korea :: seoul :: general

[dismalfuture]

they will taste the same. They will probably have one or two really fucked up 'bulgogi tacos' or some shit, but the rest will be standard fare. They have the Taco Bell on the army post down the street at yongsan so they will get the same supplies and menu, probably. I feel like god has been listening to me, finally.

[aboffen]

all the boards here are all imported from america. but they dont have that many brands. off the top of my head, u can get all of dwindle dists stuff (enjoi,almost, blind, darkstar) girl, toy machine, and chocolate. skateboarding as u can expect is no where near as big in america, and its smaller than japan. so all the decks are priced accordingly, the cheapest u can get a deck for is like 70k and the american brand boards are gonna be around 90k. which is like 20-30 usd more than ur used to.

shoes too are hella expensive, and if ur bigger than a size 9.5 good luck finding shoes. if u like fallen shoes, ill take u to a spot that sells them really cheap tho lol. i think they are fake, but they seem to hold up well enuff. ull soon find out that the majority of korean skaters wear fallens haha. and speaking of japan, they opened up a murasaki sports here :-D but its in pyeongtaek, hour 20 away from seoul, and the worst price gouger of all the korean skate shops lol.

awesome Greasy, good look. thank you for the info.

I think i'll pack one or two in the bottom of my duffle...i have gotten really used to Black Box wood and i can't give that up that easily..and maybe carry on an extra pair of indy's too. Airport security will probably pitch a bitch about the trucks though...saying that they are some sort of gnarly homemade bomb.

I'm in luck with my feet. size 8. ha! fallens are good shoes...but they get a bad rap in the states because emo mall douche kids wear them sometimes. sick team though

[Ahlvahroe]

damn it dizz, im hella pissed. should have joined you in gangnam, like i said the girls didnt want to head down that far and for some reason i didnt feel like making the trek alone, then some bitch stole my hat when i was walking into wolfhound. night ended up being kinda shitty.

3 weeks left in korea, we should all have a meet up soon, not this coming week, wisdom tooth getting pulled on tuesday and skiing trip on the weekend, but soon

[dizzhizz]

i was expecting you would come out last night but lets definitely map something out soon!

i honestly hate kangnam station with a burning passion.

getting carded was also pretty funny. i saw dismal throw his shoe bag at some poor girl.

[ruach]

Can anyone recommend any textbooks for learning Korean? I am going to be there for a while again and want to put forth a better effort this time....

Also, I remember it being mentioned in the past but can't find the specific post; what are people's experiences trying to bring alcohol into Korea by plane? I just remember part of the discussion including "one bottle of tequila should be fine but somethingsomething."

I want to bring whiskey for my girlfriend's parents and also need to stock up for myself. Not looking forward to its absurd price over there.

[dismalfuture]

1-2 duty free bottles in your carryon, 2 bottles in your checkin, don't volunteer for a customs check at disembarkment and just put your american passport in the air so they can see the blueeeee (0)

Korean language textbooks are all bad. You need 3-4 books plus either a local cell phone with a convenient English-Korean dictionary or a dedicated e-dictionary (these are kind of getting pointless now as you can download a decent one on your iPod or iPhone, and most Korean phones have had them for several years now)

-a basic listing book of Korean vocabulary sorted by hanja

-a conversational Korean book, maybe even one of the really rough slang books

-a more formal, structured basic beginner's book (Yonsei? or Sogang? from Kyobo bookstore)

Those three books, while working through the formal textbook levels, would probably get it greased up and moving a bit. Then by the time you can read proficiently but still don't know vocabulary, you would probably do better if you sat down and watched a lot of English-subtitled Korean movies and stuff. Multi-faceted I guess, but you'd learn a bit of everything you need to know this way, it'd take 6 months to a year, if you worked hard on it. Most people are going to hit a wall at textbook level 3 or 4 or so, but if you pre-empt with some hanja plus an understanding of casual and formal Korean from the beginning, you will sail right through.

[ruach]

Word. Thanks!

I should probably just buy an electronic dictionary at some point as I don't have any form of technology besides my mobile which seems to be one most typical of old ladies.

[thomas_highstreet]

it takes about 5minutes to learn to read korean and catch the [basic] grammar... i wouldnt waste time on an e=dictionary, even my phone (which is the very cheapest EVER piece of crap available) has a fairly O.K. dictionary..

i know little about your situation, but i'd just recommend to put that little extra effort in and make friends with some koreans rather than the english-teaching scum hordes, you'll get alot of vocab down, and that with a bit of self-study you'll be fine.

i would however second dismals 'visit to kyobo'... if you can discipline the study then some of the self-taught books definatly wouldnt go a miss.

