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The Korean gender war
While the eyes of the world may be on Korea for an entirely different war, the current internal situation on the peninsula is boiling. It’s the guys against the girls and the girls against the guys, the gloves are off, and the F-word in this heated debate is… Feminism. While mainly used as an empowering…
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Back to school (…again)
This semester I thought I’d take advantage of having access to unlimited learning since I’m working at a university, so I decided to contact one of the teachers responsible for the compulsory course 읽기와 쓰기 (Reading and Writing) for all the freshmen at Sogang. I wrote an email to her asking if I could be…
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Korean soldiers
When you live in South Korea you can sometimes feel like you live on an army base. There are soldiers everywhere and although I never felt unsafe living on the Korean peninsula, the soldiers are a constant reminder that South Korea’s military remains among the toughest in the world. A necessity given our northern neighbor,…
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Learning Korean with FRIENDS
I’ve been an avid fan of this epic tv show for as long as it’s been around, and I still remember how I used to learn English watching and rewatching DVDs (yes, I’m that old) of Friends in middle and high school. I progressed by first watching with Danish subtitles, then switching to English before…
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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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A mind-blowing reading experience
The winter break is soon over and I’ll officially start teaching again next week. These days the Sogang campus is packed with new graduates clad in the traditional cap and gown and their families beaming with pride and even more new freshmen participating in orientation. I’ve spent a lot of time enjoying my beautiful Seoul…
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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…
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Saju – Korean fortune telling
Yesterday I tried visiting a saju cafe for the first time in my life. Before I delve into my experience, let me just briefly explain what saju means. Saju, in Korean 사주 and in Chinese characters 四柱, literally means ‘four pillars’. In this case, these four pillars are determined by your four birth numbers: the year, the…
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My morning routine
I once heard someone calling mornings “the rudder of the day”, meaning that how you start your mornings will determine how your day will progress. The morning is the time where you lay out the heading that your day will follow. I’ve found this to be very true, and just like some people say that…
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My favorite places in Seoul
The winter semester is over and I finally have some free time to enjoy Seoul. I’ve already been living here 1.5 years now, and I’m so happy to call this amazing city my home. Once in a while, I make sure to take some time off to enjoy some quality alone time in the city,…
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Sofie to Korea 