Eating live seafood- what’s it like?

Posted: July 31, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Japanese!, Korean! | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

eating lvie seafood

I’ve always been curious about eating live seafood like octopus and squid, how do you eat it? What does it taste like? Is it freaky? So I asked my friends from Korea and Japan about eating live seafood and they told me quite a bit actually. Some replies were online so I have had to edit the text a little and some I received in person. All of them have tried live seafood at least once in their life, this is what they told me!

I talked to my friend Yui from Japan about seafood and she asked me if I’d eaten octopus (cooked) before. I said I hadn’t and that it looked a bit scary and she said it’s good but it “only looks bad!” She said there’s also たこのおどりぐい (Tako no odori gui) which means literally ‘octopus that’s dancing food’ and that there are few people who challenge themselves to eat it. I asked her to elaborate on eating live seafood a bit more and she explained to me (in Japanese).

“There are mainly living octopus and squid/cuttlefish, shrimp/prawn/lobster etc and the these things you eat are called odorigui, dancing food! Say, octopus, you eat it’s leg in thin broiled seaweed in case it starts shaking. When I eat the moving octopus it sticks to my mouth.”

Another Japanese friend of mine, who will go by the name Rice, explained that he had eaten live seafood but couldn’t remember in detail as he was very young. He did explain that “we call that odorigui. Odori means dance and gui means food so food dances in your mouth when you are eating it!”

I asked my friend from Korea, Jungwon, what she thought of eating live seafood and she said: “OH YEAH! It is delicious when we eat that with 초장(Chojang).”

Chojang is a special sweet and spicy red-chilli pepper sauce.

“I didnt like it when I was young, but maybe I am being old…hahaha.  It just feels somewhat good when we are chewing that. And I use many sauce so I can feel just sauce!! But finally, it is delicious *.*”

Finally, my other friend from Korea, J.W, elaborated nicely after I asked him if he’s eaten live seafood before. “Yes I’ve eaten a live piece of small octopus. I’m not that into it though.” How does it taste? “Well it doesn’t taste bad because you have it with some sesame oil that has some salt in it so it tastes aromatic. You have it on a plate, yes it’s hard to chew but they
are served to be cut into small pieces so that you can eat them smoothly.”

Here I got a little confuzzled because he said it’s cut into small pieces and so I assumed after it’s been cut up it would be dead. Apparently not.

“Ahhhh it’s still alive but you know what? It means fresh, and when you chew in your mouth its almost gone. You don’t have to worry about it at all lol just very small pieces you’d swallow.”

Are there lots of places to eat live seafood in Korea?

“Yeah there are some but not everywhere on the street lol eating live octopus is somewhat common here but it doesn’t mean we love it. On the other hand there are also some koreans who cant handle it.”

Nice.

So I guess summarised, in Japan it’s slightly less common to eat moving seafood than it is in Korea, but that does not mean it’s rare, good GOD no. Both countries have different styles of serving and eating and I suppose Korea is more on the hot and spicy side of the sauce than the cool seaweed in Japan. But who knows! It’s not like I’ve interviewed the whole population, in fact I probably could have done with a few more opinions, so this is not a generalized summary it’s just based on my friends experiences. If I hear of any more from other friends I will add it to this post and share it in an update. 🙂 Later guys!

(You can find tons of videos of people eating live seafood on youtube so check it out!)

What sushi is…

Posted: July 30, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Japan, what's all this?, Japanese! | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The times I’ve dragged my friends to YO!sushi and heard the same excuses. ‘I don’t wanna go because I hate sushi!’ ‘NO, I can’t eat raw fish it’s…ewargh.’

Just no.

Tons and tons and tons of people won’t go to Japanese restaurants because they’re scared of eating sushi or they say they don’t like it. The fact is about 90% of these people don’t actually know what sushi is. Not really.

What do you think sushi is? Raw fish? Like salmon wrapped in seaweed with a bit of rice?Sushi is often misunderstood as just raw fish but it’s actually rice with vinegar. The su- part means vinegar.

