Eat Your Kimchi on iTunes

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We realize that there are a lot of people who are more interested in just watching our videos instead of reading what we have to say. We don't blame them. And so, to make something more accessible for our audience, we have made an Eatyourkimchi.com podcast, available for free through iTunes, or anywhere else you'd like to view it. You can subscribe to it so that - every time we update - your iTunes will automatically download the video. Hooray technology! Or, if you're not a fan of iTunes, but still want nothing but the videos, we made an iTunes independent video feed as well, just for you. Finally, if you're actually interested in reading what we have to say along with watching our videos (good for you!), then the full feeds are available (if you haven't noticed it by now) in the sidebar on the left. Click on the picture here to subscribe to our iTunes feed (or just click on it to see how cool it is for us to be on iTunes), or click here for our other Eat Your Kimchi Video Podcast.

Angelina Jolie in Bucheon

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If you're misled by the title of this post, then join the club. We walked past a bar here in Bucheon, and saw huge pictures of Angelina Jolie all over it. We were confused. Is this Angelina Jolie's bar? Does she endorse it? Has she even been here before? What...what's going on here? Is this just some kind of copyright infringement that we don't fully understand but as Westerners are afraid of nonetheless? This fear of copyright infringement doesn't really affect the storefronts of Bucheon, as there have been a surprising amount of stores that use images that they surely don't have the rights to. Take this picture below, for example:

This is our best rendition of a hair salon logo in Bucheon, the Pama salon ("Pama" being the Korean pronunciation for "Perm"). We didn't actually get a picture of it, because every time we go by it we're in a taxi and we're too slow to snap. Anyhow, the Pama hair salon, which simply replaces the "U" in the Puma logo with an A, is as blatant as it gets. What's worse about the Pama salon is that its logo is the exact same Puma silhouette from the authentic Puma logo, only this time it has an afro. No, we're not joking. If we ever see it again we'll post real pictures, but this one here is about 95% accurate. For now, though, we did capture some other bad logo/branding decisions on video, and all of these places are very close to each other in Bucheon. Anyhow, click on the picture above for the video, or click here to see our video about Weird Korean Store Signs. Other formats available in the sidebar, as always.

Middle School Christmas Jumble

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The exams are now finished at my school, and with the exams so are the textbooks finished. Yet, oddly, we still have to teach classes, even though no more marks are going to be input. The students already have their grades, and are still coming to class. So, to try to teach something relevant to the Christmas Season, since I can't teach anything relevant to the textbook, I adapted an idea I found elsewhere. This is a really simple but still fun handout for students. They are given the word "Christmas Tree" and have to rearrange some of the letters to answer 31 questions. For example, the first question is "Something you wear on your head." The answer is "hat," the letters of which are all in the word "Christmas Tree." Simple enough. It's available in both Mac and PC format, or just available flat out in our ESL Resources section. Give it a shot. Answer keys are included just in case you get stumped yourself.

Adopting a Dog in Korea

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We have been receiving a lot of emails lately through our Contact page asking us about living with a dog in Korea. We realize now that we should have done a better job handling this topic through our FAQ Section - as these questions are being frequently asked. And so, we've updated the Korea FAQ with a section on Having a Dog in Korea. Of course, we're not experts on this, so we can't answer all of the nitty-gritty questions, but we can relate our experiences at least. We cover the initial costs for Spudgy, the vet fees for his surgery, how much we spend on him monthly, how much work he requires, and traveling around with Spudgy, be it either on our vacation or just on the subway. If you're interested in adopting a dog in Korea, then this section should be useful to you. If you're really set on adopting a dog, then we've included links in the FAQ to the dog shelter we adopted Spudgy from, as well as some links to Korean Dog Commands (because, after all, how cool is it to speak to your dog in Korean? Take him back home and he'll for sure listen to nobody but you).

Other than that, we're going to use this post as an opportunity to post more Spudgy-related material, since we haven't been doing that nearly as much as we'd like. We finally posted a Photo Page for Spudgy, which we oddly haven't put up before.

How to Be the Coolest Teacher in Korea

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We've made a few How-To Survival Guides here at Eatyourkimchi.com already. We've shown you How to Use your Korean Rice-Cooker and your Korean Washing Machine, How to Get McDonalds Delivered to your House, and How to Drink Properly in Korea. Today, we have an all new How-To Guide. Today, you will learn how to be the Coolest Teacher/Person in Korea.

The vast majority of your students live and breathe on K-Pop music. Many times they'll make references to these songs, either through hand gestures, odd dances, or even odder ways of saying things. And so, to keep you in the loop, we've compiled the eight significant Korean Pop Culture References and explained how they might be used by your students and how you can use them too. Accompanying this list is our Video Guide to Coolness in Korea, available in different formats in the sidebar, or just by clicking the picture above.

And so, here is your list:

#8 - Jewelry's "One More Time"
Thanks to this video, whenever anyone in the class says "one more time," another student will sing out "One More Time" the way Jewelry sang it, and then try the super-complicated index-finger-over-the-head-and-behind-the-back touch. It takes practice to master this move. Spend 20 minutes in front of a mirror doing this and you'll guarantee yourself 10 more cool points amongst your students (and -100 cool points amongst your regular friends and family).

#7 - DBSK's "Mirotic"
This is a fairly new song, and students are just beginning to catch onto its massive popularity. Show your students that you're in the loop by referring to this song, either by mimicking the silly chin holding dance and parodying the awful rapping, or just sing out the chorus and pretend that you genuinely like the song. Not that it's my ringtone or anything...so what if it is!!! It's catchy!

#6 - Rain's "Rainism"
This is another fairly recent song compared to the other songs on our list. The chorus of the song doesn't make a lot of sense, but just suggesting that either you or anyone else - including Rain - will make it "Rainism" (what does that even mean?) will generate laughter from your class. There are two dance moves that are fairly popular from the music video as well, both of which are too complicated to explain. All that you need to know is that the first one can be used in many situations, while the second one needs to be used sparingly (and with great caution).

#5 - Uhm Jung Hwa's "D.I.S.C.O"
This song was massively popular at the end of summer, and still has a bit of resonance in today's Korean classroom, even if it is getting a bit stale. There's a dance that goes with the chorus but you can't find in the music video, as she did this dance live in concert. If your students ever ask you if you know any Korean music, you can tell them that you not only know Korean music but you even know Korean dances, and then break out into the disco dance.

