March 22, SEOUL, South Korea — People make their way through central Seoul on March 22 as an unseasonal snow falls in the South Korean capital and surrounding area in late March. (Yonhap) (END)

via rokdrop.com

How Korean Food Is Perceived Abroad

Korean food is unpopular and considered overpriced in the U.S., a survey shows. But it is widely popular in China and Japan, where it is seen as cheap.

The straw poll was conducted among 2,000 foreigners, 500 each in China, Japan, the U.S., and Vietnam, by consulting firm Accenture for the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

With Americans, Korean food ranked only eighth in popularity among 12 cuisines — Korean, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Thai, Vietnam, and others. They enjoyed Italian and Mexican food most, followed by Japanese and Chinese. Asked why they do not enjoy Korean food, the biggest group of 18.5 percent cited a limited menu, followed by sanitary issues (15.3 percent), spiciness (13.2 percent) and price (12.5 percent). Americans in the upper income bracket earning no less than US$8,700 per month said Korean food should taste more Korean, while those in the lower income bracket with an average monthly salary less than $2,900 thought that flavor and ingredients should be adapted to American palates.

The consultants recommended that upmarket Korean restaurants in the U.S. should adhere to traditional flavors while cheaper restaurants would be well-advised to adapt to local tastes.

Asked which dish comes to mind when they think about Korean food, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese selected kimchi while Americans said galbi or grilled beef ribs.

In Asia, Korean food was one of the most favored dishes. In China Korean food was the most popular foreign cuisine over Japanese or Italian dishes. It was the second favored foreign dish in Vietnam and the third in Japan.

In China, a Korean meal cost an average of $8 per customer, the lowest price among 11 foreign cuisines surveyed and only a quarter of French meal, which was $37. Accenture pointed out that there are scores of Korean restaurants run by a Chinese without a proper knowledge of the cuisine and serving poor-quality dishes. It warned that the perception of Korean food as low-price and low-quality might persist.

The image of Korean food was not much better in Japan, where a meal cost on average $10. But In Vietnam, Korean meals were the second most expensive with an average $5.60 per person, following Italian food with an average price tag of $5.94.

english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/03/16/2010031600231.html

Kim Yu-na Falls Behind at University

Kim Yu-na

Olympic figure skating champion Kim Yu-na may be formidable on the ice, but she is in trouble academically. A second-year student in physical education at Korea University, she received two Fs last year and is reportedly determined to pay more attention to her academic endeavors this year.

Kim barely made it to class last year. Although Korea University runs special morning curriculum for athletes, Kim mostly trains and competes overseas, so it was almost impossible for her to attend.

It seems she was also unable to complete assessed assignments or turn in reports replacing exams on time. Apart from attendance, it would be difficult for the university not to give her failing grades when there is so little they can use to evaluate her performance.

As an athlete in the national team, Kim can submit training plans to make up for attendance. In the second semester last year, Kim sent emails to the professors of the classes she registered and sought their understanding for being unable to attend classes. As for tests, she is required to replace them with written assignments. While she is abroad, she can submit them via email, and when she is in Korea, she visits the university to hand them in herself.

Kim needs to take 140 credits in order to graduate, and it seems unlikely that she will be able to graduate in the normal four years, as that requires her to take 18 to 20 credits a semester. From next year, Kim will be able to take classes at a partner university of Korea University in Toronto and transfer the credits.

english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/03/16/2010031600231.html

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/multimedia/photos/?c=y&articleID=30706239&page=1

seeing the bustling metropolis of seoul today, it’s hard to believe just sixty years ago it looked like this.

alas, all good things must come to an end.

what strikes me so much about this one is not just the breathtaking beauty of the canadian rockies, but also the photo’s caption, which reads “Since I first visited the Canadian Rockies in the late 1970s, the Athabasca Glacier has receded several miles. However, to put things in perspective, geolocial markers that date back to the 19th century show that the glacier has been receding for centuries. Whether glaciers demonstrate that the past decade is meaningful or not, I leave to Nature to argue. And, while many glaciers are melting, others are stable or even growing in the Himalayas and Alaska. There is no question that there is global climate change. The biggest problem … it has always been so.”

look at the raccoon, staring with fascination at the photographer, as if to ask “what does that thing do?” every time i see a picture like this, it reminds me how precious and beautiful even the littlest of critters is, and how much like us they really are. or rather, how much like them we really are. it shocks me every time i hear people debate whether or not animals can really think or feel in the same way we do. is the raccoon’s expression any different from that of a baby who has just seen something new for the first time? conversely, is our animalistic side so much different from the raccoon’s?

statements like this are a slap in the face to me and everyone who makes a conscious choice to serve their country. many, like me, with degrees from prestigious universities have willingly sacrificed far higher paying jobs in the civilian world, gone far away from our homes and families, have forgone personal comforts that most americans take for granted, and have laid it all on the line, including our lives. even my soldiers who do not have a college degree have left their homes as young as seventeen. these men and women are great americans, who wear their uniforms with pride. the ones worth their salt, anyways.

it is not that we are asking too much of this generation — it’s that we aren’t asking anything of this generation, leaving the entire burden to be shouldered by a select few. what the hell has this generation done to deserve the luxuries it feels so entitled to? twitter?! television?! video games? text messaging?! all while sitting around getting so fat that their very health is jeopardized by their laziness?! so what has this generation done? at most, self-serving, self-gratifying but ultimately empty finger-pointing, protests, and agitation over issues they might actually understand if they were willing to dig deeper intellectually than wikipedia.

for all i’ve heard about the war in iraq and afghanistan, whose war is it really? whose lives has it really impacted? is there a draft? of those who say they suppost the troops, who amongst them has ever raised their hand to serve their country and see what is really going on? do most families even have a single service member amongst them? it is mere lip service. this isn’t this generations’ war, because it doesn’t really mean a damn thing to them, and they have never felt any direct impacts beyond a few minor inconveniences. this is a soldier’s war — a burden and experience shared by them alone, along with their families and the iraqi and afghani people. these are the ones who preserve and embody the american spirit and make america great, not the public.

true, not everyone is called to serve their country in the form of military service, but at least do something! join the peace corps. become a civil servant. plant a public garden. volunteer some time and money to a local food shelter or humanitarian organization and give back to society. check on your damn neighbor. live responsibly. until then, you haven’t earned the right to voice your opinion.

…

and to close it all out, an excellent quote by stephen colbert from TIME’s Top 10 Everything of 2009:

“Twitter went down today. If only there was some short, shallow, self-indulgent way to express my horror.”

—Stephen Colbert, sniffing at the year’s biggest online fad

hilarious

ice on the han river, seoul [joongang daily]

it’s actually not been that bad so far. sure it’s in the frigid single digits fahrenheit, but it hasn’t been excessively windy. it has, however, been extremely icy, which makes it hell walking up and down the mountains to my barracks building and office. and apparently, driving as well:

someone is going to have some body work to do on the underside of the chassis….

seven days until the philippines, sixteen days until my challenger srt8 gets to korea!!!

Naked News Korea Girls Start New K-Pop Band, The Naked Girls

I am sure everyone has been awaiting in anticipation to see what would happen to the unemployed Naked News Korea girls and now we have our answer, K-Pop!:

“We have gathered Minkyung, Jaekyung, Hyeji and Taehee to form this girl group, and will officially debut under the name Naked Girls in January next year. Their performances will be composed of inappropriate songs and choreography, definitely not suitable for youth. The girls’ activities will be focused more on musicals rather than national television.”  [Extra Korea]

Here is more on the group’s signature calling card, “the sexy cal“.

You can see more pictures of the girls here.