The most recent Korea-Japan trade conflict
Korea and Japan may be many things but close friends is not one of them. Every year, some conflict arises and it usually originates from Japan’s lack of apologies and […]
Self-care Sundays
I’m back in Seoul and busy as ever. I’m teaching two classes and have to deal with more than 200 students over the summer. It’s great to feel busy and […]
Korean buzzwords: Gapjil
Korean media have been reporting heavily on gapjil (갑질) over the past few weeks. The word is a fairly newly coined term consisting of the word 갑 (甲) literally meaning the […]
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 […]
Writing emails in Korean – A quick guide
Several of you have requested that I do a blog post on writing emails in Korean. So, naturally, I’m happy to accommodate your kind request. I write emails in Korean […]
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 […]
End of the year traditions in Korea
While Christmas is stealing the picture everywhere in Korea with Christmas trees, Christmas music and Christmas gift sets all over, it has limited significance to the Koreans. Those who identify […]
My speaking engagement at the Korean National Assembly
When I’m not busy going all out on Korean fashion shopping in Edae, makeup browsing in Myeongdong, listening to Kpop music (I’m turning into a diehard BTS ARMY girl!), binge-watching Korean […]
The ordeal of young Koreans
Whenever I tell people here in Korea how I got my job at Sogang, most people have a hard time believing my story. I sent an unsolicited application with all […]
My second visit to the Korean parliament
While I was in Denmark over the summer, I received an unexpected invitation from Mr. Hong Young Pyo, a Korean member of parliament and chairman of the Korean labor committee. […]
Korea’s sampo generation
When living in Korea, you often hear particularly younger people talk about Korea as Hell Joseon, (Joseon being the old name for Korea). Hell Joseon symbolizes the inhumane competition and […]
A day in my Korean campus life
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans” is an important line that we’ve all been taught by John Lennon. My recent blog posts were all about […]
My biggest Korean challenge yet
This week I embarked on my biggest Korean challenge yet. A few months ago, the Danish embassy reached out to me with a request. They told me that a delegation […]
My Gyeongju getaway and semester start at Sogang
Since last weekend was the last weekend before the new semester, I spontaneously suggested to my husband that we go to Gyeongju in the south-eastern part of the country for […]
What makes you happy?
This may seem like a mundane question, but how often do you really think deeply about this? As we go about our lives, it happens much too often that we […]
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 […]
Sofie to Korea 