Expatriate bloggers in Korea. No, I'm not talking about people who were once proud defenders of their country but have since disregarded their loyalty (ex-patriots) nor am I talking about former professional athletes for a certain Eastern division NFL team (ex-Pats). No, I'm talking about people who are currently living in a foreign country while still holding allegiance and identity to their home country (expats). There's a large foreign population in Korea. There are approximately one million foreigners living in Korea (an estimated 2% of the total population). Most English speaking foreigners work as English teachers at various levels and positions in and around the Korean education system. Some love it, some don't. See below. ... Show more

Hey fellow KC101ers! I'm reviving this category for a brief moment to share with you a video I made recently. It's a class speech I wrote (with extensive help from my teacher I might add) back in July of this year during my brief time at 이대. This speech was supposed to be the culmination of what all we had learned. I was in the beginner class and was nominated to deliver the speech. How nice. The problem is that I'm lousy at verbal communication in any language and I'm an awful reader to boot. So, when you combine this with a sweet country boy's accent you get a recipe for pure hilarity. I tried to read my speech from a crumbled piece of paper on stage in front of my peers and teachers. No dice. I got so nervous that my leg started... Show more

The Demilitarized Zone. No really, it's actually quite scary. But I had a lot of fun. But then again I like history. The Demilitarized Zone located in South Korea is not the only non-combat zone in the world. In fact, it is one of ten currently standing neutral or no-conflict zones. The largest zone is most definitely the one in Antarctica - the entire continent is deemed a no-combat zone by forty-six consenting countries! However, the Korean DMZ is likely the most famous and certainly the most heavily guarded DMZ in the world. Plus it inspires movies like nobody's business. One might think with an area that is designated a no-combat zone that that it would be fairly safe, right? Actually, here's a list of serious incidents from... Show more

Driving a car in Korea. Apparently, it's the hardest thing on the planet. I know people who have traversed the planet, left their home country, diligently learnt the English language (not exactly an easy task), acculturated themselves to American culture only to be terrified of getting a driver's license and driving to the grocery store. I mean after all they have accomplished, why is driving a car all of a sudden this insurmountable obstacle? Not that I blame anyone for being a bit apprehensive. This chart and map isn't exactly comforting. Not to mention that out of 29 countries researched, Korea ranked 27. In this case, the bronze medal is especially not something to be proud of. It perplexes me because Japan has a reported... Show more

 Subways in Korea. The Seoul Metropolitan Subway is a thing of beauty. It's quick, efficient, and cheap. The subway itself also divided into three separate but similar entities: Seoul Metro, Korail, and SMRT (Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit corporation). Where have I heard of SMRT before? Our diligent 현우 has posted a nice introduction to to Seoul's subways in this forum post. Note the loudspeaker - each stop is announced in both English and Korean. It is very foreigner friendly in that regard. The air conditioning doesn't hurt, either :) 1000 원 buys you up to 6 miles worth of track and 100 원 for every additional 3 miles. Not bad. Actually that's more than not bad - that's a great deal. Remember the post about the size of Korea?... Show more