Groove Korea February 2015

EDITORIAL

To comment, email editor@groovekorea.com

Yo u c a n m a k e a d i f f e r e n c e , t oo

Don’t be afraid to carve your own path — change starts with you Editorial

By Elaine Ramirez, editorial director

When Daniel Payne came to Korea in 2003, he was conflicted. As a 23-year-old divorcé struggling with balancing his religion and homosexuality, he found no sympathy from the local Christian Church. But years of questioning God led him to realize a higher purpose: to create a home for those in the LGBTQ community who were shunned by the church but still sought comfort in their religion. After many months, he found a home for his congregation, the Open Doors Community Church, and has extended his reach as a counselor and pastor to help establish Rainbow, a safe space for closeted teens.

It is the efforts of people like Daniel that have inspired our coverage and support over the years, those whose contributions to a cause — be it raising breast cancer awareness, enriching the local craft brew options, opening a martial arts center, giving artists a forum to share and create, helping companies do business in new markets, fighting HIV-related discrimination or carrying the banner for multicultural policies in parliament — have made our lives here all the richer.

Likewise, Steve and Shannon Kuiack sought to bring together their surrounding community, and launched The Groove Magazine in 2006. Their aim was to create “a welcoming place for all ages, genders and nationalities, aimed at bridging multiple cultures together to learn from each other, grow together, get informed and just be entertained,” and their efforts, we believe, have made the expat community experience all the richer, too.

As the expat scene has grown and matured over the years, Groove has documented it every step of the way. And while staying true to the Kuiacks’ mission, we have also raised the bar for ourselves with the goal of showing our readers a little bit more. We hope to have shed new light with our coverage of the Anti-English Spectrum, Korea’s racism against black people, stigmas against unwed mothers, the failures of Korea’s EFL education system, the dying traditions of old-world

Jeju, corruption and malaise in the local mainstream media and, most recently, sex workers’ demands for a safe and just work environment. All the while, we have remained committed to supporting expats’ efforts to improve their niche of the community.

We celebrate the achievement of reaching our 100th issue — more than four times thicker than the first and involving more than 50 writers, editors and photographers — by acknowledging the often unsung heroes behind those efforts, each of whom started with a clear vision for something new.

This list, which we have left unranked, is far from definitive and lacks many other people deserving inclusion; nonetheless, we hope that at least one of these 100 (or so) influential people’s stories will perhaps lead others to follow suit.

As I wrote in our October 2014 anniversary issue, Korea sets the perfect stage for you to dream big, and I hope Groove Korea’s efforts have shown that these are words we live by. With each new issue I am humbled and inspired by the talent and commitment not only of our tireless volunteer staff and contributors but also of the people we have covered in these pages. Therefore, I am stepping down from the helm of this publication (along with community editor Jenny Na and senior copy editor Jaime Stief) with a great sense of satisfaction of our accomplishments and the confidence that the expat scene still has bigger and brighter ambitions ahead of it, both in English media and in the greater community.

Above all, I am grateful for you, our readers, for giving us a reason to work through the late hours of so many nights month after month. Your appreciation has been our fuel. In exchange, I hope that we have brought you a little closer to the world around you and perhaps shown you a way to get involved in it. Don’t be afraid to dream big, carve a new path and make a difference — change starts with you.

On behalf of the editorial staff since 2006, I thank you for 100 months of support.

Thank you Thank you to everyone who pitched in to our fundraiser to print this issue. A great big thank you to the sponsors for our 100th issue who donated $50 or more to win our hearts: Seoul Gaels ($50) Sabrina Hill ($50) Dan Vroon ($50) Warren Kim ($50) Wayne Gold ($50) Jessica Lane ($50) Paul Matthews ($50) Anonymous ($100) Anonymous ($130)

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www.groovekorea.com / February 2015

CONTENTS

What’s in this issue

ISSUE 100 Februa ry 2 0 1 5

118

32 WELCOME

100 th issue special

Our editorial director bids farewell, but assures the future is bright for Korea’s expat community — as long as people like you get involved.

In the hardly lucrative field of English reporting in Korea, there are a few who work hard to keep their fellow expats informed and critical.

08 Key people

50 Business and politics

14 The inbox

th issue party Groove is celebrating its 100th issue with emerging names and trusty mainstays of the expat music scene on Feb. 7. Come one, come all — come party!

124 Your biggest banking questions

34 04 Editorial:You can make a difference, too Media

Introducing some of the editors, writers and photographers behind the February issue

118 Groove On: 100

Resident financial expert Paul Sharkie gives a shakedown of what every expat should know about banking in Korea.

69

A growing number of expats has embraced the challenges of being a nonnative Korean entrepreneur or elected official.

Opinions and feedback from readers

16 On the Cover 18 Must reads

A selection of our editors’ favorite articles

24 What’s on

Festivals, concerts, happy hours, networking and events for every day of the month

26 the news

With Air Koryo, getting there is half the risk; Three military recruits punished for drug use; Japan tries to change U.S. textbooks; Familicide cases inching upward

30 Editors’ words

Former and current editors look back on 100 issues strong.

36 60 Music and Arts

From Eat Your Kimchi’s Simon and Martina Stawski to gyopo heartthrob Daniel Henney, Korea has become a fire starter for international entertainment careers.

82 FOOD

The success of expat food ventures has brought us the comforts of home — ­ even from homes that aren’t necessarily ours.

96 Community

More than simply improving life for expats, many foreigners are actively building bridges across cultural, geographic and sometimes even comedic barriers.

Distractions

128

GROOVE LISTINGS Doctors, travel agencies, restaurants, hotels, airlines, nightclubs and more

132 COMICS

133 GAMES

134

HOROSCOPES

Credits - Contributors

KOREA 4th floor, Shinwoo Bldg. 5-7 Yongsan 3-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Korea.

KEY PE OPLE

Some of the editors, writers and photographers behind this month’s issue

Elaine Ramirez Contact info (010) 5348-0212 / (02) 6925-5057 Advertising ads@groovekorea.com General inquiries info@groovekorea.com EDITORIAL Editorial Director Elaine Ramirez elaine@groovekorea.com Insight Editor Matthew Lamers Community Editor Jenny Na jenny@groovekorea.com Music & Arts Editor Emilee Jennings emilee@groovekorea.com Food & Destinations Editor Shelley DeWees Editor-at-large John M. Rodgers jmrseoul@gmail.com Senior Copy Editor Jaime Stief Copy Editors Kevin Lee Selzer, Daniel Deacon, Bryoney Hayes GrooveCast Host Chance Dorland chance@groovemedia.co.kr Events Editor Celeste Maturen celeste@groovekorea.com Social Media Editor Merissa Quek ART & DESI G N Art Director Park Seong-eun sam@groovekorea.com Illustration Director Wilfred Lee wilfred@groovemedia.co.kr Design Adviser Prof. Kim Duck-mo MARKETIN G & ADMINISTRATION CFO Steve Seung-Jin Lee steve.lee@groovekorea.com Marketing Executive Jay Park jpark@groovemedia.co.kr Manager Peter Chong eschong@groovekorea.com Accounting Choi Hye-won Web, I.T. Dan Himes danhimes@groovekorea.com W RITERS & PROOFREADERS

Adam Ellerson, Alejandro Callirgos, Alexander Hall, Andrew Stokols, Anita McKay, Anna Schlotjes, Annie Narae Lee, Anthony Greene, Anthony Levero, Beryl Sinclair, Christopher Green, Connor Dearing, Conor O’Reilly, Conrad Hughes, Daniel Kang, Dave Hazzan, David Phillips, Dean Crawford, Deva Lee, Eileen Cahill, Gaea Dill-Dascoli, Gareth Sharp, George Kalli, Haeryun Kang, Harold Swindall, Hyunwoo Sun, Ian Henderson, Ian McClellan, Jamie Keener, Jayson Moore, Jean Poulot, John Power, Josh Doyle, Kellie Ell, Ken Fibbe, Ken Hall, Kyndra Love, Laine Ritter, Leslie Finlay, Liam Mitchinson, Matt VanVolkenburg, Megan Fox, Nate Finch, Paul Sharkie, Rajnesh Sharma, Remy Raitt, Ron Roman, Ryan Ritter, Sarah Edge, Sean Maylone, Shane Torr, Shireen Tofig, Simon HunterWilliams, Simon Powell, Simon Slater, Sophie Boladeras, Stephanie Anglemyer, Stephanie MacDonald, Timothy Cushing, Tom Godfrey, Walter Stucke, Wilfred Lee

PHOTO GRAPHERS & ILLUSTRATORS

Adam Paul Czelusta, Aimee Anne, Andrew Faulk, Christina Singer, Colin Dabbs, Craig Stuart, Darren Farrell, Dirk Schlottmann, Don Sin, Dylan Goldby, Fergus Scott, Hannah Green, James Anderson, James Kim, Jen Lee, Jessica Lia, Jon Linke, Jungeun Jang, Kaegan Saenz, Kevin Kilgore, Merissa Quek, Michael Hurt, Michael Roy, Min Pang, Mirela Pencheva, Monika Traikov, Nathan Shacochis, Nicholas Stonehouse, Nina Sawyer, Pat Volz, Peter DeMarco, Rob Green, Robyn Viljoen, Sabrina Hill, Samantha Whittaker, Turner Hunt, Vanessa Sae-hee Burke

U.S.

Elaine tends to go wherever the wind carries her, and the most recent gust has swept her to Korea. After stints in New York and Chile, the California native now works as an editor in Seoul. When not editing for Groove or her newspaper, she’s off riding her motorbike along the Han, exploring the far corners of the peninsula, or sleeping. She tweets @elainegija. Elaine is Groove Korea’s editorial director.

Daniel Deacon U.K.

Daniel is from Leicestershire and has been using his MA in TESOL to teach in Korea, the Czech Republic, Germany and the U.K. He’s a freelance copy editor working with publishers, magazines and students, and spends most of his time appreciating good coffee, learning Korean, Instagramming and cycling along the Han River. Daniel is a copy editor for Groove Korea.

Adam Czelusta U.S.

Adam Czelusta is an American photographer and self-proclaimed gentleman from Buffalo, New York. When he’s not at his day job teaching the English language, he’s out equipped with a camera capturing curiosities.

He’s had work appear on BBC News’ “Your Pictures” series and maintains a photography blog at photoczelusta.wordpress.com.

Park Seong-eun South Korea

Park Seong-eun joined Groove Korea in August 2013. She is in charge of editorial design.

Her favorite issue is always the most recent one because she can see her design skills improving every month. When not designing, she likes watching American TV shows and jogging along the Han River, where you might run into her sometime.

Publisher Sean Choi sean@groovekorea.com

Merissa Quek To contribute to Groove Korea, email submissions@groovekorea.com or the appropriate editor.

To write a letter to the editor, email editor@groovekorea.com.

To have Groove Korea delivered to your home or business, email subscribe@groovekorea.com.

To promote your event, email events@groovekorea.com.

To advertise, email ads@groovekorea.com.

The articles are the sole property of GROOVE MEDIA CO. Ltd. No reproduction is permitted without the express written consent of GROOVE MEDIA CO. Ltd. The opinions expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the publisher.

© All rights reserved Groove Korea Magazine 2015

Singapore

Previously a finance lawyer, Merissa was inspired by what Steve Jobs said about having the courage to follow one’s heart and intuition, and decided to pick up sticks and move to Seoul. She has been a photographer at heart since she received her first SLR at age 15. Merissa recently won the First Shot category in the 2013 Travel Photography of the Year competition. Her current aim is to see Antarctica and the penguins.

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KEY PE OPLE

Some of the editors, writers and photographers behind this month’s issue

Fergus Scott Ireland

Fergus Scott is from a town called Sligo on the west coast of Ireland and is currently living and working as a teacher in Seoul. His main passion in Korea is photography and he loves to combine this with his other passions, which are hiking and running.

Sarah Edge U.S.

Sarah Edge left sunny San Diego, California, and came to Korea for two consecutive summers, finally staying put in 2013. She works as a consultant in Bundang and when not doing that, she writes for Groove, Green Tea Graffiti and OhKorea magazine.

Megan Fox U.S.

Megan Fox is a journalist and teacher from the Northeastern U.S., currently living and working in Seoul. She is a freelance writer who also maintains a blog titled Seoulmateskorea aimed at helping expats explore life in Korea. Megan’s love for travel and exploring new cultures has made Korea the fifth country in four continents in which she has worked. Her other interests include cooking, hiking and volunteering.

Tom Godfrey U.S.

Tom is a writer and photographer from a small town in Massachusetts. He came to Korea in 2010 and found a sense of belonging that thwarted several attempts to go home. He spends his time trying to be a travel writer, exploring and running the occasional hagwon into the ground.

Josh Doyle Canada

A native of Canada, Josh has been taken with the written word since the early days of his youth. Before leaving for Korea in 2011 he was an arts and culture writer for an Ontario-based newspaper. He currently calls Busan home, where the local dialect dances just out of reach and the waves bring in plenty to write about.

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THE I NBOX

To submit a letter, email opinion@groovekorea.com

Re: “Sex workers defend their labor, health and civil rights” (January 2015) You sell sex and I’m assuming that’s your choice, probably because it’s the “easiest way” to make a lot of money for you. You also know that prostitution is “illegal” in Korea, which I think is pathetic and hypocritical at the same time, given the fact that you can buy sex easier than you can get a credit card (at least if you’re not Korean) here.

However, the fact that it’s illegal and you know it also entails that you shouldn’t expect any rights or decent treatment from the police or anyone else. You should see the fact that you can make a lot of money simply as the compensating wage differential for your line of work — yes, you can make a lot per hour, but it’s more dangerous and less accepted by society than working at a convenience store (a job that requires a similar level of human capital as selling sex). In order to compensate you for the fact that a lot of Koreans (and Americans) see you as trash, while there is a lot of demand for your work, you can charge more per hour. If you want human rights and protection, have a look at countries like Germany, where prostitution is completely legal and it’s really, really cheap to buy sex.

Donya, via groovekorea.com

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Donya, your entire comment is based on either resentment at people selling sex making a lot of money or triumphant dismissal of other people’s rights. It can be easily rephrased.

Say this was 1935.

“However, the fact that it’s illegal (to be a Jew) and you know it also entails that you shouldn’t expect any rights or decent treatment from the police or anyone else. You should see the fact that (Jews make a lot of) money simply as the compensating wage differential for your (ethnic background) — yes, you can make a lot, but it’s more dangerous and less accepted by society (to be Jewish) than working as a normal German (a job that requires a similar level of human capital as being Jewish). In order to compensate you for the fact that a lot of (Germans) (and Americans) see you as trash, while there is a lot of demand for your (business), you can earn more. If you want human rights and protection, have a look at countries like (some free country) where being Jewish is completely legal and it’s really, really safe to exist.”

Your comment wouldn’t be an issue if resentful, dismissive and contempt-ridden attitudes like yours weren’t part of the human rights abuse problem.

Sickening. You’re a major part of the problem.

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C OVE R

100 expats who made a difference Many foreigners have successfully built lives in Korean society, but making a lasting impact during one’s time on the peninsula requires bravery, tenacity and, for many, a long-term investment. For Groove Korea’s 100th issue, we highlight those expats whose influence will be felt for years to come, from the familiar faces who have graced these pages regularly to those whose work rarely receives the recognition it deserves. Whether in media, business, politics, the arts, the restaurant scene or elsewhere in the expat community, you inspire us to make our time here count.

Read the story on Page 32.

Cover design by Park Seong-eun

O u r pa s t t h r e e i s s u e s

January 2015

December 2014

November 2014

I sell sex and I have rights, too Makgeolli mania Geography of Youth

The off switch Hallasan blues Have yourself a carnal Christmas feast

Korea’s media malaise Settle down there Eating alone with friends

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MUST READS

A selection from our editors

36

M U ST RE ADs

John M. Rodgers and Liam Scott Soper

The independent media outlet Three Wise Monkeys, created by editor-in-chief John M. Rodgers and editor-at-large Liam Scott Soper, has earned quite a following since its launch on Jan. 28, 2010 — along with its fair share of critics.

53

62

Simon and Martina Stawski

92

Jasmine Lee

Lawmaker Jasmine Lee is in the thick of Korea’s multicultural transformation. Born Jasmine Bacurnay y Villanueva in the Philippines, in 2012 the TV personalityturned-lawmaker became the first naturalized Korean to sit in the National Assembly.

114

18 www.groovekorea.com / February 2015

No more praise can be heaped on Casablanca Moroccan Sandwiches that hasn’t been heaped already. They rule, and if you haven’t tried one, shame on you. But the famously friendly mastermind behind this culinary delight, Wahid Naciri, has a story of his own.

Groove 100

Groove 100 brings together five of the best acts on the scene, musicians who are at the forefront of the diverse genres and musical styles pushing the indie scene forward today. At DGBD in Hongdae on Feb. 7.

daniel payne

As the founder and pastor emeritus of Korea’s first pro-LGBTQ church, Daniel Payne has sought to create a safe space for sexual minorities to explore their Christianity free of prejudice and discrimination.

Wahid Naciri

118

Meeting with Simon and Martina Stawski is in many ways like watching their videos. The enthusiasm and quick-fire succession of their words matches the raw footage from their video shoots — quintessentially them, but lacking the finer polishing that editing enables.

This is the place where you can experience Korean culture and get information about travelling in Seoul.

HANDICRAFT-MAKING

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K-DRUM SAMULNORI

K-POP DANCE

HANBOK(Korean Traditional Costume)

K-BEAUTY MAKE-UP

Opening Hours 10:30am - 7:30pm open everyday except New Year’s Day & Chuseok Email seoulcenter3789@gmail.com

EXIT

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Euljiro 1-ga Station

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TEL 02.778.0333

Website www.seoulculturalcenter.com (English support) Facebook www.facebook.com/Seoulcenter3789

Myeong-dong Theater

Tel 02.3789.7961 Address 5th FL, M-Plaza, 27 Myeong-dong 8-gil, Junggu, Seoul

Front gate

Back gate

Seoul lobal Cultural Center

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Myeong-dong Kyoja

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Myeong-dong Station

W hat ’ s O n SUN

MON

TUE

February WED

THU

Daily

q

All-you-can-drink beer *All the events published in this calendar are subject to unforeseen changes by the promoters. Groove Korea does not take responsibility for any misunderstandings or third-party damage.

