Korean Film Festival In Pune 2016

National Film Archive of India (NFAI) had brought us yet another package of Korean Movies!

NFAI in association with the Korean Consulate in Mumbai, Korea Foundation, Korean Association Pune had organized a 3-day ‘Korean Film Festival in Pune’.






NFAI Pune Entrance

Korean cinema has tried to portray different themes and has gained critical acclaim in major international film festivals. The festival have showcase some of these critically acclaimed and commercially successful movies.

The festival was formally declared open by Honorable Mr Soung-eun Kim, Consul General (Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Mumbai). Day 1 of the festival saw a full house of children from the Indus International School for the screening of 'How to Steal a Dog' (2014).

The second screening of the day was 'My Love My Bride' (2014) at 7 pm in the Main Auditorium of NFAI, Law college road premises.

There were many Korean Students residing in Pune who visited the film festival.
I was not able to Visit on the last of the festival but anyways 2 days were entertaining & will cherishes it until the next film festival.

SCHEDULE:

10th &11th November: Prabhat Road & Law College Road, Main Auditorium, NFAI.

10th 4:30pm (U) : How To Steal A Dog

10th 7:00pm (U/A) : My Love My Bride

11th 4:30pm (U/A) : Jeon Woo Chi

11th 7:00pm (U/A) : A Hard Day

12th November: Near Doordarshan Kendra, Kothrud, PhaseⅡ Auditorium, NFAI. 

11:00am (U/A) : Scandal Makers

1:30pm (U/A) : No Breathing

4:00pm (U) : A Long Visit

6:30pm (U/A) : Secret Union

The 5th Seoul Dessert Fair

The 5th Seoul Dessert Fair

If you have a sweet tooth, you’re in for a treat! The 5th Seoul Dessert Fair will be held at the World Cup Stadium, from September 24th to 25th, 2016.


Having a hard time keeping up with all of the trendy dessert spots in Seoul? We don’t blame you! There’s far too many, yet they are all worth trying! Lucky for us, popular sweets from all corners of Seoul (like Itaewon, Yeonnam-dong, Sinsa, and more), will be
joining at the fair!



The Dessert Fair is even treating us to worldwide delicacies, with booths joining us from France, Germany and Czech Republic. Not to mention, there will be several themes for your taste-buds to explore, including an array of Nonsan strawberry desserts.


Details

• Event Dates

 Sep. 24, 2016 ~ Sep. 25, 2016

• Address

03932  World Cup Stadium - 240 World Cup-Ro, Mapo-Gu, Seoul  

• Phone

+82-2-6010-8941

•

• Hours of Operation

11:00~17:00

• Fee

Advance Tickets: 3,000 won
Gate Tickets: 5,000 won

60-Foot-Tall Inflatable Moon Debuts in Seoul

This month, there’s more than one moon on view in Seoul. A 60-foot-tall work of public art called Super Moon has been erected—or rather, inflated—within the waters of Seokchon Lake, located in a park near the Han River.

The opaque, glowing space art is the work of FriendsWithYou, a Los Angeles-based art collective that specializes in cutesy, toy-like experimental installations that are often inflatable, rainbow-colored, and illluminated. It’s like Jeff Koons meets Sanrio.

Super Moon was commissioned by a massive Seoul shopping complex opening this winter, the nearby Lotte World Tower and Mall, but this particular lake is no stranger to odd art, having hosted Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s huge rubber duck in 2014.

During the day, the artists have set up a cloud-shaped bounce house and cosmos-themed mascots to interact with visitors. In addition to the moon, there are eight other planetary sculptures. At night, each of the sculptures glows, and programmable LEDs shift the colors of the moon sculpture.

“Super Moon is a symbolic manifestation of the immense power and serenity of our cosmos,” the artists say in a press release. "When we gather around the moon as a community, we all orbit together,” they explain, adding that they hope Super Moon viewers “can experience this sense of unity and peace.”

It’s on view until October 3, timed to coincide with the Korean harvest festival Chuseok (often likened to a Korean version of Thanksgiving), which happens around the fall equinox each year on the full moon. This year, the three-day festival takes place September 14 through 16.

