Believe in yourself
I recently started tutoring a Korean woman who wants to improve her English conversation skills. She understands almost everything and her writing is good, but she lacks speaking confidence and […]
Learn through Korean proverbs (and Naver)
All languages have proverbs that often originate from ancient times and provide an invaluable insight into the culture and mindset of the native speakers. The more proverbs you know in […]
August 15th, Korean liberation day
Today is the Korean liberation day, a national holiday in Korea. I’m still so super excited about my new office that even though it’s raining cats and dogs, and I […]
Open your books
I once had a brilliant lecturer who told us that “you don’t get smart from just leaving the books on your shelf – you have to actually read them”. Wise […]
Visiting home
I’m sure that all my readers know that I absolutely love living in Seoul. However, for all expatriates, no matter how intoxicatingly sweet you may find the drink, there will […]
The power of repetition
Do you ever feel guilty about watching reruns of an old show, knowing that you really ought to spend your time better doing something more productive? I certainly do, but […]
Why all Korean learners should learn (a few) Chinese characters
In my interactions with other Korean learners, I’ve frequently heard complaints that Chinese characters (which for the record do not appear often in written Korean) are hard. Using this as […]
A gendered language: boy Korean or girl Korean?
Even though I’m currently in Denmark on a long vacation, I’ve brought quite a few Korean books with me. I make sure to dedicate at least an hour per day […]
Korea: A year in the life
“525,600 minutes, 525,600 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes – how do you measure, measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee. In inches, in miles, […]
To Japan and back
Last week, my husband and I went on a semi-impromptu trip to Kyoto in Japan. It was the first time for both of us and definitely a memorable experience. To […]
The art of mildang
If you don’t live in Korea or at least do so vicariously through Korean dramas and movies, chances are that you have not heard the term “mildang”, or 밀당 in […]
Small daily joys in Korea
With only three weeks left before I’ll leave Korea for over a month, I’ve started to reflect on the things that I’ll possibly miss and definitely look forward to coming […]
This week in Kpop-land
I have a confession to make: I’ve actually liked Kpop for a looong time. Since 2008 to be precise. Obviously back then, I had no idea about what they were […]
Making travel plans
Summer has finally rolled around here in Korea, and in less than a month I’ll be jetting off to Denmark for a full five weeks of vacation before going back […]
Getting back on track with Japanese
As regular readers of my blog will know, I gave a pitiful attempt at learning Japanese in the fall. Then I got busy with my Korean studies at Sogang, and […]
Korea: a last-minute country and how I learned the true meaning of “김 샜어”
Since I’m no longer in school in the morning I now have plenty of time to update my blog. So everyone, brace yourselves for yet another Korea rant! There’s no […]
