LEARN ENGLISH Through History, Culture, and Travel

Welcome back to a new video, guys. Today, we're going to be learning English using comprehensible input here in Gyeongbokgung Palace. Directly to the freezing cold. My hair is on. Probably just getting architecture. It's sunny, though. History of Christmas. And the guards are here. Courtyard. Swell room. Tranquil. Actings. Dynasty. Rituals. Start the word count, and let's go. Yeah, so it expired on the 20th, so I'm going to reload it for 7 days. That's the last day we'll film because we leave the 28th. Cash. Confirm. You can pay on credit card here. Yeah. So, this is my bill. You see, it's asking for bills or coins. We'll put one bill in. One. Two. My hands have, like, no grip. My hands are super dry. But now we're charging up the card here because we're going to be going to the palace right away. Gyeongbokgung Palace. I don't know if that's right. No, that's correct. And that's the main palace, right? Yeah. Okay, now let's go through the gates here. Let's go down towards City Hall. So, we're going to go down here into the subway station. We're going to go to the left and get on the train. Hopefully, it's not too long. We'll have to do a transfer to the Purple Line, but then that'll bring us directly to this big open square. And I think we'll stop at a convenience store when we get there to get some food. Yeah, get a little snack. Okay, so now we're transferring to the Purple Line, Line 5. Honestly, I think we have these passes that let you go on unlimited rides. But yours beeped when you went in. I think it's because you tapped, but you went too quick. Or it tapped and it didn't register. So, when you try to go out. Well, it showed the date. Oh, okay. So, I think I was fine. I guess you went too quick then. Yeah. That wasn't me. And then it beeped because usually it'll close on you if you, like, go. It'll, like, close. But yours didn't close. It just beeped. So, I don't know. I don't think it was mine. I think it was the one next to me. Okay, yeah. Because I saw an X, like, beeping. But I guess, yeah, it might have been the one next to you. Yeah. We've been down here before when we came. Because we tried to come on Tuesday, I believe, last time. But the palace is closed on Tuesdays. And it was freezing cold that day. But I don't know. It wasn't colder than today. Yeah, I think today's colder. But now we're, like, more used to it. Because that was, like, the first thing we did. Or, like, the second thing. But I don't know if you could tell. But I'm, like, I am, like, layered. I don't think that's the clothes, dog. I have six layers on. One, two, three, four, five, six. And then on my pants, I have two layers. And I also have two pairs of socks on. But up top here, I have six layers. So I'm, like, I feel like I can't really move that well. And I also feel, like, super chunky. Like, my movement is really restricted. Yeah, I don't think that's the clothes, dog. No, it is the clothes. What else would it be? Oh, you want to get, like, a snack? Yeah, does 7-Eleven have better stuff? No, but I feel like I should grab a... We got to get one here when we get off at the next station. Yeah, I think when we get off. I know there's a CU along the walkway. I feel like I need to eat, like, at least a kimbap or something to have some energy. So we'll stop at a convenience store. Once we get to the square right outside the palace, I'll probably just get a kimbap. Kimbap is enough. Definitely for breakfast, but... What about a coffee? Coffee, no, dude. Coffee gives me headaches. What about a Red Bull, then? Red Bull is good. But maybe not first thing in the morning. But definitely coffee. But it's, like, noon now. That's true. So maybe lunch. Dude, this is a deep... We have to go down again. I just wanted to, like, say... I don't know if you guys have heard of, like, the backrooms. But this is kind of, like, what the backrooms looks like. And this is giving, like, backroom vibes. But our train is here. So we'll see you guys when we get off. 3,000. That is the amount of words you need to understand up to 95% of spoken English. But if you want to keep improving after that, I've now added the next 2,000 most common English words so you can build the full 5,000 word set and understand up to 98% of spoken English. So now you can start with the 3,000 word PDF, continue with the next 2,000 word PDF, or get both together as the full 5,000 most common English words PDF that will allow you to understand up to 98% of spoken English. And in these new versions, there are now images as well to help you learn even faster. Each PDF includes clear definitions, real examples, and simple organization to help you stop studying random words and focus on the vocabulary that actually matters. You can get them from the link in the description or at volcaenglish.com. All right, so we just got out of the subway. And I can see the palace is open today. So that is a good sign. I can see people going in through the gates. So we're going to go in and show you guys the whole palace. And also behind the palace, there's the Blue House. But the main thing is the palace. It's so beautiful. And the architecture and everything, the colors. I'm going to show you guys all of it. If you're Korean, I mean, you've obviously been here before. But if not, I know you guys are going to enjoy this. So let's go. Palace is behind me. I believe it's pronounced Gyeongbokgung Palace. Although I'm not a professional, but we're about to explore this whole thing. It's pretty cheap to get in there. It's like 1,000 or 2,000 won, I think, depending on if you're a foreigner or not. Also, if you wear a hanbok, like the traditional Korean clothing, it's free to get in. But we're not going to wear that today because it's actually freezing. Last time we were here, I just wore a jacket and I was warm enough. But now it's freezing cold. I think it's like minus 2 right now. Yeah, at least it's sunny, though. That's why I got six layers on. So if I look a little chunky, it's the layers. Is it? It's the layers. I swear, bro. That's what they all say. That's what I used to say. But that's a nice gate. The first time I ever saw this, it was like, wow. It's breathtaking. And especially the palaces, once you get in there, it's amazing. And there's like walls. Like the Seoul Wall is like really big, but inside that is this palace. I learned a little bit of the history of Korea. I took an East Asian history class in university, but I kind of like forget. I kind of forget most of what I learned. But let's go check this out. I don't think that many foreigners come at this time. I don't know, Christmas. Maybe they want to spend Christmas in Korea. Maybe that's like their Christmas gift or Christmas present to come to Korea. Why wouldn't they go somewhere warm though? Well, maybe they love K-drama and K-pop. Don't you love K-dramas? I only watch Squid Games. Is that your favorite K-drama then? I guess you could say so. Hello. Thank you. The people in red are like tourist information live. So they'll just like, oh, the guards are here. So they'll give you like information and stuff if you need, if you have any questions. But the guards are here and the changing of the guards is at 2 p.m. And about like two hours. We can line up to get a photo. You want to get in there? No, I do not line up. I can get a photo from right here that looks just as good. Personally, I don't like lining up for photos. So I'll just take one here. So yeah, the guards behind me, the changing of the guards will be at 2 p.m. that we'll come see. But it's pretty cool. Like what they traditionally wear. Yeah. And obviously you could line up and take a photo. But we just got a photo. Do those beards look real to you or no? Yeah. Like, actually, no, they all look really perfect. And they all look the same. I'm not sure. Let's continue. Oh, this guy's getting blocked by the flag. No drones. That would be cool to fly a drone here. Yeah, but it's too close to the Blue House, which is why. Just look at this. What do you think of that? Give me your reaction that you had the first time you came here. That's crazy. Every time I see this, it's like it is super, super beautiful. Yeah. That I have to take a video on my phone. So here it says visitors wearing hanbok, which is like people around here. They don't need to pay. But we don't have one on, so we have to pay. So, yeah, this is the ticketing booth where they sell the tickets. Yeah, it's 3,000 won, which is this much in USD. 3,000 won per person. Thank you. Okay, we got our tickets. Two people. I guess this is for two. Oh, yeah, it says two. So this is our ticket for two people. 6,000 won total, 3,000 each. And this is our receipt. And we go in through there. One time I was coming in and I didn't know we had to buy tickets here. And I just went straight there. And they're like, no, you got to go buy tickets here. So now I know you have to first go here, buy your tickets, and then you can go in. Or if you have a hanbok, like these people right here. If you have a hanbok, you can just walk right in. But, yeah, now we can go in and see the palace. Right now we're in the square. This is a palace square or a courtyard. Probably a courtyard is a better term for this. No, I think it's a square. Because a courtyard is like inside a home, usually. A palace is a home. But, yeah, I guess this would be a square. But once we get inside there, that's the courtyard. So right now we're in one of the courtyards. A courtyard is just like an open area like this. Surrounded by walls and stuff or gates. But we're in the courtyard right now and there are many courtyards. So the more you go in, the more courtyards you'll enter. So let's go up this staircase. These are like huge, huge doors. Look at this gate. And there are like so many people here that I'm pretty sure are like freezing right now. Because they're not really wearing like a lot. So I feel like a lot of these people are quite cold. But I think this is the main palace and throne room right ahead of me. So this is the main