Korean Lunar New Year is the best holiday, comparable to American Thanksgiving Day

On New Year’s Day, January 1st, as a New Year comes, everybody gets a year older.
In Korea we have 2 kinds of date. The one is the western solar calendar,
and the other one is the eastern lunar calendar.
On Lunar New Year, traditionally all family members are gathering at hometown
to celebrate, and bless each other for the best of luck, health and
good prosperity in business.
The Lunar New Year falls on late January or mid-February by solar calendar.

Lunar New Year is the best holiday in Korea with 3 straight holidays.
It could be comparable to Thanksgiving Day in America.
The characteristic difference would be the celebrating food.
The main dish is Tteokguk (rice-cake soup) in Korea, while a turkey is for America.

The cooking method of Tteokguk would be simple. Of course, it must be especially
easy for Korean, but if a foreigner like you tries to cook, then it might not
be so simple with only some explanation.
Firstly, the providing of the food source would be troublesome.
Especially, Garaetteok (bar rice cake), the main ingredient of
Tteokguk and sesame oil (Korean styled),
added at the last step of cooking, might be found in the
neighborhood of Korean restaurant.
In any way let me introduce the way of cooking like under.

Ingredients: Garaetteok (bar rice cake) 670g, beef 100g, egg 65g,
garlic (crushed) 12g, scallion 20g, sesame oil (Korean style) 2g,
soy sauce (Korea traditional) 8g,
salt 8g, laver (powder, a little), water 1000ml

Cooking steps:
1. Boil a beef loaf after soaking.
2. Cut the boiled beef loaf into appropriate-sized pieces,
and put them into the soup of the cooker.
3. Drain off water drop after washing the sliced Garaetteok in the water,
and put the slices into the soup, prepared by 1 & 2 steps,
and boil over medium heat.
4. When the slices are cooked through,
add whipped egg, sliced scallion and crushed garlic.
5. After 2 minutes add say sauce (Korea traditional) and salt,
and then sprinkle laver powder on it, then OK.

The calorie of a bowl of Tteokguk is about 460kcal.
The composing ingredients are all healthy.
Lunar New Year of 2014 is January 31st by solar calendar.
If it’s not easy to cook, then how about to take a bowl of
Tteokguk in a Korea restaurant in Gangnam Style together ?

Japan, the island country, is always anxious about the territory

Korea was the Japan's colony for 35 years from 1910 to 1945.
Japan invaded not only Korea but also China.
Korea might be the sandwitched country to occupy the great China by
reviewing Japanese invasion operations.

Geographically the right-sided Japan had no choice
to conquer the intermediated Korea to occupy the left-sided China.
All of the Japanese war goods were supplied into Korea.
So Korea was ruled by Japan for 35 years.
But Korea was liberated from Japan in 1945 in success.
And Korea in 2014 presented, that Korea already has been
exceeded the balance of current account of Japan.
According to the presented material of the Bank of Korea and
the Finance Ministry of Japan, the surplus of the balance of current account was
less US$70 millions than Korea.

The Japanese earthquake, the devaluation of yen more than 40%$,
Sony originated from Japan, the sinking of Motorola etc,...
Through various reasons Korea and Japan atr facing the equivalent economic
situation in current, But, do you remember?
Just before 70 years, Korea was the colony of Japan,
and the economical difference between Korea and Japan was more than 6 times
just before 10 years.

Geographically the nearest country is Korea to Japan.
Japan has the characteristic earthquake problem of volcanic island country.
It's said, that it is sinking every 2 cm per year... (it maybe not exact because of rumor)
And at the moment, Japan advertises Dokdo,
the territory of Korea, is the Japanese one through foreign media.
Dokdo, small but unique territory of Korea, it maybe the nearest Korean island to Japan. However, do you know? Under the island there are enormous submarine resources.
For that reason, Japan tries to insist Dokdo for
Japan not for Korean territory. However, in reallity it is different.