Be Wary of Smart Phone Use While Walking in Seoul, South Korea

The SMG and the NPA will launch a pilot program which puts traffic safety signs and pedestrian walk signs to raise awareness of the danger of using smart phones in five areas, including Hongdae, which are full of pedestrians aged 10 to 30 and fraught with traffic accidents.

According to the Korean Broadcasting and Communications Committee, smart phone usage rate grew from 3.8% in 2010 to 78.7% in 2015. More than 60% of users said that smart phones are vital more than TV. According to research from the Traffic Safety Organization, the number of pedestrian traffic accidents due to smart phones increased from 437 in 2009 to 1,111 in 2014, a 2.5 fold increased over the last five years.
Pilot installation will take place in five areas: City Hall, Yonsei University, Hongdae University, Gangnam Station, and Jamsil Station.The SMG, along with the NPA, came up with designs and placed them where smart phone users are exposed to traffic accidents. By raising pedestrians’ awareness by using traffic safety signs and pedestrian walk signs, the SMG hopes to prevent accidents.The signs are designed to show situations where smart phone users are about to be hit by cars. The signs will also include “Be wary of smart phones while walking” to help pedestrians understand the signs.
                                             

Pedestrian walk signs have “Safety first when walking” to raise awareness of the danger of using smart phones. In addition, given that many pedestrians look down while they walk to look at their smart phones, the signs were made simple but clean.
The SMG will start installing 50 traffic safety signs on traffic lights and street lights in five areas and 250 pedestrian walk signs on pedestrian roads from the Thursday, June 16th.

The pilot project will be carried out for six months until the end of the year. During that time, the SMG and the NPA will monitor the changes in walking patterns, the number of pedestrian accidents, and citizens’ responses; according to the trial, the pilot signs may become official safety signs after the two organizations review the results.

Drinking in Korea

Cheers!

Whether it is at work or at university, whether you are new at your job or tired of the daily routines, in Korea there are always reasons to go out as a group and have ‘a drink’. So people would ask you

술 한 잔 할래요?
(Sul han jan hal-lae-yo?)

which means, ‘Do you want to have a drink?’

술(Sul) is a term for all alcohol drinks and 한 잔(han jan) is ‘one(한) glass(잔)’. 잔 is glass in terms of ‘cup’ so it is all cups made of glass. You don’t use 잔 for windows or fake jewlery. The Korean word for glass in terms of material is ‘유리’. 할래요(hal-lae-yo) means ‘want to do’. (Remember, the 요(yo) at the end indicates the polite form.) So 술 한 잔 할래요? means, ‘Do you want to have(drink) a glass of drink?’
Instead of 할래요, you can use 마실래요(Ma-shil-lae-yo) which means ‘want to drink’ and is grammatically more correct. In spoken Korean, however, you can use both.

When you are finally at a bar people would ask you (this could even happen while having dinner)

술 잘 하세요? (Do you drink alcohol drinks well?)
(Sul jal ha-seh-yo?)

or to be gramatically correct,

술 잘 마시세요? (Do you drink alcohol well?)
(Sul jal ma-shi-seh-yo?)

Which is actually asking you if you can drink a lot. Remember, however!! Even when it comes to drinking, you cannot forget that modesty is always required, unless you are at a job interview. If you cannot drink a lot of alcohol but you still like to drink and enjoy, you can say

잘 못 마셔요.
Jal mot ma-shyeo-yo.
(I can’t drink well. / I can’t drink a lot. Koreans will take this as ‘Yes, I can drink a reasonable amount.’)

If you actually CAN drink to a reasonable extent which would be from a guys standard, about one to two bottles of soju or many cans of beer (for women one third to a half of that), you would say

좀(조금) 마셔요.
Jom(Jo-geum) ma-shyeo-yo.
(I drink a little.)
좀(Jom) is ‘little’ and is the short form for 조금(jo-geum). But even if you say ‘a little’, people would take it as being modest and understand it as ”can take SOME alcohol.”

