Apparently all Korean high school students wear uniforms to school. Typically these are skirts for the girls and slacks for the boys combined with either a blazer or perhaps a sweater vest, and ties. It looks like each school has their own school tartan or look. It's kind of curious that plaids are the chosen pattern in an east Asian country but that's certainly the case. Look! They're even on the classic date! Well, I recently saw two Kdramas that featured school uniform

Coffee Truck in honor of Song Joong-ki.... sent by fans! When I first read about domestic coffee trailers in ‘The Washington Post’ newspaper, I was miffed. I mean, anyone who follows Kdramas, Kpop, and Korean culture just KNOWS coffee trucks were a thing in Korea long before they were Stateside. C’mon, people. Korea did it first, and they should get the credit. After I cooled down and actually read the article, I’ve come to understand they’re not exactly the same thing. Th

Pat: OK, we came, we saw, we conquered. Wait, that’s not right. (I think that’s left over from ninth grade Latin class). Judy: This whole weekend was sold to me as a visit to the RM exhibit at SF MOMA and a K-pop dance class. I was even sent a video clip of the dance number we would be learning. I was especially pleased because said dance number was the one I learned in Seoul, meaning I would be way ahead of the other classmates…. Pat: Of course, Judy has confused a dan

Judy is here with me in Northern California, and we’re going to see the RM exhibit at SFMOMA. San Francisco is a-buzz with this show; it's curated by RM, a member of BTS and we decided early on to attend. Yes, we’re excited! Judy is much better informed than I am on this group; on all Kpop music actually, but I know who RM is! No, we didn't attend the press conference. This morning at breakfast she was listening to Kim Chang-won, an actor all Kdrama fans know. He’s been act

Judy here. As always I focus on stuff that you don't see in American culture when watching Korean shows. In particular I want to point out that at no point in my 70 plus years have I ever seen a man feed another man a morsel of food at a restaurant. I predict that most Americans would find this cringe-worthy. Not so Koreans. In a recent reality show I noticed that one adult male carefully picked up food with his chopsticks and fed it to his table mate... who enthusiastic

I've watched a few dating shows from Korea over the past few months. Of course I have some observations that I'm sure our readers are waiting to hear. I have never watched an American Dating show but that doesn't stop me from having strong opinions about what I THINK American Dating shows might be like... This Gmama is nothing if not opinionated! A few titles of Korean Dating Shows include: Single's Inferno (big time emphasis on hunkiness & beauty) Better Late than Si

Okay, it's Judy and I have a special request. As part of this blog business I get analytics about who is reading this stuff from around the world. I find it fascinating to think that someone in Lahore, Bangkok, or Toronto is actually checking the Gmamas out. My very simple question is this: if you're from Korea can you drop a comment & tell us why or how you connected? You appear to religiously read this month in and month out, yet we know virtually nothing about you! P

I’ve got three daughters. Yes, I love them all dearly and equally. But now I have a FAVORITE, and let me tell you why. It’s because she actually reads this blog and commented on a post I did. This is astounding! Judy and I spend an inordinate amount of time kvetching over the fact that our kids don’t read the blog, or if they do, they don’t do it consistently. In some nutty way we kind of like our little pity party. It’s a club we enjoy being part of. Actually, since i

Having just watched My Mister, where they use the English word ‘scandal’ numerous times, I thought I would try to understand why they do that. I mean, they could use a Korean equivalent, but they don’t. So I did a superficial dive into the why, and this is what I came up with: NOTHING. I don’t have a clue why they use it. It’s like when they use the word ‘fighting’ in Kdramas instead of a Korean word. It’s in so many of them that it seems universally accepted. Whenever I

(It's Judy.... you know this because my words are in black; Pat's words are in red....) There are many cultural habits that are shown in Kdramas that were new to me, others I was aware of. The act of sitting on the floor is new to me.... well it's not really new to me but the EXTENT to which Koreans sit on the floor is new to me. Apparently it came into vogue in the 17th century when under floor heating become commonplace in Korea. This system (called ‘ondol’) facilitate