Now that’s cleared up, how about some facts about sushi?

Sushi is very popular in Japan and thus the sushi making business is extremely competitive with many restaurants personalizing their own secret methods of making the vinegared rice which they’ll share with no-one.

A lot of businesses make their sushi more attractive by shaping it into animals or characters from manga series’ and some even do personal sushi shapings.

It can actually take up to 10 years to qualify as a professional sushi chef.

Today’s sushi actually began as a type of fast food in the 19th century!

The classic sushi is an oval of rice which has been formed in the hand and is topped with things SUCH AS raw fish, cooked seafood, eggs, other vegetables.

Now you know a bit more about sushi get dowwwn to a Japanese restaurant and EAT.THEIR.FOOD. The worst thing I’ve ever heard one of my friends assume is that the only thing Japanese restaurants serve is sushi of which she hadn’t actually tried!

Japanese food consists of more than just sushi! There are plenty of meat dishes and vegetables and gorgeous desserts (sweet and savoury)! Don’t be put off by raw fish, you don’t need to go anywhere near it if you don’t want to so get dowwwwwwn there!

I may do a post on my experiences at YO!sushi at some point! ;D It’s 10pm now so night guys! Oyasuminasai!

Update!!

Posted: July 30, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Extra shiz | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know I am on two sites (with the exact same blog). The other site is WordPress and I’ll link it HERRREEEEE: http://mynihongoandhangul.blogspot.co.uk/ 

 

If you’re asking why I’m using two for the exact same blog, well, I just want to see which one is the best for me so I’ll be using them both for maybe about 2 weeks or so just to see which one is better for my blog. So wordpress really allows me to personalize my blog but BlogSpot is so simple and organized, we’ll see what happens! You can chill here or chill therrrrreee, whatever you want peeps, see you soon!

Korean pronunciation – American vs English?

Posted: July 29, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Korean! | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Okay, as I’m currently focusing on my Korean at the moment, I thought I’d help some people out by bringing to light the problem with learning pronunciation online. Of course learning how to pronounce certain sounds is going to be easier if you have someone to practice with in person but for a lot of us learning is done through books and online sources. If you’ve found a site that includes audio files so you can hear the pronunciation then you may as well skip this post, but I’m just going to assume that anyone reading it either;

1.) Cannot open the audio files

2.) Doesn’t have a site that includes said files/is learning from a book or printed sheets

3.) Is deaf

So the issue I have with some online learning resources regarding pronunciation is the difference between American sounds and English sounds. In fact BRITISH sounds. There are Scottish, Irish and Welsh people as well y’know! And god there’s even the Australian accent and New Zealand all that jazz but to keep it simple I’m going to just use Standard American vs Standard English.

Firstly I’m going to give you an example. Say the word ‘saw’  in an American accent and then in an English accent (if you can). The ‘-aw’ is pronounced differently.

(The best e.g. I can give it is English – ‘soh‘ and American ‘sah‘).

Some online sites use the word ‘saw’ to represent how the letter ㅓ (Romanization: ‘eo’) should be pronounced, eo = aw.

A further example; the word ‘저’ (Romanization: ‘Jeo’ meaning ‘I’). An American person would probably say it correctly whereas if we used the standard English pronunciation of saw it wouldn’t be right (unless you’re from Yorkshire in which case a lot of people may say it correctly). 저 would be pronounced ‘jaw’ or ‘juh’. Which one you ask? Well it’s somewhere in the middle. Don’t worry guys I’m going to vid this up soon!

This is something I’ve come across and there isn’t really an easy way to fix it apart from actually stating on your site that you’re going to be going by American pronunciation/English pronunciation. Most sites will go by American pronunciation either because they are American or because they feel like most people will assume American pronunciation anyway. I haven’t come across one site yet that states which pronunciation they’re using probably because it’s only minor details that differ between English and American. It is however best to go by American pronunciation just because we all assume that’s the way it is anyway, but I’d like to see it stated on sites more that way people actually know for sure they’re saying it correctly. This isn’t solely Korean pronunciation either but the letter ㅓ is one which you MUST know in Korean but this pronunciation thing can be applied to any language, Japanese etc.

