based on each regions! On their web, there are some of photos of their cafe theme according to regions. One of the design that captured my eyes most is Gyeongju Hwangnam Store located in Gyeongju City which is famous for Hanok! For more information about this cafe and their signature product you may visit here.





p/s: Anyone knows Jun Ji Hyun (lead actress from Man Come from the Star)? She's ambassador for this cafe ^^! This cafe also appear in few Korean Drama like Lee Soon Shin, You are the best and Pretty Man! I wish to go to this cafe again someday when I visit Korea! ㅋㅋㅋ

Source: http://cafedroptop.com/n/en/src/main.php





Thursday, February 19, 2015

Special Event: Seollal# What is Sebae (세배)??!!

Tick tock, tick tock! Time flies so fast, felt like I'm writing about Seollal yesterday, but its been a year ago O-o and now Seollal is back!!!ㅋㅋㅋ For this 2015 I wonder what should I write about this special event??!ㅋㅋ Last year I choose to write about a game that Korean play during Seollal so this year I choose to write about Sebae (세배) or literally known as performing deep bow to the eldest. ^^

This year Seollal begins on 18 February to 20 February, like Chuseok, Seollal is another one of most important celebration so basically Korean have 3 days leaves which is before Seollal, Seollal day celebration and after celebration.Wee ^^ For tourist that around Seoul now, you might be quite surprised as Seoul somehow become a ghost city! ㅋㅋㅋ Most of Koreans, were back to their hometown and gather together to celebrate this festive seasons with their families. ^^

During Seollal there are few activities that they do which start with Charye (ancestral ritual). While performing these some of them will dress up with hanbok (한복) (traditional attire for Korean) however these days they often dress in formal or in Western formal attire.ㅋㅋHowever kids will wear their colorful hanbok!^^  Lets' move to our topic, who perform Sebae and to whom they performing deep bow to?

Sebae is one of the way on how Korean respect their eldest. However this deep bow normally only be performed during Seollal with exchanging gift or best wishes to each other. Along with the deep bow (Sebae), they will wish their eldest with "새해 복 많이 받으세요" (Saehae bok manhi badeuseyo) meaning hoping new year will bring many luck. ^^ 

After Sebae, normally eldest will give children new year's money or known as Sebaetdon (Seollal gift), so its like a chance for children to collect their cash!ㅋㅋㅋ I'm sure this celebration is what children waiting for every year :P. For adult, seen this occasion might remind them of their childhood memories during Seollal celebration!ㅋㅋㅋ






p/s: Can't take my eyes off looking at triplets wear their hanbok and performing Sebae!ㅋㅋㅋ To all who celebrate Lunar New Year, 새해 복 많이 받으세요~ May this year bring more joys,luck, good health, longevity and prosperity  to allEnjoy with your family and love one!~

Sources: http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?gotoPage=1&cid=941952&out_service=

Photo Credit: www.blog.korea.net
Video Credit:Phuong Anh Nguyen 

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Language: Konglish??!

I'm back! After one week away and no new entry! Missing me?? O-o ㅋㅋ Anyway, have any of you had Korean as a friend in real life?? Whether they live around you or just online friend? I had many of them, and whenever I go around I kept bump with Korean! Sometimes I felt funny when I think about it!ㅋㅋㅋ During my last flight to Egypt (my vacation) for my four time of boarding, I've been served all by Korean flight attendants! I didn't choose to and I didn't take Korean Air though! ㅋㅋ I just sit on my seated number then I saw them! I was like!!??? Oh my!! Even here I were around them??! I'm in disbelief! ㅋㅋㅋ

Since most of my circle are Koreans, (I spend most of my time with computer/smart phone everyday) these days I can tell what they wanna talk about even they not yet talk about it or whenever their words/sentence is wrong!ㅋㅋㅋ I still remember long time ago, before I went to Korea and meet most of my Korean friends, most of their concern is that they are not fluently in English! Some of them asking me, what if I don't speak much to you compare when we chat on the internet?? it's not that I become shy or what, it's just I have less confident talking in English! They told me that! ㅋㅋ I said it's ok I already get used to it, I understand Konglish as well!ㅋㅋㅋ. That's surprised them!ㅋㅋ

What is Konglish that I'm talking about??? You can refer it hereApart from that, I guess most of us aware right, that in every non English speaker countries, whenever they try to speak English, there must be accent or slang with it! It's not a new language but English come with different accent from different regions.ㅋㅋ As Korean alphabet pronounce R similar with L so sometimes words that start with R, they will pronounce it as it start with L!ㅋㅋㅋ One of the example is they wanna said "right" but they said "light"! At first I heard it, I was like @-@?? Why suddenly talk about light?? Then I found out its actually "right"! ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Another popular term is "Naver" instead of "Never", this words normally appear when they typing, "Naver is actually a search engine that very popular among Korean, its's like Korean Google, but since they use it all the time to search anything, they type it as "naver" instead of "never" to show that they haven't or not ㅋㅋ! Any of you have experience like this?? Feel free to leave comment :P




p/s: Anyone understand what that sentence tell about?? ㅋㅋ If you do let me know, lets' see if you  get it correct or wrong! ㅋㅋㅋ

Source:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konglish
               http://www.naver.com/

Photo Credit: pinterest.com