The nation of South Korea has an abundance of cultural traditions and food is by far one of the strongest and most cherished traditions of the country. Korean food has a long story. The old customs have been handed over from generation to generation to the modern culinary trends. The thing is that to get the heart of South Korea, you have to taste it. In this article, you are going to learn about the Korean food tradition, from its beginning to the present and modern lives.

History of Korean Cuisine

The history of Korean food is very old and it dates back several thousand years. Earlier on, people used to rely on the land to get their food. They cultivated rice, vegetables and seasonal produce. The food was plant-based with a small portion of meat or fish. The food that farmers consumed consisted of plain rice, fermented vegetables, and broth.

The fact that there were long winters made preserving food very essential. Such was born kimchi through spiced cabbage that had been fermented and put in jars underground to be eaten throughout the cold season. Other conserved foods such as doenjang (fermented soybean paste) and gochujang (red chili paste), also existed in Korean homes.

Food was also used as a source of medicine and nutrition. Garlic, ginger and other such ingredients were also used to treat the body.

Eating Customs

When eating in Korea, it is good to be aware of some local dining manners. Your food is usually accompanied by a lot of side dishes known as banchan, that is shared. All people at the table serve and eat together, but one has to wait until the oldest person begins to eat.

Tipping is not a tradition in Korea, and water or tea are normally served with the food. One should practice pouring drinks for the other and turn his/her head aside when taking. This is very respectful, especially when taking drinks with elders or in the workplace. All these traditions demonstrate the great value Koreans place on society and relationships.

Modern Korean Food Culture

Today, the cuisine of South Korea is a combination of tradition and innovation. There are still several traditional dishes such as bibimbap, bulgogi and samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup), all eaten on a daily basis. However, fusion cuisine became popular, which means that you can now taste something that can be characterized as a combination of Korean, Western, Japanese, or Chinese styles. Korean food has gone international, but it does not lose its identity because of the main ingredients such as sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic, and chili paste.

Koreans are also fond of restaurants. Whether you prefer having street food in small stalls or elegant rooftop restaurants, everything will suit your taste. Food is not the only thing when it comes to eating out, but rather a social tool that allows people to de-stress and have fun in life.

Jeom-o: Where Tradition Meets Elegance

Jeom-o is a luxurious salon in Gangnam, Seoul and other metropolitan areas. It provides fine dining, including Korean cuisine, so it is ideal not only for business meetings but also for a calming night. You get into a calm and personal room at Jeom-O, in which the light is soothing, the music is calm, and the mood is set to be cozy.

If you’re visiting but already know where to find the best jeom-o in Seoul, you’ll discover that these exclusive venues often combine upscale entertainment with exceptional dining experiences. Many of these high-end establishments offer a refined blend of Korea’s culinary heritage and modern gastronomy. Guests can savor premium dishes such as hanwoo beef (Korea’s prized beef), Jeju-grilled abalone, or traditional kimchi prepared with gourmet ingredients, all while enjoying the discreet and sophisticated atmosphere these venues are known for.

The kitchen at Jeom-o concentrates on quality and presentation. Each meal is carefully made, perfectly presented and is to be enjoyed without rushing, making it an experience. Jeom-o venues embody the theme of Korean food culture by retaining the authentic taste of the food, but displaying it in a new, luxurious style.

Street Food and All-time Favourites

Even though Jeom-o is a luxurious experience, Korean street food is also one of the major aspects of everyday life. Food stalls selling tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), hotteok (sweet pancakes), odeng (fish cake skewers) and gimbap (rice rolls) can be found in cities and small towns. These foods are cheap, quick and tasty.
Scores of Koreans take quick lunchtime meals at roadside food carts or late at night. Even travelers enjoy being children again with these snacks since they are fun, delicious and convenient to munch on.

Why Become A Personal Trainer?

Being a personal trainer is an alluring career path for anyone who has a passion for fitness. But a personal trainer does a lot more than just help people workout. A personal trainer is there to work with an individual to construct a complete fitness plan. Covering all aspects of a person’s life. With the aim to help that individual meet their goals and improve their wellbeing.

It is important to note that a personal trainer isn’t the same as a physical therapist. People often mistakenly assume that these two professions are the same. And there are a lot of similarities between the two fields. But a physical therapist is more concerned with diagnosis and treating physical ailments. Whereas a personal trainer is more focused on improving your health and physical fitness.

One of the main advantages of being a personal trainer is that you are self-employed. You can choose your own clients. Decide your own hours. And build your career around your life. And this is a very alluring prospect to some people. The other main advantage is that you will have a lot of time to focus on your own fitness. If working out is important to you then this is definitely the right career for you.

What You Need To Know

But there is far more to being a personal trainer than just having a passion for working out. And this is where a lot of people get it wrong. They assume they can build a career off the back of their gym skills. But you actually need to know a lot more.