So that’s just something I’d like to get out there! The difference between American and English accents when looking up pronunciations in books or online without being able to hear an example. Please be careful about how you’re pronouncing something and as a general rule just go by American pronunciation. I’ll example this shiz on vid soon so over and out guys!

What NOT to do on a language exchange site

Posted: July 28, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Language Exchange | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Fag it. I love writing so this one’s going up today too. Good god it’s ra-HAY-ning here guys! I swear England, what thaaa frig?! Anyway anyway!

1.) Firrrrst things first.

goldmember tranny

*SCHLAP* (cannot find a Foxxy Cleopatra tranny slapping Austin Powers gif online GOD!)

‘Now make sure you reveal as much chest as you can and as for the makeup PILE THAT SHIZ ON!’ said no one ever. Don’t turn yourself into a human optical illusion because when they find out you’re really a troll they’ll be gone like *that*. Just kidding. BUT! You’re basically just showing that you’re not taking a language exchange seriously and the only people you’ll get contacting you are peeps who are, how do I say this, not looking to exchange languages. Yes. some people are on there to do just that.

Just a simple photo of you, you can pose but not looking like you’re smushed up against a window if you’re following me. Basically no chest, no fake face and no ridiculous expression in an attempt to look ‘sexier’. I made the mistake of attracting the wrong sorts of people anyway by doing nothing, which can happen quite commonly with girls, and it ended up on Skype text chat with him asking me to play a bad, BAD version of ‘would you rather’. Dear god…I can only thank the LAWHD that most people who are signing up for language exchanges are not these types of people anyway so summarised? Just don’t try to be someone you’re not, it only ends in crap.

2.) If you’re genuinely looking for a language exchange partner you end up looking for a clear picture of someone’s face right? Although in some cases this can be dismissed if their description sells them. Your description is the second thing people will look at on most lang exchange sites. It’s basically where you can say what you’re looking for in your own words.

E.g. ‘I’m looking to meet new friends who can teach me blah blah blah I can teach you English and explain our culture’ or ‘I’m looking for a Japanese/Korean language exchange partner who can help me with grammar etc etc I can help you improve your English!’

Don’t put anything too demanding like ‘I want’ and ‘I need’ as it sort of depicts you as a possessive person in a way and nobody wants a controlling partner. Just put in what you’d ‘like’ and what you can give back. When people hear they can get something out of it you’ll be raking in the requests!

3.) I don’t recommend putting your contact information in the description just because, as I mentioned in the last post, you may have some people contacting you that you’re really not that interested in and if they get hold of your Skype ID or your facebook or your phone number (god forbid) you may be subjected to random messages that will.get.annoying (interpals.net is a site that this can happen on). Wait until someone contacts you or you contact them and then switch contact details.

Some language exchange sites actually forbid people to include contact details in their descriptions (mylanguageexchange.com enforces this rule) and can warn and ban you from the site if done again.

4.) Don’t tick the ‘willing to meet in person’ box if you’re not willing to meet in person! I made this mistake and ended up making excuses for a good few weeks before changing it. You might think ‘meh, I could meet them if I wanted to I guess plus it’s not even likely that anyone is going to ask me to meet them anyway!’ but if somebody sees you’re ‘willing’ to then they will ask! The fact is, some people are prepared to go through hour long train journeys just for a drink in a café with you and that costs money! If they’re prepared to do that only to be let down because you chickened out, save them the disappointment and un-tick the box. On the other hand, many people who want to meet in person are also completely fine on Skype or even text chat so you won’t necessarily lose them because you can’t meet up, it’s just nicer to save time by being truthful.

5.) DON’T use it as a dating site. This is probably the crappest thing ever, who wants to be sent a request thinking they’ve found a great person who could really help them improve their linguistic skills only to find out they just want to date them. You might get a little flattered but in the end it’s just irritating. I’m pretty sure Asians don’t want to be talked to just because someone wants to date them for their ethnicity (and maybe because they’re good looking) and I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t either. Nobody does, so don’t. Go on a dating site, there are ones specifically for your ‘specifications’ I’m sure.

6?) Some people would talk about names on lang exchange sites but to be quite honest, I don’t have a massive problem with someone’s name. I’ll admit I may be slightly more attracted/drawn to a user that has an actual real name as their username but if they don’t it never determines whether or not I message them. Ever. Just don’t make it anything sexual. I did actually see one that said ‘Imgonnalickyoursushi’ which made me laugh so hard! And yes I did send a message complimenting their name…how could I not!? Paha! I suppose interesting or unique usernames may catch someone’s eye but it’s not the name that does it for someone. Quite a few of my friends have had usernames related to cars and food and it never bothered me because like I said earlier, first the photo (but not alllll the time) then the description. The little details come afterwards.

So that’s what NOT to do on a language exchange, if you have any questions about the language exchanges just leave a comment and I’ll get back to you!

I’m going to list the lang sites I’ve used now and rate them:

mylanguageexchange.com – most popular, very good! I got responses very quickly but AFTER I became a ‘gold member’ which allowed me to message other users. If you’re not a gold member you can’t do this. Down side is you need to pay to become a gold member, you can do this through months. It’s not expensive and it’s worth it because you instantly become attractive because you can respond to people’s HI’s.

lang-8.com – Awesome! You basically write diary entries in your chosen language and people can correct and comment on your entry to help you! I’ve earned myself a small reputation of being quite good at correcting some english entries myself, it’s really fun!

Interpals.net – really good and casual, it’s more of a penpal site where people can express whether they want a language exchange or a friendship or love/dating relationship. It’s cool, I’ve met nice people on there and it’s nice for casual chats!

Ittalki.com – I haven’t has much experience with this one but it is good, it’s simple and you can request to find an actual language teacher online to help you.

The top three are my most used personally because they’re so easy to use. 🙂

Being on a language exchange site!

Posted: July 28, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Language Exchange | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

So I think this first post should be a helpful one especially to those who are not on language exchanges yet! As someone who loves Asia, but lives in England, I don’t get to interact much with any Japanese or Koreans, the only Asians I ever see are Chinese and there are very few in my area! Being on a language exchange has allowed me to break this norm and as a result I have many Japanese and Korean friends of all ages! I think in this post I’m going to just explain how I decided to get on a language exchange site and what it’s actually like, how helpful it is etc etc and I’ll make another post maybe on the DO’s and DON’T’s or how you should approach signing up to one and using it. So without further ado; here’s my shiz!

So how did I decide to sign up? Well! It was something I’d considered for a while (yes a few months is a while!) but I was too intimidated to try it. I thought maybe there was an age limit, maybe nobody would be interested, maybe it would be really difficult to find a language exchange partner. Let me just say that all these assumptions are WRONG. There’s no age limit, I have a Japanese friend who is 15! Nobody’s interested? SERIOSULY!? There are crap loads of people wanting to learn English, even just as many wanting to learn Spanish, French, German, Italian etc etc I even have a friend who’s learning Hawaiian! If you’re talking about people not being interested in you appearance-wise…GET ON PLENTYOFFISH.COM OR SOMETHING! It’s not a dating site, although some people do use it as one which I’ll address in another post. People who genuinely want to learn English or another language that’s not their own are not looking at how pretty or hot someone is. Is it hard to find a language exchange partner? Nope! If you’re inviting (not in a sexy way) and open to learn their language or are willing to help them with a language they’re studying they’ll come running. Trust me. There you go, all assumptions debunked by someone who knows their language exchanges oh yeah baby. BACK TO THE QUESTION AT HAND *ahem*! I just decided that if I was to ever talk to, in person, a Japanese or Korean then the only way for me was to get on a language exchange and get myself some Skype: ID’s.