Anyone, who can live in Dokdo, is only Korean.
In Dokdo we can find the Korean flag, and protected by Korean policemen.
No Japanese can visit Dokdo.
(Really, some Japanese was expelled at the attempts of landing)
Somebody, who can sell souvenir and food in Dokdo, must be only Korean,
and the income tax through which is paid to Korean Government.
These are all of the rights and obligations only for Korean.
The facts are well known to Japanese young people.
But regretfully, as the political power is very conservative,
it might be a comedy for those,
who want to remember their own glory at that time before 70 years.

The unstable Japanese territory!
We only could give some chance for them to find out wise solution,
and hope not to do the childish insistence.

K-pop star Season Ⅲ, the appearance of powerful front runner

K-pop star is a joint progressed program by 3 Korean major music entertainment
companies and SBS, the public service broadcasting company.

SBS arranged prime time, 5 pm Sunday, for it, and the representatives of
JYP, SM, YG, the 3 Korean major music entertainment companies,
instead of music critic or singer examine.
By Season Ⅱ, it was composed of 3 major music entertainment companies of
JYP, SM and YG, but from Season Ⅲ, SM left and Yoo Hui-yeol,
who is the representative Antennamusic company, singer-song writer,
record producer and pianist, joined.

At moment, K-pop star Season Ⅲ is in progress. The debuted singers through
Season Ⅰ & Ⅱ have been topped the charts, and there has been a great deal
of publicity in several TVCF etc, through which they showed off a real
appearance as K-pop star.
So, the participants of K-pop star Season Ⅲ are all highly qualified
than any other participants of many music audition programs progressed by now.
On the broadcasting yesterday, the stage of "Jjari-Mongddang", which is made
by 3 members of the 3rd year student of Gyeongbuk Arts High School,
got rave reviews, and gushed a lot of news, reported the appearance of powerful
front runner of K-pop star Season Ⅲ.

The examiner Park Jin-young, the representative of JYP and singer, kept praising,
"You should have to sing on the level of making sense! How hard you tried!
How great the exercise is! I hope you could be the role model for the musicians.
You were great."
Yoo Hui-yeol, the representative Antennamusic company, also highly praised.
"Everyone of you has a good talent and can do debut solo.
I have nothing but to give applause."
But, the music entertainment company, who cast them, was YG.

They are the alumnae of Arts High School, and are studying music in perfect.
They are not the persons, only just praised from the friends with good singing,
but the musicians, already raised to some rank.
Really they must be the powerful front runner of K-pop star Season Ⅲ.

The original version of Loving U is the song of a group of four girls "Sistar".
The original version of Loving U: http://youtu.be/1s0SK-4_Y4s
The K-pop star version of Loving U: http://tvcast.naver.com/v/118523

Justin Bieber seems to be quiet only in Korea

We heard, Justin Bieber drunk drived.
Now he seems to really strengthen the image of problem kid through
his persistent gossips,
like the wordplay of retirement last Christmas, scribble of the hotel wall,
frequent brothels, drug detection in a tour bus
and damage of the national flag of Argentina etc.

Justin Bieber admitted his spirits and smoking marijuana at Miami, U.S,
as a result of his wild driving of rent yellow Lamborghini.
When he arrested, Chantel Jeffries, his girl friend and a model,
was sitting in the passenger seat.
Justin Bieber was released on US$2,500 after several hours of arrest.

On 10th Oct. 2012, Justin Bieber had a performance in Korea.
After a performance in Korea, he could pass luckily without any big events
except playing at a nightclub in Gangnam, Seoul...
In anyway, he seems to accumulate the image of problem kid by
himself in everywhere except Korea.
Korea, in fact, is a good country for every foreigner to live,
but also a country punishing any troubling foreigner severely.
Korean is an official language in Korea, and English isn't the 2nd foreign language,
so almost every Korean people can speak English to some degree.
That's just thanks to global education system in Korea....
Any foreigner, who cannot speak Korean,
or attempt to abuse Korean kindness, could be isolated almost.

If Justin Bieber managed various eccentric behaviors in Korea also,
then it must be clear, that Korean media judge such behaviors with a
radical measure than any other country.

