YeinJee's Asian Journal » Korean Culture and Traditions

Chuseok 2009 special – Korean celebs in Hanbok

Yein Jee — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:43:12 +0000

Korean celebrities don in traditional Hanbok to greet the fans on Chuseok, Korean harvest festival. Some pretty women, a few hunks and a little kid in beautiful costumes; can’t remember everyone’s name regrettably…

FT Island

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Chuseok 2009 special – Korean celebs in Hanbok from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Korean police and super cars

Yein Jee — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:30:50 +0000

Can’t afford a Lamborghini, or Ferrari, or Porsche? Try being a cop in South Korea instead… [via Cutkillavince [Fr]]

Korean police and super cars from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Top Spice Korean Restaurant, Puchong, Selangor

Yein Jee — Sat, 02 May 2009 06:08:30 +0000

Bumped into this Korean restaurant last week by chance; was settling some stuff at a nearby bank and the restaurant was just a block away.

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Top Spice Korean Restaurant, Puchong, Selangor from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Seollal – Korean New Year

Yein Jee — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:00:24 +0000

Seollal (설날), or Korean New Year, is the first day of the Lunar Calendar and one of the two most important traditional Korean holidays (the other is Chuseok).

Koreans in traditional Hanbok to celebrate Seollal (Image via Korea.net)

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Seollal – Korean New Year from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Ice fishing at Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival

Yein Jee — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 09:53:49 +0000

Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival is an annual winter festival in Hwacheon county, South Korea, which attracts over a million visitors each year.

The 7th edition of the festival is held on January 10-19 in 2009; as usual the highlight of the festival is ice fishing for Sancheoneo (cherry salmon), a mountain trout species found primarily in north-eastern Asia.

Besides fishing, the frozen Hwacheongang River also plays host to ice/snow sledding, snow castle/sculpture, bobsleigh, ice tubing, ice soccer, ice skating and other winter recreation activities [Sancheoneo Festival's official website]

Ice fishing at Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival from YeinJee's Asian Journal

South Korean’s college admission test

Yein Jee — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:45:30 +0000

~590,000 Korean students took their College Scholastic Ability Test (수능 – Suneung) on Thursday (Nov 13)… a day where the students had to endure a gruelling nine-hour tests that would significantly influence their future career prospect.

It’s a day where stock market and offices were opened an hour late to ease the morning traffic; where flights had to be rescheduled during the listening test to avoid the slightest disturbance… and it’s a day where temples and churches were packed with parents praying for good performances from their kids.

Parents praying for their kids in a Seoul temple; and students cheering for their seniors
to do well in the exam (Image from Xinhuanet)

The CSAT would determine which university/college the Korean students would be enrolled to… and the reputation of the universities will make a huge impact on their career path. A student who gets into a top university is almost guaranteed a bright future in their working career.

The larger-than-life exam culture is not entirely unique to Korea; most of the East Asian countries are adopting similar ideology, presumably originated from the Chinese civil servants’ exam in ancient Chinese dynasty some thousand of years ago. The Koreans however seem to be taking the whole idea to its extremity.

Many quarters have criticised that the high pressure of preparing for the CSAT attributes to the high suicide rates of Korean teenagers; while some others are criticising that the system are undermining the students’ creativity and other talents by overemphasising the exam results.

South Korean’s college admission test from YeinJee's Asian Journal