#4 - Big Bang's "Lies" (aka) "I'm So Sorry But I Love You"
Your students aren't perfect, and when they make mistakes they'll apologize for them. However, don't take these apology sincerely; more often than not, these apologies are coupled with professions of love. So one student will throw something at another student. You'll scold the first student, and then hear him say "I'm so sorry...but I love you!" and the class will erupt into laughter. Beat them to the punch, and tell them that you love them after their apologies. You'll be super-cool.

#3 - Wondergirls' "Nobody"
Simply put, girls are walking around the school singing this song and dancing its dance. Know the dance. It's so simple that it can be explained (for once). After saying "I want nobody, nobody but you," point with your two index fingers while raising one knee. Then clap twice quickly. Point the same way again. Then clap once. And that's the dance! So simple, yet so contagious. You'll hear the song playing in the background of our Intro to Peppero Day video, and - if you're in Korea - you'll hear it just about everywhere else. Know the song and know the dance.

#2 - Wondergirls' "So Hot"
This was very useful in the summer. Somebody would complain that it's so hot, and then do another one of those Wondergirls' minimalistic dances. You can still use this dance today, because - if your school is anything like ours - then your classrooms are still sweltering hot in the winter. Complain about the heat and then do the weird Wondergirls face-fanning dance. You'll be like soooo last summer, but at least you'll prove that you know your K-pop music.

#1 - Lee Hyori's "U-Go Girl"
Oddly, the impact of this song has nothing to do with its chorus. In the middle of the song, Lee Hyori breaks out into a completely unrelated song, in which the only words are "OK!" Every time she says "OK!" she does the OK symbol with her fingers, and brings it right close to her face with a cute little smile. That's it. It sounds innocent enough, but it has proven to be unstoppably popular. You will hear the words "OK" far too much, and see smiling OK faces far too much as well. If you didn't understand why your students were constantly saying "OK!" in such an odd manner, now you now. Check out her newest single "Mr.Big" to REALLY be in the loop.

So, that's the list for now. We plan on keeping you up to date from now on with other K-Pop references, so don't be a stranger around here. So as not to miss a beat, make sure you subscribe to our page, either through the RSS link or the Email Newsletter to the left, here. Also, if you have at all found this useful, we'd greatly appreciate it if you'd do any of the things the yellow box below suggests, either Stumbling or Digging or Deliciousing our site. Thanks!

Korean Basketball: Incheon's Black Slammers

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A while ago, when we were walking around during Monsoon Season in Bucheon, we saw this awesome picture here and had to take a picture of it. We put it under our Engrish section, because it's just so highly inappropriate, with implications that are too sensitive for us to get into for our PG-13 blog. Anyhow, months have passed, and we finally went to a Black Slammers Korean Basketball Game. We went with Simon's co-teacher, who offered to take us, and was kind enough to pick us up at our apartment and drive us to the game. We were surprised, because the stadium was only ten minutes away from our place, and it was in Incheon. We didn't know that Incheon was so close to Bucheon, even though we've been living here for over six months!

We made a video of the whole event, from the tickets at the front door, to game highlights, to other interesting things that happened during the game. We were quite bored since Incheon was losing terribly for the first half of the game, but by the end of the game they came back to within two points. Anyhow, click on the picture above for our video on Incheon's Black Slammers, or check the sidebar for other video formats.

Bucheon's Sala Thai Restaurant

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Generally, we love eating here in Bucheon. We've reviewed Bucheon's Dubu House, Chicky Pub, and Don Day Restaurant, and have loved all three of them and - still - highly recommend them to everyone in the Bucheon area. There are some restaurants, though, that we need to warn you Bucheonites about: for the first time on eatyourkimchi.com, we're going to give a review/warning of a bad restaurant.

See, we were looking for some good non-Korean food; growing up in Canada, we have grown accustomed the many different foods of many different culture. We wanted to see how Korea's multicultural cuisine held up. Our first attempt at a non-Korean food restaurant (apart from burger joints, which are international) was at a Thai restaurant here in Bucheon: the Sala Thai Restaurant, on the top floor of the Hyundai Mall. We were excited when we first saw it, because it looked pretty decent on the outside. The menu had a decent selection of Thai food, including Pad Thai and coconut shrimp. The prices weren't all too friendly, but we were hankering for Thai food, so we bit the bullet and ordered. Boy, were we disappointed.

Taste: 1.5/5 - Simon wanted to give this place a 0. His food was awful. Martina's wasn't awful, but it wasn't good, so she gave her plate a 2.5 out of 5. Our shrimp appetizers were pretty bad, so they also got low grades. We can't give this place entirely a 0, because it's not revolting, but it's lack of flavor is overwhelming.
Side Dishes: 0/5 - There weren't any actual side dishes here, so we decided to count appetizers into the equation instead. The appetizers sucked; they were overpriced and untasty.
Bang for Your Buck: 0/5 - The appetizers cost 12,000 won. Our meals were 11,000 won each. Altogether, we spent 34,000 won on food that wasn't good at all. For 34,000 won we could eat five meals elsewhere (we've been eating at the dokbokki stands lately. We can both get stuffed for 6,000 won).

Overall, stay away from Sala Thai. We were really disappointed with this place. If you know of any good Thai food places here in Korea, PLEASE TELL US! We'll continue trying out new places and - hopefully - we'll be able to give a good recommendation of a non-Korean restaurant here in Bucheon soon. Anyhow, watch the full review of Bucheon's Sala Thai restaurant by clicking on the picture above, or just check our sidebar for different video formats.

Middle School Jeopardy Template

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There are a couple of factors that brought about a game of Jeopardy instead of something more fun. My English Classroom is being remodeled right now (my school has been given 60 million won to update it), so I no longer teach half classes of 20 in my room. Instead, I have to go to every individual class myself and teach a full class of 40. So, to keep everyone in their chairs and still entertained, I thought a game of Jeopardy would be fun. The other factor coming into play today is that the students begin their final exams on Tuesday, so a full review of this semester's material would be of use to them. So, here's a Jeopardy gameboard which I made from scratch. Click on any amount and it will take you to a slide with a question. Click on the question and the answer will pop up. Click anywhere else on the screen and you'll be brought back to the money grid. This Jeopardy board comes in two flavors, one for each level, with questions pertinent to that level. Head on over to our ESL Resources page, or just download the versions here. Level 1 is available in either Mac Format or PC format, while Lesson 2 is available in both Mac format and PC format as well. Even if you're not teaching those levels, the template is still usable, so you can tweak the questions as you please.

