May 11th, 2013 at 8:52 am » Comments (11)

Here is a request I received from a ROK Drop reader who is looking for help in raising funds to send his friend back home to the United Kingdom after tragically passing away due to an accident: As you may or may not be aware our friend Kevin Andresen sadly died in a tragic accident very recently. The accident occurred in South Korea and Kevin is still there. His friends in Korea and home have been amazing in their support and it just shows how Kevin touched the lives and
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February 24th, 2013 at 6:37 pm » Comments (33)

Kangaji translated some rules for foreigners in Korea from the Ilbe website. Here is a sample of some of the rules: 5 RULES OF LIVING FOR FOREIGNERS AND ILLEGALS LIVING IN KOREA. 1. Thou shalt pretend to be poor/pitiful. Everyone will pity you. 2. When things don’t go in your favor thou shalt use English or your mother tongue The police will take your side out of pity. 3. Thou shalt get close to Korean females. You can thoroughly enjoy yourself as you steal your way to citizenship and get
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November 26th, 2012 at 3:34 am » Comments (15)

(Note: This is a guest post by I.J. Zemelman, EA. Tax Operations Director at Taxes for Expats.) The task of filing a US income tax return in and of itself can get very confusing, but having to file a US expat tax return is even more complicated of a task.  It’s not uncommon for US Expats to have a long list of questions.  While answers can be found on irs.gov, the website can be difficult to navigate and hard to understand.  Here are some of the top questions asked by
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October 4th, 2012 at 7:50 am » Comments (8)

Here is a worth while charity event that I recommend people in Itaewon this weekend go and check out: A charity event for local organization “Home of Love” will take place at the Woodstock Bar in Itaewon on Oct. 6 beginning at 10 p.m. The Home of Love has been in existence for over 48 years looking after handicapped and mentally disabled people. The event was organized by Paul Bell, a member of the local chapter of the American Steel Motorcycle Club. Bell expressed admiration for the work these organizations
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October 2nd, 2012 at 3:06 am » Comments (21)

Over on Yahoo! Voices they have an article posted by someone who recently participated in a language program in South Korea and experienced culture shock.  Here is the three phases of culture shock the person felt in Korea: Excitement Frustration Balance You can read more details about the three phases at the above Yahoo! link.  Has anyone experienced these phases as well in Korea?  Or do you think their should be some additional phases?

September 17th, 2012 at 3:31 am » Comments (22)

Via a reader tip comes this sad news about a couple of English teachers from South Korea that apparently died of poisoning while traveling to Vietnam: This is all we know for sure: Kari Bowerman, 27, and Cathy Huynh, 26, were backpacking in Vietnam while on break from their jobs teaching English in South Korea. On July 30, the friends were admitted to Khanh Hoa General Hospital in Nha Trang. Both were vomiting, had difficulty breathing and showed signs of severe dehydration. Huynh was eventually released from the hospital. She
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August 18th, 2012 at 5:49 pm » Comments (16)

Below is an excerpt from the transcript of the radio interview conducted on NPR’s “All Things Considered” that discusses the culturally diversity and changes that can be found in Itaewon: And I’m Melissa Block. We go now to a neighborhood in Seoul, South Korea, which represents some changes happening in that country. It’s a neighborhood where foreigners have lived and worked for over a century. Koreans used to avoid it because of cultural barriers and language differences and also its reputation for being seedy and crime-infested. Reporter Doualy Xaykaothao explains
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August 13th, 2012 at 1:00 pm » Comments (6)

This is a picture that a ROK Drop reader forwarded to me that is supposedly a new burger joint in Seoul, called Burgermine.  Using the image of a child hit with napalm as a way to promote your burger joint is probably not the most tasteful thing to do, no pun intended. By the way does anyone know if this place is any good?  It has an interesting business model of make your hamburgers which I haven’t seen before.

August 3rd, 2012 at 6:40 pm » Comments (2)

It looks like Geoje on Geoje-do Island has quite a growing foreigner population due to its shipyard industry: Brian Hodnett is one of 8,805 foreigners living in the coastal city of Geoje, South Gyeongsang, who came to Korea for work. The software engineer from the U.S. came halfway around the world to take a job opportunity offered by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. Hodnett is in charge of installing global standard navigation software for the Korean shipbuilder. He took the job when Oslo-based Songa Offshore, an international drilling company, requested
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July 18th, 2012 at 5:37 am » Comments (44)

A recent article posted over at 3WM that tends to continue the recent trend at criticizing the behavior of foreigners in Korea.  I can understand the major premise of the article which is foreigners need to behave better in Korea, but some of his comparisons with Koreans I found just odd: The reason for the proliferation of acting stupidly and irresponsibly when drunk is entirely cultural. In Korea, if a person acts in a socially unacceptable way when drunk, they will feel shame for it because of the attitude of
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