I can count on one hand the number of English teachers I've met in the ten years since I first came to Korea who were actually certified teachers back in their home country. If the proportion topped 2%, I'd be shocked.

This is Part Two in a multipart series of articles covering the basics of reading and writing in Korean. By the end, you should be merrily sounding out anything you run across (and doing it with better pronunciation than most foreigners I've met who've been here for years).

This is Part One in a multipart series of articles covering the basics of reading and writing in Korean. By the end, you should be merrily sounding out anything you run across (and doing it with better pronunciation than most foreigners I've met who've been here for years).

There's a new LG Telecom ad that's been playing on Korean television recently. As happens all too frequently, I'm having a little trouble telling if it's hilariously clever or dumb as dirt.

For the vast majority of people entering Korea to work as teachers, the E-2 is what they will be applying for. If you are offered a job, you can either apply for and get the E-2 before you leave your home country, or come to Korea without a visa and do The Visa Run later. The most common destinations for visa runs are Fukuoka and Osaka, in Japan. Both Korean embassies are well-used to the constant, endless stream of E-2 applicants trooping through, and are quite efficient. The do tend to have odd opening hours, but if you time things right, you can leave Korea one day and be back the next, E-2 in hand.

This site is about Korea. About me in Korea, yes, but the focus, at least in future, I hope, will move closer to Korea than it is to me. That'll be a challenge, given the size of my ego and the joyful abandon of my self-regard. I hope it will be both entertaining and practically useful for anyone who visits with specific questions about or just vague interest in life in Korea. The title is a minor play on words. First, as waeguk-in (foreign persons) in Korea, we are perpetually outside. Korea is no longer the hermitage it once was. I will write much about this in future. There is a groundswell of interest in Korea overseas these days, of people on the outside looking in, even as interest and knowledge of the rest of the world grows inside Korea, as people on the inside look outwards. It's an exciting time to be here, and I hope I can share a little of that excitement with visitors to this site.