South Korean man posts suicide note on Twitter http://bit.ly/9ASpux #. Via @TelegraphNews “I’m going to commit suicide. To all of you, even those who shared the slightest friendship with me, I love you,” wrote a former disk jockey before taking his life. [Read More]
Category: Modern Life (page 2)
The service of free kimchi
In restaurants, when a waiter brings you a free dish, why do Koreans say "That's service" when they mean "That's on the house"? # [Read More]
Korean marries his pillow
From the Metro: Lee Jin-gyu fell for his ‘dakimakura’ – a kind of large, huggable pillow from Japan, which has a picture of his favourite anime character, Fate Testarossa, on it. And married it. http://bit.ly/98lDK6 # “He is completely obsessed with this pillow and takes it everywhere,” said one friend. “They go out to the … [Read More]
Can South Koreans survive without the latest technology?
Can South Koreans survive without the web? The BBC’s John Sudworth deprives families of their internet access for a week, in a fascinating experiment. http://bit.ly/9yZiBa #. And on a related note, in my unscientific sample (of 5 Korean musicians visiting the UK), 60% of Koreans have iPhones. Fast adopters. # [Read More]
Dating a Korean American woman…
Korean-American girls are tough to date, says You Offend Me You Offend My Family in a great article entitled How To Survive A Date with A Korean American Woman, from August last year. Maybe because Koreans most materialistic people in the world, according to a survey reported in the Chosun Ilbo [Read More]
iPhone boosts sausage sales
Snack sausage in alternative use as meat stylus – a substitute for your bare finger: Sausage sales have soared by 40% following a bout of cold weather and some smart chap discovering that CJ Corporation’s snack sausages have electrostatic properties that are rather similar to that of the human finger. Source: http://bit.ly/cQh6jY # [Read More]
The Ministry of Love
South Korean Ministry of Health sends workers home to make babies: one way to increase the birth rate. From today’s Evening Standard http://bit.ly/5iFV1e. Also reported by John Sudworth on the BBC #. [Read More]
Day trading in Derivatives, ajumma-style
South Korea boasts the world’s largest market for equity derivatives by number of contracts traded, with 2.7bn stock index options contracts traded in 2008, according to the World Federation of Exchanges. This compares with 514m traded on Eurex, the next biggest market on that measure. Private traders, encouraged by high leverage gains and low trading … [Read More]
Seoul is slacking
Seoul is slacking – beaten into second place by Cairo in hours worked per year according to the 2009 edition of the annual UBS Prices and Earnings report. # People in Seoul worked an average 2,312 hours a year, ranking second among residents of 73 major cities around the world. Cairenes were first with 2,373 … [Read More]
Jean Chung’s Seoul photos for Time magazine
Good Seoul photos, plus 10 things to do in 24 hours in Seoul, some recommendations for side trips, and more, on the TIME magazine website: http://bit.ly/Time-photos #. Photographer Jean Chung comes across the practice of couples fastening metal locks to a fence on Namsan Tower (above) as a symbol of their eternal love for each … [Read More]
Sleepless (and short) in Seoul
The French spend more time sleeping than anyone else in OECD countries. They also devote more time to eating than anyone else and nearly double that of Americans, Canadians or Mexicans. The Japanese sleep nearly an hour less every night than the French and also spend longer at work and commuting than they do indulging … [Read More]
LKL 2008 Quiz of the year – the answers
The answers to the teasers posed just before the New Year. 1 Stressful times What does the current credit crunch and the most recent DPRK nuclear test have in common? a) the media blame them on an incompetent government who should have seen it coming and somehow prevented it b) they would both cause a … [Read More]
Mock funerals make Koreans focus on how to live
Hyung-Jin Kim of Associated Press has done a nice piece on a new idea from Korea Life Consulting Co: fake funerals. It has been run in the Taipei Times (South Koreans give their deaths a trial run: ‘Well-dying’ – having a mock funeral after a set of seminars – is touted as a tool to … [Read More]
Round-up of recent business stories
Some recent stories I don’t want to lose. Mercer’s annual cost of living survey for expats has recently been published. Seoul, last year’s number 2, has been pushed to number 3 by London. Moscow stays top of the list. Tokyo is fourth. Korea is also slipping in the GDP rankings. Bank of Korea data shows … [Read More]
Bada and the birthrate
I wish I was in Seoul today. I recently posted about Anna Fifield’s article on Korean family planning, and in particular the government’s plan to spend $30 billion over the next 5 years to try to boost the birthrate. Here’s a story about how some of that $30 billion is going to be spent: a … [Read More]