You need to be critically aware of exactly how the human body works. Which muscles are activated by which exercises. Each client will have a different fitness goal. Specific areas of their body they want to work on. And you need to help them build a workout routine that will help them meet that goal. But you also need to be conscious of how different body types mesh with certain exercises. Not everyone’s bodies will be suited to every type of workout. You need to be able to look at one of your clients and know what will help them.

You also need to have a good understanding of a number of different medical conditions. Especially if you one day want to transition into being a physical therapist. You will likely end up having clients who suffer from something that might impact their ability to exercise. Or it might require a specific diet plan. In your initial sessions you will need to discuss this with them. It is worth using transcription services for medical discussions with new clients to ensure you get all the details correct and exact.

We briefly mentioned diet plans above. And this is another huge part of being a personal trainer. And this is often the main area that a lot of aspiring personal trainers fail at. Part of your service should include managing your client’s diet. Because diet is vitally important when it comes to reaching your fitness goals. If you aren’t eating right then you won’t see results from all your working out. And this is something you need to impress upon your clients.

You will work with them to build a diet plan that suits their specific goals. Not only ensuring that they are meeting their caloric intake but also eating the right things. You will help them construct a meal plan, possibly providing them with recipes or helping them with meal prep. And you will also need to motivate them to stick to this meal plan.

Is It Right For You

So far we have discussed all the things you need to know. But even if you do have all this information, being a personal trainer still might not be the right career for you. So what type of person makes a good personal trainer? Firstly, you need to enjoy working with a wide variety of people. While you can pick and choose your clients, you can’t afford to be too picky. Sometimes you will need to pay the bills and take on clients you might not necessarily get on with too well.

Secondly, you need to be a patient person. There will be a lot of times where your clients start to pull back or dip in their progress. Maybe they’re not sticking to the meal plan. Or are flaking on sessions. Patience is super important to ensure you can give them grace and help them get back on track.

A vape is a type of electronic cigarette that was created to feel like smoking without having as many negative health impacts. A vape is made up of a power source, usually, a battery, an atomizer, and a container like a small tank. It was called a vape as instead of inhaling smoke the user would be inhaling the vapor. How it works is that you pour liquid into the small tank and the atomizer heats this liquid up turning it into a vapor, there is usually a button on a vape and when you press this the liquid will heat up and you can smoke it. As the vape was only invented in 2003 the history of vaping isn’t a long one, when the product was invented back in 2003 they were not widely used or known about but the marketing of vapes has led to a rapid increase in how many people are using them, in 2011 there were 7 million people using e-cigs and by 2020 this had massively increased to 68 million and every day this number is growing. In 2008 the World Health Organisation released a statement saying that vaping was not a legitimate way to quit smoking and that anyone selling these products must remove anything that claims the WHO are in support of them, but this didn’t deter people from taking up vaping. Since this statement from the WHO many states and countries have tried to prevent people from using vapes but the marketing of vapes has been so successful that even this did not prevent them from becoming popular. 

The health impacts

One of the reasons why marketing for vaping has been so successful is because a vape really is a product that sells itself. Smoking cigarettes is one of the most harmful things that people can do to their bodies and their health. Smoking is associated with many health issues including increasing your blood pressure, increasing your risk of a stroke, and increasing your risk of heart disease. Over 30% of deaths from heart disease can be traced back to either smoking or second-hand smoke. There are hundreds of dangerous chemicals in tobacco that wreak havoc on your body and your health as they cause damage to almost all of your organs. Smokers are aware of this but as nicotine is one of the most addictive substances there is, studies have revealed that it is just as addictive as cocaine which makes it hard for smokers to quit. 7 out of 10 people who smoke want to quit smoking but can’t, this is what makes marketing for the vape so easy as all of these smokers are looking for a way to quit, and vaping instead of smoking is a great step in the right direction. It gives the same feeling as smoking without being as damaging and it allows you to lower the amount of nicotine you’re inhaling gradually until you’re no longer dependent on it. 

Social Media

Like many other products, social media has been a fantastic tool to help companies market their products. Social media allows marketing campaigns to reach more people than has ever been possible before, Instagram has millions of active accounts that will be engaging and spreading things that you post, helping them to reach more people and promote your product further. The popular vape brand Juul has massive success by marketing on social media sites like Instagram and Facebook. Their marketing plan heavily relied on social media as they were aware this is the new best way to reach people, a recent study on how vaping became so popular claims that Juul spent over $1 million on online marketing. They also used Twitter and YouTube to make their products look like they were cool and to try and associate Juul vapes with fun, freedom, and sex appeal. This was a really successful marketing tactic which many people will likely follow, a study revealed that the more Juul-related tweets there were, the more sales Juul were making. Before the campaign, there were on average around 700 tweets a month mentioning Juul products but after the campaign, this increased to over 30,000 tweets a month in 2017. As this campaign spread so much awareness, by the end of 2017 Juul was taking at least half of the e-cigarette market share and they are still the most well-known vaping brand. 

