Being the only foreign teacher at my hagwon, there are naturally some things I fail to do as well as my predecessors. But there are also some bad habits of theirs that have lingered with the kids and need undoing. One thing I have to undo is the students’ constant misuse of “good” when asked the question, “How are you?” I don’t know who let that slide from the start, but I’ve been committed to undoing it in the last few months.

On the other hand, some bad speaking habits are no one’s fault.

According to Gwangju Blog, the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education has recently decided to shorten the amount of time high school students can be under instruction. This leads to a curious realization: While my beloved California is experiencing cutbacks in education due to financial reasons, Gwangju is cutting back because there’s too much education going around.

It’s like the overachieving employee of the month daring to take a day off.

I went with a friend recently to an Ediya Coffee shop near Chonnam University, and stood in awe at this fragmented run-on sentence proudly mounted on the wall. It even had its own floodlight illuminating the butchery of my dear, sweet language.

But rather than shirk away from it like a leper seeking my touch, I chose to sit directly under its gaze. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

I recently visited Damyang, a place popularized by the many streets lined with massive metasequoia trees. This street is sometimes seen in mushy Korean dramas---perfect for melodramatic breakup scenes or glossy flashbacks to happy relationships of yore.

Upon first glance, Korean hikers are about as serious as they come, rivaling even the Germans in their dedication to looking the part.

There are many different styles of hiking gear in commission throughout Korea; there seems to be a laissez-faire approach to what assortments a Korean hiker can wear and, from what I’ve seen so far, the sky is the limit: