South Korea

Dedicated to Stephanie

Here are some resources that I believe are useful for preparing for life on the Korean peninsula. Each list is short, but this is just intended as a starter kit.

BASIC INFO

• U.S. Department of State
• Wikipedia
• Lonely Planet
• BBC
• Wikitravel
• Info Please
• Library of Congress

BOOKS ON KOREAN CULTURE & HISTORY

• Culture Shock Korea (Good overview of Korean life.)
• American/Korean Contrasts (More details about thought processes and expectations.)
• Korea Unmasked (Comic book look at China, Japan and Korea. A thoughtful quick-read.)

TRAVEL GUIDES

• Lonely Planet - Korea (Not great on culture, but it helped us travel for 3 years. Excellent.)
• Lonely Planet - Seoul (Seoul is the heart of Korea--politically, socially, economically, culturally... Go visit!)
• There are many other good travel guides, but these worked great for us.

SOUTH KOREAN MOVIES

• Welcome to Dongmakgol (Comical and dramatic look at a utopian village during the Korean War.)
• Joint Security Area (JSA) (Murder-mystery set at the DMZ.)
• Sad Movie (So many Korean films are fatalistic.)
• Marathon (A pleasant film based on a true story.)

NORTH KOREAN DOCUMENTARIES

• A State of Mind (Two girls prepare for the Mass Games.)
• Seoul Train (To avoid starvation and other horrors, North Koreans try to enter China and Russia.)

KOREAN NEWS IN ENGLISH

• The Korea Herald
• The Korea Herald - Weekender
• The Korean Times
• The Internet Public Library (List of online resources.)

GENERAL INFO

• Click Korea (Focuses on events, news, essays and food.)
• Korea Net (Official gateway to Korea.)
• Korea Sparkling - Transportation (Info on flight, bus, train and ferry scheduling, transportation cards and other issues.)
• Tour2Korea (Provides info for touring in Korea. Good stuff for expats too.)
• Weather (Stats across the peninsula.)

KOREAN LANGUAGE

• Let's Learn Korean (Sponsored by KBS. I think all the lessons are free.)
• Korean Studies at Sogang (Free online Korean lessons.)

MISCELLANEOUS

• Vegetarian Korea (Restaurants & grocery stores)
• Korea on the Rocks (Rock climbing)
• Korean Wave (Entertainment)
• South Park & Warcraft (Online Episode -- Out of Control)
• Kickin' It in Geumchon (Online Music Video -- Out of Control)
• Colbert vs. Rain (Entertainment)

TEACHING

• More info will be added later.