For suggestions or comments, email events@groovekorea.com

Beer buffet

@ Ssada! Maeck Ju in Hongdae; 8,000 won (daily); (02) 3141-7011 @ Pho Mons in Gangnam; 4,900 won for 2 hours (daily); (02) 514-0513 @ Beer Garden, Renaissance Hotel, Gangnam; 6-9p (daily); @ Beer Garden, Renaissance Hotel; 6-9p (daily); (02) 2222-8630

@ 200 Bran Hauns; 9,900 won; Mon, Thurs, Sun at 5p; (02) 3481-9062

1

2

3

4

5

Cheongpyeong Sledding & Icefish Festival

Chilgapsan Ice Fountain Festival

Ganghwa Icefish Festival

YGVC Miniature HanbokMaking Class

Stand Up Seoul

Festival

@ Jojongcheon Stream, Gapyeonggun, Gyeonggi-do; to Feb. 2; search Cheongpyeong at english. visitkorea.or.kr Festival

Mount Taebaeksan Snow Festival

Festival

@ Cheonjangho Suspension Bridge in Alps Village in Cheongyang-gun, Chungcheongnam-do; to Feb. 22; search Chilgapsan Ice Fountain Festival at english.visitkorea.or.kr

Festival

@ Ganghwa-gun, Incheon; to Feb. 28; search Ganghwa Icefish Festival at english.visitkorea.or.kr

2 for 1 fish & chips

@ Wolfhound; wolfhoundpub.com

Happy Hour: 3,000 won off Jack Daniels and Finlandia Vodka (all day) @ DOJO in Itaewon

Sunday Roast

@ Craftworks in Noksapyeong; craftworkstaphouse.com

15

Exhibition

9

Notre-Dame de Paris

@ Sejong Center for the Performing Arts; to Feb. 27; 60,000-200,000 won; sejongpac.or.kr

@ Dongdaemun Market, Seoul; 10a-2p; 5,000 won member/ 15,000 won nonmembers; register by Feb. 6; search calendar at siwapage.com

Beer-Battered Fish & Chips

Nanta

Musical @ Myeongdong or Chung jeongno Nanta Theaters; nanta.i-pmc.co.kr

17

BBQ Night

@ Craftworks in Noksapyeong (Tuesdays); craftworkstaphouse.com

Self-help

Overeaters Anonymous meeting

@ International Lutheran Church 7:30p

Tour

@ International Lutheran Church; 5p

Happy Hour: 3,000 won off Bloody Marys @ Noxa Lounge in Itaewon; 12-5p

Festival

Paju Trout Festival

@ Paju, Gyeonggi-do; to Feb. 8; 15,000 won; pjtf.co.kr

12 Music

Belle and Sebastian

@ UNIQLO AX, Gwang jin-gu; 8p; 121,000 won; search Belle and Sebastian at koreangigguide.com

Men’s night

@ Craftworks in Noksapyeong (Thursdays); 2,000 won off single malts and 1,000 won off all beers; craftworkstaphouse.com

19 Lunar New Year’s Day

@ Phoenix Park and Blue Canyon Water Park, Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon-do; 275,000 or 289,000 won; search lunar new year special trip at adventurekorea.com

@ Hongdae Music Show Wedding Theater; nanta.i-pmc.co.kr

23

Codependents Anonymous meeting

@ Rocky Mountain Tavern, Itaewon; 9-11p; rockymountaintavern.com

Musical

Self-help

@ International Lutheran Church; 5p

Lunar New Year Trip with Adventure Korea

Social

Music Show Wedding

22 AA meeting

Tour

@ 3 Alley Pub in Itaewon

@ Arario Gallery, Jongno; to Feb. 22; arariogallery.com

@ Craftworks, Noksapyeong (Wednesdays); craftworkstaphouse.com

18

Wing night

Polar Heir: Han Sung-pil photos

Michael Bublé To Be Loved Tour

Theater

Dongdaemun Fabric Market with SIWA

16

@ Yeoksam Global Village Center, Gangnam-gu; 1-3p; 5,000 won; global.seoul.go.kr/yeoksam Music

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Tour

Arts

@ Jamsil Indoor Stadium, Songpa-gu Seoul; 8p; 99,000-253,000 won; search Michael Bublé at ticket.interpark.com

@ Taebaeksan, Gangwon-do; last day; festival.taebaek.go.kr

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Tour a Hanbok Shop with SIWA

@ Anguk Station, Seoul; 10a-1p; 5,000 won; register by Feb. 20; search calendar at siwapage.com

Open mic

@ Tony’s in Itaweon (Mondays); tonysitaewon.com

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2,000 won off martinis (all night) @ DOJO in Itaewon Music & Dance

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Cheesesteak sandwich night

@ Hollywood Grill, Itaewon; (02) 749-1659

Shake Shop 20 club night @ Freebird, Hongdae; search Shake Shop on fb.com

Stand-up comedy (Wednesdays)

@ Tony’s, Itaewon; tonysitaewon.com

26 Tour

Dongdaemun Night Market with SIWA

@ Dongdaemun, Seoul; 8:30p-11:30p; members 5,000 won/nonmembers 15,000 won; register by Feb. 24; search calendar at siwapage.com

Quiz night

@ 3 Alley Pub in Itaewon; win beer

High STREET MARKET

15% off on all chocolates through Valentine’s Day, online and in-store.

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Free shuttle bus Seoul-Jeonju every day except Monday; Seoul departure 8a; Jeonju departure 5p; visitkorea@chesstours.co.kr Free shuttle bus Seoul-Busan every day except Monday; Seoul departure 8a; Busan departure 4p; visitkorea@chesstours.co.kr

6

Dance

7

K-pop dance class

@ Yeoksam Global Village Center, Gangnam-gu; 3:30p; 5,000 won; global.seoul.go.kr/yeoksam Tour

Daehan Empire History SIWA Tour @ Deoksugung Palace, Jung-gu, Seoul; 9:45a-1p; 10,000 won members/20,000 won nonmembers; register by Feb. 4 search calendar at siwapage.com

13 Info

Groove 100

Groove Korea’s 100th issue party

@ DGBD; 10:30p; see our story on Page 118

14

Open registration to volunteer through Itaewon Global Village Center

Social

Valentine’s Meet Market

@ MWG, Hongdae; 9p; 10,000 won + 1 free drink; search meetmarketseoul on facebook Music

global.seoul.go.kr/itaewon Korean class

Register for free Korean classes

SPO-Romantic Trio

@ Sejong Chamber Hall, Jongno-gu; 7:30p; 10,000-30,000 won; seoulphil.or.kr

@ Itaewon Global Center

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How To Dress Well

Young Korean Artists 2014

Music

@ Rolling Hall, Hongdae; 7p; 50,000-60,000 won; mysameink.com

Exhibition

@ Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; to March 29; www.mmca.go.kr Ongoing

Fish Market Tour, Vegan Taste Tour, Night Dining Tour

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Learn about Korea’s cuisine with O’ngo culinary tour of Seoul

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27

28

Pompeii: Culture of the Ancient Roman City

@ Noxa Lounge, Itaewon; 5p-1a

Exhibition

@ National Museum of Korea; to April 5; 13,000 won; museum.go.kr

2,000 won off beer/house wine @ Craftworks in Noksapyeong; 4-6p; craftworkstaphouse.com

3,000 won off Orange Mint Mojito @ Noxa Lounge in Itaewon; 5p-1a

3,000 won off Orange Mint Mojito 3,000 won off Bloody Marys @ Noxa Lounge, Itaewon; 12-5p

All stories are culled with consent from Korea JoongAng Daily’s website and edited by Groove Korea for length and clarity.

The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Groove Korea. — Ed.

Na t i o n a l

N e w s

with

February 2015 / www.koreajoongangdaily.com

With Air Koryo,

getting there is half the risk North Korea’s Air Koryo once again ranked last in an annual survey of world airlines, despite North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s order for it to improve its services.

In the latest survey by Skytrax, a U.K.based consultancy providing airline and airport reviews and rankings, Air Koryo was at the bottom of 600 global air carriers for the fourth consecutive year.

The survey reviewed various categories from the age of aircraft to in-flight meals and language skills of the crew. The North received the lowest grade in most areas.

Established in 1950, Air Koryo is the state-owned national flag carrier of the North. One of the first direct orders issued by the young North Korean leader when he assumed power was to do something to improve Air Koryo.

In May 2012, only a few months after he took power, Kim issued an order to improve the quality of the in-flight meals and modernize the cabin crew’s uniform during a visit to Pyongyang Sunan International Airport.

Kim, who spent his youth in Switzerland, apparently had high standards.

Due to the North’s economic woes, Air Koryo operates obsolete aircraft introduced by the Soviet Union in the 1960s. No new acquisition has been made over the past 20 years.

The poor condition of the airline’s 64 aircraft was publicized recently when a trip by Kim’s special envoy to Russia was disrupted.

Choe Ryong-hae, a secretary of the Workers’ Party, and his entourage left Pyongyang for Russia on Nov. 17, 2014, but came back to the North due to the plane’s malfunction.

After repairs, the aircraft left the country later that evening.

Air Koryo operates international flights to destinations in Asia and Europe.

Passengers often criticize the in-flight meals. They said the bread, coffee and meat are substandard, as the main ingredients are largely produced in the impoverished North. Photos of a hamburger provided as an in-flight meal have been posted by Air Koryo travelers on social media to substan-

tiate their complaints.

For duty-free shopping, the only products offered are North Korean liquors, cigarettes and needlecraft work. Reading materials on flights are the propaganda photo booklet Choson, the Workers’ Party’s newspaper Rodong Sinmun and English-language Pyongyang Times. No imported magazines or newspapers are offered.

JoongAng Ilbo reporters have flown the airline on domestic routes in the North for reporting in the past. The trips often provided illustrations of how the airline tries to save money on operational costs.

During a trip from Pyongyang to Wonsan, the pilot of a small propeller plane turned off the engine on the runway shortly after landing to save on fuel, the JoongAng Ilbo reported. A military truck approached, tied a rope to the plane’s landing gear to tow it to the terminal.

North Koreans explained to the JoongAng Ilbo reporter that the pilot and flight attendants would be walking home from the airport, an hour’s trek.

Three military recruits

punished for drug use The Ministry of National Defense revealed last month that three soldiers who were caught smoking marijuana in May had been punished, an announcement that spurred public concern regarding lax surveillance in military barracks.

The trio, who separately served in the Army, Navy and Air Force, reportedly received the drug in May, which was disguised in a snack box and sent from a friend who they met while studying

abroad in Saipan, part of the Northern Mariana Islands.

“In December, the military courts sentenced the three soldiers who smoked marijuana, which is labeled as a drug (in Korea),” an official from the Ministry of National Defense said.

“They also received fines, which amounted to 2 million won to 3 million won for each soldier.”

Each was also sent to a military prison

for 10 to 15 days.

The trio was said to have taken advantage of the fact that military security does not check every parcel to avoid human rights violations, and wired 100,000 won to their hookup. Each parcel contained 1 gram of marijuana in a snack box.

Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said in response, “In the military, where dangerous weapons are handled, drug use is sternly prohibited.”

Na t i o n a l

N e w s

with

February 2015 / www.koreajoongangdaily.com

Japan tries to change U.S. textbooks A U.S. publisher in January denied Tokyo’s request for it to delete a passage in a high school textbook saying that women were “forcibly recruited” by the Japanese military during World War II to work as sex slaves.

At the end of last year, the Japanese Foreign Ministry made a formal request to the U.S. publisher to delete the euphemism “comfort women” from the latest edition of a world history textbook used by some local high schools in California, claiming it was not true, the Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun reported.

The request was denied by the American publishing giant McGraw-Hill Education.

The textbook “Traditions & Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past” contains text that says: “The Japanese Army forcibly recruited, conscripted and dragooned

as many as 200,000 women aged 14 to 20 to serve in military brothels, called ‘comfort houses.’”

The textbook, written by Jerry Bentley and Herbert Ziegler, also describes how some comfort women were killed by Japanese soldiers while trying to escape.

In November, Japan’s Foreign Ministry through its consulate in New York asked McGraw-Hill to change the depiction of comfort women, claiming it was inaccurate, and arranged a meeting with the publishers to make a formal request.

However, McGraw-Hill responded it would not change the current description because it was “based on historical facts” written by history scholars, the Sankei reported.

Seoul is concerned about Japan’s move toward a revisionist history, which has added to the deterioration of the two

countries’ diplomatic relations over recent years.

Tokyo’s resolution of the comfort women issue is considered a vital step in improving those ties at a time when the two sides should be gearing up for a future-oriented relationship.

In her New Year’s press conference, President Park Geun-hye emphasized that because the comfort women victims are elderly, if the issue is not resolved quickly, “this will become a heavy historical burden for Japan as well as on Korea-Japan relations.”

She added that while there is “no reason not to hold a summit” with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, “there remain difficulties because certain conditions have to be met to enable a meaningful summit that can take even one step forward.”

Familicide cases inching upward When an armed man took four hos- ricide for economic issues has sharply tages earlier this year and killed two risen compared to a decade ago,” said in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, one of the Jeong Seong-guk, an officer with the victims was his 16-year-old stepdaugh- Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s crimter. The other was the girl’s biological inal department, who attributed low domestic growth to that phenomenon. father.

Statistics from the National Police The police later announced that the 46-year-old man appeared to have killed Agency are in line with that assessment. them after a siege that lasted at least five The most recent data shows that the hours in a four-story apartment building, number of domestic violence crimes in sparked by his belief that his wife — the 2013 stood at 1,142 — up from 1,036 mother of the teenager — was cheating the year before and 933 in 2011.

From 2008 to 2013, Korea saw an avon him with her ex-husband.

Earlier, on Jan. 6, a 48-year-old man al- erage of 1,143 murder cases annually. legedly strangled his wife and daughters Fifty-three, or 5 percent, were parricide to death in the family’s home in Gang- cases — much higher than Britain with nam District, southern Seoul. Authori- 1.5 percent. ties believe the suspect, who suffered “When couples break up over finantremendous losses in the stock market cial reasons, (some people) try to take and had been unemployed for three advantage of that by seeking monetary years, was troubled by his financial con- compensation,” said Lee Soo-jung, a straints. criminal psychology professor at Kyong“The number of people committing par- gi University in Suwon, Gyeonggi Prov-

ince. “They commit homicide for insurance compensation or to get their hands on family inheritance.”

Two out of every five people who killed a family member from 2006 to 2013 suffered from a mental illness, according to a study announced by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency last year.

Jeong added that many criminals suffer from depression.

But when it comes to domestic violence here, Jeong noted that Korea’s situation is unique in that filicide, or parents killing their own children, is not uncommon like it is in other countries. “(Korean) parents think of their children as their possessions,” he said, which is why some don’t mind claiming the lives they believe they have authority over.

“Family crimes usually pop up before or after national holidays (when families get together).”

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g n o r t s s 100 issue lections

their ref e r a sh s or it d e r e m Current and for Tracey Stark Editor-in-chief 2008-2011 I started as a columnist (A Stark View) and somehow got drafted into the position of editor-in-chief from 2008-2011. In the beginning we floundered a bit for direction — shifting our focus from bands and nightlife to “causes” and back again. We finally ended up with a thoughtful, well-rounded publication about which we could be proud to say, “we made this.” The dedication of the writers, section editors and layout artist Dan Thwaits, who designed the first 40-plus issues, combined with the continued patience and loyalty of our readers helped make Groove what it is today.

Rob McGovern Community Editor 2011-2012 My years in Korea were some of the best of my life, and working on Groove Korea was a highlight of those years. I met great people, and my time there working with talented writers, editors, photographers and designers gave me the desire, experience and connections to help me get jobs at newspapers in Korea and Hong Kong and has facilitated the path I am currently on. Groove Korea was a typical expat publication when I started contributing from Jeonju, but it evolved, and by the time I left it was a very sleek, professionally produced magazine with something to say. I met some great people because of Groove and formed friendships that endure today. Personal thanks go to Matt Lamers, who made Groove into what it is today and gave me the opportunity to be involved with its publication — which sometimes meant staying up incredibly late.

Summer Walker Music Editor 2008-2012 I was with Groove in some capacity from 2008 to 2012. I started out as a contributor writing about local bands. One day, after a few too many coffees, I had an idea: a music issue.

Sure, Groove featured indie musicians every month, but what about a theme? We could have photographers, writers and musicians come together for enormous photo spreads and long-form articles. We could have pieces on different genres, people and venues. We could celebrate photography alongside music! I wrote all this up to then-editor Tracey Stark. He replied, “Sounds great. You do it.” The next three months were by far the busiest I’ve ever had, and resulted in Groove Korea’s first Music Issue.

I could tell you a few stories about nights out with the owner of Groove Korea, but I’d need a few beers first. Where do you want to go for round four, Sean?

Adam Walsh International Editor, Managing Editor 2009-2010 When I started working for Groove Korea, I hesitated before telling people. When asked, I usually explained that the mag wasn’t so bad even though we had a section on how to get your groove on with a Groove Guy and Groove Girl every month. I wanted more from the mag, and when the publisher changed he gave the green light to actually do more, to try something called journalism. The mag started to get better. When I left Korea at the end of 2010 it was firing on all cylinders and it kept on improving. I’m very proud of what Groove Korea turned into and the service it provides to expats.

Josh Foreman Food and Destinations Editor 2009-2014 I worked for Groove as a writer and editor for more than four years. Over those years I marveled as the quality of the magazine got better, and better, and better year after year, all while relying on a mostly volunteer staff. The hard work and vision of editors Matthew Lamers and Elaine Ramirez are largely responsible. By the time I finished last year, Groove was definitively Korea’s best and longest-lasting expat magazine. My teaching job paid the bills while I lived in Korea, but my Groove work allowed me to express my creativity, publish my work and participate in the running of a magazine.

My work at Groove is really what allowed me to move on to a creative job back home, and for that I will always be thankful.

Elaine Ramirez Associate Editor, Editorial Director 2012-2015 When I first laid eyes on “The sexy hips of Eshe” (May 2011) I knew that Korea’s expat media had something special, something hard to come by in a foreigner community in any country. I watched as the caliber of the magazine continued to rise and was eager to join the staff as associate editor in mid-2012.

I couldn’t have imagined how much I would learn not only from my predecessor, Matt Lamers, but also from all the contributors and editors about journalism, media production and, perhaps most importantly, the value of teamwork. Though we’ve prospered under bold leadership, no one person can take responsibility for this magazine’s accomplishments over the years, and I’m proud of what we have come to represent in the expat community.

The community is continuing to flourish and diversify, and the future is full of possibilities. Those with a vision, determination and the right help can accomplish damn near anything. At least, trying is half the fun.

Matthew Lamers Editor-at-large, Insight Editor, Editor-in-chief 2010-2013 (Excerpt from October 2013 editorial) It’s particularly evident that there’s something special happening in Korea right now. Around every corner there’s a writer, entrepreneur, painter, musician, filmmaker or photographer.

Folks come from Korea and around the world.

And it just so happens that many of them are extremely talented at what they do. Korea is a great place to be right now.

What brought all these people to Korea is probably the same thing that keeps you here: opportunity. Start a business, buy a canvas or bike across the country; whether your motive is financial, to explore your creative potential or even find your fitness limit, the opportunity is there for you to seize.

And remember that, for various reasons, these are opportunities most people back “home” do not have.

Your journey might be a year, a decade, or even a lifetime; it’s up to you.

Groove is equipped with a staff of passionate writers, photographers and editors who seized the opportunity to do what they love, to help make this magazine become what it is today.

Jenny Na Community Editor 2012-2015 Groove Korea is one of the few publications that’s been willing to tell stories that are often underreported about people who are part of social and sexual minority communities and people working, often without recognition, to change their communities for the better. For me, the stories we’ve published about adoptees, gyopos and unwed moms have been particularly meaningful. I’m also honored to be part of a community of dedicated collaborators committed to ensuring these stories are told. It’s been an amazing experience and I’m grateful to everyone who’s come along for the ride.

