The Mysterious Road, Jeju Island

I was doing blog-walking when I found an article about the mysterious road in Jeju Island. It’s Dokkaebi Road which is lies on a hill at the foot of mountain. The road connects two major highway on Jeju Island.

According to the article I read, Dokkaebi Road earned name “mysterious road” because any objects or liquid put on the Dokkaebi Road appear to roll and flow up the hill instead of down.  Some people said the phenomenon is due to the magnetic field along the Dokkaebi Road that affected any objects or liquid on it. For example, a car in a state of  neutral position—the engine off-- can move by itself. And also, whe people pour water on that road, it will flow up, not flow down as it should be. 

That mysterious phenomenon revealed for the first time in 1980’s. It is said that a taxi driver who was delivering a newlywed couple experienced a strange phenomenon when he passed on Dokkaebi Road. After that, more and more people experiend similar things. As the news spread around the country it attracted many visitors and tourists who come to Jeju Island to witness the phenomenon.

Jeju Island authority creatively labeled the place “Mysterious Road” and up till now the Dokkaebi Road become a popular destination for tourists who visit Jeju Island.

But according to visitkorea website, the image of gravity defiance along Dokkaebi Road is just an optical illusion rendered by the seemingly high surroundings.

If you ever visited Jeju Island and came to this Dokkaebi "Mysterious Road", feel free to share your experience there, here ... :)   []


Source:

* Visit Korea  

*Wisata Korea (picture)

*Youtube (video)

"Sight, Sound, Scent, Taste and Touch" for K- Food Lovers

Talking about Korea is not complete if we don’t experience its culinary. Korean resto flourishes, mainly in Jakarta,  since Korean fever hits Indonesia. But most of them seems very “formal” and expensive resto, not suitable for young people whereas the majority of the Korean lovers are young people, people young at heart and teenagers. They would rather spend times and enjoy the meal in a resto with the relaxed atmosphere and  affordable prices.

But now, they have a place where they can experience various Korean foods and having Korean entertainments at the same time (it then becomes my favourite Korean resto :) :) ) . It’s  Daebak Fan Café which is located in Depok,  a suburb area of  South Jakarta.

The first time I came to this resto, I feel comfortable and impressed with the style of Daebak Fan Café, and of course with the taste of  many kind of Korean food it serves. 

 What surprises me that the resto is founded and is run by four young and talented people. They are students of engineering department in Indonesian University; Refaldo Fanther as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Afrizal Juansyah as Chief Marketing and Financial Officer, Wiranti Sitoresmi as Chief Human Resource and Operating Officer, and Asiah Syahidah as Chief Product and Design Officer.

They meet in 2012 and become a team called “Enjinio”. With the same spirit and the same interest, they make their dream come true by opening a Korean resto with a unique and different style with the others existing resto. They set a ‘Fan Café ‘ concept, and a year later  Daebak Fan Café  established with the brand-line “The 1^st Korean Fan Café in Indonesia”.

Why Fan Café ?

Wiranti said Korean Fan Café is the concept to give memorable experiences for Korea lovers, anyone who fond of K-pops, K-dramas, Korea tourism, and last but not least Korean culinary. People who come will also feel the nuance and the atmosphere of ‘fan’-based feeling from the room design, the available entertainment, the menu, event the colour.  Everything is very Korea.

“The concept of the café combines sight, sound, scent, taste and touch,” said Wiranti. 

There are two kind of room for the guess who come to Daebak Café. ‘Hongdae Room’ a room with modern K-Pop style. In this room, the customers are spoiled with the latest K-pop music as they enjoy the meal. They who like Korean drama can choose ‘Bukchon Room’ and will be entertained by theme songs of Korean dramas. 

In Hongdae room we can request our favorite K-Pop music video, and request Original Soundtracks or TV Show in Bukchon room. 

In Hongdae room, there is also  'Wall of Fans' where you can ‘post-it’ your message for your favourite actress/actors and for your K-Pop idols. 

Daebak Menu

The menu and the taste of the food are the most important thing for a restaurant. As a Korean resto, Daebak Fan Café serves many kind of Korean food which are familiar for Indonesians. The café hires experienced cooks to keep the best the quality and the taste of the food.

The menu of Daebak Fun Café consist of various Korean soup such as seaweed soup (miyeok guk),  kimchi soup (kimchi jjigae), spicy beef soup (yukgaejang), soft tohu stew (sundubu jjigae),  and spicy seafood noodle soup (jjampong)

We can also try Korean rice menu such as omurice, bulgogi and bibimbap; Korean noodle such as ramyeon, rappoki and japchae; Korean snack such as odeng, tteopokki and kimbab. Almost all kind of Korean foods are available in Daebak Fan Café.

