Category Archives: News

Seoul named as best solo-travel destination.

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For 2025, TripAdvisor has rated Seoul as the World’s Top Solo-Travel Destination. The score is based on “a high volume of above-and-beyond reviews and opinions from the Tripadvisor community over a 12-month period. Out of 8 million listings, fewer than 1% achieve this milestone.”

Seoul is clean, safe, has accessible public transportation (subway, bus), and has many tourist-friendly destinations to see.

We have written quite a few articles on Seoul that you can find here. As the Ambassador Team leader for Gangnam District’s Public Relations team in 2011, I wrote a series of 25+ posts in Gangnam News about destinations in Seoul’s Gangnam District. And an interview in Korea Herald about Gangnam, another here.

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Does one size fit all?

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The topic of free size clothing, where “one size fits all”, came up in a recent Korea Herald article. The discussion was about the Korean fashion industry squeezing all female customers into one size group in order to reduce costs and logistics in production.

A Korean “free-size” is intended to cover the Korean S-M-L range, though it more closely equates to a U.S. women’s size Small.

프리사이즈 – peuri-saije

We wrote several vocabulary-filled articles on fashion and clothing.

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Foreigners in Seoul account for 5% of total population.

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2.65 million foreigners now live in Seoul, about 5% of the total population of Korea. According to data public by the Ministry of Justice, This includes both long-term residence and short-term living foreigners. Half of those are foreigners in their 20s and 30s.

The percent generally decreases with age, with those over 60 representing 12.9% of all foreigners. The total number of international students has also increased steadily.

Our two-part series on skilled foreigner workers:

Part one and Part two.

And our three-part series on studying a foreign language abroad:

Part one and Part two and Part three.

Lastly, our two-part series on studying Korean:

Part one and Part two.

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The slow-aging diet in Korea.

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Slow-aging skin treatments have trended with young generations in Korea for years. More recently, the concept of a slow-aging diet has also become a theme. The diet includes hacks and tweaks to the modern Korean diet. Korean 7-11 convenience stores offer a slow-aging lunchbox, a collaboration with Professor Jeong, a leading Korean authority on the topic. He’s also a leading social influencer on the topic.

According to the Korea Times, the diet “involves various factors, from consuming appropriate portions of each meal and avoiding simple sugars, refined carbohydrates and red meat.”

We have a couple vocabulary-filled posts on diets here and here.

슬로우에이징 (seullo-eijing) slow-aging

저속 노화 (jeosok nohwa) – slow-aging

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iPhone dominates young generations of Korea.

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iPhone, Instagram, YouTube, and KakaoTalk lead the pack in Korea. YouTube is the most used app by Gen Z in Korea. It’s considered as the leading search tool, news source, and entertainment platform. KakaoTalk and Naver are more popular among those over 40.

Looking for vocabulary as well as info on KakaoTalk?

Gen Z – Z 세대 (Z se-dae)

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Gen MZ self-described young and retro.

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The Millenials and Gen Z of Korea, also known as the MZ Generation (MZ 세대), are those born 1981-1995 and 1996-2010, respectively.

A recent trend in South Korea, and other countries, has these generations using “vintage” digital cameras and old iPhones to take pictures. iPhone SE models are also highly sought after. Retro Filters are also used to give their photos a distinctive retro feel. This fits into youngtro (영트로) – where Korea’s youth embrace retro electronics, fashion, and music.
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14s: Valentine’s Day, White Day, and Black Day.

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With the passing of 2025’s Valentine’s Day, we reflect on the holiday and the impact on Koreans. Valentine’s Day has been celebrated here since the 1980s by young couples and newlyweds. Valentine’s Day is the day that young women give gifts to men, typically chocolates or things of that nature. It’s also common for couples to go out for dinner or other activities.

Limited decorations are seen around Seoul, mostly limited to simple things in red color such as a strong of hearts. It’s really only at convenience stores and department stores where chocolates and candy are sometimes setup outside (very common in the 2010s).

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