Shelley DeWees Food and Destinations Editor 2014-2015 While I only spent a year at the magazine as an editor, Groove Korea was a welcome addition to my life in Seoul. I remember thinking, “Whoa, there’s a WHOLE LOT of expat stuff up in here!” as I stood in What the Book, perusing my first-ever issue –– our community is rich and vibrant, and there it all was, on the pages in front of me. As I walked out of the store with Groove in my hand, a three-year love affair blossomed out of readership into authorship and beyond. And as I write now, from the USA, I feel nothing but thankfulness and gratitude for Groove, my Korean memento. Thank you!

Emilee Jennings Music and Ar ts Editor 2013-2015 The past two years working with Groove Korea as the Music and Arts editor have been a whirlwind of emotions. There were many testing times, but watching how Groove overcame the difficulties with the help of our talented writers made every moment, even sleepless nights, worthwhile. The most memorable moments for me have been the two arts covers. The March 2014 edition with Expat Superstars sticks out the most, mainly because of the hours that went into pulling that cover off. Really it’s been a wonderful experience, and I want to thank all the contributors and readers for helping to mold Groove into Korea’s biggest and, dare I say, best English magazine.

Steve and Shannon Kuiack Founders 2006-2008 (Excerpt from January 2008 editorial) When we initially started The Groove Magazine we wrote that we hoped this publication could “serve to bridge multiple cultures together where people (could) learn from each other, grow together, get informed and be entertained.” At the same time, we also asserted our desire that this magazine would help foreigners “get the most out of their time in Korea by learning more about its history, culture, travel destinations, music scene, bars and restaurants.” We humbly hope that we met or exceeded your expectations.

We would like to take this time to sincerely thank each member of our team for their dedication and enthusiasm as well as the readers and businesses for their support toward The Groove Magazine.

Stay in the groove and keep your groove on.

Dan Thwaits Creative Director, Managing Editor 2006-2011 If you told me in late 2006 — when we were taking mock-ups around Itaewon to gauge interest in a new foreign mag — that Groove would still be around in 2015, I would’ve called you crazy.

Kudos to Steve for starting it and especially to Sean for taking it to the next level.

Groove has to be the best English-language publication to have ever graced the Korean peninsula.

I personally met a lot of my closest friends through the magazine, and that is what I always miss the most. Not the best cover or a particularly interesting theme or main article, it was the people associated through Groove that made it special.

Congrats on the 100th issue and all the best to the current staff in their future endeavors.

Sean Choi Publisher 2008-2015 I started with the magazine the same year my first daughter was born. As I watch her grow year after year, I see Groove Korea grow as much. It’s never been easy, and in fact I’m burned out most times, but it seems the magazine is headed in the right direction and forming itself just right. We know it takes more than parents to bring children up right. They need good teachers, friends and neighbors, and I am infinitely grateful for those playing those roles for Groove Korea. After all, we’re not just running a business. We’re making something right.

Daniel Sanchez Ar t Director 2010-2013 I am greatly gratified to have been part of the making of Groove for nearly two years as art director. Not only did I have the honor to work with passionate and talented editors, writers, photographers and designers, but we also hosted some of the best office parties.

Groove has come a long way, and with its 100th issue this is certainly the chance to pay tribute to all of those involved in making Groove the best-looking and highest-quality magazine yet. I am proud of my time at Groove and forever grateful for such an amiable experience.

Expat news depends on you Page 34

Change is here — ride the wave Page 50

Korea is welcoming diversity Page 60

Global influences bring more to the table Page 82

It’s your turn to make a difference Page 96

As an expat in Korea, personal success can be measured through any number of accomplishments. You might be traveling the world, starting a family, paying off debt or just finding fulfilment at a job you like. But for some people, building a life here has meant either establishing or contributing to projects that were bigger than they were — things that are better when others get involved.

Korea’s expat community has benefited greatly from these efforts, proving that you don’t need to be in a position of power to make a difference in Korea. You don’t even have to be Korean. One person with an idea and the ambition to pull it off can make a change, whether it’s enlivening and developing the street of Gyeongnidan in Itaewon with a new restaurant or business, expanding the theater scene, forming an underground music collective, starting a microbrewery or food store, helping businesses succeed, championing multicultural policies at the National Assembly or simply writing about Korea in order to give others a glimpse of this peninsula. Change and development can start with you and your ambitions.

As Groove Korea marks its 100th issue, we celebrate 100 (or so) of those expats who have had the conviction to pull off their ideas and made a difference to the Korea we live in today.

Media Introduction by Elaine Ramirez

Twenty years ago, English-language media in Korea was hard to come by. There were no feature publications or blogs, and the few expats here depended on The Korea Herald and Korea Times to learn the goings-on on the peninsula.

Fast-forward to today, and there are now three newspapers and a smattering of government-sponsored radio and TV stations, along with correspondents from international media keeping the peninsula on their radar. But as they cater to the national interests of Koreans learning English (and corporate advertisers) or serve as windows into Korea for the world, the niche interests of expats have been served by the expats themselves.

Early on the scene in 2003 was the Marmot’s Hole, where blogger Robert Koehler translated Korean articles that were relevant to expats, or at least weird enough to pique his own interest. Following suit soon after were Matt VanVolkenburg and James Turnbull, with Gusts of Popular Feeling zeroing in on history, xenophobia or nationalism and education issues while the Grand Narrative settled into its niche of feminism and sexuality issues. The three blogging giants, which have maintained their popularity to this day, kept expats in tune with issues in Korean society where the mainstream translators would shy away.

As Itaewon and Haebangchon began to bloom as expat hubs in the mid-2000s, zines such as ROKon were created to cover the adolescent underground. In this environment, The Groove was born in 2006, focusing first on cultural tips and the quickly growing expat music scene before tapping into social issues.

At the same time, 10 emerged as a hip guide to events in Seoul, and since 2009 Busan Haps has revealed what’s happening in the southern beachside metropolis.

The demise of Daegu Pockets in Korea’s third-largest

34 www.groovekorea.com / February 2015

city paved the way for the Daegu Compass to kick off in 2011 and earn its current status as the longest-running print magazine in the city. With these event-based magazines growing, The Groove — which took the current name Groove Korea along the way — continued in its own direction in exposing causes and social issues ignored or arguably skewed by mainstream media, eventually delving into long-form analysis in 2012.

Other print publications have come and gone — NEH (2010-2011), [b]racket (2012-2014) and Eloquence (which now targets Koreans after a change in ownership), to name a few — but rarely survive the transience of the expat community itself. However, with the rise of the digital age and the evolution of the expat community’s dynamic spreading far beyond the streets of Itaewon and alleys of Haebangchon, online media has become the channel for the voice of the underground community. Vloggers Michael Aronson and Steve Miller accent the nuances of Korean culture, while the major blogs are still mainstay sources for news highlights. The Three Wise Monkeys webzine is preparing for a resurgence, and the Korea Observer and Korea Bang work hard to translate into English the important issues that are passed over by mainstream media.

All of these outlets contribute to a fuller understanding of Korea’s increasingly diverse communities. Here we acknowledge a few of the many faces behind Korea’s various English media. Looking ahead, nurturing the news of the local scene will never be profitable. Whether print publications survive or online niche media outlets dominate, expat media will continue to depend on the volunteer contributions of the readers. It’s your world and your news — write it.

100

ts e x pa

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e mad

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Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com)

Story by Matthew Lamers / Photo by Dylan Goldby

John M. Rodgers

and

Liam Scott Soper

Influence The Three Wise Monkeys founders Residence New Hampshire and Korea Featured in Groove Korea February 2012

Tens of thousands of man-hours are spent annually churning out content for the English-language media market in Korea.

It’s just a shame that very little of what’s produced is for the consumption of Korea’s growing foreign population. Blame the money. There’s more won to be had in chasing Korean readers than there is in finding foreign ones.

So it might be a good thing the online magazine The Three Wise Monkeys doesn’t sell ad space.

The independent media outlet, created by editor-at-large Liam Scott Soper and editor-in-chief John M. Rodgers, has earned quite a following since its launch on Jan. 28, 2010 — along with its fair share of critics. It’s broken some hard-nosed stories: 3WM was first on the scene when a crooked travel agent was busted for ripping off foreigners. A story on men marrying Western women solely for their visas caused a stir, as did the piece “Teaching English inside a Korean boys’ prison.” All were either followed up in or picked up by daily newspapers.

3WM is independent media that is not beholden to advertisers or national agendas.

Many pieces are first-person and free-flowing, says Rodgers, where the authors get involved in the story. It’s a public forum for stories that get slashed or rejected by the mainstream media, along with a diverse array of art, writing and podcasts.

“The broader term is New Journalism — think Wolfe, Capote, Talese and, yes, on the fringes, Thompson with the lizards in the shadows and a bottle of Wild Turkey within reach,” says Rodgers. “3WM does often subscribe to Thompson’s theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. There are times when a certain sub-

mersion in the subject is necessary, which brings you beyond the facts and closer to the truth. In the end, the goal remains to provide our readership with a deeper sense of the story that may entail a certain level of subjectivity brought on by the proximity to the subject.”

Says Soper: “We are a weekly updated ‘blogazine’ with inside-out reportage, interviews, images, videos and everything else we can frame into it that is provocative, smart, entertaining and takes on life here from the Korean Peninsula.”

Besides Americans Soper and Rodgers, the other important gears in this machine are the webmaster, Jason Burnett (pictured with Soper and Rodgers) a.k.a Lee Scott, and Jamie Grimwood, the managing editor.

Soper and Rodgers had been in Korea for nearly two decades collectively before 3WM’s launch. Burnett, who has been in Korea since 2004, is the techie who implements Web design and the functionality of the site in addition to writing stories and contributing artwork.

Grimwood is from the U.K. and has a background in media and publicity. He is behind securing the necessary press credentials for 3WM and handles much of the business side of the project.

In an interview with Arirang in 2012, Soper says 3WM aims to cover street-level stories that the other English media outlets avoid. Taking a look at their most-read stories at the peak of their popularity, the stories seem to be exactly that: The first is about security in the sex industry; the second is a first-person account of a man victimized by years of abuse from his psychotic Korean wife; then you have ATEK: The Great White Hoax, an exposé of the Association for Teachers of English in Korea

by Rodgers; and the fourth is a submission from the now-defunct website textsfromkoreangirls.blogspot.com.

This is different from what is readily available to consumers of English media in Korea, which is part of the reason 3WM has been successful. “(Our stories) don’t toe the line of appeasement — they deal with controversial, sometimes unsettling and always divisive issues,” says Rodgers. “Furthermore, people have some connection to these themes through the archetypal threads that stretch into people’s psyches. Sex, psychological abuse or disease, the power and potential of a group gone awry and the complex world of communication — we all somehow know these things as humans have since the beginning of time. They cut deep.”

What won’t 3WM touch? The short answer is nothing.

Rodgers: “Our minds and the doors to 3WM are open — we’ll entertain almost anything. We are, however, cognizant of the powers that be on the peninsula.”

Soper: “We won’t pander to the banal.”

Since Groove Korea’s cover story on 3WM, Soper has moved to Phnom Penh and then back to Korea, and Rodgers returned to the U.S. for grad school, while Grimwood and Burnett have remained on the peninsula. The website still features irregular posts, recently including an interview with Korean author Bae Su-ah, continued coverage of the Wonhyo Trail Project, analysis of the Sewol tragedy, Cambodian politics and other aspects of Korean and expat life.

Rodgers says in an email that he expects a revival of the project in 2015 following a “slight hiatus” caused by his and Soper’s relocations.

More info www.thethreewisemonkeys.com

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Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com)

Story by Anthony Levero / Photo by Sasha Don

James Turnbull Influence The Grand Narrative blogger Residence Busan

James Turnbull’s blog, The Grand Narrative, remains the go-to source for all things feminism, sexuality, queer and pop in Korea.

With 14 years and counting in the country, the longtime Busan veteran and married father of two daughters has evolved along with his blog.

The Grand Narrative began serendipitously for Turnbull as a way to fill a void in blogging that no one else in Korea had entered, at least not in English. “There was no special reason for my interest in feminism. I come from a very ‘geekish,’ left-wing family, and grew up reading my father’s psychology and sociology textbooks. I only fell into Korean feminism because almost all of my Korean friends were women, and it was a good niche subject.”

Arriving in Korea in 2000 by way of the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, Turnbull began the blog seven years ago. Maintaining the blog and a full-time job has required a lot of sweat equity over the years; as Turnbull trolls the Korean media for stories and often takes the time to translate several sources into English for the benefit of his readers. This gives

38 www.groovekorea.com / February 2015

expats both in Korea and the outside world a window into issues they may not otherwise learn about.

While the blog has become a reliable source for English speakers to stay abreast of feminist issues here, Turnbull insists that the activist label doesn’t apply to him. “I’m not a feminist activist at all, and don’t think any middle-aged, fat, bald white guy is exactly well placed to be one in Korea,” he says. “I just really like the process of researching, writing, translating and interacting with readers to learn more about Korean feminism. If I provide genuine activists with any knowledge or tools in the process though, that’s great.”

One of the most rewarding aspects of his work over the years has been the privilege of getting to watch his field of interest develop in that time. “One of the attractions of studying Korean feminism is how rapidly things are changing,” he notes. “There’s been a lot of progress of course, and I know that young Korean women have many more opportunities than their mothers did, and feel much more confident and empowered.” Though dismayed by what he’s seen as a backlash against

women’s rights in the last two administrations, he has reason to be hopeful for the future.

He acknowledges that he is an unlikely source for such knowledge and is aware that his race and sex make him an all-too-easy target for skeptics. “I know that, unfortunately, some people are just really, really uncomfortable with the notion of a white man talking about Korean feminism, too, regardless of what I actually say about it, or that I try really hard to use Korean-language sources,” he says. Still, the success of the blog and his reputation in Korean feminism circles speak for themselves.

These days, the blog is only a small part of what Turnbull does. He gives lectures at universities and conferences on everything from Korean body image to K-pop to sexuality. Most of his university lecture invitations come from his blog being referenced in classes on gender issues. He has had a chapter on girl groups published in The Korean Pop Culture Reader, and lately he’s been writing articles for magazines. “After seven years of blogging, it’s about time I actually got paid for all the work I do!”

More info www.thegrandnarrative.com

Story by Josh Doyle / Photo by Sasha Don

Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com)

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Bobby McGill Influence Influence Busan Haps magazine cofounder, editor-in-chief Residence Busan Featured in Groove Korea May 2010

Busan is a city that never takes a break, where popular spots disappear overnight and every week seems to bring another festival. Keeping your calendar updated is a difficult job, or at least it used to be.

Nowadays, when Busan’s expats want to know what’s happening in the city they turn to Busan Haps, the city’s English-language magazine cofounded by Bobby McGill, who serves as editor-in-chief.

McGill first came to Korea in 2001 for what he called “a spiritual detoxing after a bad start to the millennium.” The bad start came when he left a successful journalism career in San Francisco for a job in Silicon Valley that promised a big salary and a bigger future.

“Unfortunately, covering the dot-com boom (as a journalist) offered little insight as to when it would go bust, which it did,” he says.

With writing opportunities in the Bay Area drying up, McGill saw the time was ripe to try somewhere new. He landed in Korea, found himself in Busan and has been there ever since. McGill stuck with teaching and

blogging for his first years here, but something bigger was destined to come from Bee Mac — his alias from his hip-hop days.

An emcee before he was ever a journalist, McGill opened a show for headliners RUN DMC in 1984.

“Creativity has been a driving force in my life since day one. After wading briefly into writing a novel, I started a political satire blog to feed my creative beast,” McGill said of his early days in Korea.

The magazine was born in 2009 when a friend asked McGill to edit some promotional work for his pub, and he ran with it.

“A week and a half later I had written and laid out a 32-page magazine in Microsoft Word. It was the ugliest magazine you’ve ever seen, but we knew we were on to something,” he says. Jen Sotham and Chris Tharp were the first columnists and then the team grew with the addition of editor Jeff Liebsch and Russell McConnell as designer.

They’ve been producing Haps every two months ever since.

McGill says Haps has “made available a wealth of English info about Busan that was

largely absent before,” and that continues to be their goal today. Haps maintains its place as a lifestyle magazine, delivering the good news about how best to enjoy life in Korea.

“I’ve done more than my share of hardhitting journalism over the years,” said McGill, also a professor in the Department of International Studies at Dongseo University. “Haps works under the simple formula of letting people know what’s happening around Korea. It’s our home, and we’re happy to promote it.”

But stories continue to seek McGill out, one of the most memorable so far being his coverage of Psy’s “anti-American” controversy in 2012, when the contentious lyrics of previous songs were surfacing as the K-pop superstar was entering global fame with “Gangnam Style.” The story got Haps mentioned in some of the world’s biggest media publications and their website visited by someone from the White House, allowing McGill to give the world a fair look at both sides of the controversial Korean star before he was grilled by the American press.

More info www.busanhaps.com 39

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Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com)

Story by Sarah Edge Photo by Tara Stemkowski

Michael Hurt Influence Scribblings of the Metropolitician blogger, photographer Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea February 2012, April 2012, October 2012

If you’re an expat in Seoul, the name Michael Hurt might come up on your registry. He’s contributed to Groove Korea and the Huffington Post and spearheaded the street photography movement in Seoul. But he also has solidified views on what it means to be an expat and to have foreign thoughts, goals and cultural identity recognized in a gradually diversifying

john burton Influence Former Financial Times correspondent, Korea Times consultant Residence Bundang

When the Financial Times sent foreign correspondent John Burton to Korea in 1992, it was a very different Korea than the one we’re familiar with. “At the time it was like the Eastern Europe of Asia,” Burton says. “It wasn’t all that friendly to foreigners in terms of amenities.”

The Connecticut-born Burton, who studied at George Washington University, warmed up to Korea, however, after a year of “getting to know the culture more, the people and the language.” He stayed until 2001, returning again in 2010. In all this time, Korea has developed and changed quite a bit. Burton attests that “it’s very much a positive change.”

“A key point was the 1997 financial crisis. At that time, chaebol (conglomerates) were much more dominant,” he recalls. “A lot of the big conglomerates failed and entrepreneurship was stepping up.

The country experienced a blossoming of the arts — soap operas, for example. The late 1990s was really a hinge moment for modern history.”

Burton has lent his expertise in the financial sector to the public relations firm Insight Communications Consultants in Seoul, and The Korea Times as a columnist, but his presence is also evident behind the scenes as an editorial consultant. As one would expect in this position, a keen eye is focused on the economy at all times.

Fortunately for Burton, who has seen the ups and downs that Korea 40 www.groovekorea.com / February 2015

country.

“One of my theories for why the expat community thrives is that there are a lot of talented, non-Korean foreigners who are stuck doing stuff that they don’t want to be doing — foreigners who feel like ‘man, I want to be doing something that I can get recognition for,’ in a Hegelian sense,” he says, noting that expats want to be positively affirmed not as hagwon (cram school) teachers, but as writers and artists. “If the Korean market got wind of this, that there’s so much hidden talent, it would just be like a freaking mushroom cloud explosion. They need to figure out how to use this laden talent and energy and make money doing it because foreigners want to get paid to do the things they like to do.”

