안녕! It’s Ari, your talkative Korean friend and weekend reminder 🎉 Today’s newsletter is about a healthy school meal, the cost of living in Seoul, and a new Korean podcast lesson. Let’s start!
🎧 You can listen to me read on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or others.
Frequent & Healthy School Meal Menu
Every Korean who grew up with school meals has a nostalgic memory of this food: tuna bibimbap. It’s one of the most frequent school meal menus. I remember it was almost always served with gyeranguk, egg soup, just like the pic above 👆 It’s super easy to make. Just mix cooked rice, canned tuna, gochujang-based sauce, and vegetables like chopped lettuce, cabbage, and carrot. It’s healthy with a lot of vegetables and also low-calorie, so the food is loved by people who are on a diet. Watch the cooking video and try it for yourself! It’ll make a great lunch for your lazy weekend.
If you’re a vegetarian, replace tuna with crushed and pan-stirred (without oil) tofu. I often enjoy bibimbap with tofu and I love tofu over tuna. It tastes great!
Cost Of Living In Seoul (2023)
Recently, a tweet about a pizza price went viral. It says, “I saw the price of menus at Pizza School. Why has it become so expensive? I should call it Pizza Law School. WTF.” Pizza School is a pizza chain that is known for affordable prices. But the chain has increased the price of its menus three times in the past year. The most popular and cheapest menu, cheese pizza, went from 6,000 KRW (4.84 USD) to 11,900 KRW (9.6 USD) in a year. Along with pizza prices, the cost of living in my country is skyrocketing. Let me give you some examples.
🚌 Bus & Subway: Seoul city recently announced that it’ll raise the fare of buses and subways starting from April. It’s the first increase in about 8 years. According to the announcement, the subway fare will increase from 1,250 KRW (1.01 USD) to 1,550 KRW (1.25 USD) and the bus fare will increase from 1,200 KRW (0.97 USD) to 1,500 KRW (1.21 USD).
🍛 Lunch: According to Korea Consumer Agency, popular lunch menus had a 13.8% price increase in just a year. Jajangmyeon, one of the cheapest foods, now costs 6,569 KRW or 5.30 USD (13.8% increase) and samgyupsal (200g) costs about 19,000 KRW or 15.34 USD (12% increase).
🪵 Heating bills: The government has increased heating bills four times in the past year. Now, the average heating bill for a single-person studio during the winter costs over 80,000 KRW (64.58 USD) per month, though it largely depends on the person’s lifestyle. My friend who lives in Seoul and in a two-room apartment recently got the bill of about 180 USD. She got very angry and shocked because the bill doubled compared to last year. If you search 가스비 (heating bills) on Twitter, you’ll see the anger and shock of people who recently got the bills.
👖 Jeans: My mom loves jeans. I often go to a local department store to shop her jeans with her. Because I’m her stylist. Last weekend, we visited the store and we were shocked by the increase in price. A pair of jeans at the store we regularly go to usually costed around 130,000 KRW (105 USD), but now it’s around 170,000 KRW (137 USD).
🎧 Seollal Is Just Around The Corner!
Meet my new podcast Korean lesson! From now on, you’ll listen to a Korean news report and learn about expressions in it on Annyeong Ari podcast. It’ll be like listening to a short Korean news with me :D You can download a PDF file including a Korean transcript, its English translation, and study notes for a ☕ price here. By having the transcript and study notes ready before tuning in, it'll make the lesson even more exciting! The first news is about Seollal.
Anchor: South Korea's biggest holiday, Seollal, is just around the corner. Ari Lee, the reporter, will tell you about the holiday.
Reporter: Seollal is the day commemorating the first day of the Chinese lunisolar calendar and one of the biggest holidays in South Korea. People spend time with their families, having delicious food. Children bow to elders and receive 'bow money' along with well-wishing remarks. This year's holiday is short because the weekend is included. The holiday only lasts four days between January 21st, Saturday, and 24th, Tuesday, so many people are disappointed.
One last thing to share is a fun song that Korean elderly women sing together at a singing class. The lyrics are, “Only if I were 10 years younger, only if I were 10 years younger, you would’ve been my man.” Singing classes are very popular among elderly women in the country. No wonder why we have so many noraebangs (karaokes)!
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!
Wow I really like this new format, I learned a lot and am definitely going to use the phrases now! 감사합니다 아리 씨!