A Brief Introduction to 한글

     One of the first things that any traveler will notice when he/she goes abroad is the language difference. And nothing screams as mightily at you that your not at home anymore as the signage you see as you creep across the landscape. This is especially true in Asia where, unless you've had any schooling in such things, as soon as you step out of the airport, you become illiterate--something which is both exciting and rather disabling at the same time.
     Hangul, as you might know, is the writing system of Korea and Koreans are quite proud of it. I've heard it described as "the most scientific" of all writing systems and I have a book before me in which one German linguist describes it as "the world's greatest writing system". While I don't know about that, I will admit that it is much easier to learn than the Japanese writing system, which actually is made up of three different writing systems: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. In fact, the three writing systems of Japan can all show up in one sentence making any attempt to learn to read over there quite the undertaking. Korea, on the other hand, uses one writing system and one that seems to make sense.
     Hangul's invention is usually credited to King Sejong, although there is some debate as to whether he himself invented it or rather oversaw a group of linguistic scholars who did the work. Either way it was the 1440s and only a handful of high ranking men in Korea could read. The writing system of the day was the Chinese system which used (and still uses) characters that are quite complex and represent symbols instead of sounds. Much of the upper class could read and felt it a privilege and right because of their place on the social ladder.
     But King Sejong came along and decided that his country would be better off if everyone could read. Men, women, children. The privileged, the underprivileged. The old, the young. The tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to be free-or at least yearning to read the sign on the new business down the street. And so the king and his people set about to create a new script which would be easy to learn, easy to remember, and based on some sort of logic. And a few years later, 한글 was born.
     Hangul is a phonetic script meaning the symbols represent sounds. The above mentioned Katakana and Hiragana are both phonetic scripts as are the Cyrillic (used mainly in eastern Europe), Arabic, and Latin scripts--though I imagine there are quite a number of people who would argue against the latter being completely phonetic; compare the different sounds of the "ch" in words like "chair", "chef" and "chord" or consider the same sound being represented by "f" (fig), "ph" (phone) and "gh" (cough) and you can see that our written symbols aren't exactly perfect for representing the sounds we make in English. But Hangul is truly a phonetic language because each symbol has one, and only one, sound, making it rather easy to learn.
     At first glance to us westerners the Korean script looks much like the undecipherable madness that is Kanji. But upon closer examination it is actually nothing like the Chinese system and with a little training is quite easy to learn. It is made up of 14 consonants and 10 vowels, meaning it actually has fewer characters than the 26 that make up the Latin alphabet. But whereas in English we put one letter and then another letter and then another so that each letter essentially stands alone, Hangul combines the characters to form more complex symbols that represent syllables (from here on out I will try to refer to the individual components as characters and the combination of these characters as symbols).

한글

     Take the name of the script, for instance. 한글 is made up of two symbols: 한 (han) and 글 (gul). If you look closely at "han" symbol, you should be able to make out three separate characters:ㅎ, ㅏ, and ㄴ . The first is the "h" sound, the second is the vowel sound "ah" (as in "on"), and the last is the "n". Reading from the top left towards the right and then down, you can now read the symbol. Now look closely at the "gul" symbol, and you'll again see three characters only this time they are stacked one on top of another: ㄱ, ㅡ, and ㄹ. Here we have, in order, the "g" (hard "g" as in "girl"), the "u" (as in "bull" or very close to it), and the "l". Now you just put this all together and read ㅎㅏㄴㄱㅡㄹ or  한글. See? No problem.
     The basic rule for pronouncing the symbols is left to right, top to bottom and how the symbol is written depends on the vowel. The other rule is that vowels characters can't come first (or stand alone) and, just as in English, only one vowel per syllable is allowed (and before you tell me that a one-syllable word like "book" has two vowels, pronounce it and rethink your stance on the issue).
     Since you're already familiar with a few characters, let's take three from above: the consonant ㅎ and the two vowels ㅏ and ㅡ. From these three characters we can make two symbols: the left to right 하 and the top to bottom 흐 (I'll let you read back and figure out what sounds they represent or you can look at the chart below). It's the vowel in each of these symbols that decides whether the ㅎ will come to the left of it or on top of it. Look at the chart below and you'll notice that there are five vowels that force the consonants to come to their left, and five others that force the consonants to hover above them.