Korea's Insadong: Cookies and Culture

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A couple of weekends ago we went to Insadong in Seoul to do a bit of Christmas shopping and soak in some culture. Yes, we do have to do Christmas shopping this early (because shipping stuff overseas will take a long time). It's a really interesting neighborhood as it combines both traditional and modern Korea. The video we made was of the most touristy area; a long cobblestone street lined with shops and selling all types of traditional Korea goods. Clothing, ceramics, tea, handmade paper, artwork, jewelry, calligraphy supplies, art supplies, linens, fans, hats, and delicious street snacks. If you're visiting Korea on vacation, this is the place to go for some great souvenirs. If you follow the street until it ends and cross the road to a smaller less busy street you will find the real jewel of Insadong. A special area filled with gorgeous coffee shop and clothing stores, all oozing with their own personality. As you continue to snoop around the area, you'll find the houses have be rebuilt to look like traditional Korean homes, but these houses cost millions! It is a gorgeous neighbourhood and you're guarantied to get some amazing pictures. We'll post another video about this area when we get the chance, but for now, check out Insadong's best shopping zone here.

For now, actually, we actually have TWO VIDEOS. The first is a montage of what Insadong looks like, including its streets, its signs, its musicians, and its robots. The second is a clip from Insadong that we had to make into a movie entirely of its own. There are a few booths around Insadong with a couple of guys making and selling cookies. While they make these cookies they talk in three different languages and explain what's going on (in this case, Japanese and English for us Japanese and English tourists). It's really quite cool, so we included the movie as well. Click the picture above for our Tour of Insadong, then click on this picture here for our video on Insadong's Cookie Makers. Both are in high quality QuickTime format, so if you want to see them on YouTube check the sidebar for both movies.

Korean Robot Lockers

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Here's another one of those videos of things that amaze us about Korea. The locker system they have for their malls are computerized! Why they are computerized, we can't be too certain. The basic coin system we've known most of our lives seemed to have handled the job well enough, but, hey, computers make everything better! To use these lockers, you have to pump your cash into the computer, type in the number of the locker you want to lock with your stuff, and then turn the key. When you want to retrieve it, hit the retrieve button, type in your locker number, put in your key, and your stuff will still be there! For the life of us, we can't figure out why we need the computer as a middle man. All we know for sure is that this locker system is definitely much more appreciated by us than the sad dog locking system we noticed a while ago. Anyhow, we made a video to explain the locking and unlocking process for you, so click on the picture above for the video, or view our Korean Technologically Advanced Supercomputer Locker System Video in different formats on the sidebar.

The End of Bucheon's Autumn

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Winter hasn't officially kicked in yet, but it's starting to get mighty cold. The leaves on all of the trees are almost all off, and Martina's out looking for a new winter jacket (we couldn't pack ours from Canada because they take up too much space). Before this Winter kicks in, though, we have thoroughly enjoyed Fall in Bucheon. Jung-Ang Park, which we have shown you many times before, unleashed mountains of leaves all over the ground. Spudgy had a great time running through these leaves, and Martina loved taking pictures of them. We've compiled a bunch of these pictures together into one gallery, just so you can see what Autumn in Bucheon is like. Click the picture above to see the gallery, or click here to see Autumn in Bucheon.

Korea's Coex Aquarium

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We were looking for things to do over the weekend apart from lesson planning. We decided to go to the Coex Aquarium as a result. It didn't require a lot of planning or effort. We just hopped on the subway, took line 1 to Sindorim Station, then took line 2 to Samsung Station, which you've seen us take before, and we were there. The Coex Aquarium is actually inside of a mall, rather than being an independent building itself. The Coex Mall, by the way, is completely awesome, if you're looking to do some good shopping. It's monstrously large, very, very easy to get lost in, and home to many funky and interesting stores (as well as an aquarium!). Tickets on a Saturday afternoon cost us 14,000 won a pop, and we took a solid two hours to walk through the entire shebang. Mind you, we were taking a lot of pictures and making a lot of videos along the way, so it might take the average stroller half an hour to an hour instead. Speaking of which, we made a video of all the fishies, while Martina took a lot of pretty pictures of the fishies as well. Click on the picture above to see our video tour of Coex Aquarium (check the sidebar for the YouTube version), and make sure to check out Martina's Flickr Tour of Coex Aquarium as well.

Middle School Password Games

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We've been mighty busy over the past week, so please forgive the lack of activity here. Most of that busy time was spent in tweaking this lesson. I used the same idea for both classes, but covered different materials for the different levels. The first graders are working on "I like drawing cartoons. I want to be a cartoonist" or "I like helping sick people. I want to be a doctor," so on and so forth. The second graders are reviewing for the upcoming exams, so we're going over passive structure again. For both lessons, essentially, they have to fill in the blanks to a handout, using only the words from the word bank. Every word has a numerical value as well. Once they fill in the blanks with the words, they have to plug in the number values into a formula. The results, when gathered all together from all of the different questions, form a "Password." I lock my computer with this password as well; the first student to be able to crack the lock on my computer gets the prize, which is just a small set of lollies. For the second graders, since they finish this game sooner than the first graders, I have a backup gameboard, similar to the past tense gameboard for level 1, in which - for every spot they land on - they have to form a sentence in passive structure with the supplied words.

If you're interested in these lessons, head on over to the ESL Resources section to check them out. Or, you can just download the Level 1 Lesson on Future Jobs in both Mac and PC format, or you can get the Level 2 lesson on Passive Structure in both Mac and PC format as well.

Korean Car Greeters

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Customer service in Korea has its ups and downs. One major annoyance is that, everywhere you walk in a store, the employees shadow you like you're going to steal something. They're not being suspicious - not at all. Turn around and you'll find them smiling and waiting to help. It's just annoying to not have any personal space. One super awesome thing about Korean Customer service, though, is that it starts long before you get to the store. Drive up to any department store and you'll find a thwack of people, men and women, in matching suits and outfits, bowing to your car and greeting you through a microphone (but we can't understand what they're saying, because we don't speak Korean).