Caught sight cosmetics from S. Korea, then have your eyes on them

Should you recognize S. Korea as only a country with some brands like Samsung, LG and Hyundai Automotive, it must be your misjudgment.
S. Korea also has mostly significant effects on cosmetics market in Asia.
S. Korea, thanks to its geographical position between China and Japan,
has more than 1.5 million visitors from
various Asian countries including Taiwan and HK annually.
Although Korean prices could be higher or almost same with those Asia countries,
but when visiting, they eager to purchase perfumes and cosmetics in MASS!! WHY?
As the Korean cosmetics absolutely have excellent quality
comparing to unit price than they imaged before.

Only at the duty-free shops in Incheon Int'l Airport,
it has been sold KRW 700 billions in a year of 2012.
This is the increased value of 66.6% comparing to KRW 41.45 billions in a year of 2009.
While, the British luxury cosmetic brand, Burberry is trying to
withdraw from Korean market soon.
The Burberry cosmetics, attracted worldwide attention with its unique crested check pattern, had been progressed 1+1 event
That is improper to their insisted “no-sale”policy,
and during their family sale period every product was sold with the price of
KRW 10,000 around. Therefore it caused some speculation of stock exhaustion.
If the withdrawal realized, then it could reveal the remarkable weakened status of
Burberry fashion brand as a case, the relevant businessmen predicted.

The public network CNN showed an extreme interest to the Korean
‘innovative’cosmetic market,
because of its used volcanic ash of Jeju island as raw material.
Practically, a quarter of worldwide mens cosmetics is sold in S. Korea.
Should you catch sight the Korean cosmetics,
then firstly you must be surprised with its low price.

You can find 5 to 6 brands of low priced but high-quality cosmetics in S. Korea.
The Nature-republic, one of them, has been launched on 8 countries,
including Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Cambodia and US etc. In Hawaii, it has 2 branch shops,
on the 1st opening day of the 2nd Hawaiian shop, crowded clients had to line up for visiting.

Fullkorea.com, a Korean blog more widely recognized abroad

Fullkorea.com started in January 17th, 2010.
I started this blog by myself,
because I believed that Korea had been lowly evaluated abroad.
Now, Aun-Korea, a specialized foreign marketing company,
is helping me. Ironically, Aun-Korea is a Japanese company. In other words,
a Japanese marketing company is helping me to establish the blog that is
used to promote Korea. It is because the company agreed me on the fact
that Korea has been lowly evaluated abroad.

Why has Korea been lowly evaluated abroad?
One of the reasons for such a low kind of evaluation would be the stimulating
news about North Korea, which has been put on the air everyday abroad.
A stimulating kind of news would induce a higher audience or subscriptiuon
rating. In fact, based on the English version of Google,
North Korea has been searched for over 1.22 million cases within a month,
while Korea has been searched for over 130,000 cases and
South Korea has been searched for over 90,000 cases (in November, 2013).

For example, if anyone plans to go to Africa,
an ordinary Korean would say, "Wouldn't it be dangerous to go to Africa?
Wouldn't it be too hot?" However, there is no need for such a concern.
A lot of white people live in Africa,
while English is widely used there. There are many rich people.
Also, you could experience winter there. What is the reason for
so many Korean people to think that everybody living in Africa is black and
it is too hot and dangerous there?
It is because of the media. The media addressing Africa usually show
widelife documentaries or the dark side of the poor social class, since they
believe that stimulating factors would induce more viewers.
It is same for those who see Korea abroad.
Every foreign friend of mine usually says, "Isn't it dangerous in Seoul?
Have you been to North Korea?"

However, South Korea is the 10th largest economy in the world.
Psy's Gangnam Style swept through the entire world.
Also, South Korea made it to the semifinals and was ranked in the 7th position
at the Olympics. Among 200 countries,
Korea can be regarded as a clean and safe country with great infrastructure.
Fullkorea.com is in its 4th year now.
About 500 people visit the website abroad within a week.

