Actor Park Yong-ha found dead at home

Actor Park Yong-ha was found dead at his home on Wednesday.

According to the police, his mom found him in his room hanging by the cord of a phone charger.

Park Yong-ha was an actor and singer in South Korea. He was 33 years old. He starred in the drama "Winter Sonata" in 2002.

Uruaguay beats South Korea 2 to 1

Today Uruaguay beat South Korea with a score of 2 to 1 in the first round of the top 16 teams.

I wanted to see them win, but they did a good job to make it to the top 16.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RAIN!

Today is Rain's 28th birthday. He was born on June 25th, 1982. He's 28 in international age. In Korea he is 29 and will be 30 in January.

Today a lot of his fans got together on the web and tried to trend HappyBirthdayRain on Twitter. They sent messages to @29rain (Rain's twitter). There were tons of messages sent to him for his birthday.

생일축하합니다 생일축하합니다 사랑하는 정지훈 생일축하합니다


<--love this picture..his hair is great and I like the glasses!

South Korea vs Nigeria ends in tie

 **I watched the game!! It was the first time I've watched a World Cup match! Soccer isn't that popular in America. My love for soccer began after attending my first FC Seoul game. I love South Korea's passion for soccer!

Around 400,000 fans gathered to cheer in South Korea at 3:30 AM.

Today the game between Nigeria and South Korea ended in a tie. The score was 2-2.

South Korea advances into the top 16! Argentina won Group B and South Korea came in 2nd place.

This is the 2nd time South Korea will enter the top 16. Its the first time on foreign soil. They entered the second round in 2002 during the World Cup in South Korea.

South Korea will play Uruguay at 10:00 AM ET, June 26, 2010 at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

대하민국! 화이팅!

Daniel Henney will join the cast of 도망자

Daniel Henney will be joining the cast of 도망자 (Runaway / Fugitive).

Daniel will play a shipping tycoon who falls in love with Jinny, played by Lee Na-young.
The drama will be filmed in Seoul, Busan, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong. The plot centers around chasing a fugitive.

The drama will air in September on KBS in Korea.

Daniel Henney is a Korean-American actor who has starred in "Seducing Mr. Perfect","Spring Waltz", "My Lovely Sam Soon", "My Father" , "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and "Three Rivers".

Korean Practice

Here's some of my Korean practice. I'm trying to write sentences from my Korean lessons on www.talktomeinkorean.com.

제 취미는 노래하는 것 이에요.=My hobby is singing.

저는 한국어 공부하는 중 이에요=I am studying Korean.

저는 노래를 잘 해요=I can sing well.

저는 요리를 잘 해요=I can cook well.

저는 매운 거 못 먹어요=I can't eat spicy food.

운전 할 수 있어요?= Can you drive?

저는 운전 할 수 있어요.= I can drive.

노래를 할 수 있어요?=Can you sing?

저는 노래를 수 있어요.= I can sing.

중국어 할 수 있어요?= Can you speak Chinese?

중국어 못 해요.=I can't speak Chinese.

Sales of condoms rise as S.Korea celebrates World Cup win (against Greece)

I thought this was funny.

Read about it here: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/sales-of-condoms-rise-as-skorea-celebrates-world-cup-win-2000531.html

Condom sales rose five-fold after South Korea's win over Greece last week.

 Fans who were celebrating bought 5 times more condoms than they did during the 2006 World cup.

Convenience stores and Fried Chicken restaurants also profited from the win.

Argentina beats South Korea 4-1

**I can't believe that I am missing all the excitement. Soccer isn't popular in America so we don't have all these giant "street cheering" events. I wish I could have been in Korea to experience it. South Koreans love soccer! Maybe I'll just have to go back to South Korea in 2014 for the next World Cup. I'm going back to South Korea in 2011 to teach English. Maybe I'll still be there in 2014! Maybe I'll just find a Korean man to marry and move to South Korea.
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Argentina won the first round match against South Korea with a score of 4-1. South Koreans are hopeful that the Korean team can still make it to the second round.

The team has never made it to the round of 16 while playing in a foreign country. They did make it to the semifinals in 2002 when the World cup was held in South Korea.

Nearly 2 million people gathered in various places for "street cheering" wearing red shirts to support the team.

Seoul Plaza is one of the most popular "street cheering" sites. It is estimated that 300,000 people gathered there. 200,000 people gathered at Yeongdong Blvd. Hundreds of thousands gathered at COEX.

Korea plays Nigeria on June 23. This game will determine if they are able to advance to the second round.


This picture was in the Korea Herald. Wow! Look at all those people in the streets!:

South Korean Songs for World Cup

A lot of the K-pop groups made songs and music videos for World Cup.

My favorite is 2AM.

2AM (투에이엠) - No.1 (넘버원) [World Cup Song]


Super Junior (슈퍼주니어) - Victory Korea [World Cup Song]


Big Bang & Kim Yuna - The Shouts Of Red (Part. 2)

Girl Bands to Assist in 'Psychological Warfare'

oh South Korea, what are you doing?
__________________

South Korea's Defense Ministry wants to use songs and music videos by girl bands such as Girl's Generation, Wonder Girls, After School, Kara and 4minute as psychological warfare against North Korea.

They haven't made an official decision yet. They say it will take months to set up screens to use for the psycholocial warfare. The propaganda brodcasts won't only be limited to girl bands.

They are unsure of how effective the girl bands will be.They think the revealing outfits and provocative dance moves could have an effect on North Korean soldiers.

