Foreign residents of Seoul were happier than than their Korean neighbors, a poll conducted by Seoul City showed Thursday. The “happiness index” of foreign residents in Seoul (7.07) was higher than that of the city’s Korean residents (6.72), according to the survey of some 20,000 families, 5,000 citizens and 2,500 foreign residents of Seoul conducted from September through October last year. Over half of the foreign respondents (56.3 percent) said they wish to continue to live i

From morning to evening, and through speeches, engaging discussions, captivating photos and inspiring videos, Herald Corp. commemorated a 70-year journey of shared growth between South Korea and the US in Seoul on Wednesday. The day’s events, hosted by the media company and held at the Shilla Seoul, also marked the foundation of The Korea Herald in 1953 and its sister paper Herald Business in 1973. At the ROK-US “Alliance Plus” forum, which was attended by approximately 1,000

Former US Vice President and environmentalist Al Gore called for bigger climate ambitions on the part of South Korea and the US at the “Alliance Plus” forum hosted by Herald Corp. on Wednesday in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the two countries’ alliance and the founding of The Korea Herald. Korea and the US are already working on clean energy technologies that are driving what Gore referred to as the emergent "sustainability revolution" -- the paradigm shif

Two hundred and twenty-five freshmen at Seoul National University took a leave of absence in their first semester, with most of them believed to be preparing to take the college entrance exam again this year. According to data provided by SNU to Rep. Kim Byung-wook of the People Power Party, the number is equivalent to 6.2 percent of all first-year enrollees at the nation’s top university. The number of SNU freshmen taking time off right after enrolling at the university has more than trip

Westerners who left records of what they saw and experienced in Korea in the 19th century often marveled at how much work women outside the ruling class did, how physically strong Koreans were and how much they ate. Without a word of reproach, women did most of the farm labor and carried lunch to the workers in the field, on top of housework including the endless amount of laundry, they wrote. “You should see the poor things on the coldest days and nights of winter, smashing the thick ice

Herald Corp. is hosting a forum in Seoul on Wednesday to commemorate seven decades of the Korea-US alliance, forged in the wake of the 1950-53 Korean War. The forum, titled “The ROK-US Alliance Plus,” will be held from 2.30 p.m. through 8 p.m. at the Shilla Hotel Dynasty Hall in Seoul and will also commemorate the 70th anniversary of The Korea Herald’s foundation. Renowned international personalities, including former US Vice President Al Gore and former Tokyo Gov. Yoichi Masuz

When 23-year-old Dominick Spina was drafted into the US Army in January 1953 and arrived in South Korea’s Chuncheon as a soldier of the 40th Infantry Division in August that year, his mother was constantly worried about him. So he wrote to her often, hoping to quell her nerves. The Korean Armistice Agreement had just been signed in late July, bringing an end to the hostilities of the 1950-53 Korean War, and Dominick was grateful there was no fighting. In October 1953, he was assigned to th

The annual Hangang Space-out Competition returned Sunday, with a total of 70 teams showing off their art of zoning out. On Jamsoo Bridge over Seoul's Han River, the participants – some of them dressed in costumes -- turned off their phones and sat with blank expressions, while their heart rates were checked every 15 minutes. Anyone who laughs, talks or dozes off was eliminated. A player dressed in a tuxedo took the first prize after successfully spacing out for 90 minutes. The winner

Among the key elements of a language -- its vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar -- grammar is the least affected by foreign influence, but Kwon Jae-il, chairperson of the 115-year-old Korean Language Society, says he has noticed the "destruction" of Korean grammar for some years now. One example of such "destruction" prevalent on television shows and in other media, is the trend of adding the English suffix “-er,” as in “doer,” to all kinds of Korean

Sightings of drywood termites not known to exist in South Korea until now are on the rise, raising concerns the winged species could breed nationwide and damage the country’s wooden cultural assets among others. Reports of these termites, which are considered pests because they feed on wood, in Seoul’s Gangnam-gu, and Asan, South Chungcheong Province, were recently made on online communities with photos. After an on-site inspection last week, the Ministry of Environment confirmed tha