More people visited the website from Ukraine, Malaysia, the US and India.
22 people from Korea visited the website within a week.
As time goes by, I believe that there will be more foreigners
who could have right ideas about Korea through Fullkorea.com.

brody kpop star : Brodie Dropping Out of K-Pop Star

Kpop star Brody, a young participant from the US, finally dropped out of the contest in the third season of K-Pop Star. (Brodie has American nationality. Her mother is Korean, while her father is half Spanish and half Finnish.)

Although Brodie is quite young, she(brody) made it through the previous rounds without dropping out of the contest. While doing the team mission, she had to team up with other contestants randomly for a team performance. As an individual contestant, kpop star Brody was in the low-rank group at the beginning.

However, she was able to induce unanimous consent from the judges by improving her voice and breathing within a week. Regardless of such effort, she finally dropped out of the contest due to failing to show her talent for the team mission.

| brody kpop star audition |

Jin-yeong Park, CEO of JYP Entertainment and one of the judges of K-Pop Star, said, "I think that it is time for you to have some rest. I believe that you will come back later after improving your talent and ability." Brodie said, "Thank you for giving me such a chance." Her tear made everybody feel sorry for her. That night's episode of K-Pop Star Season 3 showed the record-high audience rating of 11.7%, which was 0.1% higher than the previous week. The show seemed to induce a great level of popularity.

Meanwhile, Willy Yao (姚伟涛) from China made every judge amazed and surprised with his magnificent performance on the stage, winning the team mission.

K-Pop Star Season 3, a Korean music audition program. Anyone who wins the contest will be able to become the winner of various music programs, take TV advertisements, release music albums and carry out foreign music tours just like the previous winners. The audition program is currently in its 8th episode among 20. It will soon be possible to figure out who would win the third season of K-Pop Star.

The State of Georgia Trying to Induce Kia Motors Corporation

Did you know?

Korea is a powerful country in the field of automobiles.
There are two major global automobile brands such as Hyundai and Kia from
such a small country as Korea. These brands are dominating the global market.
There are other influential countries in the field of automobiles, including
Germany (Benz, BMW, Audi, Porsche and Volkswagen), the US (Ford, Chevrolet,
Chrysler and Jeep), Japan (Honda, Toyota and Nissan), the UK (Land Rover,
Jaguar and Bentley), Italy (Lamborghini, Ferrari and Fiat), Sweden (Volvo and Saab)
and France (Peugeot and Citroen). The economies of such countries are also
in the top ten list in the world like Korea. In the meantime, there are much more
countries which have strong economies but cannot manufacture automobiles.
However, it is easy to find the cars manufactured by Hyundai and Kia from Korea
on almost every road in the world.

When Kia Motors Corporation was looking for a foreign place to establish its
overseas automobile plant, the state of Georgia in the US tried to induce Kia Motors
Corporation. As a result, Kia was able to wield strong influence over the local
area. People in the area are now regarding the brand as a symbol of Georgia.
They even consider the plant of Kia as 'the present given by the Lord'.

In 2006, the state of Georgia and Kia Motors Corporation reached an agreement
for the establishment of a plant in the city of West Point, Georgia.
In 2008 when the first employment process was carried out, more than 40,000
people applied for positions at the plant.
In 2011 when the third employment process was carried out, a total number of
45,745 people applied for positions at the plant.

There are 25 business partners of Kia in the area, having created 5,100 jobs.
Also, by considering the ripple effect, it is possible to say that about 0.1 million
jobs have been created.
In fact, the establishment of the plant of Kia has reduced the unemployment
rate in the state of Georgia by more than 3%.
Due to the increasing size of labor population in the state of Georgia, it seems
that the entire local economy has become quite active.

The state of Georgia has even named an expressway after Kia Motors
Corporation and established a railroad network. The state government of Georgia
has built a training center with the size of about 6,600 square meters for the
company and provided it with such great benefits as the subsidies for the
creation of jobs and the on-site job training together with tax concessions.
The people in the state of Georgia have even put up the sign saying 'Thank You
Jesus for Bringing Kia to Our Town' in their yards.

Korea has kept running.
In your eyes, what does Korea look like?