World Cup 2010--Korea beats Greece 2-0

South Korea was the first team to acheive a victory at the World cup in South Africa. They were playing against Greece.

FIFA ranked South Korea 47th in the world while Greece was ranked at number 13.

More than 700,000 people gathered to watch the game at various places in Seoul and other cities in Korea.

Korea beat Greece with a score of 2 to 0.

South Korea plays Argentina on Thursday.

Rain wins his first MTV movie award!

Rain is awesome!!

Tonight Rain, a popular South Korean singer and actor, won his first MTV award! He's the first native Korean to win an MTV award!

I don't normally watch award shows, but I watched just to see if he won! I wanted him to beat all the American actors!

He beat out American actors such as Angelina Jolie, Sam Worthington, Channing Tatum, and Chris Pine.

He won the award for "Biggest Badass" for his role in "Ninja Assassin". "Ninja Assassin" was his first leading role in an American movie.



The ceremony was held in California and aired on MTV at 8pm. It was also aired live in South Korea because he was nominated.

Congrats Rain!축하해 ! 난 니가 자랑스러워 !!


He was so cute and told a joke.

Ninja Assassin trailer:

Extravagant Wedding Customs Are Becoming a National Embarrassment

**I think people spend way too much money on weddings these days. I watch TV shows where people spend over $10,000 just on a dress. I can't see spending that much money on something that only lasts a day. It's an important ceremony, but mine will be done on a budget (IF there ever is one. Doesn't look too favorable right now). I'll be paying for it on my own and there won't be people lining up to give me extravagant cash gifts. .
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Read the article here: http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/11/25/2009112500607.html


Last week the New York Times wrote an article about the Korean tradition of collecting cash gifts at weddings. They described how some families send out a lot of invitations to weddings and guest line up to hand their cash to a cashier. Some invitations include bank account numbers so that guests who are unable to attend can still send in their money.

Korean couples spend an average of $13,000-$17,000 on weddings. If the wedding is held in a hotel it can be around $40,000. The wedding is usually covered by the cash gifts.

Recipients view many invitations like tax bills. When bank numbers are included it sends out the message of "repay us for all the money we have given out".

Rich families fill up expensive venues with wreaths and spend tens of millions of won on banquets to feed lots of guests and on decorations that will be gone by the next day. This tradition has spread through Korean society. Parents send out invitations so their children can collect an amount of money that is equal to their social status. Invitations are even sent to business acquaintances like IOUs.

At some weddings there are only a few people who actually know the couple getting married. Many guests drop off their money and leave.

Recently a high ranking government official tried to set an example by not sending out invitations and declining cash gifts. If the country wants to quit being mocked for this lavish tradition the leading officials must set an example. When smaller weddings become common then the couple can invite only those people who they actually want to be there.

40 people commit suicide every day in South Korea

Read the article here: http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/06/03/2010060301389.html

In 2009, 14,579 people in South Korea committed suicide. That's an average of 40 people a day which is an 18.8% increase from 2008.

The largest group of suicides, 31.6%, were committed by people aged 61 and older due to disease and stress brought on by economic hardship.

19% (2,770) of the suicides were people in their 40's. 16.6% (2,427) were people in their 50's. 17.2% (2,508) were in their 30's. 1,793 were in their 20's. 452 people under 20 killed themselves.

9,395 men and 5,167 women took their lives.

The biggest reason for suicide was mental problems which accounted for 28.3%. The other problems were physical disease (21.9), economic hardship (16.2), domestic conflict (12.6), relationship problems (7.1) and trouble at work (6.6).

Korea has the top suicide rate among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

10 Magazine “Korea Awaits!” Video Contest

10 Magazine is having a video contest to promote tourism to South Korea.

Online voting from June 2nd to June 8th will determine the top 10 videos. The judges will rank the top 10. The winner will be announced on June 12. The winner will receive a trip to Tokyo, Japan.

I've watched all of the videos. There are a lot of good videos. Some look really professional while others aren't. I saw some entries from people I follow on blogger and youtube.

Voting is open to anyone in the world. No registration required. You can vote on the top video on each page. You can also vote for your top 3 videos.

UPDATE: http://www.10mag.com/2010/06/video-winners/

Winning Video:

Foreign tourists offered free bus trips

**I hope this is still in place when I go back in March...I'll use it (if I can). But if I am a registered foreigner, will I be considered a tourist?
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Read the article here: http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20100601000576

A free shuttle bus for foreign tourists will run from Seoul to Gyeongju and Jeonju.
The Visit Korea Committee will run the shuttle bus.The Visit Korea committee is promoting tourism in South Korea from 2010 to 2012. Most tourists come to Seoul, but they want tourists to see other cities also.

The buses will be available at 8 a.m. every day except Mondays. The two buses leave from the Gwanghwamun area in downtown Seoul. Each bus is limited to 28 people The free bus program will leave from Busan also starting in July.
All users must be of non-Korean nationality. Passengers must sign up in advance through the Visit Korea Committee official home page at www.visitkoreayear.com.

The buses will have Internet connection, a DVD system and personal ear phones, and various tourist paraphernalia.

Gyeongju, in the far southeastern corner of North Gyeongsang Province, is celebrated for its rich historical sites going back to the Shilla Kingdom (B.C. 57 to A.D. 935). It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea and is recorded as one of the longest-lasting dynasties in Asian history.

Jeonju, the capital city of North Jeolla Province, is known for its cuisine, particularly teh bibimbap, a dish featuring rice with mixed vegetables and meat. The city also boasts of housing historic architectural sites, ancient relics, and traditional festivals.