So here we have a video of these greetings in action. You'll see the greeters and the traffic directors in matching attire, but this time you won't see any Dancing Traffic Directors. If you're not from Korea you really need to see this. Click on the picture above to see our video on Korean Car Greeters, or go to the sidebar to view it in different formats.

Intro to Pepero Day in Korea

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Yesterday was a very solemn holiday in Canada: Remembrance Day. We were surprised, though, to find a different holiday being celebrated here in Korea on the same day. Instead of honoring the soldiers that fell in war, Korea celebrates something known as Pepero Day. You may know Pepero as "Pocky" instead, the chocolate dipped sesame sticks that you snack on. In Korea they don't call them Pocky at all, by the way, just Pepero. Anyhow, November 11th, if you look at the numbers, is 11/11, which some genius over at the Pepero factory suggested looks like four sticks of Pepero. The Pepero company capitalized on this idea, and declared that on this day everyone will give out Pepero Sticks. In Canada, we wear Poppies; in Korea, we eat Pockies.

Sure, that sounds silly, but the declaration actually stuck, and now everybody celebrates Pepero Day. Yesterday Simon received around eight boxes of Pepero from his students. Teachers gave pepperos to each other as well. The days leading up to Pepero had stores full of Pepero Sticks, Pepero stuffed toys, and Pepero gift baskets. In fact, when Simon bought a shirt at a clothing store, they gave him a free box of Pepero as well. Pepero Day is almost like Valentine's Day, except it isn't as demandingly romantic. Sure, you'll give Peperos to your girlfriends and boyfriends, but your regular friends will be expecting them as well.

This ain't no small holiday, as some people may believe, so we made a video to show you what some of the street stalls look like, and just how elaborate this day can get. Sorry we couldn't post this sooner, but we went through a bit of a YouTube epidemic over the past two days, so we didn't get a chance to put this up when we wanted to. Anyhow, click on the picture above for the video of Korea's Pepero Day, or view it in different formats in the sidebar.

How to Get McDonalds Delivered to Your Home

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We've been here for five months now and we're still amazed with all of the cool things has to offer. A while ago we made a post about Korean Home Delivery, and this can be considered an update to that with an amazing twist: Last week we happened to learn something else that's awesome about Bucheon and Korea: McDonald's delivers to your home!! That's right. Korea's food delivery service is such a huge part of the culture that McDonald's had to tap into it as well. This means that you can sit at your home, play video games all day, and get a Big Mac and a McFlurry delivered to your doorstep. How awesome is that! Here's what you need to make this happen:

Phone Number: 1600-5252.
Menu: See an image of it here. It's not the best quality, but you'll get an idea of what you can get delivered. If need be, you can get a copy of it at the McDonald's closest to you.
Options: They sell everything. Breakfast and dinner foods, as well as Sundaes and McFlurries. Everything you can buy at the store can be ordered for delivery
Price: It seems as if everything costs around 500 won more for delivery than the regular in-store prices, but, hey, if you need a Big Mac right away, it's worth the extra change.
Names: The names are pretty much the same as they are in English, except they are pronounced in a Korean way. So the McFlurry here is the "Ma-Ku-Pu-Lau-Ree" and the Big Mac is the "Bee-guh-Mah-Kuh." So, even if you can't read the Korean on the menu,

One More Thing: The phone system here isn't the number of a specific McDonalds; instead, the number is for a central system. Your order gets forwarded to the closest McDonald's delivery chain. The problem with this is that you have to give more information, (namely, your city and your region). Here in Bucheon we're in the Wonmi-Gu district. When Martina called, both she and the operator were very confused, until an operator with stronger English came on the line. Martina had to explain what landmarks we're close to (the closest being Bucheon's City Hall), and only after 10 minutes of confused explanations did we finally get our order through.

We made a video for McDelivery as well, which shows you the whole ordering and delivering process (and more). Both YouTube and High Quality QuickTime versions are available for viewing in the sidebar on the left. Enjoy!

Upcoming Jens Lekman Concert in Korea

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The two of us are pretty big music buffs, and we've been a little upset that we haven't been able to attend any concerts here in Korea. Luckily, we stumbled upon a concert that we're sure to attend: We don't know how many of you are Indie Music fans, but Jens Lekman is coming to Hongdae on November 29th. Here's what we know, from Last.fm:

Who: Jens Lekman
What: Playing Music
Where: Ssamie Space, Hongdae, South Korea
When: Saturday, November 29th, ???PM
Why: Because he's awesome.

The cost of admission we don't know. Supposedly we're just supposed to pay at the door instead of buying tickets. If anyone plans on going leave a comment or contact us. We don't know much more about the event because we just found out about it today. If anyone else has more information, let us know. Otherwise, we'll keep those of you interested up to date whenever we find more information about this, and we'll surely post videos of the concert after we've gone.

Korean Crowded Subways

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We've made a few posts and videos about the subways here in Korea, be it a View of Korea through the Subway Windows, or our other post on How to Load a Subway Card, but we haven't captured this on tape yet. Before we came to Korea we were told that the subways would be ridiculously packed. The few times that we've taken the subway we noticed that, sure, you're lucky to get a seat, and the subways are pretty crammed, but it's not really as bad as we've been told. Of course, we only thought this because we never took the subway during rush hour. Yesterday we finally did take the subway during rush hour, and, well, let's just say we've never seen the subways this crowded before in our lives. We made a shoddy video of it, just so you could see how incredibly packed this thing can get. Click on the picture above for the video, or check out our Crowded Subways video in the sidebar.