If you can’t drink much or don’t want to drink, make some believable facial expressions or gestures and say,

못 마셔요.(Mot ma-shyeo-yo.)
which means, ‘I can’t drink.’ or

안 마셔요. (An ma-shyeo-yo.)
‘I don’t drink.

Please, don’t be too honest to say
네, 잘 마셔요.(Ne, jal ma-shyeo-yo)
Yes, I can drink a lot.

What people will actually think is that you can drink hell a lot, like a keg of soju, and if you have a heavy drinker around, he is definitely going to try to make you drink until you become sick. So don’t use the last expression unless you are confident to stay fine.


                                                       

Cultural festival between Korea & India - Pune 2015

Fan Given as a Souvenir

                               Cultural festival between Korea & India 2015



      The steadily growing Korean community in Pune City is making 
sincere     efforts towards cultural integration.

                                         Firstly sorry for not posting for a very long time !

        South Koreans have been immigrating to India since the early 1950s. The big boom of immigration occurred when Hyundai set up a bulk of its factories in Chennai in 1995. Since then the average number of Koreans coming to settle in India, even temporarily, has increased exponentially.
                             

          According to the Korean Association of Pune, on an average, 500 Koreans would immigrate annually 20 years ago. Now the figure has crossed 1,500 in Pune alone. Korean companies like Hyundai, LG and Samsung have expanded in India, resulting in more Korean employees coming to the country for work. The cities with the highest Korean population now are Pune (1,500), Chennai (4,000) and Delhi (3,500).
                                 

Korean Food Stalls

Korean Lady in Beautiful Hanbok

 In an attempt to introduce Indians to Korean culture, the Korean Association in Pune has been organizing The Indo- Korean Cultural Festival since last year. Last year, the event took place on Saturday and had the Koregaon Park venue with Korean families dressed in Hanbok, the traditional silk Korean costume, for an evening of food and fun with their fellow countrymen.

Arirang Song 

Indian Style wedding with Korean Groom & Indian Bride 

Korean Lady Performing on a Bollywood Song.

Gangnam Style fusion dance

 The event also saw an equally enthusiastic participation from Punekars, with local children putting up a Taekwondo demonstration, and even taking the stage for the K-Pop contest, where participants are expected to perform Korean pop hits (Gangnam Style). In fact, the crowds cheered louder for the Indian performers. And one of the highlights of the festival was when a Korean boy and an Indian girl struck up a duet of “Tujhe dekha toh yeh jaana sanaam” a Bollywood movie song during the cultural show.

Even the culinary spread was a mix of Indian biryani and Korean delicacies like Kimbaap (sticky rice rolled in seaweed), Korean-style fried rice called Bokkeumbap, (sticky rice fried with red beans and topped with a tuna Kimchi) and traditional Korean rice flour and red bean paste dessert, called Gyeongdan.

           So it was an awesome evening with many local youth performed to Korean songs & won many prizes  in lucky draws & in Singing , Dancing competition. Prizes were Air Ticket to Korea, LEDs, Tabs, Mobile handsets, Refrigerator & last but not least Korean souvenirs’ with Lotte Choco Pie to everyone present at the venue. 

Congratulations to Incheon International Airport for winning the Best Overall Airport in the World prize

The Incheon International Airport Corporation won the Best Overall Airport in the World prize at this year’s Global Traveler Tested Reader Survey Awards.

The awarding ceremony took place on Dec. 15 (local time) at the Peninsula Beverly Hills LA. Earlier this year, Seoul's main airport was also declared "Best Airport Asia-Pacific" and "Best Airport 25-40 Million Passengers" in the most recent Airport Service Quality Awards. With the prize, the Incheon International Airport became the only airport in the Global Traveler Hall of Fame.

Earlier, the airport had topped the Airport Service Quality of the Airports Council International for nine consecutive years. Approximately 26,000 people participated in the assessment.
It was followed by Changi Airport in Singapore and the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Opened in 2001, the Incheon International Airport has recorded an annual average growth rate of 6.4 percent, and 400 million people have used it until August this year.