[dismalfuture]

My opinion on learning Korean is this;

-Depending on your knowledge of Japanese and particuarly the number of kanji you already know, ruach, I think it could take you a year to get pretty good at a usable amount of Korean if you applied yourself thoroughly

-People who succeed at Korean either have a combination of mental cataloging skills, a photographic memory, as well pretty good logic - it's a visual language just like most other Asian languages, and there are many aberrations that are hard for anyone to explain thoroughly, but they 'just are' according to most people. People teaching Korean are usually not smart enough to explain these things to you either, I've found.

-Hanja in Korea is circa 14th century or something, so visually the characters are related to Japanese kanji but are not the same exact stroke quantity. Korean hanja looks more like Chinese, rather than kanji.

-Most western people who have conversational Korean skills will tell you confidently that you don't need to focus on chinese characters to learn Korean, most likely because they are proud of what they have accomplished in their own learning - they are wrong, and most likely stuck at an approximately low intermediate level of learning, which is about level 3 of most schools' 6 or 7 level programs. Hanja is introduced at level 4 at most schools, and this is where most western people drop off because they find it difficult. This includes normal white people from Europe, Australia, and America, as well as Korean-American kids who thought they'd sail through all of the levels. Levels 4 and above are usually occupied by Japanese people, because the grammar structure is similar and hanja starts being employed. Japanese to Korean, and Korean to Japanese, is more similar to English to Spanish. Chinese has a different grammar structure than Korean/Japanese, therefore the difficulty for Chinese people learning Korean might be more akin to English to French.

You will probably be able to get to get the basic happenings of a light TV show, like a romance drama, at level 3 Korean, you need level 5 or higher to start understanding the news well, maybe more for reading a newspaper well.

I think learning a basic set of hanja simultaneously with basic vocabulary is pretty useful, even if you're at level 1. People brush it off and then find out they need it later on, and by then it's too late.

[indesertum]

http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/culturenlife/culturenlife_discover_list.htm

i found this. i wish i had found it when i was in korea.

are there sites like chowhound and yelp for korea?

[ruach]

Back in Seoul.

[thomas_highstreet]

where you living?

[ruach]

Right in Hongdae again.

[shimshimhae]

doing summer college at 이대 this summer.

[thomas_highstreet]

i feel like i havent really given any l.u.v. to the superfuture seoul constituent... we should organise a mass bro-down (this week if possible as the wife is away. lulz)

[dismalfuture]

thomas, are you in traction and casts?

[Guest umhaha84]

doing summer college at 이대 this summer.

you talking about 이화여대? fucking 이화"여"대?

dude you that desperate...?

[thomas_highstreet]

thomas, are you in traction and casts?

10characters

[supercadet]

hey, how much were ur tickets to korea, im trying to fly to seoul and melbourne from nyc, but the multidestination tickets has all been above 2000 dollars. Any help?

[supercadet]

hey guys i've been playing to fly to seoul and melbourne from nyc, but the tickets been all above 2000 dollars, you guys know where to get cheap tickets?

[ChiTownHustla]

What's the cheapest way to get from Japan (Osaka/Tokyo) to Seoul?

Any low cost airlines? I searched kayak.com, and the lowest was $400! Anything cheaper?

[greasypeanut]

What's the cheapest way to get from Japan (Osaka/Tokyo) to Seoul?

Any low cost airlines? I searched kayak.com, and the lowest was $400! Anything cheaper?

if u can read korean u can use www.nextour.co.kr i think i only paid liek around 300 something usd. however i paid it in krw. o and also mine was round trip.

[ruach]

I went from Busan to Fukuoka by ferry last fall for 10,000yen. It should be the same the other way, too. Once you get into Korea, train travel is very cheap. KTX from Busan to Seoul was somewhere around 30,000-40,000won.

[madeinkorea23]

fuckkk ultimate fail. after all that shit i did for my gf for the past 2 years she starts talkin to some other dude and breaks up with me. fml

[shimshimhae]

women are all whores.

[Ahlvahroe]

alright so here goes. im in vietnam right now, i get back to seoul the 13th, and fly back to america for good, early morning on the 17th. i want to have a send off with you guys. let me know if you guys have anything in mind cause im up for pretty much anything, but am assuming that it will just end up in a drunk fest in itaewon.

[dismalfuture]

your premonitions are correct. plus taco bell might be open by then, so it has to be itaewon for sure.

[mrchariybrown]

alright so here goes. im in vietnam right now, i get back to seoul the 13th, and fly back to america for good, early morning on the 17th. i want to have a send off with you guys. let me know if you guys have anything in mind cause im up for pretty much anything, but am assuming that it will just end up in a drunk fest in itaewon.

my friend is leaving on the 14th, so saturday night will be an eve filled with feasting and drunk festivities followed by a trip to the casino

come one, come all

[Scais]

get fucked up at the casino for free!

[greasypeanut]

get fucked up at the casino for free!

so the casinos here are just like in lv? drinks are free?