The basic chart. It does get a bit more complicated than this.

     Like the chart shows, a Hangul symbol can be made up of just two characters, but many of them are made up of three or even four (although the syllables with four will have just three sounds with one of the bottom two symbols being silent). The chart doesn't show three or four character symbols so just for fun: two characters, 다; three characters,달 ; four characters, 닭. The first is pronounced "dah", although in Korean the "d" and the "t" are basically interchangeable--say them both in succession and you'll notice that the only difference is that you engage your vocal cords for one and not the other--so to some it might be more of a "tah". The second is pronounced "dal" and the third is "dak" and not "dalk" because the "l" is silent.
     There are also double consonants and consonants with a little extra line. For example take the basicㄱ and double it, ㄲ, or give it the extra line,ㅋ, and the quality will change slightly. Hearing the difference between, say,  가 까 카 is quite difficult (oh, and look up at the chart and check out the slight difference in the way the "k" is written when it comes to the left of the vowel or above the vowel). The best way I can approximate the spellings of these symbols would be "ka" "ga" and "kka" respectively. The last one in the trio is an aspirated "k". Aspiration is when there is a little explosion of air leaving your mouth as you say it--say "cat" and "back" and you should notice that the "k" in "cat" is aspirated while it isn't in "back" (if you speak naturally and don't force it). I have trouble hearing the difference between these sounds unless I'm listening for it--and even then it isn't easy--but I've been informed that Koreans also have trouble with this and rely more on context to understand what's being said rather than sound.
     In addition to having two or three consonant characters in a symbol, there can also be more than one vowel character. When this happens, though, it merely changes the vowel sound and does not give it an extra syllable. For example, 가 "kah" changes to 개 "kae" (the vowel being like the one in  "pet"). The vowel in the latter is theㅏ plus theㅣ. Two other notes about vowels are that most of the them have a "y" counterpart (you can see this on the chart) so that ㅏ "ah" can becomeㅑ "yah". Also, there are what I call the "w" vowels. These are formed by combining either ㅗ or ㅜ with one of the vertical vowels--i.e. ㅘ "wa" and ㅝ "wo"--but there are only certain combinations that are possible.
   
     Like Ami used to do in America when we were driving around town with all the English, I tend to walk around town or ride the subways trying to read some of the stuff around me. I read very slowly and often make mistakes, but I'm slowly getting better. Of course, it's not enough to just read Hangul as I often sound out a word and then have no idea what the word means, but sometimes I sound out a word and after saying it a few times realize it's English. I laughed at myself the day I slowly read 치킨 as I walked by a mysterious business of some sort. I stared at the sign slowly saying, "cheeeee....ken........cheee...ken, oh! Chicken". Mystery solved.
   

 English words in Hangul

맥    도    날    드
mek   do   nal   du

스    타    벅    스    커    피
su    ta    buk    su    ko    pi

코    카    콜    라
ko    ka    kol    la

The two in red
모    텔
mo   tel

Red sign, left side
바     나     나
ba    na    na

Poof!

     So as I am sure you've heard, North Korea launched the rocket this morning (Korea time). I don't know the exact time it happened, but I imagine I was either getting ready for work or on my way because a few minutes after I arrived, one of the teachers said it had happened.
     Obviously, I switched from getting ready for class to looking for news on the matter and found that the first words about it were that it had failed. At that point there were no details other than that it had gone for a ways and then broke apart. One wonders if 1) the North Koreans will accept this as a catastrophic failure, 2) blame another country (most likely SK or Japan) for shooting the thing down, 3) claim it a success with new satellite in orbit, or 4) react in some other predictably unpredictable North Korean way. Only time will tell.
     It's interesting, though, that NK went through all the trouble of inviting the media in, showing them around a couple days ago, and then not waking them up for the launch. The journalists I've seen (and probably you too) have looked and sounded rather shocked that the thing happened without a word. Maybe the translations were bad, haha. I know what that's like.


Amendment: Wow. Didn't see such quick honesty to its own people coming.
                         