Middle School Hobbies Pictionary

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Here's this week's lesson plan, but first, a bit of explanation: there's only a lesson plan for the first graders, since the second graders are doing their oral tests this week. Next week the first graders will have their oral tests. It will be on their hobbies. So, this week's lesson will incorporate a bit of lesson 10 - The Use of Timestamps - and their Hobbies Lesson from a while ago. Essentially we're playing Pictionary. The class is divided into three teams. One person from each team will come up to draw what's on the card I show them. It will include a timestamp (such as Always, Sometimes, Often, Never, etc) and one of the hobbies from the gamecards a while ago (Cooking, Dancing, Singing, etc). First team to guess it wins a point. Hooray! Loads of fun. When we run through the cards, we play a sentence completion game. They're now in the mood to get up at the boards and perform, so in this game we keep it going. On the monitor I pop up three words and they have to make a sentence out of them. One of the words is almost always a timestamp. First one to write a proper sentence with no mistakes wins. Huzzah! If you want to download this yourself, then click here for either the Mac Version or the PC Version, or head on over to our ESL Resources page to find more, well, ESL Resources

Korean Trick or Treating

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Halloween is not celebrated here in Bucheon or the rest of Korea, so I - Simon - tried to teach my middle school students about Halloween and Trick or Treating. I did not teach it well. The only thing they learned was that strangers will give you candy once you demand it. Some thought that the louder you demand it the more candy you will get. This turned out to be terrible, terrible for me. I have documented it all: the horror, the terror, the rage. Click on the picture above for the movie, or view it in the sidebar here for different versions (YouTube and QuickTime included).

Note: If you can't tell from the movie, then please understand that these students were acting. They were given their lines, given their pay (lots of candy, of course), and fully consented to the making of this movie and the way in which it will be used. The students who did not want to participate were free to go. I have 920 students - here are not even one fifth of them. Yeah.

Korean Poopy Papers

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Somebody please, please explain this to us! We've noticed that all of the toilets in our schools and other public places have wastebaskets beside them. For some reason, these wastebaskets often have used toilet paper in them. We asked people about it, and this is the best explanation we've been given so far: the Korean sewage system is different than the sewage system we're used to in North America. It can't handle toilet paper, for some reason. And so, to prevent the toilets from deeply clogging, it's best to leave our poopy papers in the wastebasket. This is the main reason why so much Korean toilet paper is scented, to mask the scent that can't be flushed away. Is this really it? This was the explanation that was offered to us from a Korean coworker, but it doesn't really make sense to us. The toilet can handle big logs of poop, but not the paper itself? Surely there must be another reason. Anyone? Someone?

Anyhow, since we're in the business of being informative on all things Korean, this also has to be said about Korean Toilets: good luck finding toilet paper beside them. Every toilet in my (Simon's) school is paperless, and the same could be said about just about every other public toilet we've visited in Bucheon. It's quite annoying. I had to bring in my own roll. I left it in the mens washroom. It was stolen after a couple of days. I brought in another roll and it was stolen again. This could be the main reason why you'll never find toilet paper laying around: there are very efficient toilet paper thieves who make regular rounds. Your best bet - and supposedly common practice here in Korea - is to have pocket packets of toilet paper, sold in all convenience and grocery stores near you. Anyhow, click on the picture above to see our video documentary, or click here for our video on Korean Toilet Paper. See what we're talking about on YouTube if you'd prefer it that way.

Korean Middle School Halloween Bingo

Hopefully this isn't too late for those that need it. It's Halloween on Friday, so here's a lesson plan for you Korean Middle School teachers. Here are 20 different bingo cards, each with Halloween terms on them. The Powerpoint attached pops up these terms, but it's significantly nicer on a Mac if you have one: every card leads into the next by spinning all of the options on the screen, in a Wheel of Fortune kind of way, but without the wheel. This effect just isn't possible on a PC (re: get a Mac). If you have time left over there's a small wordsearch to calm everyone down (they're begging for more after the bingo). If you'd like to download this for yourself, you can do so at our ESL Resources page, or you can get them here, in either Mac format or PC format.

On the Korean Subways

We really like the movie "Lost in Translation." Any foreigner in Korea will easily be able to relate to it (or at least parts of it), and it's got an absolutely killer soundtrack as well. We strongly recommend watching it if you haven't already. Anyhow, the whole point of this Lost in Translation plug is that we keep on wanting to make artsy fartsy movies over its soundtrack. We have our first installment today. We were on Line 2 of the subway the other day, (the same subways from the Spudgy's Car Accident post, in which we show you how Awesome the Subways are here in Korea) and we started shooting the scenery outside. We cut the footage up, shifted it around, and slapped on Brian Reitzell's "On the Subway" from the Lost in Translation soundtrack. It's nothing special, but at least you'll get to see a bit more of Korea. Click on the picture above for the video, or click here for our View of Korea Through Subway Windows video. YouTubers can get this view here.

Our Bucheon Movies Blooper Reel

Hopefully, by now we seem like pros at this whole documenting of Bucheon and Korea thing. Our filming is top notch, our editing is impeccable, and our acting is - well - unbelievable...right? Right? Anyhow, people might be surprised to hear this, but when we make our movies we sometimes make mistakes. I know, I know: shocking news. Luckily for you, we've captured a lot of these embarrassing mistakes and moments on film. We didn't have the heart to delete them, so we've complied them into a good old fashion blooper reel. We hope you get a good laugh out of them, since nothing is better than laughing at other people's awkward mistakes, right? Click on the picture above to see the movie, or click here for our Bucheon Blooper Reel. YouTubers can laugh at us here.

ESL Resources for Public School Teachers

After many hours of difficult work, the ESL Resources section is finally up and ready to go. We have compiled our lesson plans and materials, so that you could use them yourselves. We painfully discovered that finding resources online can be very difficult, as we have to sort through a lot of material before we find something useful for our specific classes. What we have here as a result is much of the materials we have used in teaching our classes, from the Powerpoints to the Handouts to the YouTube clips. The public board is supposed to be teaching a uniform curriculum, as all of the textbooks should be teaching the same content in the same week. And so - all of you current or potential GEPIK teachers - the week that you're teaching Comparative Adjectives to your second graders or Emotions and Gestures to your first graders, you should surely find something here of use to you.

The materials are free to download, in both Mac and PC versions. Only the Public Middle School section is up right now, but Martina's High School section should be up soon as well. Some materials from our Extra Classes are up as well, which are not as strictly textbook-based as the other materials. These lessons can be used in classes of 2-20, and can be used for any level. Let us know if these materials are of any use to you, or Contact Us if there's anything you need us to clarify. Finally, if these are useful at all to you, don't be shy to spread the word through the following links:

How to Drink in Korea in Seven Easy Steps

We understand that this might be a sensitive post. Let us begin by saying that not everyone in Korea is a drunkard. What we want to talk about is the differences in the drinking culture here in Korea compared to what we're used to in Canada. Not everybody drinks excessively here in Korea the same way not everyone in Canada drinks excessively. But, when you do go out for drinking here, be prepared for a different mentality, approach, and game plan. Follow these steps and you should blend right in.

