The influence of South Korea on the world stage is exploding -- in business and culture, in sport and technology -- and interest in Korea from those outside is growing with it. In equal measure, Koreans are growing more interested in the 'outside world' and more engaged globally than they ever have been before. More foreigners live in Korea than ever have before in its history, and more Koreans are overseas, living, travelling, studying and working. Companies outside Korea are struggling to establish footholds in a Korean economy that is more affluent than ever before, and Korean companies are making ever greater inroads into overseas markets all over the world. In many ways, Korea has transformed itself in the past decade or two, but in many ways, it remains a captive of its own history.
The book is opening, but much of it is written in a code incomprehensible to the outsider.
So there remains a gap in understanding in both directions. The problem is not, in this age of torrents of information flowing in both directions, a lack raw data, but in the difficulties that arise in understanding how the pieces fit together, what that means for the present and the future role of Korea and Koreans in the world, and for how individuals and businesses interested in Korea can play a part in it.
OutsideIn Korea is intended to bring together resources to bridge the gap and to decode the transmissions, as a clearing-house of Korea-related information for Korea-watchers, as a source of information for individuals thinking of spending time in Korea and for businesses who have the Korean market in their sights, as a resource for expats already here, and as a mental travelogue to record my opinions, observations and analysis of life in modern Korea.
Some content has been repurposed, revised and updated from my other online publications over the past decade, but, unless otherwise indicated, everything here was written by me.
The author is an opionated expatriate Canadian who first arrived in Korea in 1996, after nearly a decade of travel. More about me...
