Korean Job Discussion Forums

casey's moon · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Location: Daejeon

Okay, we had two holidays in the last week -- one of them was some sort of military guy day, and the other one was something else (on Sunday) -- the military one wasn't a day off, and I don't know if the other one should have been or not, since it was Sunday. My question is, did anyone else get an early morning phone call reminding you to hang a flag??? It was in Korean, obviously, but it was a recording of a woman's voice... Anyone else? Seemed a little obtrusive, and would be particularly annoying if it WAS a day off.... Shocked

schwa · Joined: 18 Jan 2003 Location: Yap

My cellphone blurts out little holiday announcements. I thought I heard 'happy birthday' sunday morning.

It would have been a day off had it fallen on a weekday. Some sources translate it as 'national foundation day' but thats way too stodgy-sounding. It honors Korea's creation myth which is a quirky tale of a bear & a tiger in a cave who were supposed to subsist on garlic & mugwort for 100 days but the tiger gives up & runs away, then a son-of-god figure descends from the sky & weds the she-bear & they give birth to Tangun, father of the nation, some 4337 years ago. Have I got that about right? Ask your students about it.

I teach the name as "Sky Opening Day," a rough translation of the Korean.

casey's moon · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Location: Daejeon

Ahh, yes, I've checked my calendar and National Foundation it was-- BTW love your translation! I'm very aware of the story as I had to study it in Korean class (well, study it is exaggerating, I suppose... but I did learn it!)

My old cell phone also used to give messages about holidays, but I didn't mind that -- this I kind of mind, however!