1) Don't Decline the First Round - Even if you're not a drinker, you should accept the first glass poured for you. If you decline, you'll ruin the drinking mood. Afterwards, you're safe, and can back out. Cite religious or health reasons if you must, but - be warned - drinking is an important part of Korean socializing, and if you refuse then you won't be considered sociable. This is high-school peer pressure to a whole new level. So, when you finally cave, and give in to drinking with others, watch out for the next step

2) Watch Your Hands - Never pour your own drink, for starters, and never let anyone pour their own drinks. Afterwards, when someone older than you offers you a drink, hold the glass with two hands. When you pour a drink for someone older than you, hold the bottle with two hands. It sounds odd, but you'll get used to it. In fact, we recently met up with a friend here in Korea, and he was fully confused to see us holding our glasses when he poured out beer. Finally, refill someone's glass if you see that it's empty as well.

3) Don't Stop Drinking - The big difference between Korean and Western drinking is how we handle our limits. See, the way I've been raised is to respect my limits; if we get to the point that we're drunk then it's time to stop, drink some water, and sober up. Mission accomplished! The Korean attitude is different here. Getting drunk is only half the battle. Once you are drunk, the real challenge is in how much more you can drink before you drop. And when you drop it is only a timeout for you; get back on your feet and drink some more.

4) Encourage Others - It is perfectly acceptable, and even encouraged, to drink beyond your limits here in Korea, as your friends will goad you on. We're used to saying "Chug Chug Chug!" back home; here, you'll often hear "One shot! One shot!" which - obviously - suggests that you should drink it all down in just one shot (but it's beyond me why this is in English and not Korean). As well, instead of the "cheers" we're used to saying, get prepared to say "Kon-Bay!" before you clink your glasses.

5) Drink in Public - There are no laws against public consumption of alcohol or against public drunkenness. Drunk and Disorderly conduct - though not appreciated - is common. After all, the restaurants people eat and drink in are too small to house all of their customers, so many people eat and drink outside. In fact, quite often we'll see people drinking outside of convenience stores, as rickety plastic tables and chairs have been set out for people to sit and drink at.

6) Drink Any Day You Want - What surprises us the most about drinking here is that it is done every day of the week, and isn't necessarily strongest during the weekends. When we walk around Bucheon on Wednesday nights we see people in business suits shouting Kon-Bay and slamming down shots of Soju, then staggering home just as they would on the weekend.

7) Have a Meal With that Drink - While we're used to thinking in terms of having a drink with our meal, here in Korea the mentality is often to have a meal with that drink: the alcohol is the main course while small shared appetizers compliment the drink. Small fruit salads or crackers and chips will go nicely with that Soju.

This post was inspired by this movie here. We were walking around Bucheon on Friday night and saw two men violently hugging each other. We watched them for a bit and realized they were drunk. Then we realized that this had to be captured on film. You'll see just how drunk people can get in public here in Korea. You should also know that, after we stopped filming, all four people walked right back into the bar for what we assume will be more alcohol. The worst part about it all is that we've seen this time and time again. Drinking is a big part of Korean Culture, and - as a result - so has become drunkenness. Click on the picture above for the movie, or click here to see Korean Drunkenness at Its Finest. YouTubers can see the drunkness here.

Rare Spudgy Bees in Bucheon

We haven't posted anything about Spudgy lately, as most of our posts have been about Korea and Bucheon and have been somewhat informative. Today we're going to snap out of that pattern. A while ago our brother-in-law Mark made a really pretty video about bees and sent it to Vimeo.com. He composed his own music for it as well (he's a music composer after all), and altogether the video has inspired us. We decided to make a similar video. We captured a very rare bee on film, the Spudgy Bee, which is native to Bucheon and Bucheon alone. We shot it at 60 fps and then slowed it down, and slapped on Mark's music. Here, for the first time on film, will you be able to see it for yourself! Click on the picture above for our video on Bucheon's own Spudgy Bee, or go over to YouTube and watch it there yourself.

Bucheon's Best Chicken: Chicky Pub

When we started out our Restaurant Reviews section, we knew that we would soon be doing a review of Bucheon's Chicky Pub. We love this place, love the Chicken and the fries and the yakee, and we think that everyone should be eating here everyday. There are two locations that we know of for Chicky Pubs in Bucheon, but we're only talking about the one close to the Emart, and not the one close to GS Square; we haven't been to the other one yet.

We really like this restaurant. It's small and cozy for starters, and the owner is really nice. He has a Canadian flag hanging under the clock, because he has family in Toronto. His English is good as well, so if you're uncomfortable speaking Korean, this is where you can safely order chicken in Bucheon without being embarrassed. Finally, he's nice enough to always put on some English television for us! We haven't seen the cooking channel in a long time, and never thought we'd see it again for as long as we were in Bucheon, so we were really happy when he put Jamie Oliver on for us.

Anyhow, here's our final review:

1. Taste 5/5 - The best thing about this chicken is that it's fried AND covered in sauce. It retains its crunchiness and sauciness all at once. And the sauce is great; it's also covering the yakee (Korean Dumplings) and tastes just as delicious.
2. Side Dishes: Inapplicable - Chicken places don't usually offer side dishes, apart from small snacks. We get great popcorn, but that doesn't really fairly compare to the many side dishes you get with traditional Korean Cuisine.
3. Bang for your Buck 4/5 - It's not cheap. Fries and Chicken will set you back 20,000 won, but it's worth every last won, because it's so delicious. The price is comparable to all other chicken places as well, but we wouldn't pay half the price we pay here for some of the chicken we've had elsewhere.

Altogether, we give this place a 4.5/5. If you're in Bucheon we strongly recommend you go here; you won't regret it. Click the picture above to see our video review of Bucheon's Chicky Pub. You'll see what the place looks like, where its situated in Bucheon, and you'll get a good look at the food as well. YouTubers can see the video review here.

