Life in Korea
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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 tired in a good way again. With my weekdays filled up with classes, office hours, and grading – my weekends are my off-time. Saturdays are…
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How to suck at things in Korean
My Korean vocabulary was expanded recently when I learned the word 음치(eum-chi) meaning tone-deaf. I started thinking whether there was a connection because I once learned the word 길치 (kil-chi) from Talk To Me In Korean, and used to call my best friend 길치all the time because he had absolutely zero sense of direction. I…
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A meaningful day
오늘도 알찬 하루 돼~ oneuldo alchan haru dwae – Have a meaningful day today. This was the content of one of the final texts my best friend sent me only a couple of days before the accident happened. He was also the one who first taught me the meaning of the word 알차다 alchada (meaningful) or 알찬 alchan when…
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All the things we can’t explain
With a background in social science, I’ve spent most of my adult life focusing on the things that can be measured and scientifically proven. I’ve left very little room in my mind for the unexplainable. I was never so arrogant as to say that if you can’t prove something scientifically then it can’t be true. I…
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What I miss about Korea
You don’t know what you have until it’s gone. I’m well aware that I wrote a semi-rant post in June when I was under a lot of temporary stress and really did not feel all that well in Seoul. But as you also know, things definitely turned around and my last months in Seoul were…
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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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Korean hand gestures
Koreans use their hands a lot when they speak, but their hand gestures differ significantly from what we know from Western culture. I have no idea why I never thought about writing about this before but in the past few weeks I have experienced all most of these hand gestures first hand (haha, lame pun intended),…
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My backpacking trip to beautiful Jeonju
I’m now only two weeks away from my departure for Denmark, and I’m trying to make the most of my time here in Korea before I leave. Although I’m insanely busy during the week with teaching and test grading and preparation I’m free on weekends, and with my husband already back in Denmark I’m even…
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The sixth Korean sense: nunchi
Nunchi, spelled 눈치 in Korean and literally meaning ‘eye measure’, is a concept you’ll inevitably have to deal with when living in Korea. Nunchi is a set of unspoken rules governing interpersonal relationships and can loosely be translated as ‘awareness of your surroundings’ or ’emotional intelligence’. Generally speaking, you can use the word in five…
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The Korean mindset and locus of control
I’ve often heard Koreans say some version of “되면 하는 거고 말면 말고”, which directly translated means “if things work out we do so and so, and if things don’t work out we just don’t.” I believe that this ‘maybe, maybe not’ mindset to some extent explains why I oftentimes feel that I clash with…
Sofie to Korea 