A Tale of Two Countries

     It's election day here in South Korea and everybody gets the day off. Can't complain about that. I think America should adopt this practice. Seems like a perfectly valid excuse for a day off work and a good reason to celebrate our right to choose what we want in our government. Makes more sense than getting a day off for an Italian explorer who sailed across the Atlantic from Spain and thought he landed in India (and, I might add, never set foot in what is now the United States). What a strange reason for a day off that is.
     Anyway, the South Koreans today are voting for 300 seats in the parliament. I can't claim to know much about the way the South Korean government works as I haven't read much about it, but two of my older students explained to me that today they would be voting for members of parliament and that this would decide which of the two major parties would get control of the house (if I understood them correctly). Later this year, in December I believe, South Koreans will go to the polls again to choose a new president.
     Amidst all the voting that is going on today, North Korea is making final preparations with the rocket. It's supposed to take flight sometime in the next few days. As much as I'd like to see the thing fail, I hope it doesn't veer off course and land here in Seoul. That wouldn't be so good. But of course, if it did land here in Seoul, I don't think it would be by accident.
     North Korea has been strangely "open" with this launch, allowing the media to go up there to report what's going on. They've even allowed journalists to film the thing. Of course, none of this has convinced anyone that they are being completely on the up and up about this whole thing. Just this morning I read an article that said the flight path of the rocket and the purported purpose of the satellite don't match up leading the experts to believe that NK is lying about either the direction this thing is headed or the satellite's intended function. Or both, I guess. We'll see.

A League of Their Own

     The 2012 baseball season opened up here in Korea this last weekend and Ami and I went to game two of the series between the Doosan Bears and the Nexen Heroes yesterday. It was a wild one that saw 40 hits and 24 runs in an eight and a half inning game. The defense was a bit shoddy at times and obviously the pitching wasn't quite on, but lots of offense makes for exciting baseball and the crowd was a bit nuts.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Hereos	2	2	1	0	4	0	1	1	0	11	18	1
Bears	0	2	2	1	0	0	3	5	--	13	22	1

     As you can see from the line score, it was a bit of a crazy game. In the middle of the seventh, down by 5, Ami asked me if I wanted to leave (we were about three hours in at that point) and I told her no. An inning and a half later, I turned to her and said, "You see? Never leave a baseball game."

     The game ended up being about four hours fifteen minutes long, but in the end was well worth the time investment. For a while there, I was thinking that the Doosan Bears were the Korean version of the old Bad News Bears--a show I remember enjoying when I was young--but they ended up winning me over with their scrappy play and unwillingness to give up. I do, however, imagine I'm in for a long season with them. Unless they can learn how to play some defense, there's gonna be a few heartbreakers this summer.

     The stadium itself wasn't bad, though it seemed old in comparison to AT&T park, but I guess that's inevitable. It was built for the 1988 summer Olympics, holds just over 30,000, and has a nice big screen tv just behind center field--an obvious upgrade since the Games. Straight down the baselines the wall is at 100m (328ft) and at 125m (410ft) to dead center. The grass on the field could use some work, but as we just finished the cold winter, I can't blame the groundskeepers for neglect. Oh, and beer is just $2.50--gotta love that.

     I've been to numerous ballgames in America and one in Japan and I gotta say that baseball in Korea is a bit different from the perspective of being a fan. In America the crowd is usually a pretty relaxed one with a few cheering loudly, a few more yelling in the tense moments, some joining in when the house p.a. system induces them with clapping or singing activities, and most actually watching the game. In Japan, those in all but the outfield seats cheer when appropriate, yell for their favorite players, and clap along with the p.a. system songs when they play certain little ditties--very similar to their American counterparts. But unlike Americans, those in the outfield--home team fans on one side and visiting team fans on the other--sing songs, chant, play drums and/or trumpets and generally create a rather party-like atmosphere that sounds pretty similar to a European soccer match. Each player has a song and those seated in the outfield sing that song while that player is at bat. The funny thing, to me, is that there seems to be an unofficial agreement that when your team is in the field, you allow the other group to sing and carry on while theirs is at bat. 

     Korea, however, takes the Japanese outfield ruckus mentality and steps it up about five notches--and it's not limited to the outfield. We were sitting on the third base side just past the base and across the aisle to my left and taking up a whole section of seats were Nexen Heroes fans. And stationed just in front of them was a platform, built into the stadium, where the cheerleaders and two large speakers performed during the game. That's right, I said "cheerleaders". 

