Frustrations
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Korea’s xenophobic quarantine mandate
I’m privileged to live in a country with a high level of trust in our (fair and transparent) authorities and an equally high willingness to take the COVID vaccine, which is offered for free to anyone over 12 (I’m talking about Denmark by the way). I myself am currently between my first and second dose…
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Making the best of a bad situation
If you wish to skip my corona-rant, please start reading from the third paragraph. It’s getting increasingly difficult to stay focused on the positive when we’re constantly being bombarded with discouraging figures, prognoses, and tragic news reports of lives lost to this vicious virus that’s currently sweeping all over the globe. Not any less discouraging…
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Good days, bad days
We all have them, and if we think about it, it’s rare that a day is 100% one or the other. Good days can have something bad and bad days can have something good. Last week I had one of each and several days that were just something in between leaning to the bad side.…
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How fast can you lose a language?
In less than a week I’ll once more be jetting off to Seoul and I’m beyond excited. I’ve already spent two months away from my second home and I cannot wait to go back to all my favorite cafes, my favorite restaurants and, well, my favorite people! When I first arrived back in Denmark, I…
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One day at a time…
The main purpose of this blog has always been to write about all aspects of Korea, studying Korean, preparing to move there, dealing with language and cultural struggles while living there, all written in a light and cheerful tone. However, since I’m now once more out of Korea and back in Denmark, I feel that…
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Experiencing reverse culture shock and… Now what?
I’ve been back in Denmark for almost two weeks now, and I’m slowly, very slowly, starting to settle down here. While I’ve landed physically, I’m mentally still in Korea (who knows if that will ever change?), and I’ve been struggling more than expected in coping with returning to Denmark after two years in Korea. My…
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What I look forward to about leaving Korea
A week ago I booked my flight home, so now it’s official. I’m leaving Korea at the end of next month just 5 days shy of my second anniversary of living in Korea. Living in Korea for two years has been a crazy rollercoaster ride and so are my feelings about leaving. While I still…
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Well-intentioned(?) Korean racism
Disclaimer: This blog post is not intended as a criticism of Korean society, nor am I in any way implying that Koreans are racist in general. It’s merely a compilation of racially biased experiences that I have had while living in Korea. Having gone from being an ethnic majority in Denmark to definitely being a…
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Does being a native speaker make you unqualified to teach?
I’ve recently had several encounters where I’ve tried to teach some basic Danish to Koreans. (A fun video should be up on YouTube in a few weeks, and I’ll be sure to link to it when it’s up.) Usually, their pronunciation is scaringly accurate, but I find that when they ask me questions about Danish…
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Teaching ethics in Korea
This week I attended several workshops on teaching methods and teaching ethics here at Sogang University. We’re still in the middle of the winter break, which is always unusually long in Korea. For about 10 weeks between Christmas and early March, there are no regular classes. Only the super-intense winter season, which I taught in…
Sofie to Korea 