Actually signing up? Like signing up to any other site it requires an email address and a password and blah blah blah but then it allows you to start personalizing your profile, so, picking a username, adding a description that people will see, usually your age and always your native language and what languages you’re studying. On most sites you can simply message someone or send a friends request but on some other sites they require payment (I’ll elaborate in the next post). I’ve actually signed up to numerous language exchange sites just to heighten my chances of meeting lots of different people, which has proved to be successful and I definitely recommend doing this! Some sites are more popular than others for one reason or another so if you’re not getting any attention in one place then move on to the next.

People will contact you! Now, you’re most likely going to have some people (who cannot speak the languages you’re studying) contact you because they want to learn your native language. Everyone gets this! English is the second most widely spoken language in the world, it’s a business language, everyone knows of it and most people can speak even a little bit of it, so of course I get requests all the time from people I just don’t have anything in common with. As harsh as it sounds, I have to either ignore or reject some request nowadays because in a nutshell – the longer you stay active on a lang exchange, the more people (regardless of what languages they speak) will contact you and keeping up with long paragraphs explaining why you can’t help them is way too much especially if you’re on more than one site. Of course! Helping somebody learn your native tongue who doesn’t speak the languages you’re studying is great! But, sometimes we start to think ‘..it’s called a language exchange for a reason…’  and if you’re not gaining any knowledge for your own studies then it’s not always as rewarding as it could be if they did speak what you want to learn. It depends on the person! I do have foreign friends who are Spanish and Turkish and Greek whom I’ve met on lang exchange sites and I help them with their English from time to time! Luckily, on a lot of sites there’s a option to search for someone who speaks:….. and is learning:… unluckily, a lot of people don’t use the and is learning:… option and just look for people who can speak what they’re studying.

What actually happens? Basically, contact request -> exchange info (Skype ID, facebook etc) -> text chat or talk online or possibly in person if you’re up for it -> help eachother with language and understanding of culture! I hear people worrying about how to actually teach someone a language. A lot of the time me and my Skype friends just talk in English about everything and anything! This is because since most of them are Japanese and they’ve learnt already a considerable amount of English, enough to hold a conversation, they just say to me ‘just talking normally is practice for me’ so we just talk and talk! You might wonder how this helps me with my Japanese or my Korean but I do ask a lot of questions about both language and culture so I like to think I’m okay in that field of understanding! I’m also still studying by myself and since Japanese people learn English in school and I’ve never learnt Japanese in school (only French and German) they can hold a conversation whilst I…can’t. I don’t know enough yet!

What you get out of it? Friendship! Satisfaction out of learning not only a new language and not only helping somebody learn your language, but learning about the culture! What people are really like over there!

So just remember, if you’re lost, there’s only one road and it’s easy! Just do it!

374424_10151623390912669_1398913931_nSo that’s my shiz as I said! It’s terribly long but my next post will be probably on the DO’s and DON’T’s on a lang exchange site. BOOM!

(blimey, need a cuppa after that one)     

Introductions?

Posted: July 27, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Extra shiz | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

So I’m liuhllils! I decided on this name since it’s actually a combination of the word ‘little’ and the nickname ‘lils’ (since my real name is Lily). I’m from Yorkshire and, even though I don’t do this myself (or I try not to), there’s a tendency for people here to drop their t’s like a lot of Brits do! So lazily, ‘little’ become ‘li-ul’ or ‘li-uhl’ if you want to get precise. I’m hopefully going to be taking East Asian Studies at university next year so that should be good and obviously I’ll be documenting what I’ll be going through and eventually my year abroad! But for now, as a sixth form student, I’ll be posting about things I’m picking up, trends, anything to do with language and culture in Japan and Korea and I hope you find it useful! Anyhoooo peeps, my first post will be up tomorrow! Enjoy, nutjobs!