I get a lot of questions from readers about the Korean University Job Interview. First of all, I’ll say that they are quite different from job interviews “back home,” wherever that may be. You’ll probably get asked far more personal questions than in Korea, and of course, you should answer them! These questions may even perhaps be downright illegal in the country you’re from. There are no such notions in Korea and anything is fair game.
A selection of this week’s news and commentary on Korean culture
I must admit feeling very spoiled reading this recent WSJ piece about the difficulty (read: ‘virtual impossibility’) of wiring the rural United States for broadband. The problem of course boils down to too few customers spread over too large an area, which, barring some massive infrastructure spending initiative, makes laying the requisite amount of fiber optic cable unprofitable.
Ever wondered about some of the sounds Korean people make when speaking Korean? Some of these are called "filler words," and they fill space while adding meaning to your sentence. Using "filler words" can help your Korean to sound more like a native's, and they're easy to remember.
Some of the filler words we'll cover are 있잖아(요), 그, 저, Khhhh (however it's spelled), hissing in, 에이, and extended sounds.
Are there any other sounds or filler words you're curious about? Leave a comment here or on the video.
This is a local re-post of a piece I just wrote for The National Interest. Basically my concern here is the regular over-reaction in the West to almost anything military North Korea does. Yes, I am a hawk on Pyongyang; and yes, I worry about the missile program as much as anyone. But I am always amazed at how much hyperbole North Korea can elicit from otherwise smart people who should know better.
