While the world maybe fixated with places like Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto, one of my favourite places in Japan is Fukuoka. As a teacher in Korea, this was the city we used all travel to when we needed to renew our visas. That was until they changed the rule and forced everyone to get it done in their own country before coming to Korea. Those yearly trips had quite an effect on me. It was where I learned the ropes of photography with my late friend and mentor Dave Harvey and where I appreciated the different aspects of the Japanese culture in contrast to my 2nd home, Korea.

A question you might come across a lot when conversing with Koreans is which countries you have been to before. For that reason, and many others, learning country names in Korean is another great addition to your vocabulary!

In today’s lesson we’ll learn how to say ‘Japan’ in Korean. After all, it’s the country neighboring Korea, and you’re likely to visit it a few times while staying in Korea if you like to travel. Not only that, it’s a good word to know when making friends from other countries in Korea or when you’re discussing the different languages in the world. Let’s get learning!

*Ready to learn Korean yet? Click here to learn about our 90 Day Korean learning program!

Thanks for joining me!

Ouch! You cut your finger while chopping onions. Ouch! You hit your toe on the bathroom door. Ouch! You bump into someone’s heavy bag on the street.

These are all incidences you may come across in your daily life and often when they happen, you can’t help but involuntarily exclaim “Ouch!” to the sting of pain.

So wouldn’t it be fun to add to your Korean vocabulary with the knowledge of how to say ‘ouch’ in Korean? Your Korean friends would surely be impressed to hear you say ‘ouch!’ in Korean next time you hit your hip on the table! So this is what will be covered in today’s lesson!

*Ready to learn Korean yet? Click here to learn about our 90 Day Korean learning program!

It has been an inexcusably long time since I’ve made a post, but I do have a few excuses. One of them I will get into in more detail soon, but the reason why I’m suddenly posting again today is because today is the final deadline of a book I’ve been translating over the past six months, in addition to all my other work. That means I finally have some free time again. Well, I don’t really, but I’m giving myself a week off before I get fully stuck in to my next project, which should be appearing here soon.

Of course, part of the issue with being busy is not really having time to write and edit photos, but my schedule’s been so out of control for the past few months that I’ve not even really had time to do things like stop by a café for a pastry and a coffee. Hopefully, that will change soon, because there are so many great places to do that in Seoul now, and one of my favorites is Mr. Peyton, in Hannam-dong.