Month: June 2015 (Page 2 of 4)

Korean Tutor

2015/06/17 / Nic / 24 Comments

You know the feeling of being a student again and it’s terrifying??? Traumatic school flashbacks haha.

Since I’m married to a Korean man I’m allowed a free Korean tutor through government services. Unfortunately we had to wait a year or so before one was available for me. Being in the countryside it’s a tutor that comes to people’s houses, which is good for me because I don’t have time to travel to a class twice a week.

Yesterday was the first evaluation to see where my Korean level is. My Korean is very basic and although I can follow some conversations, my speaking level is very low. People mistakenly think that by simply being in Korea that it should be very easy to learn Korean, but it’s not at all. Everyone has different skills and experiences. For example, someone who has already learned another language will likely learn faster, whereas I have never learned another language before. Also whether your relationship developed in English or Korean or a bit of both will affect it. When I first met Hugh, I couldn’t even read Korean.

Another aspect is what language who have to work in, and of course our work is mostly in English. Teachers, full-time bloggers and others working in English environments in Korea have this problem, and it’s a very different experience to someone who is learning Korean in a Korean university for example. What type of work or study you are doing in Korea will really influence the opportunities you have for learning Korean. (Not to mention extra things like dialect!)

Due to time limitations and knowing that I’d be getting a tutor later anyway, my Korean study stalled a lot. But now I’ll be learning Korean in Korean, which the tutor said is the hardest but fastest way. It’s kinda terrifying but I’m really glad as well.

New Nicholalala Webtoon Episode: Garlic

2015/06/17 / Nic / 3 Comments

NEW Nicholalala episode is up!

CLICK HERE TO READ REST OF THE EPISODE!

Thank you everyone for supporting this series. It means a lot to me. Every time you like, comment, share or rate, you really are helping me. Supporting this series means that it can continue AND that we can do amazing things in the future (we got some big plans too!)

If you haven’t give me a rating yet, you can click here and give me a rating.

Check out some other webtoons on LINE Webtoon too, there are some great writers and artists there. And if you want to have your own webtoon published there, head over to the Challenge League and start publishing there – you might be selected to become a featured artist!

STUFF YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT US

2015/06/16 / Nic / 11 Comments

I kinda briefly explain what has been up with my body lately. This is on top of me already having mild Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. There must be something with female bloggers always having health problems (EYK’s Martina with EDS and Grace from Texan in Tokyo has health problems as well). It sucks!

Besides from the sickness update we tell you some more stuff about us!

Kimchi Jjigae

2015/06/15 / Nic / 12 Comments

The thing is, he learned how to make kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew) from me, and I learned from Maangchi!

When we lived in Sydney there were times that we’d eat kimchi jjigae for a week because we were so obsessed with it. We’d get really good quality pork and add in extra stuff. I think the good memories we have for that time make us long for that type of kimchi jjigae too.

My mother in law (and so then my sister-in-law) make a simpler, thinner, healthier kimchi jjigae and cut all the fat off the pork and don’t add any sugar or much sesame oil. While it’s better for us health-wise, we do miss the way we make it. Hugh is going to make it sometime because he is longing for that taste.

Also, because he can make kimchi jjigae well, Hugh is convinced he is a “master chef”, although he can barely make anything else…

LINE FRIENDS CAFE AND STORE (AND WEBTOON)

2015/06/14 / Nic / 7 Comments

We didn’t plan this but we happened to come across the LINE Friends Cafe and Store while in Seoul. It’s sooooo cute! Everything is so cute!

I was particularly excited to see the webtoon merchandise and got The Sound of Your Heart stuff. Webtoons started in Korea, one of the biggest sites being Naver Webtoons. The international site is Line Webtoon, which is what my webtoon Nicholalala is on. It’s so much of an honour to have my webtoon on a site that also has some of the biggest webtoons like The Sound of Your Heart on it.

Address:
535-15, Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
서울특별시 강남구 신사동 535-15

On a side note: you might have noticed a quick shot of a woman with bandages on her face. Hugh edited this video and left that in because this store is located in an area that has the best plastic surgery hospitals and it’s not unusual to see people walking around like that.

Pics from Seoul

2015/06/14 / Nic / 1 Comment

We had a whirlwind trip to Seoul. SBS PopAsia were in town secretly filming stuff so we caught up with them. Hugh went a day before me because I still had some work to do.

Here are the pics that we posted on social media:

Hugh caught up with the JJCC boys:

We met Sam Hammington (Aussie comedian famous in Korea) at his awesome cafe.

All the guys that do stuff on SBS PopAsia: Hugh with Andy (Host) and Prince Mak and Peter who both do radio shows.

SBS PopAsia are based in Australia and are the best digital radio station for Asian pop internationally (and of course if you live in Australia there is the TV show). You can download the app! They call me once a week to chat about Kpop and Korea. You may remember the vlog where we visited them in Australia.