I can read Korean!

Well, I can sound out Korean! It's actually a relatively simple language to learn in that there are only 26 characters (compared to over 3,000 Chinese characters!)


Abby = 애 비
Forster = 푸 스 터

(pronounced poe - suh - tah there is no r or f sound in Korean, and the s has to have another vowel sound before the next consonant is pronounced... people have also asked me where my middle name comes from, as "Lee" is a common family name. Actually "ee" is a common family name, but the L is added for western pronunciation. One of my boss's daughters name is Min-gee. And her family name is Ee. In Korea her name is Ee Min-gee. But switch the family name and surname and it would still sound too weird to Westerners to say her name is Min-gee Ee, so when she was in the US her name was Min-gee Lee. The things I never knew!)

A Few Photos from Korea

This is a traditional Korean style house behind the old apartment we lived in. (When we first came to Korea we lived with two other teachers for 2 months. Now we have our own apartment.)



All of Korea is famous for it's ceramics. (I had a ceramics teacher who studied here.) But Yeoju, the town we live in, seems to produce a lot of ceramics (the city icon is two ceramic pots!) Containers like these are very common in people's yards or balcony's. They hold various sauces, and rice. I think they also hold kimchi, but I'm not sure.



This the is the river that runs through the town. See why it reminds me of St. Charles?



This is another neighboring house.

I promise to take more!