Reading Hangul: A Beginner’s Guide

(This is a reprint of an earlier article, with the “How To read Hangeul” part separated out.) Something that will make your life here easier is to learn to read Hangul (written Korean). It’s surprisingly easy to learn, as it’s phonetically based, unlike Chinese, in which you have to memorize everything. Each letter in Hangul [...] full story

News Items – 01/18/12

Here’s a sampling of the latest news in Korea Information addicts may have a tough day today. As of this writing there are less than six hours before the English portions of the giant online encyclopedia Wikipedia goes dark.  Te crowd-sourced website that always seems to have all the answers all the time will go [...] full story

The Official Voice of North Korea

Tired of watching Korean TV?  Wore out your playstation and all its games? Spent your entire monthly budget on 맥주 과  소주 and now need something else to fill those long winter nights you’ve got? Well, look no further for entertainment . The North Koreans are here to help. Until now there was no where [...] full story

Bits and Bytes – 1/11/12

Here are some of the headlines from our little home away from home: First up, in the “what a surprise” category, is the Korea Herald’s article on Multicultural students at risk of being bullied. Given a nation that prides itself on inbreeding purity of blood it’s no wonder things like this happen. Students who have [...] full story

Exploring the Korean Winter

It’s easy to just curl up under your blankets and sleep the weekends away when it’s cold outside, but remember – many of us came to Korea not just to work, but to experience a different culture half a world away from home. So bundle up and head on out to different corners of this [...] full story

Snow Sports in Korea; or how to enjoy the winter

A few years ago, if you wanted to hit the slopes in Korea, there were few options. Then skiing and snowboarding became a popular pastime for wintry weekends, and now there are seventeen resorts, mostly in the Seoul or Gangwando areas. Korea has become the winter ski destination for the emerging middle classes in China [...] full story

Rainy Day Guide to Ulsan

As the prospect of yet another rainy weekend looms before us, I thought I’d run through the options of what you can do to entertain yourself in the Ulsan area, without getting too wet. There are always places like the department stores, the covered street in Shinae, and cafes to wile away the hours on [...] full story

Letters from Korea – II

Hi Momma,   Well, so far, it’s been an adventure here in Korea. I got fussed at today. Not quite yelling, but a good fussing. I was standing on the corner by the little grocery store near my apartment waiting to cross the street. There’s a walk – don’t walk signal at the corner, but [...] full story