throne room right here. The throne room of the king. I think, hopefully, it says up there. But I'm not sure which dynasty built this and ruled this. Maybe it was multiple dynasties. One dynasty built it. And then when they were overthrown, another dynasty just took it over. But a dynasty is just like a ruling family that rules for many generations. But this is the main room. So everything, I believe, surrounds this. There's a surprising amount of people dressed up in here too. I guess it is sunny today. You think they chained people onto this? Chained a slave on there. Do you know that Korea had the longest unbroken chain of slavery in the world? Yeah. I never knew that. But I saw this like clip from pretty sure probably the same podcast you saw. But there was like this Korean person and like American guy. And they were just talking. And then the Korean guy was like, Korea never had slaves. Never. And then the American guy was like, I'm sure like every culture has had slaves. So then they searched it. And Korea was like, it was so funny. Korea had like, well, slavery is not funny. But just the way it was presented. It was Korea had the longest chain of unbroken slavery in the history of the world. It was like, wow. And honestly, the amount Koreans work, especially office workers, like. Yeah. It feels like it's still going because they work so hard. Yeah. It's not a good thing working that much. You have to enjoy life. But I mean, that's why they're so like such an advanced country. And it's like safe. Public transportation is amazing. And it's like a good place to live. Like safety is the most important. Well, let's go up to the side here and see this throne room. What's that guy with that stick doing there? That's a tour guide. A tour guide. Or you could just say a guide. And he's kind of like has a stick so people can see him. And then maybe he lets them walk around a bit. And then when he has the stick up, everyone goes to meet him. And then he gives more facts about this place. Do you like exploring places with tour guides or by yourself instead? I like tour guides because they give you like a lot of like information and stuff. A lot of like cool information, cool facts. But it's also nice to just explore on your own. Just to like see stuff. Because sometimes just enjoying the architecture is enough. This is the throne room. You can see the king's throne there. His subordinates and stuff sit on the side here. I recognize this place from all the manhwas I read. They should have like a kind of like having a reenactment scene where they put like mannequins. Or like wax mannequins. Well, I mean they already have guards in the front. So they could use real people in here too. Yeah. Does a real person want to sit there though? I guess it's a job. But I feel like that's probably blasphemy to like pretend to be the king. Yeah, I could see that. So this is another building. But right behind this is the lake or the pond. Right behind this is the pond. Which is probably my second favorite spot here besides that courtyard. This building is pretty nice. I'm not really sure what this was used as. Yeah, but they've all got the same like style, eh? Yeah. Same colors. This one, it's like a pavilion on the water. Oh, this is more like a moat, eh? Yeah. Like it's like definitely man-made. Or at least they sculpted it. Yeah, this pond. Yeah, that's got to be the plum blossom pavilion. So this is Hungyongak Pavilion. So this is a pavilion. I'm not going to say that name again. But a pavilion surrounded by this nice pond and a wall on this side. I think there was probably a wall along here too. Because there's a wall along there and over there. Maybe they removed it or maybe it fell down. But there are walls everywhere. So if they were invaded, I guess they were constantly protected by a new set of walls. Which I mean obviously is good. Well, this is definitely new. This one? It's a metal barricade. Are you sure? Looks to be about 50 years old. Some adjectives to describe this calm, clear, serene, symmetrical. Tranquil. Peaceful. What about beautiful? Beautiful. And traditional. Those are just some of the many, many, many adjectives you can use to describe this pond and the pavilion. But I would just describe it as majestically beautiful. What about historically famous? Traditionally, historically, serenely famous. Let's continue. This. This is wow. Dude, does this not look like a scene from a movie, dude? This is like picturesque, dude. Wow. Like the walls on each side making it narrow. The people in the hanboks. The traditional building. That is, this is like one of my favorite areas now. It's cool. Alright, you guys. I will be your cameraman for a little bit. What we're going to do next is we explore the inner courtyards and the small little houses, temples, pavilions inside the palace. Look at these. Honestly, I think it would be pretty cool if they had like, if they hired like a bunch of like people to work here, but those people like were wearing all the historic, because I know