On the 25th of every month, my credit card statement lands. Last month I caught myself staring at the total, thinking, “Where did all of this even go?” So instead of shrugging it off like usual, I opened my banking app and broke it down, line by line — me, my wife, and our seven-year-old … Read more
I ordered something on Coupang (쿠팡, Korea’s biggest online retailer) last night. By this morning, it hadn’t arrived yet — and I caught myself getting annoyed. Why isn’t it here? Then I stopped. About ten years ago, delivery in Korea took three to five days, and nobody thought twice about it. But the version of … Read more
One afternoon, a website completely defeated me. I was on my MacBook, trying to do the most boring thing imaginable: log into a Korean bank. The site told me to install a security program first. Fine. I installed it. I refreshed the page. It said the program was not installed. So I installed it again. … Read more
It’s 7:32 AM. I unlock my phone and there are 47 unread KakaoTalk messages waiting. Not on Instagram. Not on Slack. KakaoTalk alone. A family chat. Two work department chats. A college group chat that’s been alive for 12 years. A chat with the parents of my daughter’s daycare friends. My in-laws’ family group. Scroll … Read more
It’s lunchtime on a weekday in Gangnam (강남, Seoul’s main business district), and almost everyone walking back toward the office towers has a coffee in hand — a takeout cup they haven’t finished, headed back to their desk. Some are hot, some are sweet blended drinks, but the one you’ll spot most is the iced … Read more
A lot of foreigners probably picture it like this: the Korean office worker chained to his desk until the boss leaves, then dragged out to drink soju until he can’t see straight, working until midnight and going drinking until 2 AM. And look — that picture wasn’t completely made up. Fifteen years ago, there was … Read more