Children's Day 어린이날 4 ways to celebrate AND expand your Korean Vocabulary

Struggling to keep up your Korean vocabulary? I relate. If you’re anything like me, with a full-time job, volunteering, personal projects, and social obligations, you probably have difficulty making time to practice a new language too. That goes double if you have kids!

May 5th has been Children’s Day in Korea since the 1970s (it was originally set on May 1st, but that date was already Labor Day, so it was moved). Here in Canada, kids get plenty of holidays where they’re off from school, but we don’t have an equivalent celebratory day just for children.

Children’s Day is important to Koreans— it’s a national holiday where everyone gets the day off! —because of the intense working culture. Jobs are demanding and taken seriously; overtime through evenings and weekends is very common. With such a limited amount of time to spend with their kids, Korean parents often put in extra effort to make Children’s Day special.

Of course there’s no one correct way to celebrate a holiday, but there are some popular choices among Korean families from which us Canadians can draw inspiration, and to accompany those ideas (below), there are plenty of opportunities to learn some new vocabulary.

So if you have your own kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, whoever, and you want them to have a special May 5th— while still doing something for you —then grab some flash cards, a marker, and read on!

The first popular option for having a great Children’s Day is actually simple and relatively inexpensive (and easy for most of us in Canada): a trip to the park! Whether you choose a cute playground in your neighborhood or adventure into the sprawling wilderness of a national reserve, here are some words worth learning while you’re there:

• 꽃 - flower

• romanization: kkot

• pronunciation: “kkot”

• 공원 - park

• romanization: gongwon

• pronunciation: “gong-won”

• 정원 - garden

• romanization: jeongwon

• pronunciation: “juhng-won”

• 소풍 - picnic

• romanization: sopung

• pronunciation: “so-poong”

• 가족 - family

• romanization: gajok

• pronunciation: “gah-jok” (when you see ㄱ as the final syllable in a word, gently cut off the end by pulling your tongue back instead of finishing the full ‘k’ sound)

• 아이들 - children

• romanization: aideul

• pronunciation: “ah-ee-deul” (English doesn’t have an equivalent for the Korean character 으 [eu], so making the sound is difficult for us. My trick to practice making the right sound is: put on a big toothy smile, and then, keeping your teeth pressed together, make an ‘uh’ noise in the front of your mouth.)

Another popular place to take children on this holiday is the zoo. Obviously not everyone in Canada or Korea lives close to a zoo, but many major cities have them, and it might be a fun excuse to take a mini vacation! It’s also a good excuse to learn how to identify foreign animals in Korean:

• 사자 - lion

• romanization: saja

• pronunciation: “sah-jah”

• 호랑이- tiger

• romanization: horangi

• pronunciation: “ho-rahng-ee”

• 원숭이 - monkey

• romanization: wonsungi

• pronunciation: “won-soong-ee”

• 코끼리 - elephant

• romanization: kokkiri

• pronunciation: “ko-kkee-ree” (the ㄹ isn’t a hard ‘r’; try saying that last syllable with your tongue against the roof of your mouth)

• 기린 - giraffe

• romanization: girin

• pronunciation: “gi-reen” (this is a hard ‘g’ sound)

• 뱀 - snake

• romanization: baem

• pronunciation: “baem”

The next option is something you can do on its own, or combine with another activity. What is it? Ordering food and snacks! In Canada, our unpredictable (and often bad) weather means we rely on delivery apps, while Korean citizens take their snacking very seriously – there’s a big street food culture, and there are convenience stores everywhere. Of course you can still get delivery in Korea too! There are way too many popular snacks to list, so below is a list of snacks you can typically find in Canadian-Asian grocery stores:

• 오리온 초코파이 - Orion choco pie

• romanization: orion chokopai

• pronunciation: “oh-ri-on cho-ko-pa-ee”

• 빼빼로 - pepero/pocky

• romanization: pepero

• pronunciation: “pae-pae-ro”

• 허니버터칩 - honey butter chips

• romanization: heonibeoteochib

• prounciation: “huh-nee-buh-tuh-chip”

• 행복 카스타드 - Happy Promise custard cakes

• romanization: haengbok kaseutadeu

• pronunciation: “hehng-bok ka-seu-ta-deu” (remember the tip for how to say 으 [eu])

• 떡볶이 - spicy stir-fried rice cakes

• romanization: tteokbokki

• pronunciation: “ttuh-bok-kee” (when the character ㅇ immediately follows a consonant, you carry the sound of that consonant over to blend the syllables more smoothly)

• 김스낵 - seaweed crisps

• romanization: gimseunaek

• pronunciation: “gim-seu-naek” (the first letter is a hard ‘g’, and don’t forget to gently cut off the ㄱ at the end)

Finally, maybe you’d like to spend Children’s Day at home for some quality family time. Nothing wrong with that! You could also take the opportunity to help the little ones do something nice for Parents’ Day, which is only three days later, on May 8th. While not a national holiday itself, it’s a chance for kids to do something to express their gratitude to both parents (unlike Canada where Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day are separate). The Korean tradition is writing a letter dedicated to one’s parents and gifting them a carnation.

• 어버이날 - Parent’s Day

• romanization: eobeoinal

• pronunciation: “uh-buh-ee-nal”

• 카네이션 - carnation

• romanization: kaneisyeon

• pronunciation: “ka-neh-ee-syuhn”

• 편지- letter [written to the parent]

• romanization: pyeonji

• pronunciation: “pyuhn-gee” (this is a hard ‘g’ sound)

• 선물 - present

• romanization: seonmul

• pronunciation: “suhn-mool”

• 공경 - respect

• romanization: gonggyeong

• pronunciation: “gong-gyuhng”

• 효자 - devoted son

• romanization: hyoja

• pronunciation: “hyo-jah”

• 효녀 - devoted daughter

• romanization: hyonyeo

• pronunciation: “hyo-nyuh”

I hope that everyone who celebrates this sweet family holiday has a fantastic time, no matter where you go; whether you decide to practice your vocabulary or not. 행복한 어린이날!

Make sure to follow my Instagram @adoorinmyheart because one of my upcoming projects is a series of posts: 60 facts about Korea & Canada to celebrate 60 years of friendship! I’ll be posting one a day beginning on May 26 – accordingly, this will take us to July 26, which I chose because the following day, July 27, is the 26-year anniversary of the Korean War Memorial Wall’s erection in Brampton, Ontario.