안녕하세요, it’s Ari, your friendly Korean source and your weekend reminder🎉 Today’s newsletter is about working out at home, Korean naturalization process, and a healthy vegetarian food recipe. Let’s start!
🎧 You can listen to this newsletter and practice speaking Korean sentences on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or other your favorite podcast platforms.
👄 I’m working out at home
Are you working out? As many Koreans started working out at home watching YouTube fitness videos during the pandemic, a new word was born: 홈트. It means ‘working out at home’ and it came from English words, ‘home (홈)’ and ‘training (트레이닝).’ So today, let’s learn how to say “I’m working out at home.”
홈트하고 있어요. I’m working out at home.
(The above video is in my 홈트 playlist. I’ve been doing this workout 3 times a week for a month. It works!)
🤔 What Korean name do you want?
Kangnam, a Japanese/former idol who married to Lee Sang-hwa, a legendary Korean speed skater recently shared the results of his naturalization process. He held a live broadcast on YouTube 👆 in which he found out he passed the test. Many Koreans watched the live (he’s pretty famous in the country for his funny personality shown in many variety shows) and congratulated him. His story made me curious about what it takes to be a citizen of South Korea and naturalization process so I started to dig in. Here’s what I found. (If you want more accurate information, please visit Korea Immigration Service. The following is based on a related news article and a video of a naturalized citizen.)
People who want to be a SK citizen usually participate in Korean Immigration & Integration Program which is learning Korean language, culture and society. If you participate in this 515-hour program, you can easily pass the naturalization written test. After passing the written test, you’ll have an interview. If you think you can pass the test without the program, you can replace it with other Korean test results but you might have to wait longer to get the citizenship. Any adult who has lived in SK for over 5 years and has a job can apply for the citizenship. About 15,000 people apply for the citizenship every year since 2019. About 60% of them pass the process. Update) About 70% of applicants pass the written test and after that, about 60% pass the interview.
What kind of questions are in the written test? How much difficult it is? There are 40 questions including a 200-word essay. You should score over 60 out of 100. There are easy questions like the above ☝ (check out the correct answer at the bottom1), but also there are difficult questions that even Koreans can’t answer easily. Kangnam shared that he failed on the written test at his first & second try. He also shared about his interview. He said, “When they asked me what the thing that made the floors warm was, I said it was a boiler, and they burst out laughing. Then they asked about the traditional name and I said it was ondol. The atmosphere at the interview was good. When we were singing the anthem, I was nervous so I rushed through it… Even though I’m a singer.”
After you get the citizenship, there are things you can do as a citizen including creating a registration card and signing up Korean websites much easier (foreingers usually have to take more steps to sign up). But I think the coolest part is to be able to have your own official & legal Korean name. I read an article about foreigners who became Korean citizens. According to the article, Lusing was a Chinese who came to South Korea to study. After passing the process to get the citizenship, she named herself as Ha Ge-yeon. She said she got her own last name as ‘Ha’ meaning ‘summer’ because she was born in the summer.
Even though you’re not going to get the Korean citizenship, it’s fun to think about your Korean name 🤔 Are there any Korean names you think are pretty? What Korean name do you want? Check out the list of the most popular baby names, if it helps. And let me know your answers in comments!
🍳 Tofu ketchup jorim
I think I talked about this before but no matter how many times I say this, it won’t be enough: Koreans LOVE tofu 📢We have so many tofu food. We enjoy raw, grilled, boiled, and fried tofu. There are two most popular sauces for tofu: soy sauce & ketchup. They both go unexpectedly well with tofu. You’ll believe me after you try today’s food, tofu ketchup jorim. It’s basically grilled tofu with chopped vegetables, ketchup, and soy sauce. It’ll make a great healthy vegetarian meal! Watch the video above ☝ to cook for yourself. Turn on subtitles to read Eng subs.
Before I go…
🍟 Join my weekly virtual McDonald’s Instagram live to practice Korean speaking! This week’s challenge is to order as I say. Check out my Instagram to find out more. It starts at 4:30 pm Sunday EST :D
Thanks for reading! If you liked my newsletter, ❤ or share it to make my day :D Leave a question or what you want to know about my country in comments. See you next week, 안녕 👋
💵 I just got paid from Amazon for the first time for selling my book! Thanks for supporting! It means the world to me 💖 I’m preparing for the second book which will be about filling in the blank. My Korean vocabulary exercise book is available on my shop (e-book) and Amazon (paperback).
Correct answer is 1.
안녕하세요 아리씨!! I can’t wait to order at your restaurant again! I actually already have a Korean name, because one of my old Korean teachers gave it to me. My Korean name is 지영🥰 Have a great day!~ Chantelle :)