On a community website where I spend a lot of time, someone asked recently for advice on how to deal with his noisy neighbours. He doesn't live in Korea, but he thought that the couple next door was Korean, and that when they were shouting at each other in the wee hours, they weren't shouting in English. He reasonably took this as an indication that some knowledge of their cultural background could come in handy if he girded his loins enough to talk to them about it.
Continue reading "Circles" »
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.
Continue reading "Grand Opening" »
I know what the rationale behind it was, and understand that many Koreans really think that sort of stuff is spiffy, and are drawn to shop somewhere that shows that kind of rigorous employee-indoctrination methodology, but it was still deeply, excitingly Weird.
Continue reading "Retail Rituals" »
The weather had been flawless for a good week after a miserable summer - unsmoggy blue skies, dotted with fluffy cumuli, hot sun cool shade. It was gorgeous; the sun spattered through the leaves as the wide trail wound its way up to higher heights, at a much steeper grade than our old daily walk in
Gunpo. I got past the thundering-heart first ten minutes, and fell into the euphoric groove that exercise almost always brings, when I'm out in nature, senses heightened, brain clear.
Continue reading "A New House and A Walk In The Woods" »
In this consciousness of the relationships between people and its effect on your own wellbeing, rather than the 'correctness', 'objective truth', or self-interest of an individual or his arguments, there is a minefield of potential misunderstanding. Most foreigners to Korea trip through it over and over again, myself included, before they realize that putting the
kibun of the people around you first, even in a situation of confrontation, will bring results.
Continue reading "On 기분" »