Those are comforting words, especially coming from Hurt, who originally came to Korea from Dayton, Ohio, in 1994, stayed for two years, and has lived here again since 2002. During that time, he’s seen Korea transform from a “black, white and gray” canvas to the current combustible burst of colors we see today. While he quickly shakes his head and firmly asserts, “I’m not a fashion guy,” Hurt does cover the fashion scene extensively, looking at it more through the lens of a sociologist than a photographer.

“You can read culture through fashion,” he says. “I think of my street photography as collecting data points. I know the general reason I take pictures when I push the button. I pick and choose the pictures that illustrate what narrative I’m taking up in my articles.”

Hurt, whose mother is Korean and father is African-American, is unabashedly an ethnic studies enthusiast, and has made that the central piece among all the roles he’s taken up as an expat.

“I’m an ethnic studies person in Korea branching out into Korean studies,” he says. “I want to remake the field into critical Korean studies and take our Western view and analyze Korea and do something positive with that.”

More info www.metropolitician.blogs.com

Story by Sarah Edge Photo by Adam Czelusta

has gone through over the years, the stability is clear. “The approach could be different — rather than a top-down hierarchy, more of a bottom-up approach. But overall, Korea is in a very comfortable position right now.”

It is due in part to Korea’s comfortable nature that Burton has stayed in Korea as long as he has. “I’ve lived outside of the U.S. for 32 years and grown familiar and comfortable with Asia. Koreans are so passionate, and that’s something you don’t see a lot of in Northeast Asia. And I think that’s part of their appeal.” He jokes, “I’ve become more Korean. My wife thought she was marrying a Westerner.”

More info http://insightcomms.com

Story by Adam Walsh / Photo courtesy of Matt Lamers

Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com)

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Influence The Grand Narrative blogger Residence Busan

Matt Lamers Influence Former Groove Korea editor-in-chief, Korea Herald Expat Living editor Residence Fort St. John, British Columbia, Canada

Through much of the last decade, Matt Lamers was behind the scenes guiding news coverage for expats. His stubbornness and belief in the importance of expat-focused media are the reasons many stories were able to see the light of day.

Lamers worked as an editor for two English dailies in Korea, and then as editor-in-chief of Groove Korea from 20112013. His start in journalism came shortly after he moved here in 2005. With no media contacts, he walked into The Korea Herald’s office hoping for some freelance work.

“I walked into the office and I told them I had an interview with the photography editor.

And I totally lied because I never had an interview,” he says. The photo editor didn’t speak English, so after 15 minutes he introduced Lamers to the culture editor. That got his foot in the door.

His first article was about a fisherman who was back fishing on the Han River again

after years of high pollution levels. “They actually paid me a lot — $400 — and I worked for about a day on it. Nobody would pay that now. Maybe back then they had a lot more money,” says the Ontario, Canada, native.

He would eventually become the editor for the paper’s Expat Living section, using it to cover issues including HIV testing for foreigners, the hate group Anti-English Spectrum and sexual assaults on expats and temporary foreign workers, to name just a few.

“My favorite series was, for about a year we followed widows whose husbands got killed by police in Yongsan,” says Lamers.

“I guess I learned a lot about the price of turning Seoul into what it is now. And you still see it in Seoul. Look at the vendors whose carts were smashed by gangsters lately. Same thing,” he muses.

In 2010, Lamers started with Groove Korea. “They were really similar assignments,”

he says. “My goal was always to incorporate journalism that you wouldn’t read in the rest of the newspaper with culture stuff as well.”

His simple philosophy on journalism transformed the Expat Living page and helped steer Groove Korea’s direction to where it is today. Under his direction, the magazine covered teen suicides, AIDS testing, the failure of EFL education and comfort women, along with lighter fare such as interviews with SuperColorSuper, Eat Your Kimchi, Rep. Jasmine Lee and The Three Wise Monkeys.

“I just tried to give people content about Korea in English. I tried to give people who couldn’t speak Korean access to Korea without the propaganda that you get in the mainstream press,” he says.

Since leaving Korea in September 2013, Lamers has been a journalist in British Columbia, Canada, where he lives with his wife and two children.

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Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com)

Story by Anthony Levero / Photo by Ami Shin

Matt VanVolkenburg Influence Gusts of Popular Feeling blogger Residence Seoul

Gusts of Popular Feeling has never been a blog to shy away from controversial issues that affect expat life in Korea. The blog’s scope has covered almost all aspects of Korea, from culture and politics to history, and its writer, Matt VanVolkenburg, is a constant fixture in discussions about mandatory drug and HIV testing for foreigners. His collaborative work on the topic formed the basis of Groove Korea’s memorable April 2013 cover story “Dear Korea: I still don’t have AIDS.” In fact, it was with a mind to covering political developments on the peninsula that the Ontario, Canada native began the blog in 2005. “The blog has often been an outlet for whatever I was interested in reading or learning about Korea at the time, from European explorers’ accounts of Korea in the 18th and 19th centuries to accounts of the Russo-Japanese War to political events like the 1960 student revolution to rock music in the 1960s and 1970s,” he says.

VanVolkenburg has been critical at times of some anti-foreign sentiment, but he prefers to focus his attention on the positives of his adopted home of the past 13 years: “I would hope that anyone reading the blog doesn’t get the idea that Korea is this overly xenophobic place because of those posts,

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or that it’s my main interest,” he says. “I’ve written about Korean history, music and redevelopment, but it’s the English teacher-related posts that tend to get all the attention.”

While he may not consider himself an activist by nature, one of the blog’s major accomplishments was raising awareness in the mid-2000s of the notorious Anti-English Spectrum group, a now-defunct xenophobic group that had a larger impact on the lives of English teachers than many would have realized at the time. “It was rewarding to know my work might have some positive effect. I suppose our work helped make it known to readers just how effective Citizens for (Up)right English Education (formerly Anti-English Spectrum; both groups are now defunct) were and how they were responsible for E-2 HIV tests,” he says.

The controversy peaked in 2007, when VanVolkenburg noticed redundancies, overlaps and entirely incorrect facts about foreign teachers circulating online and was prompted to compile the reports he had found into a single post. That might have been it for that topic had Benjamin Wagner, then a Kyunghee University law professor, not been interested in his research, contacting him in 2009. “Since (Wagner) was able

to call up the Korea Immigration Service or the offices of National Assembly representatives and get answers from them,” he recalls, “returning to the topic proved to be fruitful, and we spent about three years researching the origins of negative perceptions of foreign teachers in the media, tying it to historical perceptions of U.S. soldiers, and using this research in petitions to the Constitutional Court of Korea and the Committee on the Eradication of Racial Discrimination.” The outcome of that case is still pending.

The blog takes its name from a line in a book written in 1898 by Isabella Bird Bishop, which VanVolkenburg still finds applicable today: “Gusts of popular feeling which pass for public feeling in a land where no such thing exists can be found only in Seoul.”

While VanVolkenburg plans to continue his education in North America this year, he has no plans to stop updating Gusts. He has seen Korea change a lot, but believes that it will continue to maintain the essential aspects of what he loves about the place: “The thing about Koreans … when they decide to do something, they go all the way.”

More info www.populargusts.blogspot.kr

Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com)

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Anthony Spaeth Influence Korea JoongAng Daily editor-in-chief Residence Seoul

Anthony Spaeth has been covering news in Asia for most of his life.

A writer, editor and author, he has worked for some of the world’s leading publications, and even helped create a couple. These days he lives in Korea, and is editor-in-chief at the Korea JoongAng Daily, one of the country’s three English daily papers.

After graduating William’s College, Massachusetts in 1977, Spaeth took his first of many journalism positions in Asia, at Japan’s Asahi Evening News. He spent a year there before returning to the U.S. and writing for Forbes out of Los Angeles, but it wasn’t long before the East drew him back. When he left the U.S. again it was for a position at The Asian Wall Street Journal, where he would stay for close to 11 years. During that time he worked as a correspondent in Hong Kong and a bureau chief in Manila. He spent his last few years with the Journal as its sole South Asian correspondent.

Spaeth then left the newsroom behind for a while, spending time in New Delhi and writing freelance for a long list of renowned publications, including Harper’s, Time, Christian Science Monitor and Discovery. It was during this time that Spaeth was able to work on some of his three novels. When he returned to a full-time position in 1993, it was for another long stretch: he wouldn’t leave Time magazine for 13 years, during which time he would help create its Asia edition.

Spaeth continued to lead an interesting career after that, covering Asian governments for Bloomberg and even creating his own magazine, Power, out of Hong Kong. By the time he landed in Korea at the JoongAng Daily it was 2010, and Spaeth had 33 years of international journalism, a magazine and three books to his name.

Beyond a sparkling career profile there is little we know about

Story by Josh Doyle Photo courtesy of Anthony Spaeth

Spaeth, and it seems he would prefer it that way. He declined to be interviewed for this story, asserting that he liked to keep a low profile.

What he could not deny is that as editor-in-chief of one of Korea’s largest English newspapers, he is undoubtedly an expat with an influence.

Sean Lim Influence Arirang TV news anchor, vice president of Asian-American Journalists Association Seoul chapter Residence Seoul

Story by Simon Hunter-Williams Photo by Joe Gans

Los Angeles Valley native Sean Lim was lured to Korea some seven years ago, and quickly found himself calling it home. Following a number of experiences and opportunities in Seoul, Lim is now a news anchor at Arirang TV, and has become an influential voice in this country.

The “buzz and excitement of Seoul and Korea” pulled Lim from a series of jobs in California that included working at the United Talent Agency and time spent in a theater company in the San Francisco Bay Area. Like many expats, the Stanford University alumnus’ working life in Korea started in the familiar hagwon (academy) industry, teaching English. His lively personality, however, honed from his American work experience in the arts, helped him jump over to a more creative profession.

Lim’s career progression has been down to his good humor and time spent wisely, using opportunities at EBS, TBS and KBS as stepping stones that enabled him to put his other skills to work and ultimately led to him working for Arirang. He also serves as vice president of the Asian-American Journalists Association’s Seoul chapter.

Like many expats and Koreans, Lim believes that “we all work together like pieces of metal, rubbing together and shaping a better Korea.”

More info www.arirang.co.kr 43

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Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com)

Story by John Power / Photo by Dylan Goldby

Robert Koehler Influence Marmot’s Hole blogger Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea June 2014

Having returned to his native U.S. mainland just once in nearly two decades, Robert Koehler acknowledges that he is probably one of those rare expatriate breeds: a “lifer.”

The executive editor of SEOUL Magazine, prolific photographer and man behind the Marmot’s Hole blog is still here, speaks Korean fluently, wears hanbok every day and has become one of the most influential voices in expat media.

Since 2003, Koehler’s outlet, the Marmot’s Hole, has been an oasis of Korea-related news, polemics and gossip for foreigners whose information sources involve a toss-up between the limited English-language media and impenetrable local press. His translations are also the source of news tips for international journalists and a platform for other people with a public profile to respond to queries and controversies.

Koehler is humble about the Marmot Hole’s influence. While his website may be a staple of many expats’ daily routine, this particularly irreverent expat finds the suggestion that they might rely on it for news “disconcerting” — especially when he usually

44 www.groovekorea.com / February 2015

prioritizes stories by whatever makes him “laugh most.”

In particular, he hopes his coverage of the Korean media’s stories about foreigner crime and other alleged deviancy doesn’t cause some foreigners to harbor skewed views about Korean society. In fact, he insists he has had no more than a handful of negative experiences as a foreigner in Korea.

In over a decade in the trenches of expatriate chatter online, Koehler’s views about Korean society, and the place of foreigners in it, have evolved considerably. A look back at the Marmot’s Hole circa 2003 gives the impression of an entirely different author at the keyboard. Posts from this era — many of them attacking the newly inaugurated Roh Moo-hyun administration from a conservative slant — were angrier, more cutting and more opinionated. Now, Koehler is a lot more sympathetic toward the Korean attitudes that he might have previously lambasted.

Despite more than 17 years of continuously living in the country, Koehler, whose wife is from Mongolia, still doesn’t have permanent residency, instead having to renew his

visa every two years. He is finally getting around to taking the government-run Korean Immigration and Integration Program, which significantly eases the process of getting a permanent residency visa. It’s an arduous process, but he appreciates the premium that Korea places on citizenship.

But can a non-Korean ever truly integrate into such a historically homogenous country?

Can a foreigner ever really be Korean?

“Is it possible? I don’t really know. I know people (who), if they haven’t done it completely, (have) definitely come close,” he says. “Korean society is changing. They are becoming more open to that sort of thing.

Now you actually have a lot of people in the Korean press debating, ‘What does that mean to be Korean?’”

But he can’t imagine being anywhere else: “I do feel like a lot of trends that are going to be shaping the future will be happening in this part of the world, (maybe) not necessarily Korea, but … Korea, Japan, China, somewhere,” he says. “In a way, this is where the future is, and it is an exciting place to be.”

More info www.rjkoehler.com

Story by Hal Swindall / Photo courtesy of Ida Daussy

Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com)

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Influence The Grand Narrative blogger Residence Busan

Ida Daussy Influence TV personality and talk show host, professor, businesswoman Residence Seoul

Frenchwoman Ida Daussy intended to stay in Korea for only one or two years, to learn more about the people and culture. Much to her surprise, however, her stay turned into an extraordinary career as a TV personality, professor, business consultant and real estate agent.

A native of Normandy, she first came to Korea in 1990 for a three-month period to work at a shoe factory in Busan. When she fell in love with the dynamism of the country, she abandoned her plans for a doctorate back home and returned to Korea the following year after earning her MA in international relations.

When asked if she had a well-laid strategy to get to where she is today, Daussy humbly admits it all just happened. First, she took a job teaching French at Yonsei University, where she was quickly picked up to host a biweekly French-language TV program. Soon after, she also began to write and act for the same show. Around that time, Daussy mar-

ried a Korean man and learned Korean. Then KBS recruited her for a morning talk show — a rare thing at the time. Daussy’s big break came in 1996 when she was hired by SBS to play a foreign bride on a trendy sitcom. From then on, Koreans couldn’t get enough of her.

In 1997, she got her own talk show.

When Daussy became pregnant, “Korean people started to follow me in every part and event of my personal life,” she recalls.

“My pregnancies, my family and couple life, my career evolution, everything I was doing became an issue … a reason to compare Europe and Korea.” Public interest was also aroused by her 2010 divorce, and for a year Daussy withdrew from public life. She eventually made a comeback, albeit “on a different basis and another tempo.”

Today, Daussy lives in Seoul’s Seorae Village, the French area of the Banpo district.

She teaches business French at Sookmyung Women’s University and runs her own company hosting intercultural seminars and

settling foreigners into Seoul. She still gives public lectures and makes TV appearances related to education, women, multiculturalism and other issues.

During her 24 years in Korea, the things Daussy has seen change the most are attitudes toward foreigners and the status of Korean women. Despite continuing issues with discrimination, foreigners now make up 2 percent of the population, and more continue to arrive. Moreover, large numbers of biracial children will soon enter the workforce. Likewise, she has seen the situation for Korean women drastically improve, though not yet to the point of gender equality.

While she does not claim to have transformed Korea, Daussy believes that she has helped to modernize the country, even if she has received criticism for being outspoken on things she considers wrong with it. Through it all, however, she believes she has given and received “jeong,” or special empathy.

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Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com)

Story by Merissa Quek / Photo courtesy of Stephen Revere

Stephen Revere Influence 10 magazine founder Residence Seoul

Stephen Revere came to Korea on the mistaken assumption that he could be fluent in Korean in a year. Looking back in hindsight, had he known then how difficult that would be, he may not have come at all.

Having embarked on the quest to master the language (and becoming the first foreigner to earn a master’s degree in Korean language education), Revere stayed for another year, then another and then another.

This year marks the 21st time he has stayed for another.

In 1995, there were just two English-language daily newspapers, the only lifelines for non-Korean speakers in the country. Even as late as 2008, social media was not the source of news that it is today; almost no Koreans used Facebook and Twitter was virtually unheard of. A commonly heard gripe from expats was that there was naught to do but while away the time drinking. But Revere knew that this was simply not true: Foreigners

46 www.groovekorea.com / February 2015

were being bypassed because all the information on exhibitions, plays, concerts, festivals and other goings-on in Korea’s vibrant entertainment scene was only in Korean.

Recognizing this information gap, Revere decided to start an English-language monthly magazine for expats and foreign visitors that would feature all of these events.

Trying to kick-start a viable business when the world economy was collapsing brought out the optimist in Revere. Imploding financial markets or not, he was starting at the point where sales were zero anyway, so he saw that the only way was up. In October 2008, Revere and his business partners launched 10 magazine.

Revere has since seen the English-language media scene in Korea take off, so much so that readers now have the luxury of choice. Through this flurry, 10 has created a niche for itself as a source of entertainment information.

More than six years later, Revere is still enjoying running the magazine. “On our wall in the office we have a big banner that says, ‘We make life more FUN!’” he says. “That’s what motivates me — and I hope my whole team. I don’t know as though I’d go as far as to say that we influence people’s perception of Korea, but I certainly hope that they are surprised at all there is to do here. We even have Koreans frequently tell us that when they look at our magazine they are surprised at all the things happening around the country.”

Looking down the road, Revere hopes that the magazine continues to grow, and he is excited to see what new ideas and attitudes the young new members of his team will bring to it. One thing’s for sure: Revere expects 10 to continue producing content to show what this country has to offer, and in doing so, will continue to show the fun side of Korea.

More info www.10mag.com

Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com)

Steve Miller

Story by Britney Dennison Photo courtesy of Steve Miller

Influence QiRanger vlogger, radio show host Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea October 2013

Steve Miller came to Korea in 2009, and has used his time here to make short videos on topics relating to Korean life. These range from street food to historic restorations and transportation advances to breaking news. His blog, The QiRanger, now hosts over 700 videos on history, culture and travel and his YouTube views stand at over 4.7 million, with over 17,000 subscribers.

“I try to choose topics or circumstances that people are generally excited to share,” says Miller. “I’m interested in life, news, economics, business and the historical and cultural sites that make Korea what it is and why it is a great place to travel to.”

Before moving to Korea, Miller volunteered as a National Park Ranger at Tonto National Monument in his home state of Arizona. Being a ranger inspired the name of his blog, with the “Qi” part coming from the Chinese symbol meaning “life force energy.”

While his content focuses predominantly on Korean history and culture, most of his traffic is from outside of the peninsula. Half of the audience comes from Southeast Asia and Europe, a quarter from the U.S. and Canada and the remaining quarter from within Korea.

“They all have an interest in Korea in terms of its history, its culture, what life is like and current events. So I cater my blog posts and my videos to meet those needs,” says Miller.