Pink-haired Romi, princess of the Emotion Kingdom, comes to Earth to catch cute and mischievous creatures called Teeniepings that each have a unique power linked to an emotion or a concept they represent. Romi lives as a normal girl in Harmony Town, going to school and working in a bakery, but secretly turns into a magical princess when catching the Teeniepings. The setting of the brightly colored 3D animated film series “Catch! Teenieping” may sound like just another kid’s sho

On Dec. 23 last year, a group of South Korean tourists became stranded in Buffalo, New York, during a heavy blizzard on their way to Niagara Falls. Their van got stuck in the snow, so two of them knocked on the door of a nearby house to ask for shovels to dig the vehicle out of a ditch. That was the home of Alexander Campagna and his wife Andrea, who had planned for a quiet Christmas weekend indoors, with a stocked fridge to wait out the snowstorm. The couple invited the nine travelers plus the

Former US vice president, businessperson and environmentalist Al Gore expressed caution over South Korea’s plan to increase its generation of nuclear power to over 30 percent of its total energy creation by 2030. “While nuclear can and should continue to play a role in South Korea, it would be a mistake to deprioritize proven and cost-effective solutions like wind and solar energy, which are not only necessary to hit our climate goals, but they allow countries like South Korea to avo

The government plans to allow Southeast Asian domestic helpers to work in Seoul as early as this year, but the pilot project will not include previously suggested provisions allowing employers to pay them below the minimum wage. In a bid to raise the country’s record-low birth rate, Seoul City and the Ministry of Employment and Labor are reviewing a pilot project to bring domestic helpers from countries such as the Philippines to help families with childcare and housework. “Within th

Sometimes, an outsider’s view of a society and its people can be telling or, at the very least, worth noting, even if the view itself comes from the 19th century. Compared to its neighbors China and Japan, Korea was secluded and relatively unknown to the Western world for a long time. While the Portuguese and the Dutch sailed to and traded with China from the 16th century and Japan from the 17th century, with Jesuit missionaries such as Matteo Ricci introducing China to the West in the lat

Early this year, a 45-year-old former office worker became well known for enrolling at a provincial university’s medical college to learn with classmates less than half his age. He quit SK, his employer of 17 years, and took the annual college entrance exam called Suneung three times to become a medical student. A YouTube video of him sharing how he studied for the test garnered millions of hits. Appearing on a television show, the man surnamed Kwak said he started thinking about pursuing

Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Korea Sami Alsadhan expressed hopes for greater cooperation between the two countries beyond construction and energy to smart infrastructure, hydrogen and other new industries at the Global Business Forum held in Seoul on April 26. Korea is a strategic partner in "Saudi Arabia Vision 2030," a reform blueprint to reduce the Middle Eastern country’s dependence on oil, diversify its economy and develop public service sectors such as health, education, i

When talking about education, South Koreans often attribute their rising spending on children’s lessons outside school to an undemanding public education. My daughter, who went to a Singaporean public primary school for a year and half, and now goes to a Korean public elementary school, said the latter is less work and more fun. I did tell her once that I heard Korean kids do much of their studying at hagwon, or cram schools, and that I agree it is strange, but that’s how things are

Every night at 10 p.m., over soft music, a female voice actor on the radio would tell teenagers to go home as it had gotten late. After 11 p.m., people would rush to take the last buses and taxis. All stores and bars would close before 11:30 p.m. At the stroke of midnight, sirens would blare and steel barricades would be placed on the streets. Neighborhood patrollers would blow their whistles at anyone still out on the street and those spotted would do their best to run away. This was South Kore

  Lee Ki-nam learned Hangeul from her grandfather at age 4 or 5 in the late 1930s, but her knowledge of the Korean script was kept a secret outside her home for years. The country was a colony of Japan at that time, which banned the use of Korean and forced Koreans to adopt Japanese names. “To me, Hangeul was the same as patriotism,” said the 89-year-old woman behind the propagation of the Korean alphabet overseas, including the Cia Cia project in Indonesia. Korea’s libera