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An American acquaintance in Taiwan recently asked me for my thoughts on whether to bring his daughter to the US for high school. The following is most of my response to him. When we returned to Korea in 2008, we only planned to stay for a couple years, and two...
I had previously looked into getting an F-5 visa through the points system, but though I had enough points, I was on a student visa at the time, and there is no way to transition from that to an F-5. However, I’ve been on an F-6 (Spouse Visa) for a...
“Gongjon” means “to be together” and the Korean government is working hard to help Koreans understand about the many people from other countries who live together with Koreans in Korea. Gongjon focuses on publishing articles about non-ethnic Koreans living in Korea and they interviewed me for a recent article. Download...
A member on Korea Business Central seems to be losing enthusiasm for studying Korean and posted a discussion question this week asking what he’s really going to get out of the effort if he just wants to work in Korea. Seeing as how Koreans in business generally want to learn...
I’ve been doing this for years now, so I’ve pretty much figured things out and it looks pretty straightforward in the video. Still, back when I was getting set up, I remember spending hours and hours at it. Even today, just one wrong number and the whole process falls apart...
Koreans are commonly concerned about how non-Koreans view their country, and one index for measuring this is the number of foreigners living in Korea. According to an article in the Jungang Ilbo today (“Foreign Talent Leaving Korea Due to “Three Serious Difficulties”), the number of foreigners living in Korea is...
Here’s a conversation my wife had this morning with our phone service provider. “Hi, I’m calling about our phone service. I’d like to know why you charge us $2.75/month for a basic charge? Other companies provide this free. It really feels like our total monthly bill of $12 is so...
I've lived in Korea off and on for more than fifteen years now and while it's hard to say that Korea feels completely "like home", it is certainly "home away from home" and a place I enjoy. I understand though that not every expat feels this way and that many...
The culture of people eating lunch together was discussed. An extension of this is that eating alone is avoided because it is taken as a sign that a person has been excluded from a group or groups. To Koreans, being excluded from a group means there must be something wrong...
When in Korea, you may find yourself having to get in line occasionally and there are a number of things you should know about Korean queuing practice in order to avoid problems. Korea is a small country with a high population density, so the interpersonal distance that Koreans must encounter...