A popular topic with his audience is breaking news. In 2013, Miller uploaded videos on the ongoing tensions with the North, focusing on analysis as well as South Korean sentiment and reaction. “As things developed

Story and Photo by Merissa Quek

More info www.youtube.com/user/p00lman

Michael Aronson Influence YouTube music video producer Residence Seoul

Michael Aronson’s biggest claim to fame is a music video of him rapping about the virtues of the much-loved Seoul subway. The catchy tune was based around the music that plays when the train approaches a transfer, and the music video has garnered over 900,000 views on YouTube. His influence in sharing Korea with the world landed him honorary citizenship of Seoul.

The New York native’s curiosity about Korea was piqued by a Korean-American friend when he realized that he knew nothing about her motherland. What started out as merely a passing interest ended with him majoring in East Asian Studies at New York University and moving to Korea in 2007.

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GrooveCast GrooveCast host Chance Dorland speaks with podcast host and vlogger Steve Miller about his rise to Asia-wide popularity. Listen online at groovekorea.com or subscribe to the GrooveCast at the iTunes Store.

here, I was getting a lot of questions about what is taking place, and so I just started doing what I thought would be responsible,” says Miller.

His opinions and videos have been so well received that he has even been invited to provide North Korea commentary on the BBC, BBC Wales and Australia’s B105.

His blogs and videos have also achieved notoriety within the Korean media, earning him positions with Arirang Radio, TBS eFM and the Korea Blog.

Miller plans to keep adding to his library, with his list of ideas continually growing.

“As long as I have the ability to (make videos), and as long as it is fun for me, then it is something I am going to do,” he says.

More info www.qiranger.com

With interests in both music and filmmaking, the idea of making a music video was always at the back of Aronson’s mind. He made his first music video in 2010, and has since made over 300 videos that mostly feature aspects of life in Korea. They cover an eclectic range, from the debate on same-sex marriage in Korean society to the glow-in-the-dark crab stickers that came with the bathroom of the apartment he rented. Aronson’s aim with each video is to show an appreciation for the small and often overlooked details of everyday life.

Aronson started organizing hanbok (traditional Korean dress) events in 2012, wherein people wear their hanbok and gather to walk around different neighborhoods of Seoul. “People seem to like to participate in things that don’t have a big monetary obligation but just seem fun to do and have no agenda to them,” he says. “I would like to organize more stuff like that or video projects if people want to participate.”

In recent years, more and more videos made by individuals about Korea have appeared, and international media coverage has increased. Aronson feels that this greater exposure gives people around the world a better visual idea of what Korea looks like, from the wide streets of Gangnam to the narrow alleys of the older neighborhoods.

“Korea is finally known for things other than North Korea. That’s taken a long time to get there. People’s first question these days isn’t really about the safety,” he says.

Aronson quit his day job at the end of 2013 to become a fulltime freelancer. Committed to staying in Korea for the long term, he is brimming with ideas for new videos, and is focused on making more clips that he hopes will resonate with both Korean and foreign audiences.

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Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com)

Story by Clint Stamatovich / Photo by Fergus Scott

michael breen Influence Author, journalist, Korea consultant Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea December 2008

Michael Breen, from Aylesbury, U.K., has been steadily making waves in Korea since 1982, when he relocated here as a correspondent for The Guardian, The Washington Times and The Times. During his time working and studying in Korea, he’s been a journalist, author and director and CEO of his own consultancy, penning three novels, acting as a buffer for with Unification Church (the “Moonies”) leader Sun Myung Moon and making international headlines when Samsung attempted to sue him over a satirical column.

Breen, who graduated from the University of Edinburgh, took up the mantle of the first non-Korean president of the Seoul Foreign Correspondents Club in 1987. In 1994, he became a management consultant with a focus on North Korea.

He wrote an unauthorized biography, “Sun Myung Moon: The Early Years” (1999), on Moon, the Unification Church founder and a self-proclaimed messiah. In the early 1990s, as a proponent for Moon’s The Washington Times, he met with North Korea’s leader, on the bleeding edge of Korean political affairs. “I was in a group with some ex-heads of state, along with CNN and NHK, and we had three and a half hours with Kim Il-sung,” Breen recalls.

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“There is absolutely no difference between the people up there and down here — same language, inflexions of speech, same faces — but the worlds they inhabit are totally different.

The North Koreans were so afraid that they averted their eyes lest a foreigner talk to them and get them into trouble.”

In the same decade, Breen became interested in long-term political prisoners, communists who refused to renounce their ideologies.

Meeting with two men who’d been confined for 43 years, Breen recorded messages from their family members. “In Pyongyang, I met the wife and child of one of these men who had actually been released,” he says. “I brought their taped message and sat in front of him as he listened to their voices for the first time since the Korean War.” A tongue-in-cheek article he wrote in 2009 for The Korea Times that poked fun at Korean public figures including Samsung, garnered mounds of negative media attention. Samsung intended to sue Breen, the publisher and editor for $1 million each for libel, but the case was ultimately thrown out after Breen apologized.

On the same day that Samsung sued Breen, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Korean president pardoned Samsung’s chairman,

Lee Kun-hee, for tax evasion. The proceedings illuminated the growing concern that chaebol, Korea’s large family-owned corporations, maintained supremacy over more than just the market. Since then, local media outlets have finally started to probe deeper than the epidermal levels of society.

His nonfiction book “The Koreans: Who They Are, What They Want, Where Their Future Lies” (1998) outlines how Korea developed from an agricultural society to a technology leader at an exponential rate from the end of the Korean War, and provides a unique point of view into the economy, culture and society culminated from Breen’s three-decade experience.

The book was praised by reviewers in both The Wall Street Journal and The Economist.

Nowadays, Breen, an honorary citizen of Seoul, contributes opinion columns to The Korea Times and international outlets and runs his own public relations firm, Insight Communications Consultants, in Seoul.

“Now that I run my own company I can set a certain culture based on my own beliefs and values. My attitude to colleagues is that we are all on our own path in life and this is the moment when those paths cross,” he says.

More info http://insightcomms.com

Story by Jenny Na / Photo by Merissa Quek

Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com)

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daniel tudor Influence Journalist, author, entrepreneur Residence London Featured in Groove Korea January 2013

Daniel Tudor is always looking for the next thing. He speaks quickly, the thoughts seeming to move through his head faster than he can get them out. It makes sense, then, that he would feel Korea has provided “just about enough stimulation” to keep him interested for the seven years he’s been here on and off.

“There’s always a big change coming,” he says. “I think you can never say ‘Korea is like this’ or ‘Korea is like that.’”

Tudor, an Oxford grad and Manchester native, first came to Korea in 2002 for the World Cup and grew so attached that he kept coming back. As he said in his November 2014 editorial for Groove before returning to London, “Nowhere ever got into me the way Korea has.”

The former Korea correspondent for The Economist gave the world an insider’s view of the country through his books “Korea: The Impossible Country” (2012) and “A Geek in Korea” (2014). He aims to do the same with the North through the forthcom-

ing “North Korea Confidential” written with fellow journalist James Pearson and and due in April. He has another book for Korean readers about Korean politics due out in the spring. Tudor also found time to open The Booth, a funky little pizza pub franchise that started in Gyeongnidan and has since expanded throughout Seoul and Busan.

All of this adds up to an expansive view on an evolving Korea, but it’s what hasn’t changed in that time that may be the most telling. “It probably was historically anomalous that Korea’s this big economic power and yet at the same time people know absolutely nothing about it,” he says.

“Certainly when I go back to England it’s still ‘North or South?’ — there’s still a little bit of that … so there’s a long way to go.”

“Impossible Country,” a multilayered reference to the obstacles Korea has overcome and the standards it sets for its citizens, departs from the image of Korea Inc. to show more of its politics, social customs, culture and cuisine. “The image of South

Korea is always industrious people who always work very hard, but actually they’re very unhappy from doing it,” he explains.

It’s his new venture that finally pried him away from Korea in November. In London, he has cofounded Byline, a crowdfunding platform that aims to bring the reader closer to the journalist while providing the journalist the opportunity for a regular income. In a nutshell, readers can pay to ask questions and make suggestions to journalists about topics they’re interested in reading more about.

His investors are giving it a year to work, but he says he’s likely to return to Korea in any case, whether that’s in one year or five. “Sometimes I’m just walking down the street and I just love being here. I just love it, and that’s mostly about friends,” he says. “I’ll come back and visit. Whether I come back to live here, well, eventually I will. I know that.”

More info www.twitter.com/danielrtudor

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Introduction by Elaine Ramirez

Business And Politics Getting into business is tough. As a foreigner in South Korea, it’s a minefield. If you don’t have 300 million won in the bank and a Korean cosigner, spouse or parents, you usually can’t support your own visa even if you start a company here.

It has been only 10 years since the first foreigner in Korea opened a business of his own without outside aid. Expat Sean Watts made waves in 2005 when he opened Watts on Tap pub in Sinchon without a Korean business partner.

“Complications on the front lines, doing paperwork — this made actual business establishment initially illegal,” he recalls. “No authority was willing to take a chance and be first to sign and approve a foreigner.”

But little by little, opportunities are cracking open for expats to make a dent with their trade. The current Seoul government under Park Won-soon has been giving a noticeable and much-awaited boost to the foreign business climate by opening business support centers, streamlining paperwork and offering consulting to those who want to set up shop, particularly for start-ups with tech expertise. Foreign restaurateurs, craft brewers and other gastrophiles have transformed the food scene in Itaewon, Hongdae and beyond Seoul. (So much so that we’ve dedicated a whole section to those ambitious gastro-preneurs later in this issue.) Eat Your Kimchi, which started off as a humble video blog for family back home, is now a legitimate company and one of the most influential voices on K-pop for overseas fans. Expats are opening film companies, art galleries, business consultancies, real estate companies and more.

Likewise, mega corporations like Kia have hired foreign talent like design chief Peter Schreyer, now also president, to see them through the quickly evolving era

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of globalization. Regional governments are fishing for big money — to increasing success — with their free economic zones. More and more foreign companies are taking advantage of Korea’s free trade deals to enter the country and introduce new products. Namely, more cheese.

Thanks, Costco and High Street Market.

“My business is here, it’s growing. I’m able to contribute,” says Steve McKinney, the head of Seoul Global Center who also runs his own consultancy. “Being an American here, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to meet a lot of people I never would have met otherwise.”

In politics, the story is different. The foreign presence is far less ambitious, with Philippine-born naturalized Korean Jasmine Lee being the flag bearer for multicultural representation. She works not only for ethnic minorities, but so that her children can have a better future.

“If there’s one thing that’s most important for me, it’s being a mother,” she tells Groove Korea. “In one interview I was asked why I went into politics. It’s not just politics, I told them. If I can make this society 0.001 percent better for my children, whether it be in politics or whatever it is, I am going to take it.”

With foreigners making up just 3 percent of the population, their presence in business and politics is still minor. The foreign business environment in 20 years’ time is anyone’s guess. The greater the positive influence foreigner-owned businesses make, we’d like to argue, the more accepting the country will become.

There are still miles to go in terms of progress, but one thing’s certain: Change is here, and it’s only getting better.

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Steve McKinney Influence Seoul Global Center head Residence Seoul

As the head of the Seoul Global Center, Steve McKinney is the most senior foreigner in the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

He’s 55, gray and jovial, and speaks with a caramelized North Carolina drawl. He is also the founder and CEO of McKinney Consulting, a Seoul-based headhunting company, and sits on over a dozen boards including the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea and Yongsan International School. His true passion, however, is for the SGC. “We’re a one-stop support center for foreigners,” McKinney explains. “We have three business centers, seven village centers, global migrant centers scattered all across Seoul.”

He says there is virtually nothing that can’t be done through the SGC for any foreigner, regardless of their nationality or occupation, or even whether they’re in the country legally.

McKinney’s first visit to Korea was in 1981.

“The first impression when I got off the plane, I’ll never forget it, was the smell of garlic,” he says. “It was very strong. Gimpo (home to Gimpo International Airport in Seoul) at that time was kind of out in the country and the smells were different.”

He came back in the 1990s for business,

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working both in Busan and Seoul for Reebok and Adidas. In 2001 he set up McKinney Consulting. He declines to name his clients, saying only that he places “mostly bilingual executives” with “four large multinational companies operating in Korea.”

Since McKinney first stepped off the plane, things have changed socially, politically and in the business world, he notes.

“The biggest thing that I’ve seen in those times is democracy in action,” McKinney says. “Freedom of the press, conversations that we’re having now that you can write and talk about.”

The economy has rocketed ahead. Even back in the early ’90s, “private cars were almost nonexistent. You just had little black Ford cars based on a European model. You had buses and little Pony taxis.” And what they did have wasn’t great, either — he once saw an overloaded timber truck in Busan literally snap in half coming over a hill.

Likewise, the business world has shaped up, with far less corruption now than 20 years ago. “I think also back then, it was very, very important to network,” McKinney says. While networking is still important today, he adds,

professional practices are more vital than before.

Being away from his native U.S., McKinney has missed a lot of time with his extended family. “I missed both of my grandmothers’ funerals, so I regret that,” he says. Though he was able to see his father a lot in his last year and attended his funeral, he concedes that “you can’t do that with every one of your relatives. It would be almost impossible.”

Now he is well settled with a family of his own, and his two sons work for him at the consulting company. “I have a Korean wife,” he says. “And where momma’s happy, I’m happy. That’s the short answer. But I like it here, I enjoy it. My business is here, it’s growing. I’m able to contribute.”

McKinney has a good life and he’s clearly enthusiastic about what he does. “Being an American here, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to meet a lot of people I never would have met otherwise,” McKinney adds. He’s met Korean presidents, American presidents, secretaries of commerce and ambassadors from all over the world. “I would never take that for granted.”

More info http://global.seoul.go.kr

Story by Matthew Lamers / Photo courtesy of Jasmine Lee

Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com)

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Jasmine Lee Influence National Assembly lawmaker Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea May 2013, May 2014

Jasmine Lee is in the thick of Korea’s multicultural transformation. She is leading the charge on multiple fronts, although she is quick to point out that taking things one step at a time is necessary if she is to maintain support from a majority of Koreans and avoid attracting too much negativity.

Nonetheless, the agenda is a busy one, and defining multiculturalism in the Korean context is at its core. It also involves researching the best way to integrate multiethnic families into society, redefining the concept of “multicultural children,” passing an antiracism law, setting up a “control tower” to implement inter-agency policies on multiculturalism and, most importantly, spreading the message that a multicultural society involves not just the 1 million people living in multiethnic households, but all 50 million South Koreans.

Born Jasmine Bacurnay y Villanueva in the Philippines, the TV personality-turned-civil servant settled in Korea with her husband in 1996, and in 2012 became the first naturalized Korean to sit in the National Assembly. She represents the ruling Saenuri Party as a proportional representative, meaning she was appointed by the party and does not represent a district.

Lee says society must embrace multicul-

turalism due to demographic and economic trends. “Unless Korea is going to close its doors and send out everyone who’s not born in Korea, multiculturalism will further settle in,” she says. “There will be more Koreans going out and other people coming in. This is happening. I think Korea’s got to be ready, because it’s not closing its doors.

This is a country where the economy is based on exports, so you can’t close your doors if you’re an exporting country. There will be many more interactions with people from other countries.”

In just two decades, Korea has gone from being one of the most homogenous countries in Asia to a diverse and demographically dynamic place. In 1990, 1.2 percent of all marriages consisted of one foreign national. By 2007, that had risen to 11.1 percent. But beneath the numbers is a country that is in the middle of some serious soul searching on what it means to be a multicultural society and what role, if any, the government ought to play.

Lee says the demographic changes have happened very quickly, “so the government is trying its very best to cope. But when you’re in the trial-and-error stage, you’re going to get a lot of error. We have to move forward, plan out how Korea is going to

face being a multicultural society. The most important part is changing the negative perception of the majority.”

Before joining the TV program “Love in Asia,” Lee thought all multiethnic families lived like her, but it wasn’t so. “When I was on TV, people started looking up to me,” she recalls. “They even (thought) that living with my parents-in-law, with four generations under one roof, (was) a very big thing, so people (came) to respect you and believe in what you (said) to them. I went out to villages in the provinces and mothers-inlaw grabbed their Southeast Asian daughters-in-law and told them, ‘Look at her.

She’s from the Philippines, too, and speaks Korean fluently.’ They would compare (me) to their daughter-in-law. They would actually ask me, ‘When will she be like you?’”

What Lee wants to fight most is discrimination against children. “If there’s one thing that’s most important for me, it’s being a mother,” she says. “In one interview I was asked why I went into politics. It’s not just politics, I told them. If I can make this society 0.001 percent better for my children, whether it be in politics or whatever it is, I am going to take it. That’s how everything started.”

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Story by Dave Hazzan / Photo by Adam Czelusta

Andrei Lankov Influence North Korea expert Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea January 2015

Andrei Lankov, a tenured professor of Korean studies at Kookmin University, has seen North Korea from both the inside and the outside. In 1984 Lankov was a young Soviet exchange student, flown out of Leningrad to Pyongyang to study Korean. He found himself in a land more Stalinist than Stalin’s own, a place where nothing was normal and life was viewed “from inside a golden cage.”

“I was prepared to go to a country that was like a Hollywood picture of a dictatorship,” Lankov says. “But you come and you see and it’s quite beautiful — beautiful sky, wonderful girls … cute children playing with their grandmothers.” It was normal, at least at first.

But then reality knocked. “When I talked to people who had been around, when I developed some connections with some North Koreans who were willing to be relatively frank with me … it became clear: Yes, it’s a very brutal dictatorship, crazy with nationalism, really oppressive, the government comically inefficient and so on,” he says.

Since then, Lankov says a process of “de-Stalinization,” an opening up of the domestic economy, has replaced the old

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system of state-owned factories and mines.

It’s a process he has been following closely for the past 15 years.

“In terms of ideology, you have all this old stuff,” Lankov says. “But if you look at how the system is really, actually operating, the old system is dead, because we have a flourishing private economy.”

Lankov sees three possible outcomes for the future of North Korea: a “developmental dictatorship,” similar to China or Vietnam today; a painful reunification with the South; or a Chinese puppet state. He also believes that unless the U.S. starts dealing directly with the country, they will soon be facing a North Korea that has a “really dangerous, not symbolically dangerous, nuclear potential,” including ballistic missiles that can reach the U.S. mainland.

Born in 1963 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg, Russia), Lankov had what he described as a “perfectly normal” Soviet childhood. His parents were divorced and he lived with his mother, who was a bus and tram driver. There was always bread in the shops, though fresh fruit and vegetables were rarer. Their apartment was nearly free,

their clothes were shabby but inexpensive.

And there was education — plenty of education. He caught the history bug early and pursued it the rest of his life, through to his Ph.D. at Leningrad State University.

In 1992, he left Russia to come to South Korea, and in 1996, he moved to Australia to teach at Australia National University in Canberra. He began teaching at Kookmin in 2004.

Now he is one of the world’s leading experts on North Korea. In the past 15 years, he’s written five books in English on the topic and several more in Russian, and contributes regularly to Al-Jazeera English and the Korea Times.

Regarding his own future, he doesn’t see much change. “When you are 50 years old, and like what you are doing, dramatic changes are both unlikely and unwelcome,” he says. “So I hope that the remaining 20 to 25 years of my active life will be, essentially, more of the same.”

