South Korea with Iris

Time flies and it is almost 2020. Everyone is busy with work, home stuff, and New Year preparations. People are staying in the lines to shops. Many stores sell a lot of beautiful and yummy things. Because everyone wants to buy gifts for their friends and family. In one word, Christmas is everywhere. However, in South Korea and in the most part of South-East Asia New Year atmosphere is a little bit different. December 25th and Lunar New Year are significant holidays in South Korea, but not December 31st. Lunar New Year changes from year to year according to the Lunar Calendar. Usually, it is mid of January or February. This year New Year in Korea will come on January 25. And Korea will rest for 4 days! Maybe you will think it is super short, especially if we compare winter holidays in Russia. But for Koreans having at least 1 extra vacation day means a lot. Korean New Year or Lunar New Year is called Seollal (설날). Many shops and public places are usually closed during the holidays. Seol

Last time I told you about Korean courses , so maybe it is time to talk about the Korean language itself? Korean language… The Korean language was not so popular…before the Korean wave became a worldwide trend. What do you know about the Korean language? Many people think that the Korean language is like the Chinese language, and there is no alphabet, only Chinese hieroglyphs. Today, I will share with you a few facts about the Korean language. Maybe some of these facts are familiar to you, maybe not. First of all, the Korean language or Hangeul (한글) was invented in the XV century by the 4th King of the Joseon Dynasty King Sejong Great. Before it, Korean people used Chinese hieroglyphs. Sejong King tried to make the language easy to study or use by any social level. Because, during the Joseon Dynasty poor people couldn’t even read, so they couldn’t learn about any announcements or news which were published on the board. So, Sejong King invented the Korean alphabet. Each letter was deriv

Travelling around is always awesome, and is full of positive emotions and memories. But during travel, we usually face different issues related to the foreign language. And today we will talk about South Korea and the Korean language. I started to study the Korean language in 2009 when I received a scholarship from Korean Foundation. My first language course was at Hanyang University. It was a short intensive program. The scholarship covered everything, except travel expenses. But still, it was a pretty good deal. The course duration is 3 weeks. A little bit of Korean language… Hangugo (한국어)— Korean language. Hanguk (한국)— Korea, Suffix ‘-o’ (-어) means ‘language’ During the courses, we stayed in the dormitory. There were 2 students in one room. The room was pretty wide: 2 tables, 2 beds, 2 wardrobes, toilet and shower room, etc. The classes were in another building. In order to get there from the dormitory, we could take a subway or free shuttle bus (about 15mins), or just walk (about 3

I told you a story about Jeju island and then we had a tour of the Museum of Glasses . Today we will continue our trip today. The next destination is the Museum of Stones. There are 2 stone museums, but I visited only one. Jeju island is a volcano island, and there are a lot of different stones. Some stones look really amazing and incredible. And citizens of the island don’t miss a chance to show it to others. These stones are real nature’s gifts. Don’t forget that Stone Park, Stone Village, and Stone museum are 3 different places. Actually, there are a lot of similar places on Jeju Island. Like Museum of Glass and Park of Glass , about which I told you last time. The entrance to the park costs 5,000KRW or 5. But for kids ticket costs 3,000KRW or 3.Butforkidsticketcosts3,000KRWor3. The park is not so large, it will take about 1 hour to walk around it. The tour will start with a small museum with only one hall. The local guide will tell you shortly about the park itself, and some speci

What does come to your mind when you hear the word Samsung? Digital and Electric stuff? Cell phones? TV? Notebook? Right. But, Samsung is also the founder of the largest amusement park in South Korea, which is called Everland. The park is located in Yeonin city and was built in 1976. Yeonin city is close to Seoul, about 50km from the centre of Seoul. It will take about 1–1,5hours to get there by bus. There are a few buses which go directly to Everland. There are 2 parks in Everland: water park Caribbean Bay and amusement park Everland. They are close to each other, just on opposite sides. And you can buy the tickets in front of the entrance. And you can decide whether to go one to one of them, or to both of them. So what about the ticket price? Adult ticket costs 54,000KRW or 54$. A youth ticket costs 46,000KRW or 46$. Tickets for kids cost 43,000KRW or 43$. Also, besides a one-day pass, there are evening tickets, which are about 9 dollars cheaper than regular tickets. The entrance wit