     In the top half of the innings, when Nexen was batting, one lone male cheerleader would get up on the stage and talk to the audience for about a minute and then lead the crowd in cheer. Some of it was songs with the speakers blaring; some of it was songs they would all sing in unison to the beating of a drum; and some of it was just chants. It was relentlessly continuous for the top half of the innings. And it was loud. There were also four girls, thin and long-legged, that would get up on the stage between innings and at various other points, it seemed, who would dance in that pop-music video fashion--all in unison with legs kicking, hands whirling around, and big smiles flashing between all the hair that was long and flying this way and that. At some point, I asked Ami, whom I knew would have no idea, if the cheerleaders and all that came with them were brought here by the away team. She said, yes, and I imagine she's right. And I then tried to imagine the Dodgers showing up in San Francisco with this entourage in tow and what the home team and fans would do to them. It was a little surreal at that point. 

     As I looked around the stadium, I noticed that on the first base side, the same thing was going on but for the home team. Cheerleaders, music, dancing, chanting. It was all a bit weird. Of course, as this was the Bears' home, the fans that were cheering for them started with us and wrapped all the way around behind home plate and then out to left field. From where we were, the music was almost inaudible, but the fans clapped their air-filled noise makers in unison and chanted and the whole place rocked and I thought, "This would never and could never happen in America". And I'll be honest and say that there were moments I wished they would all shutup so that I could enjoy the game. But there were also moments where I reminded myself where I was and sipped from my $2.50 beer and checked out the legs on the cheerleaders.

Walking across the bridge towards the stadium. The one to the left was a soccer stadium. We are headed to the one on the right.

A look at right field before the game. My apartment lies about a mile behind the red and blue signs.

I might sit in the outfield next time. Might be quieter.

The cheerleaders I mentioned. Strange, aye?

This is the closer for Doosan, Scott Proctor. Used to play in the majors. They also have a starting pitcher, Dustin Nippert. He used to play in the majors as well.

The male cheerleader. There were moments I wanted to shove the whistle down his throat, but I admit he was good at what he was doing and I have to admire his endurance.

Top of the ninth, three outs away from a come behind win. DAAA' BEARS!

                      

The video above shows the Nexen fans with cheerleaders. The one below looks across the stadium to show the majority of Doosan fans. 

                      

Play Ball!

     This year seems a little strange in that the MLB season started in Japan last week with two games between the Oakland As and the Seattle Mariners and then there was another week of spring training. I watched both games on the MLBTV package I ordered. Not that I care about Seattle or Oakland, but as it was real baseball that counted and as they played in the Tokyo Dome (a place I've been to watch a game), I decided to come home from work, fire up the computer, connect it to the tv, open a beer or more, and enjoy. Oh, and by the way, I ordered the MLBTV package for the season with a little help from my wife. I was going back and forth about it, wondering if I should spend the money, when she burst out one evening, "I wanna watch Giants!" And so the next morning, I set it all up. Technology is a wonderful thing.
     The MLB season has officially started, I guess, but the games on American soil get underway tomorrow (or today accounting for the time difference). The Giants' first game is Friday at 7pm est, which makes it 8am Saturday my time, so I might get up for that. But as Ami likes to sleep in and I am sure she'll want to see it and as MLBTV allows me to watch the games whenever I want, I'll probably delay that start a couple hours. But I will definitely be watching.

Let's Go Giants!

     In Korean baseball news....The season starts Saturday and Ami and I have tickets for the Sunday game pitting the Doosan Bears against the Nexon Heroes. I live about a 15-20 minute walk from Jamsil Stadium, which is also home to the LG Twins. I haven't decided which team, Doosan or LG, that I will choose to call my own, but I'm leaning towards Doosan simply so I can say "Daa' Bears!" whenever I talk about them. Depending on how much I enjoy the game and the atmosphere, I might buy season tickets or some kind of multiple game package because Ami and I want to move this October and I imagine this could be the one and only season in my life that I live so close to a pro ball team that I can walk to the stadium, but we'll see. Apparently the crowd at Korean baseball games is a little nuts in that they cheer constantly and have songs and chants and never shutup. That could get a bit annoying if the team is down by six runs and you just want to relax. Oh, and they also have cheerleaders in Korean baseball....a strange concept indeed. But I guess it makes sense when the manager goes to the mound to chat with the pitcher and you don't have to go to the restroom or get another beer. Anyway, we'll see. Time to Play Ball!

