Korea, as told by a Korean
I grew up with these stories — the history, the myths, the places most people never find. This is my way of sharing them
What I Write About
History, myths, language, and the places in between. Told by someone who actually grew up in Korea
There’s a side of Korea that doesn’t make it into guidebooks. That’s what this is about
Korean Exam Cheating Is Centuries Old: Nose Notes, Buried Ropes, and Hired Brains
Every student on earth knows the classics. Answers inked on your palm. Formulas scratched into the side of a pen. A cheat sheet hiding under the label of a water bottle. Korean exam cheating has used every one of those tricks — it just started using them a few hundred years before anyone invented the…
Korean Yeot: The Good-Luck Candy That’s Also an Insult
When I was a kid, I watched younger students crowd around the older ones on the morning of Korea’s big college entrance exam and press something into their hands. Not flowers. Not notes. A stick of Korean yeot — a chewy, amber-colored taffy that clings to your teeth like it has something to prove. The…
Jayuro Ghost: Korea’s Vanishing Hitchhiker on Freedom Road
If you’re ever driving north out of Seoul late at night, in thick fog, and you see a woman in sunglasses standing on the shoulder with her thumb out — keep driving. Don’t slow down. Don’t be polite. Koreans have a name for her. She’s the Jayuro Ghost, and those aren’t sunglasses. Consider this your…
See what catches your eye
Begin with what draws you in: a forgotten story, a local saying, a hidden place, or a piece of Korean history.
