As someone who was born and raised in South Korea virtually my entire life, I was quite surprised when I made friends in America who weren't entirely familiar with Korean culture. Korean culture was never something that I had to study or explain to anyone when I lived back in Seoul. That all changed when I stepped foot in the United States as a study abroad student. I went through multiple identity crises, questioning things like: Who am I?, Where am I from?, What's the difference between the United States and South Korea? I was also swamped with questions from my classmates regarding Korea - its pop culture, food, tradition, relationship dynamics, and so on. I soon concluded that I needed to have a strong understanding of my own background to be able to figure out my identity as well as explain my culture to others. After intense and thorough research, I wrote this book to answer some of the most commonly asked questions that I received from my American friends. I hope you understand that this book is a mix of personal experiences and objective research. I also hope that you can grow further interest in Korea through this trip that I have prepared for us!
As someone who was born and raised in South Korea virtually my entire life, I was quite surprised when I made friends in America who weren't entirely familiar with Korean culture. Korean culture was never something that I had to study or explain to anyone when I lived back in Seoul. That all changed when I stepped foot in the United States as a study abroad student. I went through multiple identity crises, questioning things like: Who am I?, Where am I from?, What's the difference between the United States and South Korea? I was also swamped with questions from my classmates regarding Korea - its pop culture, food, tradition, relationship dynamics, and so on. I soon concluded that I needed to have a strong understanding of my own background to be able to figure out my identity as well as explain my culture to others. After intense and thorough research, I wrote this book to answer some of the most commonly asked questions that I received from my American friends. I hope you understand that this book is a mix of personal experiences and objective research. I also hope that you can grow further interest in Korea through this trip that I have prepared for us!
