Traditional wedding vs. Modern wedding in Korea

Korean Traditional Wedding Ceremony
In ancient time, wedding in Korea was not a matter about bride and groom, but two families. Therefore, arranged marriage which means a wedding by arranged by parents was dominant for a long time. Most bride and groom could not know about each other at all such as face, personality, and name. They had to follow their parents’ decision. On the wedding day, bride and groom wore Korea traditional costume called ‘Hanbok’, which is very colorful and beautiful clothes made by silk. Usually, wedding ceremony was held in the yard of the bride and many neighbors and relatives congratulated on them.

Modern Wedding Ceremony in Korea
As Korean society has been modernized rapidly since 1970, marriage pattern changed into love marriage which refers to the marriage of man and woman who are in love with each other. Although arranged marriage still remains in Korea, love marriage is common. Most wedding ceremonies were performed in the Wedding Halls which are decorated with wedding motif. Bride and groom wear western style costumes such as white or black tuxedo for groom and white wedding dress for bride.

Hangeul : The Korean Alphabet

The Korean Alphabet, Hangeul was created by King Sejong who was the greatest King in the Kingdom of Joseon(1392~1910), in what is modern day Korea, during the 15th century.

Before its creation, only a small percentage of the population in Joseon could read and write because at that time Joseon did not have its own alphabet system and used Chinese characters

for the upper class people. In fact, the general public was illiterate. So King Sejong tried to make a Korean writting system based on phonology. Hangeul consists of 10 vowels and 14 consonants and can be conbined to form numerous syllables. Hangeul is quite easy to learn and write because it is systematic and comprehensive.

For example,

We can combine all the consonants ㄱ/g/, ㄴ/n/, ㄷ/d/... ㅌ/t/, ㅍ/p/, ㅎ/h/ and vowel ㅏ/a/.

The results will be like the followings in terms of written form and pronunciation.

* Wirtten form : 가, 나, 다 ... 타, 파, 하

*Pronunciation: /ga/, /na/, /da/... /ta/, /pa/, /ha/

Once you learn the basic Korean Alphabet(10vowels and 14consonants) and several

prounciation pattern, you can read most of Korean syllables using the way I showed you above examples. Therefore, it is deemed as one of the most scientific languages in the world. Hangeul has attributed to high literacy rate(more than 95%) in Korea.

Different word order between English and Korean

The outstanding difference between English and Korean is word order. I think this is one of main reasons that Koreans cannot learn English easily.
In English, ther word order of transitive verb is subject, verb, and object(preposition phrase
would be optional), while in Korean, the word order is subject, (prepositional phrase),
object, and verb. This totally different word order makes Korean students confused because the structure becomes another obstacle besides vocabulary.
* Example
English> " I study English in Iowa city. "
(Subject) (verb) (object) (prepositional phrase)

Korean> "나는 아이오와에서 영어를 공부합니다. "
(Subject) (prepositional phrase) (object) (verb)

In addition, there is a few article usage in Korean compared to English. So
most Korean students have a big trouble to use articles not only in spoken English,
but also written one. I still feel difficult when I use articles such as 'a', 'an', and 'the'.Organizing structure(subject, next verb, and then object or predicative) is not easy in my head before I speak English, but it is interesting and at the same time challenging.

The ART INSTITUTE of CHICAGO

October, 2, 2007

It was my first time of Chicago trip. I have been very interested in paintings, which means the most favorite place in Chicago trip was entirely focusing on the Art Institue even though I have never been there. I really wanted to see original masterpieces painted by famous artists such as Van Gogh, Seurat, Monet, and Matisse. When I entered the gallery, I was really excited. What a great opportunity! Actually, it was not enough time for me to look at all the painting in the Art Institue. Of many collections, I could not but choose some. I picked up Impressionism & Postimpressionism galleries and Modern & Contemporary galleries. There I recorded some pictures with my digital camera and above video is about "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte" painted by Georges Seurat, French artist. An old curator was explaining the paintings to visitors. I couldnot look through all the galleries because of lack of time. So I really want to go to the Art Institute again and have a plenty of time to see all of exhibitions. After that, I went to the Millenium Park. The park was quite familiar with Coex Mall in Korea. High buildings and and some modern sculptures. I really enjoyed the Chicago trip.