Fun Flavors

To try and deter people from smoking, flavored cigarettes and menthol were banned as many smokers only smoke menthol. This gives e-cigarettes a unique selling point as e-cigarettes can be any flavor. E-cigarette companies use this laxation in regulations to target the youth by creating youth-friendly flavors like bubblegum and candy floss. A study revealed that over 40% of young vapers took up vaping as they were interested in trying all of the different flavors. As there were many high school students involved in this study, following this, regulations were tightened but this was mainly aimed at the packaging and any flavor e-liquid is still allowed. With so many different flavors to promote this is a great marketing technique, there are tasty flavors like strawberry and to keep people interested there are also less appealing flavors like crab and roast chicken which are more of a novelty but the variety helps to keep people vaping. 

When it comes to playing video games there are many skills you can learn from them and that much has been proven by science years ago. Video games are also a very good educational tool when it comes to learning particular skills that require more studies and practice overall. This is why over the years we have seen many games be developed to help the learning of second languages or math for example. One trend that has become more and more popular though is the arrival of games that teach you a code and out to understand computers in general. So let’s take a look at some of the best games that exist that can help you learn computing and all that you need to know about programming machines. Let’s jump into it and see all the options available.

Minecraft

While many people play Minecraft to build small houses or fight zombies and Dragons the reality is that the possibilities within this game are near unlimited. Whether you choose to play around with Redstone or code one of the many SMP Minecraft servers you will be faced with a learning curve that can be quite difficult but very rewarding. To learn how to truly set up a Minecraft server you will need to learn how to code plugins as well as server text docs that are needed to run the server itself. While in the game you can use Redstone to build complex machines that are even akin to computers that run on binary systems in real life it only goes to show that Minecraft has a lot to offer especially as a learning tool. If you are looking to start your learning experience within video games Minecraft is the place to start.

Hacknet

Putting you in the shoes of a hacker in a cyberpunk kind of world this game will ask you to learn the basics of code to be able to resolve mysteries as well as break down the defenses of your enemies. While it won’t teach you to code exactly it will introduce you to the basics and force you to understand how computer programs and cyber security work which a great way is to learn about these aspects of computer science. While still more of a game than a learning tool it is a great way to introduce yourself to coding while following an interesting narrative and feeling immersed into a wild story filled with twists and turns that can be art to predict. It will please both your sense of curiosity and learning as well as your gamer side. So definitely do not overlook this game.

Baba is you

Now for something a little bit more lighthearted and completely different from the other two games mentioned. This game is going to appeal to you for computing skills not in the same way or practical way that you might expect. While it does not teach you to code or to understand machines itself it will train you to understand things from different perspectives and work on your logic skills. The game is all about tackling puzzles in different ways and changing your perspective to resolve sequences of actions with the tools available which is something that is often the case when dealing with computers and coding. It’s all about understanding the puzzles and taking them apart piece by piece to make sense of them. It is also a very fun game that is available on many platforms so even if you are playing on mobile devices you will have access to it.

Code monkey

This game is all about working with functions that are constructed the same way coding is. The game is all about helping a little monkey reach his banana. This might seem silly but the idea is to build a challenge by making it more and more difficult for you to build the path required for this monkey to reach its banana. The game is well built in a way that will allow you to learn everything that you need to achieve those goals. The end game of this game is to introduce you to pseudocode to eventually teach you the basics and the basics of the real language of Python. Python is a coding language that is used currently in many industries and is very useful for learning to code. So as you can see games can be useful for your introduction to computing.

Untrusted

Now for something a little bit more challenging let’s talk about untrusted. The way untrusted works is that you have to create a path between two rectangles. On one side you have the visual representation and on the other side, you have access to the old code that presents the screen that you can see. Part of the code is locked which means that you cannot change it but you can use it as a reference to change the other parts that are open to modification. This pushes you to look for patterns and learn to understand what terms mean and what they create so that you can change the faulty code to fit what you need. What’s great about this is that this game does not use pseudocode instead it uses real JavaScript. While it can be a challenging exercise it will help you understand the basics of JavaScript and eventually build your knowledge as you progress to the levels that get increasingly difficult.

As you can imagine these are not the only games that are available on the market to help you learn about computing as there are a large number of them that are always growing. If you want to learn coding for gaming you should keep looking for the best game that is suited to your needs as there are plenty out there that do all sorts of things for all sorts of coding languages. Learning code is the same thing as learning Spanish or French. Code is a way to be used as a real language because it works the same way with grammar and vocabulary. So definitely explore in game your way into learning new skills with the games we mentioned and so many more.