What is 설날 (Seollal) really like in Korea?

In this special Lunar New Year episode of TOPIK & Beyond, Eliza shares the cultural, emotional, and linguistic layers behind one of Korea’s most important traditional holidays.

Beyond the textbook definitions of 설날, 차례, and 세배, this episode explores what Lunar New Year in Korea actually feels like — including family expectations, generational differences, emotional nuance, and real-life Korean expressions you’ll hear during the holiday.

If you’re learning Korean for real connection — not just vocabulary — this episode will deepen your understanding of Korean culture and communication.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• The meaning of 설날 (Seollal) and how it differs from January 1st
• What happens during traditional family gatherings
• The role of 차례 (ancestral ritual) and 세배 (New Year bow)
• Why 설날 can feel warm, stressful, or emotionally complex
• Real Korean phrases commonly used during Lunar New Year
• How understanding 설날 helps with TOPIK reading and writing sections

This cultural awareness strengthens both your real-life communication skills and your performance on exams like TOPIK.

If you are a visual learner, read this episode on Substack.

If You Enjoyed the Episode…

Please consider sharing it with a friend or leaving a quick review. It helps more Korean learners discover the podcast and feel supported on their TOPIK journey.

Connect with Me

• 🌐 Website: https://www.joaacademy.com/
• 📸 Instagram: @korean.joaacademy
• 💌 Join the Korean FLOW Club for weekly practice in real Korean (reading, listening, speaking & writing).

Have you ever had a Korean conversation that felt polite, correct, and smooth — but somehow still distant?

In this episode of TOPIK & Beyond, Eliza explores a common but rarely explained experience among Korean learners: why conversations can feel polite on the surface, yet emotionally disconnected underneath.

This episode goes beyond grammar and pronunciation to look at how connection is actually built in Korean conversations — through acknowledgment, emotional alignment, and subtle language choices that textbooks often overlook.

If you’ve ever felt that your Korean is “correct but not connecting,” this episode will help you understand why — and what to listen for instead.

In this episode, we explore:

• the difference between politeness and connection in Korean
• why Korean conversations often prioritize emotional alignment before information
• why learners can sound correct but still feel distant
• how acknowledgment and reaction shape conversational flow
• why conversations sometimes end quickly even when nothing is “wrong”

This episode is designed for learners who already have a foundation in Korean but want their conversations to feel more natural, warm, and alive.

A Key Takeaway

In Korean, connection is not built by saying more.

It’s built by showing where you are emotionally in the conversation.

Often, small acknowledgment phrases and softeners do more to create warmth than long, well-prepared sentences.

조금만 달라도 느낌이 달라요.
Even a small difference changes the feeling.

👉 If you are a visual learner, read it on Substack

If You Enjoyed the Episode…

Please consider sharing it with a friend or leaving a quick review. It helps more Korean learners discover the podcast and feel supported on their TOPIK journey.

Connect with Me

• 🌐 Website: https://www.joaacademy.com/
• 📸 Instagram: @korean.joaacademy
• 💌 Join the Korean FLOW Club for weekly practice in real Korean (reading, listening, speaking & writing).

Many Korean learners don’t struggle because they lack vocabulary or grammar.

They struggle because everything still has to pass through another language first.

In this episode of TOPIK & Beyond, Eliza revisits a key turning point in the Korean learning journey — the shift from translating to relating to Korean more directly.

This episode explores what happens when Korean begins to feel less like a mental exercise and more like a lived language.
Not fluent.
Not perfect.
But more natural.

If you’ve ever felt that you “know” Korean but still hesitate, freeze, or feel mentally tired when using it, this episode speaks to that in-between phase.

In this episode, we reflect on:

• why constant word-by-word translation creates friction in speaking and writing
• the moment when studying more stops helping in the same way
• the shift from building sentences to recognizing language chunks
• how “thinking in Korean” starts long before fluency
• why intuition comes from exposure and familiarity, not effort or perfection

This episode is not about forcing yourself to stop translating.
It’s about understanding why translation fades naturally — and what replaces it.

This episode will resonate especially if:

• you understand Korean but feel slow or blocked when speaking
• your writing is correct but still feels awkward
• conversations don’t flow the way you expect
• Korean feels mentally tiring even after years of study
• you’re somewhere between “learning” and “using” the language

If you’ve ever thought: “I know the words, but it still doesn’t feel natural,”
this episode is worth listening to.

If This Episode Helped

• Save it for days when speaking feels heavy
• Share it with a friend who’s learning Korean
• Subscribe to TOPIK & Beyond so you don’t miss future episodes

Your support helps more learners find calm, human-centered Korean learning.

Prefer reading while you listen?

If you are a visual learner,
→ Read this episode on Substack

Connect with Me

• 🌐 Website: https://www.joaacademy.com/
• 📸 Instagram: @korean.joaacademy
• 💌 Join the Korean FLOW Club for weekly practice in real Korean (reading, listening, speaking & writing).