안녕! It’s Ari, your talkative Korean friend and weekend reminder 🎉 This is the first edition of Annyeong Ari, formerly known as The Legit Korean. Nothing much different than before other than the new name and a few small layout changes. Hope you like reading my newsletter as much as I always love researching what to talk about and trying my best to write in English, my second favorite language in the world. Big thanks for being my subscriber/friend ❤ Let’s start!
🎧 You can listen to me read and chat on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or others.
Tomato Sauce Tteokbokki
Starting my newly-named newsletter with a super-easy-to-make Korean food 😋 I already introduced various kinds of tteokbokki recipes in the past including aglio e olio and rose tteokbokki. But we can’t get enough of tteokbokki so I got another one for you. It’s tteobokki with tomato sauce, the one you use when making tomato pasta. Just cook ordinary tteokbokki but add some tomato sauce and sausage. That’s it! Adding tomato sauce makes the food easy to digest. Actually it’s how Korean schools make tteokbokki for lunch. Korean kids love ttoekbokki with tomato sauce or ketchup since it’s not too spicy to eat. If you’ve been afraid of eating this popular Korean food because it’s too spicy, watch the above cooking video to try this less-spicy-and-yummy tteokbokki!
Pro tip: Add mozzarella cheese at the end and thank me later 🧀
New Reality Dating Show
New kind of reality dating show has just begun and it’s a hot potato on Korean Internet. 남의 연애 which means both “Men’s romance” and “Others’ romance” is the first-ever Korean gay reality dating show. The show aired its first episode revealing 6 good-looking participants of the show ☝ They’re placed together in a house for 8 days to find a partner. In the house, there are three rooms which are for 3 people with two beds 🫣, for 2 people, and for 1 person. Participants can change their roommates 3 times during the stay. I haven’t watched the show yet, I only watched short clips. Actually, I’m terrible at watching a reality dating show because it always makes me cringe. This show was no different; I couldn’t even finish a 7-min highlight video. Anyway, while some already began to ship couples in the show, others are worried about the show’s bad? influence on kids. I saw worried comments saying the show could turn kids into gays;; because of good-looking participants of the show?? not sure if it’s a compliment or criticism The show is available on Wavve.
Recently, Seoul celebrated the first Pride parade in 3 years 🏳️🌈
A Mayor And Free School Lunch
As of 2022, all public and private schools in Korea offer free lunch ☝ to students. But there’s no free lunch for free school lunch. Hope it made sense It took over 10 years and one dedicated mayor for this. In 2010, Seoul City Council passed a bill of offering free lunch to students in Seoul. Oh Se-hoon was the mayor of Seoul at the time. He publicly objected to the bill saying it’s populism. Free school lunch will “create indiscriminate inequality and lead to collapse of public finance,” he said. He even risked his job to abolish the bill. After he announced holing a referendum regarding the bill in 2011, he cried and knelt his knees in front of reporters saying he will resign as the mayor if the vote rate is under 33.3% regardless of the result. The vote rate was 25.7% (because it was so low the result was not announced) and he resigned. He got really famous for this event. He got ridiculed for risking a Seoul mayor job not to give children free lunch. His very public sacrifice? helped free school lunch become a nationwide issue and eventually, after 10 years, all students have free lunch 😋
People say time heals all wounds. Can you guess who’s the current mayor of Seoul that got elected last month? (This is Korea)
Wrapping up
Following line is a scary story that is popular here in Korea.
너희들 그 괴담 몰라? 거지같이 입고 다니면 전 남친이나 썸남, 첫사랑하고 반드시 마주친대잖아. “Don’t you guys know that scary story? It’s said that you must come across your ex-boyfriend, date, or your first love when you’re poorly dressed.” (from Yumi’s Cell season 2)
전 남친 Ex-boyfriend (acronym of 전 남자친구)
썸남 N. Date (a man with whom one has a romantic engagement)
첫사랑 First love
괴담 Scary story
거지같이 입다 V. To dress poorly (Slang)
👄 Practice speaking the line on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or others. Don’t forget to record your voice and send me your voice message 👇 If you send it by 4 pm Wednesday, July 27th ET, your voice will be on the next podcast episode!
Before you go, if you feel like picking up some Korean swear words 🤬, watch a scene from Yumi’s Cell season 2 below.
Thanks for reading! If you liked my newsletter, ❤, share, or leave a comment. See you next week! 안녕 👋