S.H. Kim 
The first time a foreign colleague joined our team chat on KakaoTalk, he sent me a private message within ten minutes. “Why does our manager have three different names in here?” he asked. “And one of them is just… Tony?” I had to laugh, because I’d forgotten how strange it looks from the outside. In … Read more
When I was in elementary school, I watched a movie called Hackers. You know, the 1995 one with Angelina Jolie and rollerblading through New York. I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. Then I watched Live Free or Die Hard and decided — yeah, I want to be that person. The one … Read more
A friend from the U.S. once asked me, completely serious: “Do you eat Korean BBQ, like, every day?” I laughed so hard I almost choked on my instant ramen. Look — Korean BBQ is amazing. I love it. But eating it every day would be like an American having Thanksgiving dinner on a Tuesday morning. … Read more
It’s 7:30pm on a Thursday, sometime around 2012. I’ve just walked out of the office after another long day — not because the work required it, but because leaving before your boss was still one of those unwritten rules nobody questioned. My team leader is already on the phone with the restaurant. “Samgyeopsal place, the … Read more
7:00 AM. The alarm goes off. I know I should get up. I don’t. I hit snooze for ten more minutes. The second alarm hits at 7:10, and now there’s no negotiating — I have to move. My wife and daughter are still asleep. They don’t need to be up until 8:00. My daughter’s 7, … Read more