The 30K Follower President
And how to say “It’s raining” like a native Korean speaker
안녕! It's Ari, your talkative Korean friend and weekend reminder 🎉 Today’s newsletter is about a simple noodle recipe for the summer, a president who has 30K Twitter followers, and how to describe a rainy day in Korean. Let’s start!
Simple Noodle For Summer
It’s getting hotter in South Korea, with temperatures reaching 33 to 35 C (91 to 95 F). During such hot weather, Koreans often enjoy refreshing cold noodles. Today, I’d like to share one of the cold noodles recipes called “들기름 막국수” or perilla oil makguksu. It’s cold-washed cooked buckwheat noodle seasoned with perilla oil sauce. Perilla oil has a unique nutty aroma and taste, and it’s also rich in omega-3 fatty acids. In Korea, it’s a popular and healthy food ingredient.
Making perilla oil makguksu is incredibly simple, as easy as cooking instant ramyeon. While you can customize the oil sauce as you like just like Jungkook from BTS did, today’s recipe offers the original and simple taste that I bet you’ll love! It’ll be a healthy vegetarian menu for a relaxing weekend. Watch the cooking video above and try it for yourself! 😋
The 30K Follower President
After the recent train crash in India, which claimed the lives of over 270 people 🙏, leaders from around the world expressed their condolences to those affected by the tragedy. However, one particular condolence message seemed to be missing from Indian media coverage—the Twitter post from the South Korean president. A Korean reporter specializing in India reached out to a major Indian newspaper to inquire about this omission and received a surprising, but totally understandable response.
The newspaper explained that they thought the Twitter account of President Yoon Suk Yeol was fake because it had only 30K followers and zero following. Their suspicion was further heightened by the fact that the former president boasted over 2 million followers, they added.
President Yoon is perhaps the most unpopular leader not just on Twitter but also in real life. His recent approval rating is 22%, making him the 22nd out of 22 world leaders, while his disapproval rating stands at 71%. As soon as he got elected last year with a thin margin of 0.7% against his rival candidate who has 770K Twitter followers, his approval ratings have consistently plummeted. This decline even inspired one Korean girl to create a weight loss plan based on the president’s waning popularity, though she quickly abandoned it as she struggled to keep up with his rapid decline.
The president's unpopularity can be attributed to several factors, including the infamous 69-hour workweek policy, the worst trade deficit in history, suppression of critical media, a severe salt shortage, soaring consumer prices, tax cuts for big corporates, among many others.
No major Korean media reported on the incident of the president’s Twitter account being mistaken as fake due to its low follower count by foreign media. This could be either because the president is too unpopular to be covered by the media or it could be that the media avoided reporting on it for fear of being labled as ‘critical’ and facing investigation.
Mini Korean Lesson: Rainy or Teary
As I’m writing this, it’s raining outside, which inspired me to introduce a word for today’s lesson:
주룩주룩 /juruk-juruk/
This word refers to “the sound of continuous dripping or falling of water streams, and/or its appearance.” If you’re learning Korean, you may already be familiar with the abundance of onomatopoeia and mimetic words in the language. These words can evoke a vivid image or sound of what you’re trying to describe. Mastering and incorporating these words into your vocabulary will elevate your Korean language skills to a native level.
“주룩주룩” is often used for describing rainy weather. For example,
밖에 비가 내리고 있다. It’s raining outside.
밖에 비가 주룩주룩 내리고 있다. It’s raining outside.
They both mean the same, but the second sentence provides a more vivid image and sound of the rain. It’s a more descriptive or Korean way of saying “It’s raining outside.”
Since “주룩주룩” is about water streams, it’s also used for describing tears. There’s a popular song titled, “눈물이 주룩주룩” which means “Tears are falling.” 😭 The song is about the feeling of sadness following a breakup. “눈물이 주룩주룩” is also a popular meme among fans who are captivated by their stars’ impossible beauty or adorable charm.
One last thing I’d like to share is a fun tweet 👆 about Korean apartment names that went extreme. Two newsletters ago, I talked about how Korean apartment names are a strange mix of European languages like Latin or French. Now they have taken it to another level, with names that sound like actual magic spells. A Twitter user made a meme featuring Voldemort and Harry Potter screaming out brand-new Korean apartment names which are “Prugio La Vie En Haute!” and “Lecento Desian!” 🪄
Thanks for reading! If you liked my newsletter, like 👇, leave a comment, share, or make a donation to support me ❤️🔥. It’ll mean a lot to me! I’ll be back next week. 안녕!
Koreans are really creative for using these names in apartments lol also thanks a lot, Ari, for the interesting and fun lesson! ^^
I also liked the stuff about apartment names. I remembered a building when I lived in Korea that I think said "Doosan We've" that I found funny. I hadn't thought too much about many sounding French or other languages but now that you showed how they could sound like Harry Potter spells it's pretty funny.