Samsung Galaxy S5, a new concept image on the stage

Samsung Galaxy is dominating 60% of the global smart-phone market.
Samsung is a Korean brand. Both Samsung and LG are Korean companies.
So are Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors Corporation.

Korea is a small country. Its size is about a half of the state of Florida in the US
or 1/100 of China. However, the Korean economy is the tenth biggest in the world.
You might have Samsung products either in your pocket or at home.

Yesterday, a new concept image of Galaxy S5 was revealed.
Regarding the design of Samsung Galaxy S5, such parts as the 5.2-inch flexible
display and the parts made of metals and synthetic leather are quite noticeable.
Both edges of the device show a circular shape.
Also, there is no patented home- button. In my opinion,
it is similar to Motorola StarTAC which was once quite popular.

The specifications of Galaxy S5, which have been only exposed through rumors,
will be revealed in 'CES 2014', the biggest home-appliance exhibition in the world,
which will be held in Las Vegas, the US.
It is expected that the device will include such parts as the 64-bit
Exynos Octa chip, the QHD display with the resolution of 2560x1440,
the low-power DDR4 memory, the 16-megapixel camera, the 4000mAh memory,
the Android 4.4 Kit-Kat and the iris-scanning technology.

Will Apple, the top company in the US, be able to defeat Samsung?

Korean Private Guards Protecting Dokdo

I think that it would be correct to make the statement,
"Korean Private Guards Protecting Dokdo".
Not only the Korean government and various organizations and companies,
but also various broadcasing stations, celebrities and individuals in
Korea try their best to let all the people in the world know that Dokdo
belongs to Korea by investing much power,
effort and time. Why is it necessary to state that Dokdo belongs to Korea,
based on the fact that it is actually a territory of Korea?

It is necessary to make such a statement,
since the Japanese government creates false information regarding Dokdo and
spends about 8.5 billion KRW a year to direct a comedy
which focuses on the process of making all the people in the world
believe that Dokdo belongs to Japan.





The video clip shown above was voluntarily produced by
a group of students at a university in Korea.
(For a reference, please visit http://www.fixyourmaps.com.)
The website was also voluntarily made by the engineers in Silicon Valley
with their technical skills and effort. The video
clip shown below was made by EBS (Educational Broadcasting System) in Korea.





Also, like Fullkorea.com, there is an English individual blog
saying that Dokdo belongs to Korea (http://dokdo-or-takeshima.blogspot.kr).
While Fullkorea.com addresses various
issues and gossips in Korea, the above blog was established to protect Dokdo.

The campaign to protect Dokdo has also been carried out by the Korean government.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in Korea had provided the information
regarding Dokdo through its website established in Japanese and English (http://dokdo.mofa.go.kr).

Professor Seo Gyeong Deok is known as an expert for the promotion of Korea.
He has continuously criticized the Japanese government for the incorrect
recognition of the Japanese history through various interviews with
major global presses including the Wall Street Journal
and the national broadcasting stations in Japan and France.
Recently, the China Central Television (CCTV) in China exclusively reported the
news about Professor Seo Gyeong Deok
who had posted the advertisement criticizing Prime
Minister Abe in Japan for the distortion of the JApanese history
on the Internet homepage of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Kim Jang Hun,
who is a famous singer in Korea and known as a close friend of Psy who is
a global star, personally flew to the US and held
"the Dokdo Art Show in New York" at the 131 Greene St. Gallery in Soho, New York.
Also, the sculpture of Dokdo, which had been made by about 40 students at
PRATT Institute in New York, was exhibited. It is known that because
of the Dokdo Art Show, Kim Jang Hun got his concert in Tokyo, Japan cancelled.

The video clip shown below contains the flash mob in
which a lot of citizens participated voluntarily.
They gathered and danced, while making and editing a film and posting it on
Youtube. The background music is "Dokdo is our land".
About 99.99% of the 50 million Korean people are familiar with two songs.
One of them is the national anthem of Korea,
while the other one is "Dokdo is our land".





The flash mob performances have been carried out through out the whole nation.
They are still in progress.

