KOREAN CELEBRITIES

   

    Hello everyone! 

 Korean Pop is very big and favored Music Industry, which is well-known as a unique Korean feature that makes Korean stars like an idols for the people and especially for youth. Korean celebrities from the popular K-pop songs, Korean dramas are getting more and more fans all around the world. Thousands of young people know majority of K-pop stars and follow their fashion, trends and so on, however not many people know about the Korean celebrities in different fields such as sports. So today I'm going to talk about the Korean Women Sports Celebrities. The first star in my list is Yuna Kim.

"Yuna Kim - is the first female skater to win the Olympic Games, the World Championships, the Four Continents Championships and the Grand Prix Final. She is one of the most highly recognized athletes and media figures in South Korea."[1]

  By the age of 24, Yuna Kim already has achieved the figure skating world records building remarkable reputation. "She is the 2010 Olympic champion and 2014 silver medalist in ladies' singles; the 2009, 2013 World champion; the 2009 Four Continents champion; a three-time (2006–2007, 2007–2008, 2009–2010) Grand Prix Final champion; the 2006 World Junior champion; the 2005 Junior Grand Prix Final champion; and a six-time (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2013, 2014) South Korean International champion."[2]

 The next sports star is the Jang Mi-ran, a female South Korean weightlifter. 

Jang Mi-ran

"She competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics, and won the silver medal in the over 75 kg competition, with a total of 302.5 kg. At the 2008 Summer Olympics she won the gold medal in the +75 kg category. She won the gold medal in over 75-kilogram division at 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. " [3]

           The was a breaking news named North Korean "Defector Girl Boxer" fights for the south. This title is about Choi Hyun-Mi, a "South Korean female boxerfighting in the Super featherweight division, and a World Boxing Association champion."[4] She is originally from North Korea, she escaped with her family and landed in South Korea, by what she got the nickname “Defector Girl Boxer.”

Choi Hyun-Mi

                The last star in my list is the Pak Se-ri, a South Korean professional golfer on the LPGA Tour. At just 20 years of age, she became the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Women's Open. About.com writes that "Pak won a 20-hole playoff for that victory, making that tournament - at 92 holes in length - the longest tournament ever in women's professional golf."[5] By the astounding achievements in Golf sports she became an inspiration for many women to start a career as a golfer. 

Pak Se-ri

       By the examples that i brought in this blog I wanted to demonstrate the Korean stars in different fields of sports. Each celebrity out of four is the professional in her area and has own unique characteristics. And I think even though they are not very popular like modern K-pop stars they are still the pride of South Korea. 

                                                    [1] : International Figure Skating Magazine. December 2007

[2] : wikipedia.org site.

[3] : International Weightlifting Federation.

[4] : New York Times.

[5] : About.com- Se-ri Park

                           

                   Making Different Appearance

Hello everyone! Today I am going to talk about the plastic surgery by describing the special case of plastic surgery. You might see that Western countries have a strong power in media, entertaining, social cites all around the world provoking not only brand new fashion but also some sort of beauty standards.

 In other words we can feel that Western countries have an impact on the Asian perception of good-looking appearance, like shown in the picture below.

And also it is not a news that many Asian people make plastic surgery on the nose, cheekbones and especially eyes to look like Westerners. For instance, one Korean girl Hong Yuh Reum, who is a big fan of Australian model Miranda Kerr known as one of the Victoria’s Secret Angels. Hong Yuh Reum went thought all the plastic surgery procedures to look like her idol.

Hong Yuh Reum-left, Miranda Kerr-right side

Nowadays this is not surprising fact anymore since many Asian females dream about looking like famous stars. However there is a unique case where the process goes inversely when Western person underwent ten plastic surgeries for getting Asian appearance. This is the case I want to deeply discuss in here.

The 25-years old Brazilian man, Xiahn Nishi, from Novo Hamburgo city in southern Brazil was an exchange student at Dongseo University in South Korea. According to the press news about spotlighted guy, he is the Korean pop lover, who wanted to look like Korean, like K-pop star.

All in all, Xiahn appears to be satisfied with the results of his surgeries. His final thought: “I have no regrets, and I don’t intend to have any more procedures.”

Xiahn seems very satisfied with plastic surgery and new appearance, however in my personal opinion I disagree with the process of changing your face to be looking the same with others. I think that all of us were created in unique way and how we were born is a natural event. There is no other person who is totally same with me or you all around the world and this is makes us sort of special creatures. There are many factors like competitive society, society acceptance issues, self-dissatisfaction and so on, by which people are influenced undergoing surgical procedures and I think it is the way personal choice to be involved in changing own appearance.

   Differentiation of Local Korean Cuisine to Central Asian Korean Cuisine.