Bucheon's Jung Ang Park Revisited

A long time ago we posted a video of us riding our bikes through Bucheon's Jung Ang Park. As well, we showed you a time lapse of the sun and clouds over the park, as well as a concert in the park, but we never actually gave a proper tour of the park. And so, we decided to put together a cheap, National Geographic knock off video of things you can find in the park, (and many other Central parks in Korea), from indigenous birds to foreign photographers, stampeding students and odd mating rituals. You'll get a better look at the park from the inside, though we can easily say that there's still a lot of the park that we've missed out on. Stay tuned for more videos on Jung-Ang Park in the future. For now, click on the picture above for the video, or click here our edition of Inter-National Geographic in Bucheon's Jung-Ang Park. Check it out on YouTube if you'd prefer that instead.

Korean Products

In North America, you have your common big-name products: Pepsi, Oreo, Tide, Heinz, Dentyne etc. In Korea, we've got different name brands; and so we made a short video for you to familiarize yourselves with these products. If you don' t know about Xylitol, Dr. You, and Chilsung, then it's about time you learned. We made a short video (with our new camera! woohoo!) to highlight some of these products, so that you could get an idea of what we're used to. Click on the picture above for the video, or click here to see our Korean Advertising video. If you'd rather see the video in low quality, watch it at YouTube. Thanks to Wayne's World for the inspiration.

Korean Toy Coin Machines

What can be better after a hard day of grocery shopping then buying more stuff? Look what we found at Bucheon's Emart: for a mere 1000 won (you have to use your 500 won coin x2)
These machines have it all! Just to name a few:
-Hello Kitty
-Winnie the Pooh
-Thomas the Tank Engine
-Cats, Cats, Cats
-Cars
-And so on...

Let's not ruin the video's surprise...click on the picture to see what else it has, or just click here to see our Grocery Store Toy Coin Machines in Korea video. For a less ridiculous title, view the video at YouTube here.

Korean Costco via Bucheon

We were really excited before coming to Bucheon, Korea when we found out that Korea has many Costcos. We finally decided to go to one, and documented the whole thing. Here are a few things you need to know beforehand:

1) The easiest location to go to from Bucheon is the Yangpyung location. You can take Line 1 of the subway to Sindorim, and then transfer to Line 2 and get off at Youngdeungpogu Office station. From Bucheon, you can take the 2300 red bus to the same station. Catch it right in front of the Hyundai Department Store. From Youngdeungpogu Station, the Costco is close. We asked someone for directions and they pointed our way. Here's the map for more detail.

2) Supposedly, this location isn't as good as others, according to our friend Sue, who is our leading authority on all things Korean (she's Korean, by the way). Simon was disappointed because the electronics section was really skimpy. For food, though, this will be more than enough

3) Come to Costco hungry and skip the samples. What you want is the food court. Yes, the food court. It had the most delicious pizza we have ever tasted in Korea. Buy a hulking huge one for 12,000 won and thank us for the advice afterwards.

4) Costco will fill you in on many of your Western Food Needs. It had great bacon, cereal, cheese, and gummy bears, just to name a few awesome things.

5) Be warned! If you have missed out on the comforts of your home for a long time then you might go overboard like we did. Our final bill set us back 270,000 won, and we know there was lots of stuff we could have gone without.

6) Costco is Cash Only: Memberships will cost you 35,000 won, and you will need to bring your Alien Registration Card with you. There are cash machines in the store, so don't worry if you didn't bring enough. Just make sure to go soon after you get paid so that you could have more room to play.

Altogether, we really enjoyed the experience, and plan on going there from now on. We made a video of our Costco experience, so click on the picture above or click here for our Korean Costco Experience (YouTubers, here's some Korean Costco for you). Also, you'll notice our friend Chris in the video; if you remember him from his introduction months ago, then you'll be happy to see that he has moved on from Korean chicken to something else.

Bucheon's Dubu House Restaurant

The first video we ever posted for this site was of our first meal in Bucheon, Korea. It was at the Dubu House, which is right beside our place, and so we now find it only fitting to give the restaurant a proper review. We loved it back then, but what do we think of it now that we're a little more seasoned in Korea? Is it still as good, or were we newbies who didn't know any better? Today comes our second installment of "맛있은-Delicious", Eatyourkimchi.com's Restaurant Reviews, featuring Bucheon's Dubu House Restaurant!

Right off the bat we can say that we still love this place; Dubu House is an excellent, excellent restaurant in Bucheon if you want to have some cheap and delicious Soon Dooboo Jigae (Soft Tofu Stew). They offer many different varieties of 순두부 (which translates phonetically to "soon doo boo") soup, most of which are really delicious.

Our favorite is the cheese soon dubu, though the dumpling soon dubu is really delicious as well. If your Korean isn't up to snuff, you're in luck as well, because every kind of soon dubu is translated for you into English. We can't attest for all of the varieties here, since we've only had around half or so. Some of the flavors are a little scary, like the "Small Intestines of Cattle Soondubu." Click on the picture here to see the full menu and all of the different varieties of soon du bu.

Anyhow, here's our final review of Bucheon's Dubu House.

1. Taste 4.5/5 - Every single soup that we have tried from here has been delicious. We would give this a perfect score, but we haven't been to enough restaurants yet to definitively say that this is the best.
2. Side Dishes 3/5 - You get a decent amount of side dishes, but none of them are really stellar. Kimchi, Seaweed, pickles - all are fine, but very common.
3. Bang for your Buck 5/5 - If you need to save some money, this is the place to eat. 6000 won will get you a great meal that you'll be lucky to have enough room to finish. Take the rest home for leftovers and you've got something that microwaves really, really well. Two meals for 6000 won? Now that's a great deal.

Check out our video review for more details. We place the restaurant in context via landmarks. It's really close to Don Day Restaurant, which we reviewed last week. As well, you'll get to see what the food and the restaurant look like. Click the picture above for the video, or click here for our video review of Bucheon's Dubu House Restaurant. YouTube users, here's your video.