Daa' Bears

The Makgeolli Diaries

     If you live in Korea and are a drinker, you will quickly learn that there isn't much in the way of beer or wine here. The beer is disappointing (just weak lagers) and the wine is overpriced; I've seen Yellow Tail, a mediocre wine that you can find in the US for about $6-8 a bottle, for about $20 a bottle here. Instead, the locals tend to drink a lot of soju and makgeolli (pronounced /mah-koh-lee/) and it is the latter that I wish to address here.

     Makgeolli is a fermented rice drink--this is Asia after all--and is 6-8% alcohol by volume, much like a good beer. For some reason, and I think it's ignorance and laziness, all non-distilled Asian alcoholic drinks, or at least all the ones I know of, are always referred to as "rice wine". This name, however, is a misnomer because by definition wine is the fermented juice of a fruit and, as you know, in our everyday vernacular, wine is the fermented juice of grapes. Meanwhile, the definition of beer is any alcoholic drink that comes from fermented grain. This includes barley, wheat, and....rice. Technically speaking then, makgeolli, like Japanese sake, is more beer than it is wine.

Different brands of makgeolli. I have yet to see them all, much less try them all.

    But semantics aside, makgeolli (I've also seen it spelled makkoli) is a fairly simple drink. It's just rice, water, and yeast. And to make it, you basically just let the rice sit in water, add yeast, and a few days later you have the sweet Korean nectar (yes, I oversimplified the process, but not by much). At that point, though, it's about 16% alcohol and for some reason, Koreans water it down to a milder level. If I make it, and I am seriously considering this, I'm going to try it first before the watering down to see what it takes like.
     I first had the drink back in San Jose when Ami mentioned it one day. I think we were talking about soju (the distilled liquor over here) when she asked me if I'd ever had it. Being a guy that thinks no alcoholic beverage should go untried, we took off for the local Korean market and she showed it to me. So I bought a bottle and we went back to her place where I promptly poured myself a glass.
     Now, I should probably qualify this by saying that perhaps no area in the world, and I'm really just guessing here, but it's quite possible that no area in the world has quite the selection of alcohol choices as does California--or maybe I mean most of America. But the beer and wine selection in California is truly awesome. I've been to Japan, England, Holland, France, Panama and now Korea and even Thailand a month ago, and none of these countries even comes close. Well, maybe England did but most pubs that I visited there had about four beers on draft (or draught if you prefer) compared to the usual 6-10 that you find in a modest California pub. I've also visited grocery stores in most of the above mentioned countries and was lucky to find more than, say, five kinds of beer. In Cali, you walk into a grocery store and the decision isn't easy because there are probably 20 kinds of beer. And if you go to BevMo....Well, let's just say that I have easily spent more time there making my beer choice there than I ever have looking for new clothes. What I'm getting at here is that with all the selection that you get in Cali, you end up finding some damn good stuff.
     Which brings me back to my first taste of makgeolli. I have to admit that while it was good, it wasn't like the first taste of Guinness I had when I was about 20, or the first time I had a Lagunitas brew, or the first time I tried an IPA. On those occasions (especially the Guinness experience which I remember quite vividly),  I had one of those moments when you out loud claim a deity as your own and wonder how it is that you've lived without whatever it is you are currently enjoying. No, my first sip of makgeolli wasn't a transcendental experience, but I did finish the bottle thinking that I'd have to try more of the stuff and as many kinds as possible.
     So here I am, in Korea, and surrounded by the stuff. I've had probably about six different brands and basically, they are all the same. They certainly all look the same with an unfiltered whiteness--if you glanced at a glass you could be forgiven for thinking it was milk. But when you drink one next to another, you do indeed taste a difference. Some are sweeter than others. Some have a certain amount of a sour flavor while others have less of it. Some appear to have a little more carbonation than others. But basically, they are all the same. And I'm starting to enjoy them more and more. And at about $1.50 for a 750ml (25oz) bottle, you can have a few without the ol' wife telling you you're spending too much money on alcohol.