There’s a green bottle on the table. Someone grabs it by the neck and gives it a quick flick of the wrist — a little spin that supposedly knocks loose the bits from the old cork-stopper days. There are no bits in soju anymore. It’s just a habit now, a small ritual. Then the first … Read more
There’s a Korean word you should know: youngkkeul (영끌). It literally means “scraping together your soul.” It’s not some spiritual thing — it describes what people do to buy a home here. You gather every won you can, borrow every loan you qualify for, and put your soul up as collateral too. The joke stopped … Read more
It’s 7:32 AM. I unlock my phone and there are 47 unread KakaoTalk messages waiting. Not on Instagram. Not on Slack. KakaoTalk alone. A family chat. Two work department chats. A college group chat that’s been alive for 12 years. A chat with the parents of my daughter’s daycare friends. My in-laws’ family group. Scroll … Read more
It’s lunchtime on a weekday in Gangnam (강남, Seoul’s main business district), and almost everyone walking back toward the office towers has a coffee in hand — a takeout cup they haven’t finished, headed back to their desk. Some are hot, some are sweet blended drinks, but the one you’ll spot most is the iced … Read more
Every morning, I make a choice. Comfort, or one more hour of sleep. The answer is always the same. Sleep. People who truly hate the packed train wake up an hour earlier. Not that leaving an hour early gets you an empty car — there’s no such thing as an empty subway car in Seoul. … Read more
The first time a foreigner asked me how old I was, I froze for a solid two seconds. Not because the question was rude — it wasn’t, at least not to me — but because I genuinely didn’t know which answer to give. My Korean age? My international age? In Korea I’d just say a … Read more
A lot of foreigners probably picture it like this: the Korean office worker chained to his desk until the boss leaves, then dragged out to drink soju until he can’t see straight, working until midnight and going drinking until 2 AM. And look — that picture wasn’t completely made up. Fifteen years ago, there was … Read more
Three years ago, I signed a jeonse (전세, “key money”) lease on my apartment in Seongnam for 410 million won — roughly $300,000. I handed that entire amount to my landlord. Not as a down payment. Not as a purchase. Just to rent the place. Today, that same apartment’s jeonse deposit has climbed to 570 … Read more
Last month, I was sitting in a car at Everland’s Safari World when my daughter completely lost it — in the best possible way. A giraffe had wandered right up to the vehicle, close enough to see its eyelashes, and she grabbed my arm and screamed so hard I thought she’d burst something. She’s seven … Read more
It’s a Saturday afternoon and my seven-year-old daughter is on her knees beside a shallow plastic pool, scooping up little magnetic fish with a toy rod. Every fish she catches gets swapped for a coin at the counter. With those coins she feeds an arcade claw machine, loses, feeds it again, wins a gummy snack … Read more