The picture shown below contains the image of a national soccer player
of Korea carrying out his ceremony after making a goal in the game with Japan.
He held the sign board saying that Dokdo belongs to Korea.

In one of the famous show programs in Korea, "Real Men",
the participating groups competed
with each other by making special rhythmic movements for Dokdo.
Their performances were put on the air.

Meanwhile, 50 million people in Korea love Dokdo.
In terms of the past history or the future,
there is no proof for saying that Dokdo belongs to Japan. Now,
the Japanese government says that Dokdo belongs to Japan merely
because it is located "close to" Japan. What a ridiculous comedy it is!

China's 姚伟涛 (Willy Yao) Getting the Highest Compliment from K-Pop Star

K-Pop Star is a music audition program which is put on the air by one of the
public broadcasting stations in Korea.
The program is currently in its third season.
The winners of the first and the second seasons have not only become
quite successful in the Korean music market, but also got so popular in such
Asian countries as Japan and China. In particular,
it seems that there are many foreign contestants in the third season.

China's 姚伟涛 (Willy Yao) has survived so far. He is still in the contest.
It is known that the format of K-Pop Star was exported to China and
recreated as C-Pop Star which has become quite popular and
shown the top audience rating in the prime time.
姚伟涛 (Willy Yao) was among the upper rankers in C-Pop Star.
Now, he is competing with others in K-Pop Star.

China's C-Pop Star

China's 姚伟涛 (Willy Yao). After passing the first preliminary round, he received a special
lesson from JYP, who is one of the judges of K-Pop Star and the CEO of JYP
Entertainment. As a result, 姚伟涛 (Willy Yao) has shown great results in K-Pop Star so
far. JYP (He is the CEO of JYP Entertainment, the current company for such
singers as 2AM, 2PM amd Miss A. Rain, who is a singer and actor and starred
in the Hollywood movie, Ninja Assassin which was released throughout the whole
world in 2009, used to be a member of the company.) provided Yao with the
highest compliment and asked him to join JYP Entertainment regardless of the
results of K-Pop Star.

China's 姚伟涛 (Willy Yao).
Due to his sincerity, he has received an invitation from JYP, one of the giant
entertainment companies in Korea. Even if he drops out of the contest, he will
probably make his first debut in Korea just like the previous contestants from
the first and the second seasons.
As the Korean music market has become bigger and its influence in Asia has
become greater, a lot of musicians from other countries are now trying to show
their performances in Korea.

It seems that 姚伟涛 (Willy Yao) will be the first foreign musician from an
official  audition program in Korea.

famous SNL Korea and GTA 5 Cheats

GTA (Grand Theft Auto) is a game.
It is probably the most popular game in the world.
On September 17th, 2013, the fifth official version of the game, GTA5 was released.
The fifth version tends to reflect the whole world minimized on a small screen.
It contains the map which is five times bigger than that of the previous version.
In the game, the main character can have various kinds of life.
The character can even carry out such activities as sports and the
transactions of real-estate properties
and stocks. GTA shows its own world within the game frame, just like the game,
'SimCity' in the 1990s. It seems that its world is much greater than the one of 'SimCity'.

SNL is the comedy program for adults, which is broadcast by NBC in the US.
The format of the program was imported by a broadcasting station in Korea,
and the Korean version of SNL with the same format has been
put on the air under the title of
'SNL Korea'. The program has been quite popular due to various parodies including
those of GTA. Such parodies have caused great social effects.

The parodies shown by SNL Korea include the followings.
GTA Gangnam (Gangnam is a city in Korea, which is similar to New York in the US.
It appears in the song sung by Psy, 'Gangnam Style'.),
GTA Chosun (In the 1800s, Korea was known as Chosun.),
GTA Gyeongseong (In the past, Seoul was known as Gyeongseong.), and
GTA Military (Every Korean man is required to serve his duty in the army.)
Various satiric factors about the Korean society have been used by SNL Korea
through the GTA series. GTA Gangnam is shown below.




In Korea, because of the comedy clips made by SNL Korea, GTA has become more
popular. SNL Korea still shows the parodies of GTA.