He would not rule out a move, though. “If North Korea changes dramatically, I would like to relocate to Pyongyang, of course.”

More info www.twitter.com/andreilankov

Story by Jaime Stief / Photo by Dukhwa

Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com)

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Terri Hartman Influence Former Seoul International Women’s Association president, Korea Business Leaders Alliance community director Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea May 2014

Few people understand the expat experience in Korea better than Terri Hartman, who until last May was president of the Seoul International Women’s Association. Being at the helm of Korea’s most venerable international women’s organization — 50 years young last year — was no small task. Between pay gaps (men earn 39 percent more than women, the widest disparity in the world) and low employment rates (just 50 percent of Korean women work), improving women’s career options in Korea wasn’t easy. Through SIWA, Hartman aimed to turn the tables by creating practical tools to help working women succeed.

Hartman came to Korea in August 2009 with her husband, a partner at accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Prior to her arrival, she worked in the field of incentive plan design, executive compensation and, funnily enough, expatriate programs.

She was the president of SIWA for three years, and with the organization, she aimed to help women make cross-cultural connections, in part through tours and fundraising projects, but also through social and professional networking events. She says SIWA also raises about 100 million won every year for Korean charities to support study rooms, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, orphanages, senior centers and centers for the intellectually challenged.

Hartman recently joined the Korea Business Leaders Alliance as its community director, where she will carry on the spirit of the activities she oversaw as the SIWA president.

“The KBLA is a new organization made up of senior executives of international companies organized around the mission of efficiently and effectively delivering professional education, networking opportunities, intelligence and

exposure to new ideas to our members,” she says. “I am looking forward to serving as part of this team.”

In the future, she would like to see workplaces that are capable of accommodating both men and women who want to climb higher and have family obligations. Such changes, she says, are not far off.

“What has to change is the perception of what it takes to climb higher, which allows for a combination of an effective and productive employee who can also be effective outside of the workplace,” she says. “Once this is accepted as the norm and rewarded with promotion and leadership, then I think the model is attainable for both men and women who want to have this kind of balance in their lives.”

She and her husband plan to stay in Seoul through June 2016.

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Story by Dave Hazzan Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Jones

Jeffrey JOnes Influence Former American Chamber of Commerce in Korea president Residence Seoul

As a corporate lawyer and former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, Jeffrey Jones takes pride in uniting cultures through capitalism.

“It sounds a little flaky perhaps, but I’ve enjoyed being a bridge

Sophia Barry Influence Seoul International Women’s Association president Residence Seoul

For Sophia Barry, becoming president of the Seoul International Women’s Association was not a headline she imagined for herself when she first arrived to Korea in early 2013. Back then the Brit from Yorkshire, England, was working as an accountant in Ulsan, but upon moving to Seoul last year she was looking forward to what the capital had to offer. “I noticed that there’s all these expatriate groups which I didn’t have in Ulsan,” she recalls. So the first one, SIWA, came up at the top,” she recalls.

With that being her “cup of tea,” she dove in and made fast friends with the diverse crowd, getting her hands dirty helping to organize their annual bazaar. “Suddenly they needed someone and I’m quite full of energy so it was just like going into full-time work, except not having a horrible boss,” says Barry. With that, she took her cue.

The bazaar is an annual fundraising event that combines the homegrown talents of the international women’s community with local efforts. The result is a unique multicultural experience in which visitors can taste homemade goods rich with offshore ingredients, browse handcrafted gifts and watch performances, all in the name of a good cause.

Being the president of SIWA and uniting women of over 40 nationalities is no easy task. “When we finished the bazaar I was exhausted, but I was also very happy,” Barry says. “I can look back and tell my children ‘Look what I managed to do.’”

The bazaar is just one of SIWA’s vast array of activites, which also include enrichment classes and coffee mornings at the Conrad Hotel.

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between Korea and the U.S., helping U.S. businesses get into Korea, helping Koreans understand the U.S.,” says the 62-year-old who has worked at local law firm Kim & Chang since 1980. “It’s been a unique opportunity to play a bridge between the business communities in the two countries.”

Jones first came to Korea in 1971 as a 19-year-old Mormon missionary. “It was tough,” he says. “There was still a lot of postwar trauma. They didn’t live well, and they were looking for identity. The struggle with North Korea was still fresh. Family members were still looking for each other.”

He says he was treated “as a novelty. Basically friendly, but sort of like the gorilla in the zoo. Interesting to look at.” Despite this, he says he enjoyed the experience, at least enough to bring him back seven years later.

Korean news reports have made much of Jones’ ability to speak Korean; one book credits his language skills and understanding of Korean culture with single-handedly changing Korea’s negative perceptions of AMCHAM. Jones says he’s proudest of his work with the Korean government, serving on economic commissions and helping them grow the economy. He was particularly close to President Kim Dae-jung, who was picking up the pieces following the Asian financial crisis. Jones, who is married with eight children, is also proud of Partners for the Future Foundation, the AMCHAM charity he still presides over, which has educated over 3,000 underprivileged Korean students.

As for the future, Jones acknowledges that Korea is having a difficult time moving from a manufacturing, export-based economy to a service economy. “That’s a difficult transition, and they’re struggling with it,” Jones says. “But the Koreans have a unique ability to make change and I think they will. I think Korea will continue to grow.”

Story by Sarah Edge Photo by Joe Gans

“Yes, coffee mornings. That’s very traditional within SIWA. It’s a monthly event and it’s very nice and refined,” she says. “There’s coffee and snacks and chatting — ladies do like to chat! But with some content as well, so we always have a guest speaker on an intellectual topic.”

Like anyone who joins SIWA, and also for expats who come to Seoul, the need to find an outlet and support is critical in feeling a sense of home. Prior to Korea, Barry lived for a time in Nigeria and is familiar with the emotional stages an expat typically goes through. “My advice is to join a ladies’ club,” she says. “Go join the expat clubs. Everyone’s looking to make friends, but do that in a safe environment.”

More info www.siwapage.com

Story by Simon Slater and Elaine Ramirez / Photo courtesy of AMCHAM Korea

Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com)

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Amy Jackson Influence American Chamber of Commerce in Korea president Residence Seoul

With such an esteemed resume and laundry list of contributions to Korean society, Amy Jackson’s honorary citizenship of Seoul in 2013 was well earned. She has served on organizing committees of the Yeosu Expo and Pyeongchang Special Olympics, and has helped countless businesses enter new markets over the decades. But she is perhaps best known and applauded for her extensive involvement from beginning to end in setting up the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, which kicked off in 2012 and paved the way for thousands of Korean and U.S. companies to enter and grow in new markets.

Since taking office as president of the 1,800-member-strong American Chamber of Commerce in Korea in 2009, one of her most personally rewarding experiences is connecting with Korea’s ambitious youths.

“I have the opportunity to speak frequently to Korean university students, and the interaction with them and the great and frank questions they ask me is one of the highlights of my time here to date,” Jackson says. “We have placed a higher priority on giving back to Korean society over the past few years, and launched new programs toward this end under our charitable arm.”

Through AMCHAM’s Partners for the Future Foundation, which helps university

students from underprivileged families get vocational training and scholarships, Jackson and American CEOs feel rewarded by their interactions with bright, articulate students who might remind them of themselves at that age, when they could have used such advice from such business leaders about their future paths.

The Ithaca, New York, native did her own bit of meandering after graduating from Pomona College and Johns Hopkins University. After living in Japan and working for its space agency, she remembers fondly her eight years at NASA, where she helped negotiate space agreements between the U.S. and Japan and got to watch a lot of space shuttle launches. Then, after a long career in Washington in the public and private sector helping businesses find their way into Asia and building government frameworks to boost trade to Japan and Korea, she moved to Seoul to take the helm of AMCHAM Korea.

When she first set foot in the capital in 2002, she was pleasantly surprised at how big and modern it was, equipped with great infrastructure like its public transportation. And she has watched its development skyrocket since then. In the business world, she has seen Korea and U.S. companies’ concerns converge. For example, while U.S. companies were once

the ones cautious of patent protection, tech and innovation-savvy Korean firms like pharmaceutical companies are now voicing the same concerns to protect their creative innovators as they arrive on U.S. soil.

As AMCHAM continues its core objective of helping companies do business in the U.S. and Korea, it reflects on its impact as Korea’s largest business group through its involvement in the country’s postwar rebuilding since 1953. Now it is placing more focus on contributing to society, she notes.

“AMCHAM celebrated its 60th anniversary in Korea last year. One of our key messages related to this important anniversary has been that U.S. companies are very proud of the fact that they have worked in partnership with Koreans to rebuild Korea into the powerhouse it is today — employing tens of thousands of Koreans and supplying Korean consumers with many of the goods and services they know and trust,” she says. “But we have also emphasized that AMCHAM will continue to grow and change as Korea grows and changes.”

When not managing AMCHAM’s day-today operations, she eats and strolls in Insa-dong with her family, brings her two kids to COEX Aquarium and otherwise takes in as much as she can of what Korea’s grand capital has to offer.

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Story by Tim Cushing / Photo courtesy of Kia Motor

peter schreyer Influence Hyundai and Kia design chief and president Residence Germany/Seoul

The name Peter Schreyer is legendary in the car industry. Since starting his career in 1980, he is one of only three automotive designers to receive an honorary doctorate from the Royal College of Art in London and has been named Man of the Year by both Top Gear magazine and Automobile News.

The Bavaria, West Germany, native made a name for himself when he helped to design the acclaimed Audi TT sports car. This, along with his work at other major companies including Volkswagen, helped to garner attention from other major car manufacturers, and brought him to Korea as Kia’s chief design officer in 2006.

At the time, Kia expressed hopes for Schreyer’s work to live up to “its ‘exciting and enabling’ brand values that target a young-at-heart and adventurous target customer base.” Schreyer was up to the challenge, and worked to develop the “tiger

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nose” — an iconic new look that earned acclaim for the company’s K Series cars and reinvigorated the company. It also earned Schreyer a promotion in late 2012 as the first non-Korean president of Kia Motors and its parent company, Hyundai Motor Group. In this role, he has been asked to bring cohesion to the brands but carve out a unique twist for each. “It is very important to keep the brands distinct,” Schreyer said in a recent interview with Car and Driver. “We need to be recognized as two brands. Kia is architectonical, very straight, while Hyundai is curvaceous, sometimes quite spectacular.”

In such a competitive field, even the most revered designers still face scrutiny, and innovation begets expectation. But for Schreyer, innovation might not mean always reinventing the wheel. It seems that his major revamping of the brand might be done with, and he is now focused on refinement.

As he recently told Car Advice, “As we have completed the product range, it doesn’t mean we will go a completely different direction. We will keep going in the same direction and make it even stronger and stay with what we have.”

However, Schreyer remains attuned to the demands of an industry that demands innovation. “I think in a way it shows that if we’re a little bit daring and don’t always do something that’s in the middle of the road, sometimes it pays out. Sometimes it works,” he recently told Automotive News. It seems that Schreyer understands that failure is part of the game.

Schreyer continues to redefine himself outside of the design studios by working as a painter and writer. And at age 62, he doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

More info www.peterschreyer.com

Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com)

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Story by Cari Ferguson Photo courtesy of Brian Myers

Influence North Korea expert Residence Busan

A prolific writer, Brian Reynolds Myers is perhaps most familiar to the expat community for his contributions to popular publications such as The Atlantic, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Not one to be easily pigeon-holed, he has chosen not to write exclusively about North Korea. Rather, he has created a devoted readership of individuals who appreciate the curmudgeon-esque tone with which he writes his critical book reviews, his unapologetic veganism and animal rights activism and his moral crusade to condemn “foodies.”

Myers has published three books: “Han Sorya and North Korean Literature: The Failure of Socialist Realism in the DPRK” (1994), “A Reader’s Manifesto: An Attack on the Growing Pretentiousness of American Literary Prose” (2002) and “The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters” (2010). He is preparing to add a fourth title to the list this year, which will examine the Juche ideology in North Korea. Afterward, Myers plans to “recuperate for a while in South Korean studies, which is a more vibrant and less overcrowded field” than North Korean studies.

Why the break from the specialty that has made him so renowned here and abroad? According to Myers, the problem with North Korean studies is that it’s “becoming a victim of its own popularity. Academics and laymen alike are increasingly complaining about the sameness and unseriousness of what is written about the country.”

Criticism of the field itself aside, it makes sense that Myers might be interested in a change after nearly two decades of writing about the elusive state, as change is something to which he is quite ac-

Story by Cari Ferguson Photo by Fergus Scott

Daniel Pinkston Influence International Crisis Group, Northeast Asia deputy project director Residence Seoul

Few expats choose to stay in South Korea for nearly two decades.

Dr. Daniel Pinkston, however, is one of the media’s most influential and authoritative voices on inter-Korean relations and regional security, and is no ordinary expat.

He is currently the deputy project director for the Northeast Asian division of the International Crisis Group, which provides research, analysis and advocacy to support the resolution of major global conflicts. He is also a senior adviser at the Arirang Institute and an adjunct professor at Troy University.

customed. Born in New Jersey, Myers was raised first in Bermuda and then South Africa, and lived in Europe while earning degrees in Germany: a master’s degree in Soviet studies from Ruhr University and a Ph.D. in North Korean literature from the University of Tübingen. Myers officially settled in South Korea in 2001 and currently resides with his wife in Busan, where he teaches international studies at Dongseo University.

The California native and official Honolulu resident, who currently lives in Seoul, first came to Korea in 1981 with the U.S. Air Force. In the three decades since, Pinkston has not only become fluent in Korean, but has also achieved both academic and professional success.

Pinkston holds almost as many academic credentials as he does position titles. He earned a master’s degree in Korean studies from Yonsei University, and returned to the States to complete a Ph.D. in international affairs at the University of California, San Diego. Much like the number of figurative hats that he wears, the list of publication titles and media appearances featuring Pinkston’s name is also quite extensive.

Pinkston says that what continues to excite him day after day is “figuring out the world and finding solutions to problems.”

However, the process has changed significantly throughout his career, and while the cost of information, the frequency of travel and the amount of necessary legwork have all been reduced, these previous frustrations have been replaced by other, sometimes more significant challenges.

“When I first started there was a scarcity of data, which was a major problem, but today we have the opposite issue,” he says.

“The focus now is on distinguishing between good- and poor-quality sources and assessing which information is credible and reliable from what isn’t.”

Despite his very serious occupation, Pinkston speaks warmly of teaching, fondly recalling his early days in South Korea, and openly admits that he refuses to watch himself on camera.

His many accomplishments serve as a necessary reminder that there is ever more for expats to learn, discover and appreciate in Korea — for newbies and veterans alike.

More info www.crisisgroup.org 59

MUSIC AndARTS Introduction by Emilee Jennings

As Korea’s music and arts scenes have steadily evolved over the last decade, the influx of foreigners has driven multiculturalism and created an opportunity for Korea to embrace the unknown. Seoul’s university area of Hongdae has earned its title as an indie haven whose diverse urban arts and underground music acts have helped put Seoul on the map as one of the coolest expat cities in Asia.

Ten years ago, belly dancing and burlesque were seen as scandalous and kept hidden under the radar — that is, if they even existed at all. That changed in 2007 when belly dancer Eshe Yildiz moved to Korea and worked fearlessly to promote the art she loves. Yildiz now runs the first foreign-owned dance studio in the country. This transition was further cemented in 2009, when a group of army wives began performing on base as WhiteLies Burlesque Revue, now one of the most popular dance acts in Seoul.

Stepping back to a time before the Korean wave swept the globe, 2008 saw the birth of Eat Your Kimchi, a video

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blog powered by the quirky, goofy antics of Simon and Martina Stawski that now reaches fans of Korean culture in more than 180 countries, updating them on all things Korean and proving Korea’s global attractiveness.

As the number of expats in Korea increases, so, too, does the number of expat celebrities. In March 2014, Groove Korea chatted with Bronwyn Mullen, Jake Pains, Pinnacle TheHustler and Jesse Day about how opportunities in the entertainment industry are ever increasing for foreign faces. Korea is beginning to embrace foreign stars, and the newly launched “Abnormal Summit” TV show, starring Sam Okyere and many other up-and-coming expat personalities, is a prime example of this shift.

Longtime celebrities such as Korean-American heartthrob Daniel Henney and Aussie comedian Sam Hammington plan to grace our screens for many years to come, helping to bring further attention to Korea’s expat scene.

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Story and Photo by James Little

Simon and Martina Stawski Influence Eat Your Kimchi vloggers Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea March 2011, September 2012, February 2013, September 2014

Meeting with Simon and Martina Stawski is in many ways like watching their videos. The enthusiasm and quick-fire succession of their words matches the raw footage from their vlog shoots — quintessentially them, but lacking the finer polishing that editing enables.

The Canadian couple uses their jovial humor to compile entertaining videos for their Eat Your Kimchi blog, where they dish out the latest info on K-pop — good or bad — to an English-speaking audience hungry for all things K-pop and Korean culture-related. It’s an official YouTube partner with over a quarter-million subscribers, proving the duo’s influence in the Korean Wave scene, a status that also brings groupies and screaming fans. “The whole idea of celebrity is something very odd to us,” Simon said. “We’ve had people come up to us almost crying and asking for a hug. And for us it’s bizarre.”

Interestingly, most of their popularity doesn’t originate in Korea. Ninety percent of all traffic for their website comes from outside the country, with 45 percent arriving from North America and a sizable demographic coming from Singapore. Eat Your Kimchi is now the top source of information on K-pop in English.

The pair’s blog started humbly enough.

Founded in 2008 by recent newlyweds Simon and Martina, who hail from Toronto, Canada, the website began as a simple travel blog detailing the weird and wonderful adventures the couple had found themselves in when they arrived in Korea that same year.

The couple — both registered teachers in their homeland — chose Korea over Japan in

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part due to Simon’s experiences teaching Korean students in Toronto. “When I was teaching in Toronto I remember being amazed because I taught at a high school in Canada as well as a Korean learning center, and the Korean students at the center were angels. I was like … why not go to a country full of Korean students!”

For Simon and Martina, a video blog was the easiest way to alleviate their families’ concerns about international travel. Eat Your Kimchi started with a video featuring the couple eating a dish of sundubu jjigae, a spicy tofu stew.

“Our very first subscriber, his name was Steve, he was from the U.K., sent us an email saying he was moving to Bucheon (Gyeonggi Province). That was kind of the catalyst that made us realize that other people could use our videos to help them out for moving,” Martina explained.

From that point on the couple began a furious regime of producing videos, which they have maintained to this day. The blog initially focused on life in Bucheon and Seoul, as well as very pragmatic topics such as how to use a Korean transportation card and classroom teaching material. “As more people subscribed, we started doing videos about K-pop for fun; that’s when the big boom happened as people were interested in K-pop and moving to Korea,” said Martina.

Today, Eat Your Kimchi is a full-time venture for both Simon and Martina. They are also co-owners of the newly launched You Are Here Cafe in Hongdae. Their future plans include more blogging and more traveling.