they have the guards at the front, but if they had people walking around here, maybe a king, the queen, a bunch of guards, the royal family, maybe other ministers. If they were walking all along here, like acting historically, that would be really cool. In my opinion. This right here is a hall. And of course, we're in a courtyard again. Right? Yeah, it's really nice. This is more like compact, cozy area. And the halls right here, I assume people lived here too. Don't just watch this lesson and forget it. Get the workbook for this video on my website and practice everything from the lesson more deeply. Inside, you'll review the grammar, vocabulary, tenses, sentence patterns, comprehension questions, and real English from this video with clear explanations and exercises. Watching helps you understand, but practicing helps you remember. And when you buy five or more workbooks, you automatically get 30% off at checkout. The link is in the description or at VolcaEnglish.com. What is the longest dynasty in the world? And what country were they? And for how many years? Oh, never mind. The longest one would be Japan. There was only one dynasty ever in Japan. So that's actually the longest reigning dynasty. So the longest reigning dynasty is widely considered the Imperial House of Japan. Yamato dynasty, the world's oldest continuous hereditary monarchy with legendary origins dating back over 2,600 years. Oh, wow. And they're still going, right? I believe it is. I was mistaken. The longest one is clearly Japan. And they only ever had one dynasty. What is the longest reigning dynasty in Korea? OK, so it was the Joseon. So the Joseon dynasty was Korea's longest reigning dynasty, lasting for approximately 505 years from 1392 to 1897. So it was the last dynasty. I didn't know that about Japan. That's pretty crazy. Yeah, I learned this stuff, but I learned it like two years ago. So my memory is kind of like foggy. I can't really remember. But after reading that, I do remember that that was true. And I remember when I learned that for the first time, like one continuous family reigning over 2,600 years. I don't know because usually the people with ideas and like drive to become richer or famous are people that had nothing and people that had everything. They don't really like have that same desire. They don't have that dog in them. Let's go to a convenience store and get some food before the changing of the guards. We have about 40 minutes. This right here is an archway. Unfortunately, we can't go in, but the 7-Eleven is right there. So we're going to go get some food, probably a kimbap or something. I don't think they have chairs inside. I guess we got to sit outside. That's fine. It's not that cold. Looks pretty small. Yeah. Let's go get a snack. OK, so I'm going to get two kimbaps. I don't know the flavor. And then tuna mayo rice just in case. But kimbaps are like literally the best quick snack to get. Also, you can get like a sausage or eggs. But me personally, when in Rome, if you really want, you can get the Hello Kitty strawberry sandwich. You think if I got this chicken sandwich, they'd warm it up for me? Yeah, you warm it up in the microwave. Oh, yeah. Are they good? Or is it going to be like soggy? It's definitely not going to be crispy. Yeah, it's not going to be crispy. I can almost guarantee you that. Should I eat one or two? Because I know two is going to really fill me up. What time do you think we're going to eat? We can eat later. This is probably lunch and we'll just have dinner. Yeah. I'll just have one. I'll have this spicy one. I just got one. And then just a bottle of water. Because we're probably going to eat in like a couple hours. Like five hours. So if I eat too much, then I'll be too full. Just went with the tuna mayo one. It's the best. Fire. As usual. Triple stacked 7-Eleven microwave burger. Oh, and it's even got pickles. Alright, take a bite in this to see how good it is. That's good. Oh, it's a little spicy. It tastes like the McDonald's Quarter Pounder. Really? Yeah. But look at this view we have. This is probably one of the nicest 7-Eleven views I've had. That was a cool training of the guard. It was longer than I thought. It was like 15 minutes. 20 minutes, yeah. Yeah, 15 minutes. That was the big drum that they were hitting. That one sounded cool. It like shook your whole body, eh? Yeah, I felt it in my bones. Yeah. That one was cool. Yo, what are you working on? Yo, I'm working on my channel right now. I just started. I'm going to be posting once a week if you guys want to check it out. I'll be posting my shadowing stories on my second channel, Volca. And I've also started posting these videos as podcasts. Do you understand English but feel nervous when you speak? Join my Patreon for my speaking, pronunciation, and shadowing course with over 90 video lessons. You'll practice pronunciation, accent, rhythm, and natural speaking with step-by-step video lessons. Plus, new lessons every week. Get it in the description. You will become fluent in English.