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 -- onl...

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 wishe...

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 d...

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 And...

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...

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 ...

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 rap...

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. While the innovat...