More info www.eatyourkimchi.com

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Story by Sophie Boladeras / Photo by Colin Dabbs

Pinnacle TheHustler Influence Music entrepreneur Residence Cincinnati, USA Featured in Groove Korea March 2011, October 2011, April 2013, March 2014

Jason Waller came to Korea as an English teacher, but it was in his blood to hoist himself out of a profession that didn’t inspire him. He worked day and night over four fast years of living in Seoul to carve a niche for himself as a hard-working and talented DJ, performer, emcee, radio host and CEO of his own company, Planet Hustle — living up to his self-coined moniker, Pinnacle TheHustler.

By first impression, he is a funny, charismatic guy. His music has been compared to Nas, Twista, Jay-Z, Eminem and Lupe Fiasco, but he has a distinctive flair and style of his own. In the middle of 2013, Pinnacle packed up his Seoul home and returned to his native Cincinnati to expand his reach in the West. But the city would be hardpressed to realize it, as he’s been back and forth some half a dozen times since then.

“My message, everything that I’m about, is progress, forward movement and not being where you were two weeks or two months ago. Get out of complacency,” he says.

He owes his broadened perspective largely to the 2008 leap he made to Korea,

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where he has come to see how he fits into the bigger picture. “(Living here) has influenced me as far as expanding my perspective on a lot of things,” he says. “When you change your perspective on life, you change your perspective on your art. Being out here has made me better understand my relationship with the world.”

And a lot of that perspective, he says, has to do with being of the few black people in a mostly homogenous country. Leaving the U.S. and assimilating in Korea forced him to see the pedestal that he and other black people are put on, but he has embraced his responsibility of being a role model, especially as one of the handful of blacks in the public eye here.

“When you step outside of America and you see how other people view you, even though they might not know you but just how they look at you or your culture, it gives you a different perspective on how you should act,” he says. “Wherever I go, I know that I am kind of an unofficial ambassador for all black people. If I do something stupid, people here are going to be like,

‘See, that’s how they are.’ So it made me conscious and responsible with the type of content that I put out and how I conduct myself in public.”

But he sees that Korea’s diversity is growing. One thing he values about performing here is the variety of cultures represented in any given audience; even though everyone came from different places, they can still come together and enjoy the same music.

His popularity shot up at TBS Radio from being a regular guest on “The Steve Hatherly Show” and cohosting with Elliott Ashby on “Night Vibe,” the only radio show in Korea dedicated to urban music. Pinnacle’s popularity isn’t limited to his radio or DJing work, though: He has over 9,000 likes on Facebook and has played at packed gigs all over Seoul.

He isn’t worried about difficulties in transferring his current popularity from Korea to the States or to the world. For the foreseeable future, Pinnacle plans to hop between Cincinnati, Seoul and all the other places where he’s making connections.

More info www.planethustle.com

Story by Matthew Lamers / Photo by Nam Jung-ho

Edited by Emilee Jennings (emilee@groovekorea.com)

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Eshe Yildiz Influence Belly dance performer and instructor Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea October 2010, May 2011, June 2012, February 2013, May 2014, October 2014

Eshe was living in Tokyo in 2006 when she met Turkish belly dance legend Sema Yildiz at a workshop in Aoyama, near Shibuya.

It was one of those inspiring encounters that many people would let slip by. Not her.

There, among a group of about 50 women who had gathered to learn traditional Turkish oriental dance techniques, Eshe was picked out of the back row to dance for everyone in the room. Though she was incredibly nervous, her hypnotic hips worked their magic, and it was Sema that gifted Eshe the surname Yildiz, the Turkish word for “star.”

Breaking into the dance scene is incredibly difficult. It takes time and effort to convince people you are professional, dedicated and sincere. In this brand of dance, there are no milestones like in other art professions.

Those bonds, especially in the arts, are not easy to form — and most fail. Eshe, of course, did not.

Soon after moving to Seoul in late 2007, the Canadian became a member of world fusion music band Orgeltanz as the act’s belly dancer. Through 2010, Orgeltanz and Eshe performed on Korea’s biggest stages

(Pentaport Rock Festival among them), were featured in the country’s biggest magazines (Vogue Korea, Harper’s Bazaar) and made an appearance on MBC, the national broadcaster.

In 2010, American belly dancer Jillina cast Eshe as a performer in her Bellydance Evolution tour in Seoul and Bali, Indonesia.

“It’s a touring act made up some of the most famous belly dancers in the world with a backing cast of local dancers. I was dancing alongside belly dance royalty. That was pretty amazing,” Eshe says. Preparation required eight hours of rehearsals every day for a week. “My feet split open from so much dancing, but it was incredible.”

In February 2011, Eshe became the first foreigner to open a dance studio in Seoul.

Eshe, originally from Hamilton, Ontario, owns and operates Dream Dance Studio, which moved from Mangwon to Hapjeong in Seoul.

In addition to teaching belly dance, it offers hula-hoop, hip-hop and swing dance classes.

Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions about belly dancers is that they lead glamorous lives. Eshe said she loves being

an artist, but it is difficult: Costumes, music, travel and study can be very expensive. New costumes often cost upwards of 600,000 won. “I’m lucky that I can live off of my art.

I know a lot of artists who cannot, so even when they are difficult to endure, I’m grateful for my struggles.”

A friend once told Eshe that dance is a gift from heaven. “If you aren’t constantly giving it away, your inspiration might dry up. So I’m always giving to my students and my audiences. There are times, of course, that I feel tired, but it’s an enjoyable exhaustion.”

Eshe’s ultimate goal is to popularize belly dance as a rich cultural and moving artistic phenomenon. “I’m interested in taking dance to the next level with my students. Of course, the casual dancer who just wants to shake their booty is welcome in the studio.

“But for me, the more interesting and rewarding work is in creating dancers — whether they perform for themselves in their living rooms or on stages around the world.

I would love to expose more women to the beauty residing inside of them.”

More info http://eshebellydancer.com 65

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Story by Louis Oh and Remy Raitt / Photo courtesy of Adam Brennan

Adam Brennan, Danny Arens and Ollie Walker Influence Loose Union founders Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea October 2014

Making it in the underground scene in Seoul is a formidable challenge, to say the least. Needless to say, garnering attention as an expat takes that to another level.

Loose Union is neither an individual nor a singular group. It is also not a company. It is a music collective of like-minded musicians and bands of both Korean and non-Korean origin that are active in the Seoul underground scene. They support each other in the struggle for reaching a wider audience on the indie scene while making music they love.

Loose Union was conceived two years ago during a video project and a conversation that blossomed from it. “The initial plan was to film these artists in unique settings, away from clubs, on the fly,” says Adam Brennan of New Blue Death. “We filmed a concert on an apartment rooftop, one in the courtyard of a hanok, another in a garage in Itaewon.” While they filmed this video, the conversation continued and eventually

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evolved into Loose Union, starting with Used Cassettes and Brennan’s former (and now defunct) band Sparrow Hills.

After that first video, they invited other indie bands in Seoul to appear in their videos and began to promote gigs. Shortly thereafter, they teamed up with their friend Brad Wheeler, who had just opened a recording studio and began releasing records under the Loose Union name. Brennan says Loose Union isn’t really a record label, but the studio has allowed their bands to make records cheaper and quicker, and gives them the freedom that isn’t available in Korean studios.

Since then, Loose Union has come to include Love X Stereo, Table People, Juck Juck Grunzie, Killer Drones, Les Sales, Baekma and Brennan’s band New Blue Death.

“It really feels like a thing now,” says Brennan. “I don’t know what we would call it, but it does feel like something.”

Loose Union continues to grow and facilitate its bands, but the challenges are persistent. “The audience here for underground music is unpredictable and fleeting,” remarks Brennan. “I do see it growing, but we want more. There are great artists producing great work in this city. Some of these folks have been doing this for 10 years or more and for very little gain or recognition.”

Despite grappling with the limits and obstacles of reaching out, Brennan and the rest of Loose Union are ambitious about their artistic goals. For them, even if it’s tough, it’s about the music.

“It’s not about being cool or having a particular look. Most of us are way too old to give a damn about things like that,” says Brennan. “The tie that binds these bands together is the love we have for the craft.

Loose Union is just a medium we use to share to a wider audience.”

More info www.looseunion.com

Story by Emilee Jennings / Photo by Dylan Goldby

Edited by Emilee Jennings (emilee@groovekorea.com)

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Sam Hammington Influence TV comedian and actor Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea May 2013, December 2014

Sam Hammington doesn’t swagger around Gangnam in the trendiest threads and dark shades. Instead, he wears a T-shirt and Braves jacket while speeding through the streets of Haebangchon on his scooter.

Many expats would be hard-pressed to identify this medium-height, stocky Australian guy as a national celebrity.

He might be familiar to some expats from the odd Dunkin’ Donuts poster around Seoul or his four years on the TBS eFM radio show “Drive Time,” but it was his goofy antics on the Korean small screen that led the 12-year expat to become one of the peninsula’s most famous slapstick comedians, branded the first foreign comedian to do comedy in Korean. Even though his “Gag Concert” variety show days are far behind him, he can’t go 100 meters before hordes of fans flock to him for photos and autographs.

Since moving to Korea in 2002 he’s had to ditch the Western favorites of stand-up, scripted one-liners, racy humor and sarcasm to take on Korea’s word play — no small

feat for a foreign speaker — ad-libbing, situational comedy, self-depreciation and good old slapstick humor. While it gets mixed results from expats, slapstick is the holy grail of comedy in Korea. Many enjoy the Three Stooges’ simplicity, while others are simply dumbstruck by its obvious and apparently juvenile format. But Hammington says this type of humor is perfect for Korean network television, which is too conservative to take on the racy jokes of Australia or other Western countries. It’s these boundaries that force the world of Korean comedy to get creative — and it’s here, in improv and ad-libbing, where Hammington thrives.

Hammington plans to leave no stone unturned in honing his craft in Korea, with a movie in the works and directing a distant pipe dream. He’s ready to give anything a go. “There’s a lot that I want to still try. One of my goals is to host a TV show here. If the right program came up, I’d jump on it,” he says. “I’m of the philosophy (that) you have to try something before you make a decision

on whether you’re good at it or not, whether you can succeed at it.”

There are some regrets about not being able to spend much time with his family and wife, but in the end he has to do his job, like everyone else. Their being supportive of his success has made it easier for him to deal with. And when the camera’s not rolling, he hits the “off switch” and enjoys a quiet married life with Yumi Jung, the woman who helped him fall in love with Korea.

“I may fail miserably and I might end up with egg on my face,” he shrugs, “but if you don’t try, you’re just going to live with regret and you’ll never know the answer. Thinking about what could have been is a time killer and a self-confidence killer.”

With this way of thinking, Hammington has plenty more to try. Maybe he’ll work in politics someday. Either way, he’s hoping to hijack a TV screen near you for as long as people keep laughing. “I really enjoy having the ability to bring some happiness into someone else’s life.”

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Nell Fox Influence WhiteLies Burlesque Revue leader Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea August 2014

Story by Jamie Keener Photo by Andrew Faulk

WhiteLies Burlesque Revue got its start five years ago when a group of Army wives gathered to perform on post. The group is part of the new burlesque, which keeps the kinky props, satirical sneer and sassy attitude of previous incarnations, but now it’s less about the strip and more about the tease. “Burlesque is not about stripping,” says Nell Fox, the group’s current leader, also U.S.-born, though not an Army wife. “It is about telling a story with your body.

It’s about the art of tease, and you can tease however you choose to.”

Fox, who moved to Korea in 2008, says she was an introvert with little fashion sense and even less confidence before she did her first burlesque show three years ago. But as time went by her confidence grew, and she began incorporating elements of striptease into her act. Her newfound skills have transformed both her image of herself and her career. Now the 28-year-old from Connecticut is a self-proclaimed glitter junkie with some serious fire-spinning skills who lacks any reservations about embracing herself as a powerful woman.

Fox says that in performance, the group tries to capture “the feeling of wanting to glam up and feel good about your body and to have a chance to be like, ‘Look at me, I’m a sexy woman and I’m not scared to let you know it.’”

If the group had a manifesto, that would be it. The members see the female body as a canvas onto which the audience can project their own opinions, just as you would with any other work of art. They use sexuality to deconstruct gender and femininity, while challenging the idea that what they do subverts feminism.

“WhiteLies has shined a light on burlesque and brought some awareness to the art that was otherwise nonexistent, and I think we’ve inspired a lot of women to feel more confident in their bodies,” Fox says.

Krys Lee Influence Novelist Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea June 2012

Although originally from Seoul, Krys Lee grew up along America’s West Coast and received her education in both the U.S. and the U.K. When she returned to Seoul in her 20s she was on her own, and had to learn the Korean language and culture like any other expat.

Since then, she’s carved out a life here while navigating the balance between being Korean, Korean-American and a writer who happens to write about Koreans and Korean-Americans.

“Drifting House,” Lee’s first book, made its way onto the American and British literary landscapes in February 2012, and was later made available in Korea. Published in the United States by Viking/Penguin, Lee’s collection of stories has received accolades on both sides of the Atlantic, from The Guardian, NPR, The Financial Times and Newsweek’s The Daily Beast among others.

Lee’s haunting debut weaves together intricate tales of family and love and the abandonment and loss of Korean immigrants to the United States. Talking about the collection, she says, “I wouldn’t call them immigrant stories, and yet they are in some ways, I suppose.

I think of them as stories about individuals with their unique desires and struggles, but because I was so haunted by my parents’ generation while writing ‘Drifting House,’ immigration is certainly part of the stories’ concerns.” She adds, “Many other themes — power, society versus the individual, violence and love — are just as prominent.”

Lee is spending the year in Italy as a recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Rome Prize Fellowship. Her forthcoming novel is about North Korean refugees.

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Story by Kim Stoker Photo by Dukhwa

Story by Daniel Deacon / Photo courtesy of Sam Okyere

Edited by Emilee Jennings (emilee@groovekorea.com)

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Sam Okyere Influence TV personality, entertainer and model Residence Seoul

Among the growing number of foreign faces on Korean TV these days, Sam Okyere is the first to admit that he stands out because of his skin color. The TV personality, entertainer and model came to the peninsula from Ghana in 2009, initially pursuing a degree in computer engineering on a Korean government scholarship. But with doors opening for foreign faces throughout the entertainment industry, he couldn’t resist giving it a shot.

A friend invited Okyere, now 24, onto a show called “Hello Counselor” in summer 2013 for an episode that gave black people living in Korea a chance to voice their concerns about the discrimination they face here. He says everything else took flight after that, with TV and movie appearances and a modeling shoot in Vogue Korea quickly following.

Okyere, fluent in Korean, says the country has changed drastically in the time he has been here, noting that the number of foreigners speaking Korean has grown rapidly. He also says Koreans are becoming more open to foreigners, and he appreciates the love and support they have shown him.

Okyere became more widely known after an appearance on the show “Happy Together” in 2014. This earned him the nickname “5-7-2,” since pronouncing each number in Korean (oh, chil, ee) sounds like his surname. He’s now a panelist on “Abnormal Summit,” a talk show wherein a group of Korean-speaking expats discusses issues about life in Korea from a foreigner’s perspective.

It’s often jokingly said that he can change the world with the show.

“I see myself as an African ambassador

every time I get the opportunity to be on TV,” Okyere told Okay Africa last year. “A couple of years back, blacks, and Africans especially, had little or no opportunities whatsoever in Korea. We were seen as poor and not particularly the type to get deep into Korean culture. Koreans are now more open to Africa than they were before. … My goal is to bridge the gap between Ghana and Korea through TV work.”

Okyere says the future looks bright, and points to new projects that include more acting and publishing poetry in Korean. While he says he hasn’t reached superstardom just yet, he aims to reach a level where others can benefit from the same opportunities that he has, irrespective of their background.

More info www.facebook.com/pages/SamOkyere/279916278838052 69

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Story by Louis Oh and Remy Raitt / Photo courtesy of Magna Fall

GrooveCast GrooveCast host Chance Dorland speaks with the members of Magna Fall about this month’s iconic issue. Listen online at groovekorea.com or subscribe to the GrooveCast at the iTunes Store.

Kevin Heintz and David Holden Influence Magna Fall musicians Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea July 2011, February 2012, April 2013, October 2014

Expat musicians signed to a label are a rare breed for audiences in Korea, aside from a small group that includes drummer Brad Moore of Busker Busker and guitarists Hasegawa Yohei of Jang Kiha and the Faces and Scott Hellowell of YB. However, multinational indie rock band Magna Fall may be at the forefront of a growth in non-Koreans rocking the local scene.

American frontman Kevin Heintz and Irish drummer David Holden, both of whom used to be English teachers, have gone from being a cover band in Incheon to indie rockers garnering interest on national television.

More recently, they’ve been rubbing shoulders with big indie names at major music fests, making an impact as more than just a band with foreign faces.

Heintz and Holden met at a bar five years ago. Along with former member Neil Smith, they birthed their cover band The Bastards

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of Bupyeong. The Bastards eventually grew into their musical identity of progressive stoner rock and evolved into Magna Fall.

After releasing their first EP in 2011 and a bit of touring in other parts of Asia, the trio competed alongside other major local indie bands on the KBS2 battle-of-the-bands show “Top Band.”

Already unique because of its members, the trio made an impression with their music and placed 19th out of 99. The show gave them a major boost in exposure and got them signed to a label. Smith moved on to play for another band and Magna Fall was joined by guitarist Do Joong-mo and bassist Lee Yeon-su (a.k.a. Met). Two more EPs followed, and the band has gone on to become a major player on the indie scene, holding its own concerts and playing the Green Plugged Seoul festival in 2014.

Looking back, Heintz and Holden rec-

ognize just how much has changed since their chance meeting five years ago. “I am a better musician, my bandmates are better — we have all just improved a lot,” says Heintz. “Plus, there were three foreigners at the start (a real ‘foreigner’ band) and now there are two foreigners and two Koreans, changing the dynamic. We are becoming heavier and stranger, yet also more accessible because of some of the rhythms we started to use.”

The pair adds that they’ve also grown into the Hongdae music scene since leaving their Incheon origins, befriending and being inspired by many of the local acts they see.

“We’ve sort of gone in our own direction though. I do think bands like Asian Chairshot and Rock’n’Roll Radio are awesome because they are taking their genres and moving them in new directions,” Heintz says.

More info www.magnafall.com

Edited by Emilee Jennings (emilee@groovekorea.com)

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Story by Moon Soo-hyun and Remy Raitt Photo courtesy of Aoife Casey

Influence Expat artist Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea October 2014

Aoife Casey, a visual artist from Dublin, Ireland, has been living and working in Seoul since March 2013. She’s the artist behind The Natural Beauty Project Seoul, which attempts to understand the pressure behind Korea’s plastic surgery culture and cultivate the celebration of natural beauty, inner acceptance and love.

Cultural and social issues like these are what Casey actively investigates through her art. Her topics of interest vary from the everyday social aspects of living in Korea to the visual exploration of Korean modernity, something that she sees as an economic force, and its relationship with tradition, which she defines as a cultural force.

