In June last year, BTS fans in the UK helped raise 3,000 pounds ($4,100) for a billboard in London to celebrate the group’s fourth anniversary. This year they plan to do it again, and are nearing their slightly higher goal of 3,500 pounds.With such a dedicated fan base, it’s a surprise that BTS -- who became the first K-pop act to enter the official albums chart in the UK in October 2016 -- only recently announced its first headline concert in the UK as part of its world tour that will also visi

Expat Living May 17, 2018

Hussaina Abdullahi, 19, arrived in Korea two years ago from Nigeria after being introduced to the culture through the Korean Culture Center while she was in school. The information she received there coupled with an interest in K-dramas was enough to make her decide to come to Korea for university.“It still doesn’t feel real,” she said. “Coming here was crazy, one of the biggest things I wished for actually happened.” After completing a yearlong language course and now almost halfway through her

Expat Living Sept. 20, 2017

When Juan David Mateo Salazar Castro arrived in Korea two years ago from Colombia, he was overwhelmed with culture shock. Unable to find information on life here geared toward Latin Americans, the 25-year-old set out to fill the void. “I came in the summer and everything was so crazy for me at the beginning. People’s outfits, how they behave, the food. It was really difficult,” he said. After discussing the lack of resources with a friend, they decided to create content to “bridge the gap betwee

Expat Living Sept. 6, 2017

It’s Friday night and the Gangnam area is filling up with stylish partygoers ready to dance the night away in one of the many clubs nearby. But just a 10-minute walk from the station through quiet back roads, a group of Koreans and foreigners are strapping on their stilettoes and preparing to move to a different beat -- the seductive art of tango. “It’s a four-minute love story,” said Emilio Andres Araya, who has been teaching tango classes in Korea since 2005. “Dancing tango is telling a story

Expat Living Sept. 6, 2017

New Filipino association aims to foster a better understanding of Korea’s growing diversity It’s just past noon and the stretch of road occupied by the Sunday Filipino Market in Hyewha-dong is already bustling. Amid clatter of conversations taking place in Korean, English and Tagalog, stall owners selling fresh, homemade and imported goods, try to draw in passersby with friendly smiles.“Hyewha-dong is very popular for Filipinos,” Jambo, 39, said while helping out at a friend’s stall. He arrived

Expat Living Aug. 22, 2017

Julia Mellor’s first experience with makgeolli was, by her own admission, terrible. The cheap green bottle she had purchased from a local convenience store here left such a bad aftertaste that she gave up on Korean alcohol there and then. So it’s surprising that now, almost 10 years after her first and what she thought would be her final sip, she finds herself at the helm of a company dedicated to educating and spreading awareness of traditional Korean alcohol.Daniel McLaughlin (left), managing

Food July 19, 2017

South Korea is renowned for its rapid economic and technological advancement, but when it comes to mental health there is a lack of resources, experts have warned.“The atmosphere around mental health is not so good in terms of the perception about mental illness, government investment and budget allocation,” said Park Jong-ik, a professor of psychiatry at Kangwon National University. With a rapidly aging society and a struggling economy taking priority on the national political agenda, professor

Social Affairs July 10, 2017

Before Bailey Ewing leaves her home each morning, she lathers her face in eight different skin care products: cleanser, four different toners, serum, emulsion and sunscreen. The 35 minutes it takes her to complete her morning skin care routine and makeup is only a fraction of her two-hour evening routine -- something, she says, she learned only after arriving in Korea in 2014.　Bailey Ewing wears a Korean-style sheet mask. (Bailey Ewing)“I never even had a skin care routine back home, and when yo

Arts & Design March 8, 2017