Sta-range-ee

It's always hard when I try to teach my students about comparatives and superlatives. Just in case you aren't up on your English grammar sh*t; comparatives compare two things...better than, prettier than, more unique, and superlatives compare more than two things...the best, the most comfortable, the coolest, ect. If you didn't know it...and I probably didn't a few years ago, there are rules to these things as there are to everything else under the sun.

The rules to determine whether to use "er", "est", "more" or "most" are dependent on syllables. We all know syllables, right. (hands clapping - red (1), yellow (2), magenta (3)). Unfortunately, when you're learning a new language this isn't so simple. You may have never heard the word spoken before or your language has Konglisized or Spanglisized certain words incorrectly. For example, strange. It's a one syllable word, right? Not in Korea. Here it's pronounced, sta-range-ee.

It may not be politically correct to talk about how strange Korea is...or how strange certain things here are. Things are normal (2 syllables) to the people here, but they are strange to me. They might not even be strange to other Asians or Europeans or Africans or what-have-you. They are strange to me though, so I thought it was time for another posting of "things in Korea that are weird". Yup! Even after 3+ years, I'm still encountering things that throw me for a loop.

Eel catching contests are very popular at festivals in Korea. I haven't entered one yet as I've seen the eels bite a few too many people.

These trucks make the rounds in Korea. There's one that shows up every few weeks near an intersection by our apartment. How handy is it that all your bamboo-weaved needs are all in one place?

The Anyang River walk near our house could use a little sprucing up. I guess that city thinks so too since it has pictures of nice nature scenes over all of the ducts.

It's strange that it took this long to get a Taco Bell in Korea...and that I still haven't been there.

This is one of the forms I had to fill out when I got my health check. I'm pretty sure there's a typo on it since I can't understand why someone would need to know if you get imitated easily.

The curtesy button in the bathroom stall...once pushed it creates a very loud toilet flushing sound.

Did you know that armpits are prettier when they're white? I didn't.