Central Asian Korean Cuisine 

                         Hello everyone and welcome to my blog! 
  Today I want to show either to international and Korean students the Central Asian Korean Food and how it is different from local Korean Food.


 So the firstly I will start from similar types of both Korean food by demonstration few examples of each.

                                            Kimchi

   Korean Traditional Kimchi

            (Local Kimchi)

                         

   

      Central Asian Kimchi

                         Sundae (Korean blood sausage)

"Sundae is a Korean dish made from steaming or boiling either cow’s or pig’s intestine that is stuffed with blood, noodles and various seasonings. "

Sourse: http://www.earthexcursion.com/korean-food-sundae/#sthash.oB0vMfk9.dpuf

                                                Kuksi  <--->  Guksu

"Kuksi" is the most popular Korean food in Central Asia and Russia as well, which serves cold and especially good during hot summer. Kuksi consist of three main ingredients: 1. Noodles, 2. Kuksi Chumi (top ingredients), 3. Kuksi muri (liquid).

"Guksu" means noodles or noodle dishes in Korea

Pigodi  <---> Mandoo

"Pigodi" is Central Asian Korean traditional dish which is sort of dumplings. Made from steamed yeast dough with fried meat, cabbage (usually) inside. Serves with soy sauce.

 1st image: not steamed yet

 2nd image: already cooked

"Kamdi Pigodi" is one type of the Pigodi. The dough of Kamdi Pigodi are made from starch. 

"Mandoo" is a Korean dumpling consisting of minced meat and vegetables wrapped in a thin piece of dough. Popular meat fillings include shrimp, ground beef, pork or fish. And popular vegetables ingredients can include bean sprouts, green onions, shredded kimchi and much more.

Sourse:

 http://www.trifood.com/mandoo.asp

Rice Cakes

(Central Asian Korean)

      "Chimpeni" is the sweet and soft rice pancake.

  "Chartagi" is a squared rice cakes in the sweet red bean crumbs.

"Kadyuri" is a big thin fried rice cake with honey syrup and some seeds on top.

(Local Korean)

 Rice cake, called tteok (duk) in Korean, is a much-loved traditional dish with many many variations. No festival day, anniversary, or celebrations is complete without them. They are very chewy, and may be an acquired taste, but once you get hooked you'll crave them all the time.
Source: http://www.maangchi.com/recipes/ricecake

 "Dukboki" Korean dish of cylindrical rice cakes (duk) covered in a thick, spicy sauce is a popular street food in Korea.

Sourse:

http://koreanfood.about.com/od/snacksanddesserts/r/Dukboki.htm

Morkov-cha

"Morkov-cha" is the most well-known Central Asian Korean Dish, which is basically carrot salad with hot, sour and sweet taste at the same time. In Central Asian countries and in Russia this salad is known as "Korean salad".

             

    The North Korea and It's neighbors.

  Hello everyone! As all of you perhaps know, North Korea or Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea is closed country. Frankly saying North Korean government controls all the world information that comes in and sort of filter it, after what there is might be nothing to deliver to all the people. There are many internet sources which claims either true facts and rumors about the real life of South Koreans, many broad debates about right or wrong government policy, many discussions about the reunification of North and South Koreas. However in my blog I would like to share with you some statistics about North Korean refugees in the neighbor countries. 

I was inspired by the weekly reading material from the "Understanding Korea" course about two Koreas. Through the learning material I started to search more and more and I could not pass by the such pathetical topic. Statistics is the best way to briefly and at the same time consummate demonstration of what I have searched about.

Thus here is some statistics of North Korean Defectors in China:

According to North Korea Statistics, there are 300,000 North Korean refugees hiding in China now. Besides 80 percent of refugees is women. However their situation is on the edge of abyss since CHINA’S FORCED REPATRIATION OF NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES INCURS UNITED NATIONS CENSURE.

North Korean refugees In Russia: 

Experts estimated in the mid-2000s that at least 10,000 North Koreans were arriving every year to work in Russia, which has a 19-kilometer border with their country according to The Moscow Times Journal.

North Korean refugees in South Korea:

Reasons abound, but most sources cite the increasing difficulty in gaining everyday necessities, such as food and housing within North Korea. Official statistics from the South Korean government illustrate the rapid increase in the number of North Korean refugees entering South Korea after 1998, when several years of famine killed thousands, if not millions. 

* Korean News Record

  

Source: North Korean Refugee Foundation

This is not the all list of countries where North Korean defectors were desperated to go. On the photo below you can see some other "shelter" places.

 In all the mentioned countries the refugees have many issues and difficult times. And all of them in the deep parts of their hearts dream about the bright future when they could go to motherland without any fear to be caught and punished for the wish to live by which they were affiliated to escape.