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 […]
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 […]
Introducing my Sogang students
With the final exam less than one week away, I’m currently getting some very intense Korean speaking practice. Every afternoon, a line of students forms outside my office, all waiting […]
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: A year in the life
“525,600 minutes, 525,600 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes – how do you measure, measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee. In inches, in miles, […]
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 […]
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 […]
A trip to Suwon
Having been busy with work in Seoul over the past couple of months, I rarely had the chance to get out of the city. This changed last week, when I […]
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 […]
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 […]
Sofie to Korea 