Including parts 1 and 2 for easy reference.
Update: ex-President Park Geun-Hye is currently in prison
Korea’s new President, Park Geun-Hye, had her inauguration today at the National Assembly building on Seoul’s Yeouido (island) alongside 77,000 selected citizens and politicians. The post-inaugural parade took her to Gwanghwmun Plaza in northern Seoul and finally to the nearby capitol building, Cheong Wa Dae. This is a return to the Blue House for Park since she already lived there for 15 years as the daughter of the late President Chung-Hee. She was also promoted to the post of First Lady for five years, following the assassination of her mother in 1974. Interesting fact: President Park holds a bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering (1974) and can speak five languages.
Vocabulary:
President – 대통령 daetong-nyeong
Park Geun-Hye – 박근혜
Korea Times links: (in English and Korean)
Inauguration Day ceremony
Park Geun-Hye’s Speech
Practice speaking Korean and punctuation!
Apple’s Voice dictation is a fun way to practice speaking Korean. Korean is available on your iPhone or iPad; enable it from the menu: Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Choose Add New Keyboard.
To Use:
Open Notes, Email, Messages or any program that supports voice dictation. Press the globe icon in the lower left to toggle languages to enable Korean. Next, press the microphone icon (next to the spacebar) and start speaking in Korean.
-Voice dictation recognizes spoken punctuation too. Try using the terms in this article and see if it can understand your pronounciation.
-You can also enable Siri to recognize spoken Korean for voice control. Settings > General > Siri > Language > Korean* (This is a bit more advanced, so practice simple dictation first.)
-Mac computers also have Voice Dictation built-in. Once enabled, press the (fn) key twice to begin and once to stop.
Support:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5176
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5449
*Ensure that you have an internet connection for both of these features.
Korean Presidents are elected for a single 5-year term and Park Geun-Hye (박근혜) will take office as President on February 25, 2013. She is replacing exiting President Lee Myung-Bak (이명박). As do other world leaders, Korean Presidents frequently handout pardons before the leaving the Blue House.
Two articles on cold weather and staying warm.
