Korean culture
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Christmas in Korea
Although this year is the third year in a row that I spend the holidays in Seoul, I’m still amazed at how different Christmas is here. I’m used to this season being all about family, getting together, getting cozy, relaxing, talking, eating, celebrating, all for days on end. In Korea, on the other hand, things…
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Big Bang is back!
This week, Korean boy band Big Bang released their new album, and two singles have already reached several million views on youtube. I’m a big fan of learning Korean through songs since there are often so many cool expressions to learn from pop songs. I love learning slang (신조어) and cool expressions, although I’m under strict…
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Korea the impossible country
Prepare yourselves for a real Korea rant. I’ve now been living in Korea the impossible country for four months (seriously, where did the time go?!), and the more I feel that I’m getting under the skin of the Koreans and their culture, the more I often feel completely frustrated, confused, and quite often disappointed. I’ve previously…
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Random things I’ve noticed while living in Korea
As I go about my daily routine in Seoul, I don’t always pay attention to these small things, but nonetheless I thought it was worth doing a post on utterly random things I’ve come to notice or realize while I’ve been living in Korea. Staircases wind counter-clockwise The number 4 is usually substituted with an…
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Could you speak up, please? Korean speech levels
This post is motivated by some questions I’ve received here on the blog. How exactly does age and social status determine how people speak to each other in Korean? Since this is a quite technical matter, I’ll try to make it as simple as possible using my own experiences from different situations and interactions here…
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Taxi drivers in Seoul
While I usually rely on the subway for transportation around Seoul, I probably still get in a cab around once a week. If I’m alone, I usually use this as an opportunity to chat with the taxi driver, who in 99 out of 100 cases are men over 50. In most cases they also have…
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Busy but happy in Seoul
This week is by far the busiest week I have experienced since moving to Seoul. One of my friends from Denmark is visiting this week, and that has been an excellent excuse to tour the city. She’s actually here on business, but nonetheless we’ve managed to spend two days together. I greatly enjoy sightseeing in Seoul,…
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Awesome Korean slang expressions
I’ve started to become a regular guest at the Playground café in Hongdae. (If you look through their facebook pics, you’ll see proof that I was there.) This café is an awesome place where Koreans and foreigners can get together and exchange languages. This week, I went there on Tuesday and met a couple of…
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The challenge of teaching economics in Korea
This has definitely proven to be more challenging than I had expected, but certainly not in a boring way. Teaching in Korea has also made me rethink which examples I use when I teach economics. It turns out that not all everyday examples work in the same way in a Danish/American or Korean classroom. Today I was…
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Adapting to life in Seoul
I’ve almost been here six weeks now, and I’m happy to report that I’m adapting to life here more easily than I had imagined. Seoul definitely feels like home in a strange way, I can’t quite explain. While I’m doing the same kind of job as I did back home, I still feel that my everyday…
Sofie to Korea 