How to Use Korean Washing Machines

This is for all the expats living in Korea and trying to operate their Korean washing machines. We translated the buttons and we explained how to operate our washing machine in this video. No more shrunken sweaters! No more accidental pink shirts! We also drop some important hints on how to have soft and manageable hair...I mean....clothing. Really, here in Korea, you have to use fabric softener. For our first month here in Bucheon we didn't use any, and our clothes and towels often had a funky smell to them, regardless of how much detergent we put in the machine. Fabric softener is the key. It's optional in Canada, but absolutely necessary here.

Check out the translations below or click the picture above to learn How To Use Korean Washing Machines. Click here for the YouTube version.

The main operations:
표준 NORMAL WASH
합성 We don't know what this means...help!
란제리 DELICATE
울 WOOL
손세탁 HAND WASH
헹굼 + 탈수 RINSE AND DRY

Self Timer:
배수 WATER SUPPLY (?)
예약 Make a RESERVATION (SLEEP TIMER)
예비세탁 SET TIMER
시간단축 REDUCE TIME and also STOP/ START

Extra cycles:
헹굼 RINSE
헹굼추가 ADD FABRIC SOFTENER AND RINSE
탈수안함 NO SPIN AND DRY
탈수 DRY
배수안함 NO WATER

Adjustments:
구김방 PREVENT WRINKLING
세탁온도 CHANGE TEMPERATURE OF THE WATER
배수안 함 WATER SUPPLY (we don't know what this means)
강 중 약 HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW

General Buttons:
동작/일시정지 PAUSE
버튼 잠김 PRESS DESIRED BUTTON
문 잠김 CLOSE LID
추기석택 ADDITIONAL SELECTION

Bucheon Aiins World Acrobats

To begin with, we have to make a quick apology to people who comment on our site: due to some spammers, we had to close off anonymous comment posting. We had to delete around 20 messages in one hour, so comments are only open to people with Google IDs now. Again, sorry.

Anyhow, on with this post: when we were walking through Aiins World in Bucheon we stumbled upon an acrobatics show. We were impressed by how strong the acrobats were, sure, but we were a little put off as well. First of all, within the span of fifteen minutes we saw three or four jokes where one acrobat would pretend to lose his step and get hit in the groin. What was more odd was how small child volunteers were used as props. Maybe it's our parental instincts hitting in, but we were pretty worried for them. As you'll see in this video, it looks like the girl was crying on stage. That kind of put us off the show, so we left soon afterwards. Check the video out and tell us what you think. Click the picture above for the video, or click here to see Bucheon's Aiins World Acrobats. Click here for the YouTube version.

Korean Toilet Seat Packaging

This is something we found highly amusing. We were looking for a new toilet seat because our current one is broken. When you sit on it you have to be very careful, or it might slide and dump you in the toilet. Anyhow, we were in Emart looking for replacement seats and found some very amusing ones. You can get yourself a fancy sparkling seat, or a polka dotted seat, or a seat with something written on it if you'd like. We singled this one out, not because of the seat, but because of its packaging, which we found too hilarious not to capture on tape. Click the picture above for the movie, or click here for our video on Korean Toilet Seat Packaging. (And, due to popular demand, we're making our videos available on YouTube as well, so click here for the YouTube version)

Bucheon's Don Day Restaurant

From now on we are going to try to properly review some of the restaurants we eat at, so that - when you're here in Bucheon - you can have an idea of where's a good place to eat and what you can find there. We're also putting in a tab in our movie section for Restaurant Reviews, so you can check there for future reference. Today comes our first installment of "맛있은-Delicious", Eatyourkimchi.com's Restaurant Reviews!

The first restaurant we're going to review is Bucheon's Don Day Restaurant. It's a pretty good Sam Gyap Sal place with cheap prices and good food. The different flavors of Sam Gyap Sal is what really makes this place stand apart; the Go-Chu-Jang marinade gives the meat a sweet and spicy taste that we've never had before, but absolutely love. As well, the restaurant is constantly packed, so that makes us feel comfortable if we know that Koreans approve of their food, since our standards as non-Koreans might be much lower.

We broke down our review into three categories and rated them on a scale of 1-5:
1. Taste - Because that matters a lot, of course.
2. Side Dishes - We think this is important, because free side dishes to compliment your food is what makes Korean food distinctly Korean. Good luck getting free side dishes in a Canadian restaurant.
3. Bang for your Buck - Overall, how much are you getting for your money?

As for Don Day Restaurant, here's our final review:

1. Taste 4/5 - The marinades make this some of the tastiest Sam Gyap Sal we've ever had. It's fantastic!
2. Side Dishes 1/5 - We're a little disappointed in the lack of extras. There's one Sam Gyap Sal place we go to that gives us free soups. Here, you have to pay extra for them
3. Bang for your Buck 4/5 - This place is great because it's meant to fill you up for cheap, and that's just what it does. 9,000 won will feed two people, and that's a price point that's hard to beat.

Check out our video review for more details; you'll see what the restaurant looks like, where it's located by landmarks, and what the food looks like as well. So click on the picture above, or just click here for our video review of Bucheon's Don Day Restaurant. If you prefer using YouTube (as some of you have mentioned), check out our YouTube version instead. We'll start posting links for both High Quality and YouTube videos as soon as we figure out how to do so smoothly.

How to Get Korean Home Delivery

Korean Home Delivery is a thing of pure beauty. The food is the same price as it would be in the restaurant, the appetizers come for free, you don't have to tip the delivery person (or at least that's what we're told), and - here's the clincher - when you're finished eating you leave your dirty dishes outside your door and the delivery guy will come back to pick them up! We always wanted to try this home delivery service, but were too scared, because our Korean was so shoddy. We finally thought that we had enough Korean on us to try ordering, so two days ago we finally did. We made a video of the whole ordeal and, even though it didn't work as smoothly as expected, it still worked. You'll be amazed when you see what it looks like. Altogether, ordering food for the both of us cost only 9000 won altogether, which is roughly NINE BUCKS. There are many reasons to love Korea, and this is definitely one of them. If you want to know how to order home delivery here in Korea (especially in Bucheon), then click on the picture above to see the video, or click here to see our Korean Home Delivery video. It's not perfect, but you'll get the idea.

Oh, and by the way, the place we ordered from wasn't very good, so if you're in Bucheon don't order from "Ee Moo Noy" - or at least that's how we think it's pronounced. The food was pretty bland and disappointing, and we wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if we weren't as exhilarated from our success.