We can complete our adventure of Korean culinary with ‘fandom punch’,  iced and fresh drinks which are named after Korean boy/girls band such as exotic alien from EXO, golden paradise from INFINITE, boice revolution from CNBLUE, wonderful burgundy from Wonder Girls, etc.

People, specially the young people will really experience Korean taste in Daebak Fan Café. That’s why some Korean idols fan-base community often uses the café for their gathering event.[]


*Note: all the pictures with permission and by the courtesy of Daebak Fan Cafe.

Korean, Foreign Languange That Gain Popularity

I still remember the first time I learn Korean. I’ve got mixed feeling between curious and nerveous because I never learn Korean before. I am totally blank about Korean, and at that time I thought that I would find difficulties in learning the language.

But when the teacher came in and begun teaching the Korean alphabet, my worries disappeared and change into enthusiasm. As a beginner I was so lucky that I had a really, really good teacher. She is a native Korean and used to be a kindergarten teacher so she knew well how to teach us, non-Koreans who learn Korean for the very first time. She is also good at creating a fun learning atmosphere so the students felt very comfortable and were motivated to learn.

There are about 20 students in my class from various range of age and background. Of course they have their own reasons to learn Korean. I am myself interested in learning Korean after watching many Korean dramas. The way Korean is spoken sounds good in my ears. Beside that, I like the songs that become the original soundtracks in some Korean dramas. I really want to be able to sing the theme songs, but how could I sing since I don’t know Korean at all. My reason might seem so funny but it is, so I decided to take Korean language class.

I don’t know if there are people like me who learns a new language just to be able to sing a song in that language. Most people learn Korean said that they learn the language for the purpose of their further study, they want to continue their study in Korea. Some people said learn Korean to add the value of themselves because they work in company belong to Koreans or for the purpose of working in Korea. 

Whatever the reasons are, since I start learning Korean two years ago, there are more and more Indonesians learning Korean specially among young people. Seeing this tendency, Korean can be one of the most popular foreign language among Indonesians  after English and others foreign language such as French and Japanese.

Enthusiasm in Learning Korean

To know about how far Korean attracted Indonesians to learn it, I asked Mr. Saiful Hadi, the owner of Bina Bangsa Karya  (BBK) Center, a private institution that offers Korean language course for Indonesians.

According to him, the Korean wave has triggered interest in learning Korean among the people of Indonesian, mainly young people who get in touch with anything Korea through K-Pop or Korean drama. 

Saiful Hadi who opened the language courses center since the year 2010 said the students learn Korean for many different reasons as I have said at the beginning of this writing. To help the students to learn Korean easier, He created the learning method called “Schematic Theory” for each level of study (basic, Intermediate and Advanced level). 

“Schematic Theory” is a technique to compose sentences according to Korean grammatical order “S-K-O-P”  (Subject-Adverb-Object-Predicate (verb)).
Saiful Hadi has also published books “How to Learn Korean Languange” to help people learning Korean easily.

“Number of people who take English course are still a lot more than Korean, but the participants of Korean language course also continue to grow from each year,” said Saiful Hadi who got master degree on social walfare from Chungnam National University, Daejeon, South Korea. 

He with optimism said that Korean has become popular among the young people and has a good prospect for Indonesian who learn it along with the increasingly close ties between Indonesia and Korea in various fields ; social, culture, education and economy. Today, there are many Korean companies open their offices in Indonesia. They do need many human resources with capabilities, Korean language skill included.

Enthusiams in learning Korean among Indonesians is also seen at Korean Cultural Center Indonesia (KCCI) in Jakarta. KCCI open new class every three month. Each time KCCI announces the opening of a new class, it is always fully booked. Total enrollment reached 700 people while KCCI can only accommodates 500 new students. Learning Korean in KCCI consists of eight level, and is more advantageous because all teachers are native Korean. The tuition fee is also affordable.

Learning Korean from Internet

As Korean become more and more popular in many countries including in Indonesia, learning Korean today is even more easier with the availability of many facilities in internet to learn Korean.  

I myself unfortunately only learned Korean basic level in KCCI. But I don’t stop learning, because I like Korean language a lot. I read some Korean learning guidebooks, and I also learn Korean from Talk To Me In Korean via internet. 

Recently, KBS World Indonesia also start a new service "Korean Drama Class" where we can learn Korean through the dialog used in Korean Drama so learning Korean is more interesting.

I find that learning Korean is really fun and challenging. I hope that someday I can visit Korea to practice my language skill in its native country. 

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