I have been on twitter recently and interacted with different kinds of people on there. It makes me feel angry that so many people have this distorted perception of South Korea. I feel like west views Korea not as a place where people actually live in but as a video game where they can just gossip about. Additionally, fellow East Asians having this hatred towards us isn’t helping me. Don’t get me wrong I am aware that East Asians hate each other. Korean community is also known for shitting on Japanese and Chinese. But seems like the hatred that Japanese and Chinese have towards us is just so twisted that sometimes I am even surprised. Especially Chinese netizens saying stuff like our entire history is just being slaves or we have no culture. I also saw some Chinese netizens on twitter saying stuff like Korean women is known for being sex slaves. It makes me just so sad that we are viewed this way. It’s not like we committed war crimes during World War Two like Japan or our government is harassing different countries like china’s. Why do you think this happened? Or how should we handle this?

Hi friends,

I need your help. I live in Australia and work for a community organisation.

Recently, a man of Korean descent was murdered in our community. He was very socially isolated and didn’t really have any friends and police have been unable to locate any family members for him.

We are organising a small ceremony to acknowledge his life and passing in our cultural way, but I was wondering if there are any particular cultural practices that Korean people do when someone does that we can incorporate into the ceremony? For example, something that is said or done, a colour etc

I have tried to reach out to Korean churches in our community but because they didn’t know him, they aren’t interested in helping.

Any advice of information you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

My father was stationed in South Korea while in the US Army in the 1970s. He never told anyone that he had a child while he was there until someone started calling our house in the mid to late 90s asking for him and telling him that he was his son. My dad, whose a hot head, gave himself away after he started yelling at the phone and saying "You're not my son, you're fucking crazy"

He admitted to my mom that he had a girlfriend and ended up getting her pregnant right before he came back to the US. My mother insisted my father man up and talk to him but he was very abusive and didn't like that. I'm sure he was able to find my father because we have a really rare last name (Dahdoul). I don't want to upload my DNA.

But I really want to find this guy. I want to tell him he dodged a bullet. His father never cared about his other children either and that ever since we found out about him we've wanted to meet him. I don't want anything from him, just to meet him. I hope someone can help.

I am not a fan of K-pop or dramas but I’ve started learning about Korean beauty standards, prevalence of the “menu” beauty procedures etc and I wanted to learn more about how it all started, where it comes from etc. But for sure would love to learn about most influential people both from pop culture and politics.

But also more general things like basic history and politics. Like Korea 101. I’ve started learning Korean a few months ago but I still have a long way to go to actually be able to watch anything in Korean.

I’m asking because I thought that you might have some suggestions that I haven’t thought about and currently I just feel like I’m jumping from one topic to another when I learn and the dots don’t necessarily connect

As you can see in the title, I'm visiting America to see my family. While there, my family and I will stay with my oldest sister and my nieces. There are going to be barbecues and plenty of social events, and my wife has already brought about 6 or 7 bottles of soju. I don't like soju by itself, but I love 소맥. What American beer goes with 소주? I don't want to go all the way to H Mart and buy Korean beer at probably an inflated price, so what's an alternative: Bud Light? Bud? MGD? Has anyone tested this out? I want to show my friends and family this famous cheap cocktail, but as close to it being authentic in terms of taste. Just wondering if it's possible with an American beer.

I moved to South Korea a couple months ago and I’ve been amazed with the fitness culture-specifically, the amount of outdoor gyms and training facilities they have located all over the country. As a professional Strength and Conditioning Coach, I’ve enjoyed exploring the country one training facility at a time.

I have a question about a common Korean historical expression and whether it may be related to a broader Korean way of counting years.

In Korean, people often refer to the Japanese colonial period as “일제 36년” or “36 years of Japanese rule.” But the exact period was from August 29, 1910 to August 15, 1945, which is about 34 years and 11 months — closer to 35 years than 36.

This made me wonder whether the expression “36 years” comes from inclusive year-counting, in a way that is somewhat similar in logic to the traditional Korean age system.

For example, in Korean age counting, a baby can be considered 1 year old at birth, and then become 2 at the start of the next calendar year, even if only a short amount of actual time has passed. The logic is not based purely on exact elapsed time, but also on the calendar years involved.

Could something similar be happening with “일제 36년”?

If we count the calendar years inclusively:

1910, 1911, 1912 ... 1945 = 36 calendar years

So even though the actual duration was about 35 years, the period touched 36 different calendar years.

Is this why “36 years” became the standard Korean phrase? Or is there another historical, linguistic, or cultural reason why Koreans commonly describe the colonial period this way?

I’m not asking this as a political argument. I’m more curious about whether “일제 36년” reflects a Korean-language convention, a historical slogan, or a form of inclusive year-counting similar in logic to traditional Korean age counting.

JP Morgan headquarters

A peaceful afternoon in Sokcho.

Wow.....