안녕! It’s Ari, your talkative Korean friend and weekend reminder 🎉 Today’s newsletter is about a recipe for kimchi and samgyeopsal lovers, what angry Koreans do every Saturday, and my K-Drama recommendations. Let’s start!
Kimchi Samgyeopsal Rice
If you’re a K-food lover, you must’ve tried kimchi fried rice. It’s the most popular and easy-to-make dish made with kimchi and rice. But did you know there’s an another and probably better way to enjoy kimchi and rice? Let me introduce kimchi samgyeopsal (pork belly) rice. How to make is pretty simple. Just stir fry sliced pork belly and kimchi with soy sauce and then add rice and water to boil. When the rice is cooked, it’s done! It’s like paella made with kimchi and pork. If you don’t have pork, you can replace it with bacon or chopped carrot if you’re a vegetarian. Carrot goes very well with kimchi 😉 Don’t forget to treat yourself a good meal during the weekend! Because you deserve it 👍
They Go To Concert Every Saturday
Tens of thousands of Koreans gathered near Samgakji subway station in Seoul last Saturday. It was raining so people wore rain coats and waved candle lightsticks while singing songs ☝ On the stage, college students performed a mini musical. At a glance, it looks like they’re attending a concert and having fun. But actually they’re very angry and sad. If you look at closer, people are holding signs saying “퇴진이 추모다” which can be translated as “Step down so that the souls of Itaewon tragedy victims can rest in peace.” They’re singing a song whose lyrics start with the first line of the Korean Constitution which is “Republic of Korea is a republic of democracy. All authority comes from people.” The mini musical is about criticizing the president. It’s not a concert, but a regular anti-government protest.
As the government is trying to put the blame of the recent Itaewon tragedy on first responders such as firefighters, angry Koreans are taking the streets demanding justice and resignation of high-ranking officials who really are responsible for the tragedy including the president. Anti-government protests have been going on for months now. And the recent tragedy has fueled people’s anger and the protests are getting bigger and bigger with even teenagers joining. But it’s worried that this concert-like peaceful protest might come to an end soon. The government recently announced that the president’s security office will directly control police and army. Many are worried that it’s a sign of possible strong measures against protesters and the return of the era of strongman rule.
My New K-Drama Recommendations
It’s been forever since I last talked about K-Drama 🫠 I’ve been obsessed with Chinese and Thai series so I haven’t watched Korean ones. But recently, two new dramas caught my attention. I want to share them with you :D
🤑 Reborn Rich (Fantasy & Revenge): Its Korean title is 재벌집 막내아들 meaning “the youngest son of a conglomerate.” The series is based off a webtoon of the same name and tells the story of Yoon Hyun-woo, a loyal employee working for Sunyang Group who was betrayed and murdered by a family member of the conglomerate. Yoon later woke up discovering that he has been reincarnated into the youngest son of the conglomerate in 1987, using this circumstances to his advantage, he starts his revenge by plotting to hostile takeover Sunyang Group. The lead character is played by Song Joong Ki, one of the biggest K-Drama stars. His dramas are always great. I really loved Vincenzo😍 Based on the 6-min trailer 👆, I think you can learn about conglomerates and materialism in Korea with this series. It starts tonight (KST) and will be available on Viki.
Recommended for people who loved Penthouse or The Golden Spoon.
🎁 Behind Every Star (Romance & Comedy): Based on the French TV series Call My Agent!, the series depicts lives of agents at a talent management firm who tackle strong personalities and office politics while keeping their celebrity clients happy and helping them shine. The drama is like a Christmas gift for K-Drama and K-Movie lovers with its star-studded cameo lineup. Korean drama & movie fans would see a lot of familiar faces in this series including Parasite star Jo Yeo-jung. You can learn about entertainment industry and office life in Korea with this drama. It started on November 7th and it’s available on Netflix.
The series ends before Christmas so you can wait to binge-watch during the holiday!
One last thing for today’s newsletter is a confession about my upcoming Korean lesson. The biggest reason why it kept getting delayed is because I’m really shy about filming myself 🙃 I have to record short videos of me talking and acting a little; It’s not new for me since I used to do silly things; on my TikTok years ago but now as I got older and I got so used to not showing myself with only writing newsletter and recording podcast I feel so shy 😱 Now I finished writing scripts and everything. I just have to shoot but it’s taking time to get courage. However, I’m confident about my new lesson. I believe it’ll be helpful and fun for Korean learners and myself. I hope I can make some money selling pdfs based on the lessons I just need some time to cope with my insecurity. I know that I’ll be just fine once I just start it. It won’t take long. Thanks for your patience 🙏
As always, thanks for reading! If you liked my newsletter, like, share, or leave a tip 👇 to support my work. It’ll help me a lot to keep creating 😘 See you next week, 안녕!