Have You Watched K-Fairy Tales?
Like Young Lady And Gentleman
안녕! It’s Ari, your talkative Korean friend and weekend reminder 🎉 Today’s newsletter is about a food for your weekend brunch, K-Fairy tales, price of cup noodles, and more. Let’s start!
🎧 You can listen to me read on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or others.
🥓 Bacon Kimbap For Your Weekend Brunch
When you want to cook kimbap but you don’t have kim (dried seaweed) and vegetables in your refrigerator, you still can make kimbap with rice, ham, egg, cheese, and bacon. Normal kimbaps are rolled with kim but this bacon kimbap is rolled with bacon and egg. It also replaces many vegetables (that are in normal kimbaps) with cheese and ham. You might think, “If there’s no kim, it’s not kimbap!” But kimbap is so versatile that you can just add anything you want. It’ll make a perfect weekend brunch!
A small bowl of salad as a side dish is highly recommended 😋
🧚♀️ Have You Watched K-Fairy Tales?
According to Global Top 10 TV Shows on Netflix on September 20th, Young Lady And Gentleman, a romance K-Drama was ranked No.6. The series is a big-hit weekend drama from KBS, the national broadcaster of the country. KBS weekend dramas have a long history and most of them have almost the same plot of a romance between a rich guy and a poor girl with comical and heartwarming family stories. Young Lady And Gentleman is a textbook weekend drama with the same old plot. The series has unrealistic and nonsense settings just like other weekend dramas, such as a character losing memory and then miraculously recovering 😅 or a poor girl finding out she’s actually from a rich family. Unlike global-hit K-Dramas like Squid Game and Extraordinary Attorney Woo which portrays the harsh reality, this series is more like a fairy tale which is far from reality and always ends happily ever after. Here are my two K-Fairy tale recommendations,
My Golden Life (2017) 👉 One of the best weekend dramas with great plots and actors like Shin Hye-sun. Available on Viki and YouTube.
Homemade Love Story (2020) 👉 Another great weekend drama. Romance & family & some mystery. Available on Viki.
Highly recommended when you need a break from reality
🍜 1,150 KRW Small Cup Noodles
Inflation is hitting everywhere and South Korea is no exception. Recently, a pic of price tags of small cup noodles in a convenience store ☝️ went viral. According to the pic, they cost 1,150 KRW. It’s about 25% increase and it’s the first time that small cup noodles cost over 1,000 KRW. Vegetable prices are at its peak. A zucchini used to cost about 800 KRW, but now it costs around 3,000 KRW. A cabbage went from 5,000 KRW to 15,000 KRW 😱 It’s worrying many Koreans since kimchi making season is coming around and cabbages are an essential ingredient of kimchi. Lunch prices went up too. Average lunch cost used to be around 8,000 KRW but now it’s over 10,000 KRW. Since cost of eating is going up too much, “zero spending challenge” is trending in the country. It’s about spending as less or zero as possible. Challengers ride a bicycle to go to work rather than taking a bus and prepare a lunchbox instead of eating out.
Learn Korean With Ari
Today’s mini Korean lesson is inspired by a viral DM conversation between Adam Levine, a member of Maroon 5, and an Instagram model. He denied an affair allegation. And sorry for being inspired by a strange thing; In the conversation, he says, “You are 50 times hotter in person.” Let’s learn how to say someone is “-er in person” with following examples,
송강오빠 실물이 더 잘생겼어요. Song Kang oppa is more handsome in person.
지수 실물이 더 예뻐요. Ji-soo is prettier in person.
Today’s keyword is 실물 meaning “a person’s real face or a person’s face seen in person.” Koreans very often use this word when talking about a celebrity’s or anyone’s face seen in person. And if you want to add “N times” like the DM, use the word, 배 meaning “times” like the followings,
송강오빠 실물이 100배 더 잘생겼어요. Song Kang oppa is 100 times more handsome in person.
지수 실물이 500배 더 예뻐요. Ji-soo is 500 times prettier in person.
Assignment (Level: 🍰🍰🍰)
Have you ever seen a celebrity in person? If you have, tell me, in one sentence, how he/she looks in person using expressions we learned today. Submit your assignment via voicemail or comments. Due by 4 pm Wednesday, September 28th ET. Correct answers will be announced & shared on the next podcast episode!
Last thing I want to share is a viral clip of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol that I didn’t vote for. He was caught on a hot mic insulting US Congress and US President just after meeting with Joe Biden at the Global Fund’s Seventh Replenishment Conference in New York City. He apparently used vulgar words like 새끼들 (f***ers) and 쪽팔리다 (to lose damn face). A new low for the 19%-approval-rating president 😩
Thanks for reading! If you liked my newsletter, share with your friends or leave a tip to support my work ☝💖 It’ll be very much appreciated! See you next week. 안녕!
I love that you mentioned Song Kang in your Korean lesson. He's a handsome fella for sure -- loved him in 'Forecasting Love and Weather'.