The number exceeded 40 million in 2014 alone, too. At present, it is connected to 188 cities in 55 countries around the world, and its cargo and passenger transportation volumes are the third and ninth-highest in the world, respectively.

How to Send a Gift by Using Korean Mobile Gifticon(a mobile gift voucher)

Many Koreans use a mobile gift shop application to send a gift to their families, friends and to coworkers. You need to buy gifts for coming Christmas but don't have time for shopping? Then why don't you use the Korean mobile App store as it is very easy and convenient to use.

1. Using 'Gifticon Syrup'

This easy to download mobile App recommends you appropriate items to select showing several possible occasions.

You can choose the (list of) receiver(s) from the contact list of Kakaotalk or Facebook.

① Personal authentication is essential. Click the 'Identifying to Use' and choose 'mobile Identification' on the left side.

② Read and accept all the policy terms and enter your name, gender and date of birth. And then click 'requesting authentication' after choosing your mobile carrier.

③ After entering the verification code number sent to you, click 'next' button. If you accept all the policy terms of Gifticon click ‘next’ button again. Here, you can set up your password for Gifticon App.
                          

Now, it’s time for shopping. If you click one of the theme shops (birthday, baby shower, cheering up, etc.) you’d like to visit, recommended items are shown according to each occasion. 

Besides the theme shops, brand shops categorize goods by items. For example, if you choose the coffee/drink, you will see the product list with diverse brands, types and sizes.

Choose one of the items you want, pick an e-card with a brief message. And then choose the receiver designating the route that the gift delivers: text message, Kakaotalk or Facebook messenger.
                         

2. Using the Mobile Gift-shop in Kakaotalk

You can also send a gift at Kakaotalk which Koreans use a lot. The good point of this shopping is easy and convenient.

① Click 'See more' in Kakaotalk to find a 'gift shop' tab.

② In 'recommended theme' corner are shown the items appropriate for occasions: birthday, Christmas, anniversary, marriage, etc.

                       

Hybrid Taxis to Help Keep Seoul's Air Clean

                            

Toyota's Prius hybrid taxis will start plying the streets of Seoul in mid-December. Toyota Korea on Thursday said the carmaker will deliver a dozen Prius taxis in mid-December, with another 30 booked for delivery later.

The taxis were launched on Aug. 20, but delivery took longer than expected because of the time required to re-spray them in the requisite colors and fix the components.
Prius taxis are expected to take some time to establish themselves here over the cheaper LPG taxis. A Prius taxi costs around W26 million (US$1=W1,116), up to W10 million more than the LF Sonata, the most common kind of taxis here.

Toyota started mass production of the Prius in 1997 and has sold a total of 3 million units around the world. The taxi versions can be found on the streets of Austria, Croatia, Japan, Singapore and the U.S.

Sweet treats at Garosugil

                           
Sweets can be found in almost every nook and cranny of Garosugil and its adjoining streets.

In fact, one can practically gauge the latest dessert trends of the city by taking a stroll through the scenic area that is located in Seoul’s Sinsa-dong. 

There one will come across at least three different takes on soft serve, uber-popular roll cakes, variations on the bingsu and other delights. 

                                         


One will also find sister shops of established dessert stops, like sibling stores Pumpkin Terrier Cake Shop and Hey. J, both of which spin out tasteworthy confections.

Pumpkin Terrier Cake Shop, which opened in June, derives its homey cake aesthetic from Glamorous Penguin, a dessert cafe that opened in 2012 in Seoul’s Hannam-dong.
Layer cakes can be found at Pumpkin Terrier, including a particularly memorable raspberry meringue confection, where layers of cake boasting a slightly big crumb are sandwiched around a sweet raspberry curd. 



                                         


The whole towering affair is then covered in sugary, marshmallow-like meringue for the kind of dessert that goes great with a piping hot cup of coffee. 

1F, 534-8 Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
(070) 7627-0057
Open 1:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily
Cookie chou costs 3,500 own each, matcha soft ice cream costs 3,900 won, matcha soft shiratama costs 4,800 won