Useful (and Interesting) Links - Seoul Travel Guide

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Here are some useful and interesting links on Seoul, its people and neighborhoods, as well as a few other things you might not expect—like cartoons, Korean slang and the underground music scene. Use these to help show you around the city a little more.

Best Flash Animation Some pretty cool, funny, weird little animations. Most popular are the Mashimaro bunny and Zolaman. It's recommended to download the Korean Text Display Support, because otherwise most of the page looks like gibberish, but I think you can squeak by without it. Don't let the gibberish discourage you/turn you off from checking out this site; it's entertaining, and you will have that inner-knowing feeling when you notice characters from the cartoons pop up as paraphernalia and in commercials wherever you go.

Symbols of Korean Culture This page shows some symbols of traditional Korean culture; it seems to imply it's the ultimate list. There's still some debate about what should be considered signature symbols of traditional culture. But at least you can get acquainted with a few. The menu bar also takes you to other sites that talk about other aspects of Korean culture. This site has a promotional feel to it, so I think this stuff should be taken with a grain of salt.

SeoulSpy.com This site includes places to see during the day and night, current movies being shown there, all sorts of goodies. If you click on "Hotspots" and then "Insadong," click on "teahouses" in the header; I strongly recommend visiting one. The atmosphere of some of them is so cool, with the serene and tasteful ambience of a traditional pastime holding its own in a fast-paced city. And the part about some night clubs being super-expensive? Very true. You can easily spend four hundred thousand won for a few nights of fun, fun, fun, if drinking lots of sool (beer) and soju (Korean whiskey/liquor) and getting hooked up is your sort of thing.

Explore Asian Culture with BUG Scott Burgeson has lived in Seoul for a couple of years and published his observations of the city in a book that seems to be aiming for honesty and originality. Learn about Korea, Japan and other cultures, from the point of view of a Westerner on the scene.

Seoul Network It's like a Netscape/Explorer homepage that centers around Seoul and its doings. Haven't really explored it, but it looks useful with its subcategories (ex. Economy, Life, Region, Business, Society, Science) and index.

Korean Resources (Part I) Goodness, includes a search engine, library resources, web tools, directories, magazines, computer/internet information, government/ministries information, underground/popular music information, etc., etc., etc.

Seoul Metropolitan Museum of Art The official webpage. One of the places I wish I visited when I was still in Seoul.

Seoul City Map Shows all the districts of Seoul. When you click once on one, it will give you a slightly bigger picture of the region and only shows the main-main streets, so not too helpful but gives you a general idea.

Jaychan's Homestay A well-made, appealing website on a homestay that includes comments of past people who've stayed there. Sounds like a cool place to stay, and they even pick you up from the airport and take you back, which some places charge you for.

Korean-to-English Slang Dictionary An on-line up-to-date (so the webmaster claims) slang dictionary. Seems aimed toward high schoolers and college students; Tina the Troubled Teen, a cartoon regular, the tagger/graffiti-like font, and the upfront, smartass writing style tipped me off. People say never use slang when you're just starting to learn a language, but I feel you should at least know the lingo to recognize it. Then with time, observation, and careful notice of the words and phrases in the proper situations, you would fool anyone into thinking you were a local.

Kimchi People A compilation of many-many personal Korean websites worldwide. Neat-o. I especially like the title "Kimchi People." Oh, yeah.

Kimchi - The Ultimate Korean Flavor An essay on kimchi, an original Korean dish that no proper Korean meal is ever without.

"Seoul Rocks" (an article) A take on the underground scene. Bashes stereotype that Asians can't act or rip up a place. Kim says to consider the Korean music as just being music and not to compare it to American music. But you can't help getting this itch that this one song sounds so eerily like Nirvana or another like Rage Against the Machines. However, let's not forget the bands like the punk Crying Nut, with its original/funny/though-provoking lyrics, and original, varied-styled tunes like that of musician Shin Hae-Chul.

Korean Underground Music A well-written, intelligent piece on author Michael Glass' observation of the underground scene. Includes links to the author's recommended musicians (also scroll all the way down to catch "More Korean music links" on the left-hand bottom corner), and a couple of links to music genres.

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