It’s the people Casey has met in Korea and the country’s culture and traditions that she says have been an inspiration to her. “I’m inspired to capture the energy, vibrancy, beauty, vulnerability and all the dynamics of people and their stories through photos,” she says. She also notes that her time in Korea has connected her with a Korean audience, and her interaction with Korean participants in her work has helped her viewer base grow.

Along with her art, Casey contributes to Culture M magazine and is also involved in the online collaborative project The Affinity in Ireland, alongside her friend and fellow artist Jennifer Murphy.

Casey feels that a lot of vacant spaces around Seoul could potentially be utilized by artists, and that this could be a great opportunity for foreign and Korean artists to work together. She hopes to see them align their strengths, “be it language or experience, to widen the scope of the presMore info www.aoifecasey.com ence of visual arts in Korea.”

Story by Emilee Jennings Photo by Dylan Goldby

Jesse Day Influence TV personality, LG global spokesperson Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea March 2014

Jesse Day wanted to become a TV star and the Asian market drew him in, so he came to Korea in 2009 and gave it everything. There was no plan B, C or D — only a plan A. “I started this career with the mindset to be in it for the long haul — I don’t believe in backup plans,” he says. “There’s always a market for whatever anyone wants to do once they really push for it and have a strong conviction.”

For the first six months he made daily contact with foreign agencies and began teaching himself Korean. His first big break came in the form of “Fly High,” an English education show for children. Now he is a TV presenter and emcee by day and rapper by night; throw a bit of martial arts into the mix and it’s clear how hard Jesse is willing to work.

He says he’d like to get to the point where he can be on Korean shows like “Radio Star” and “Happy Together.”

For now he just works show to show, season by season, and never really knows where his next paycheck is coming from. “There is no stable gig, but there’s no point in feeling anxious about future jobs. Something always comes up.” To secure his career, he tries to make himself as diverse and flexible as possible. “The whole point of being diverse is so that I can have longevity in my career. I just love it all,” he says. “There’s the corporate stuff, then there’s the emcee side. I try to fit whatever program or situation I’m in. I plan to be here for the long term.”

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Story by Ian Henderson Photo courtesy of Darcy Paquet

Darcy Paquet Influence Koreanfilm.org founder Residence Seoul

The ever-expanding blogosphere has an endless bounty of relevant info about Korean cinema these days, but back in the ‘90s there was approximately zero, in English at least. In stepped Darcy Paquet.

Paul Kajander Influence Artist Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea December 2013

Paul Kajander’s moment of realization came a few years ago in Vancouver, back when he was stuck in a pervasive cycle of “Working to Pay for a Life You Can’t Have Because You’re Working,” a common problem among those who become expats. “I was teaching art full-time, renting a studio and an apartment, but then I became too busy to properly use my studio. It was an unsustainable situation. ... At some point you see that your life isn’t going to change unless you change it.”

He walked out of that life in 2011, wound up totally broke and somehow found himself in Korea.

Soon after, he got distracted by the daily presence of the DMZ and the Korean War, thrown off by what he calls “the impossibility of not addressing it.” When the invitation came from the Real DMZ Project to create something for their 2013 exhibition, Kajander was totally on board.

He started with research and reading, and a 2003 Susan Sontag book brought everything into focus. “‘Regarding the Pain of Others’ is about how it’s an emotional and philosophical conundrum to look at images of the suffering of an Other, capital ‘O.’ It taught me a lot,” he says. “Why was there a Korean War? What were the forces that were operating? As a foreigner, I felt I needed to engage with this from my position as an outsider.”

The exhibition sought to raise a consciousness that represented both sides of the fence. Viewers of the finished product saw images of children, shoes, even the imprint of a bullet casing displayed and properly labeled, but there was no performance structure, no audience and no announced beginning or end.

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He started Koreanfilm.org in ‘98 as a hobby to help fill the void, despite not having much of a background in film. “Actually, I first became interested in Koreans’ enthusiasm for cinema, rather than with any particular director or movie, but the first films which drew my interest were ‘Christmas in August’ (1998), ‘Push! Push!’

(1997), ‘No. 3’ (1997) and ‘The Lovers of Woomook-baemi’ (1990),” he recalls.

Coming here from Massachusetts in 1997, the plan was to get his master’s in applied linguistics before heading on. But looking back, his story sounds like an echo of what many an expat has experienced: One thing led to another, and soon he was married and the film gig had branched out into a hydra-headed career. “In 2001 I received an email from the international editor at Screen International asking if I’d be interested in working as a correspondent for Korea,” he recalls. “I said yes, quit teaching and for the next seven or eight years my primary job was writing news stories about the Korean film industry in various publications.”

These days carpal tunnel syndrome has caused him to give up most writing, other than through the occasional voice-to-text program, but the site lives on through the work of contributors, which he is immensely grateful for.

He is now actively trying to cultivate the more highbrow end of Korean cinema. “In 2014, I launched the Wildflower Film Awards Korea for Korean low-budget and independent films. It’s sort of the same concept as the Independent Spirit Awards in Hollywood, though on a much smaller scale. For the next few years I’ll be focused on getting it established.”

More info www.koreanfilm.org

Story by Shelley DeWees Photo by Hasisi Park

“Artists generally want to reflect on the conditions of the world as they experience them and, in terms of the conflict between North and South Korea, I think there’s great potential to re-examine the past and generate a new line of questioning that might — hopefully — change the future,” he says.

Kajander has since completed a residency at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Changdong. Now that it’s over, he’s pledged to get busy learning Korean: “I just have to. It shames me that I’m so useless.” But as an artist who’s using his talents to challenge hostility, uselessness appears to be the least of his worries.

More info www.paulkajander.com, www.realdmz.org

Story by Emilee Jennings / Photo by Dylan Goldby

Edited by Emilee Jennings (emilee@groovekorea.com)

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Bronwyn Mullen Influence TV personality Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea March 2014

Bronwyn Mullen decided in 2005 that she had had enough of South Africa, where she was studying journalism in her hometown of Durban. “I was bored. I wanted to try something new. I really wanted to travel; I wanted to get out of my goldfish bowl existence,” she recalls. So Mullen looked to Asia for an escape and traveled to Korea under the guise of a six-month exchange program. But really, she had no intention of ever leaving.

“I knew from the moment I arrived (in Korea) that I had to make this work for me, I would have to fit in here better than I had at home and I would have to find a way to survive.”

While she was studying at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, a friend put her name forward to a newly launched KBS TV show.

“At the time I didn’t have any Korean ability, so I went into the interview super blind and I couldn’t convey what I was thinking or feel-

ing. But the producing director liked me and the staff liked me. They said I had a good way of just expressing what I was trying to say in very broken Korean, and they found it amusing and cute that I was trying.”

Mullen made her first television appearance one week later. The “Global Talk Show” not only paid the bills that were piling up, but it also laid the groundwork that would help establish a very successful career for this 30-year-old who has been dubbed the “darling of Korea” by her Korean fans.

“I was extremely nervous on the first day, but I just kind of laughed my way through it and I kind of felt at home, like this is what I’m doing with my life. I knew I was going to be good at something!” she laughs. “It’s almost like that first TV show was a gift. I needed it so badly just to be able to get my foot in the door and just to be able to pay rent.”

Mullen worked hard to get where she is, and the fact that she is still going strong after eight years in the industry is testament to her determination and talent. “Being in the entertainment business is lovely and fun. When I’m in front of the camera, that’s when I’m the happiest, that’s when I forget all the bad stuff and I can express myself any way that I choose, but also it can be quite soul-destroying.”

Mullen has suffered through insanely long hours, filming for 18 hours straight on occasions. This, combined with enduring nasty comments day after day, would be enough to convince anyone to throw in the towel, but she continues to power through.

She’s working toward presenting a Korean show where she has the freedom to choose her own topics and lead the conversations with a panel of people. “One day,” she muses, “I’m hoping in the next two years, but nobody knows.”

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Story by Elaine Ramirez / Photo by Dylan Goldby

Jake Patchett (a.k.a. Jake Pains) Influence Entertainment show host, rapper, emcee Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea March 2011, March 2014, October 2014

Jake Patchett is the antic-filled, caricatural host of Mnet’s weekly K-pop variety show “Jjang,” exported to the Korean Wave enthusiast world outside Korea. While better known here as Jake Pains from his rapping and emceeing, he’s built a fan base abroad with such stunts as setting fire to himself (they didn’t end up using the too-real footage, in the end), onscreen “funduggeries” and asking questions to Korea’s pop idols that a Korean interviewer would not dare to.

After five years in Korea he has come a long way from his days in Birkenhead, England, working less-than-stellar jobs in film and TV to support his rapping pursuits, or even from teaching English in Boryeong, South Chungcheong Province. Now he hosts dinners for hoity-toities like the CJ Entertainment CEO and the Samsung family as well as parties in hotels with Korea’s pop idols and entertains K-pop fans around the world week after week. One thing it’s all taught him, he says, is professionalism.

“I used to be a lot crazier and do a lot more stupid things and climb up stuff, and

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I have to be a toned-down version of that now. … Maybe it’s just growing up,” he says, before singing a line of “Growing Up” from “Care Bears Movie 2.”

While he’s perpetually young at heart, the Jake who used to argue has learned patience and communication skills. His job requires him to cooperate with a team of eight or nine people, most of whom don’t speak much English. He’s learned that Western and Korean crews work differently.

And while he might not understand why something is done a certain way, he accepts that his crewmates have different perspectives.

“You know how the culture is, don’t argue with the people above you? Well I do, and always have done, so that was bad for both of us to start with,” he says. “Now I see a lot more from their point of view. … I can see they might get in trouble, and (our work) has to reflect good on everybody.”

He says that what started as “kind of a joke” is now the biggest English-language product at CJ Entertainment, and “Jjang,”

Patchett’s foray into Korean TV entertainment, is his golden ticket to bigger and better things. “I’m nowhere near the pinnacle of my career. I’ve just started,” he says. “If there’s a pyramid, I am right at the bottom and just moving up.”

To move up that pyramid, he believes in little goals rather than some big, singular goal for his music or entertainment career. Learning Korean is currently his biggest hurdle, so when not on the “Jjang” set he’s knee-deep in language classes. In music, he just wants to keep meeting new audiences and writing things he’s satisfied with, whether or not he even records them. As long as he is on stage, in front of the camera or otherwise performing, he’ll be happy.

So what’s his next goal? The higher-ups have mentioned that once he overcomes some “ifs and buts” — if he had more experience; but he doesn’t speak the language well — there are loads of opportunities awaiting him at CJ, where he has dug in his heels. Maybe he could host another show, this time for Korean audiences.

Edited by Emilee Jennings (emilee@groovekorea.com)

brother anthony Influence Korean literature translator Residence Seoul

So much unfolds when speaking with Brother Anthony, a man who is a vast treasure trove of knowledge about the Korea we’ve come to love (and sometimes hate). Born in Cornwall in southwest England, he studied medieval and modern languages at Oxford in the 1960s.

When he first landed in Korea in the early ‘80s, following spells in France as a member of a monastic order and three years’ service in Philippine slums, he wasn’t familiar with either the language or the customs. But he knew one thing: he loved literature.

It was from this love that a journey took place, one that has earned him the honor of being the first person to translate hundreds of works of classic Korean literature into English, including poetry by Ko Un, a frequent mention for a Nobel Prize in literature. All this has brought him to where he stands today — Daesan Translation Award Winner in 1995, Sogang University professor and president of the Royal Asiatic Society-Korea Branch since 2011.

“When you get to Korea,” he recalls, “the first question, of course, is ‘How are you going to get by?’ I happened by chance to meet some Jesuits here in Sogang. They first asked me to teach French … but eventually I moved to the English department.”

He began his studies in literature, which shaped his eventual career path in translation. To take on the daunting task of translating Korean literature, it helps to find one’s niche, which Brother Anthony appears

Story by Dave Hazzan Photo courtesy of Martyn Thompson

Martyn Thompson Influence Artist, arts organizer Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea April 2009, May 2012

Korea looks different through the eyes of Martyn Thompson. The British-born Thompson, 32, is one of Korea’s most accomplished expat artists and a leader in the expat art scene. His abstract and stereoscopic photos, his animals made of Perspex sheets and his portraits using the dojang (a Korean ink stamp) have been exhibited throughout Korea, as well as in the U.S. and around Southeast Asia.

“I’m not Korean,” Thompson says, “but what better person to say what a complex country Korea is than someone who is not from

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Story by Sarah Edge Photo by Adam Czelusta

to have found in poetic verse.

“The advantage of translating poetry is that most poems are quite short compared to novels. Poetry in Korea is more interesting than fiction,” he says.

“The poems, after all, were written in Korean for Koreans to feel in a Korean way, and the new readers, of course, are non-Korean. So it becomes a different poem, a new poem.”

More info www.hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony, www.raskb.com

Korea?”

Thompson first came here in 2007, and his art has reflected on Koreans, their mountains, the traditional Korean bow (jeol), animal rights and cramped living spaces — cut-up, reimagined and reinvented.

His next show, however, may not warm the cockles of Korean hearts. Opening in April at Gallery I in Insa-dong, it will feature the story of the Sewol ferry disaster victims, reproduced using dojang.

“The dojang are cut with either Hanja (Chinese characters) or Hangeul words on them, and hundreds or thousands of impressions are made on the paper to construct the images,” Thompson says.

“The use of the dojang is due to the fact that many young people died before they were old enough to receive their name stamp.”

Thompson is codirector of the International Artists’ Community, Korea’s largest collective for foreign artists. He is also president and founder of Professional Artists Network of Korea, which has 80 members and also organizes shows.

He curates a show every year at Gallery I in Insa-dong that usually features foreign artists from around Korea. “The themes are closely related to Korean culture, so I’m giving foreigners the opportunity to dig just a little deeper into what they think they know about Korea,” he says. “It’s not directly related, but I think each foreigner has their own preconceptions about what Korea is like before they get here. And I want them to change their preconceptions.”

Thompson curated five shows in 2014 and plans to do at least another five this year.

“What I want the art projects to do is to set (foreign artists) to challenge themselves,” he says. “To ask, ‘Is this really how I feel?’”

Thompson says the future of Korean art depends on investment from companies — and right now, that investment is lacking. “The arts are not considered a high priority by funding bodies,” Thompson says, “and unless we can bring about change within the investment side, then it will continue to struggle along.”

More info www.martyn.kr, www.pank.kr, www.koreaiac.com 75

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Story by Conor O’Reilly Photo by Michael Hurt

Lance Reegan-Diehl Influence HBC Fest founder Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea March 2011, September 2011, May 2012, October 2012

The HBC Fest has seen it all: rock, punk, hip-hop, folk music, poetry, Shakespearean drama, comedy and even a large balding man painted head to toe in green and smashing watermelons over his head.

The history of the festival is known to many. It first took place in July 2006 in three bars — Orange Tree, Ssen Bar and the old New Phillies — and was the brainchild of two local musicians, Lance Reegan-Diehl and James Gaynor. In recent years, Reegan-Diehl has become the main organizer of the festival, which attracts musical acts from cities all over Korea. He first came to Korea in ‘98, but it wasn’t until 2001, while playing guitar as a session musician for Sony Music, that he moved here permanently. The festival’s reputation grew as a place for people to get together and listen to good music, all under the banner of a music festival designed with expats in mind.

It put a neighborhood on the map for thousands of expats and Koreans, gave hundreds of performers an audience and began what is now a thriving, raucous scene for expat-made music.

As well as organizing the HBC Fest, Reegan-Diehl is running DEELEEBOB Music, a space that functions as a service and retail outlet, a recording production studio, a practice studio and a managing department for LRD Music and DLB Entertainment.

More info www.lrdmusic.com

JoshRoy Influence Reggae musician Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea March 2011, July 2013

Born in Uganda into a musical family — his mother is a celebrated singer, his brother a producer, and his sister a deejay — renowned reggae artist JoshRoy has collaborated with artists both in Korea and abroad.

Since arriving to Korea in 2006, he has performed his original fusion reggae music up and down the peninsula. But he didn’t jump straight in; it took him a while to get into the music scene here.

When he first came to Korea, “the music part was something really unthinkable.” At that time, Korea was reaching international standards in terms of music and JoshRoy was really impressed with the video production in the industry. “So I was like, okay, cool. I’ll live in Korea and all I will do is record songs for the future, and then when I go back home, that’s when I’ll start releasing them,” he says. “Then, eventually things started getting better in 2008. I was getting to know a few people who were into these things, we started working on this music, and that’s how things started.”

Over the years, the music scene has become richer and very exciting as more and more musically inclined expats have landed on the peninsula.

JoshRoy is one of the expats who have grown here as an artist, seizing the opportunities to perform from Seoul to Busan. He is still based in Seoul, but spends his time on both local and international collaborations.

He recently recorded with hip-hop artists from Canada and the U.S. and he has also shared the stage many times with fellow Korean reggae artists.

He is currently in talks with Reggae Livication Sound System in France, producers in Spain, Germany and Scotland, and is working on a song with popular Ugandan artist Ziza Bafana. Watch for a new album later this year.

More info www.soundcloud.com/joshroy-reggae-fusion www.facebook.com/pages/Fans-of-JoshRoy/221392781477 76 www.groovekorea.com / February 2015

Story by Wilfred Lee Photo courtesy of JoshRoy

Story by Rajnesh Sharma / Photo by Adam Czelusta

Edited by Emilee Jennings (emilee@groovekorea.com)

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Wilfred Lee Influence Artist’s Journey creator, caricature artist Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea August 2012

Filled with years of dedication, self-discovery and rejection, the quest to become an artist is challenging enough as it is. Now throw in a venture into a new world, where communication is difficult and opportunities are hidden. How is it possible to overcome such obstacles? For expat Wilfred Lee, the artistic journey is a story characterized by questioning, perseverance, humility, optimism and a bit of artistic magic.

His journey as an artist began when he moved to Korea in 2007. By immersing himself in comics, games, animation and movies, he started to develop his own ideas and wanted them to come to life. “I wanted to be part of that magical process of creating life from an idea,” he says.

His passion for this process led the Canadian to study animation arts at Seneca College at York University, where teachers inspired him with the life stories of master artists of yore such as da Vinci, Michelangelo, Picasso and Dali. It was there that he also got to indulge his interest in the preproduction process for creating art and understand “the collaboration of people to create a project bigger than yourself.”

Shortly after completing his formal studies, a yearning to learn more about his father’s culture led the young artist to Korea. Like many expats here, Lee’s initial years were spent teaching. It didn’t take long, however, for him to hatch a plan to transition into the art world.

Soon Lee was drawing caricatures at Lotte World, Namsan Tower and in Insa-dong during his spare time. Creating caricatures as fine art opened a door into the tight-knit community of local artists. By his second year in Korea, an opportunity surfaced at his workplace. As a kindergarten teacher, he had exposed his incredible talent for drawing. His director, who recognized Lee’s skills, proposed a project to create illustrations for English textbooks.

He seized the opportunity and spent the next year completing the artistic work for those textbooks, as well as teaching art classes.

Lee still longed to fulfill his original goal of becoming a concept designer. His persistence finally paid off when he landed a job with the Nexen Mobile gaming company, becoming the first-ever foreigner in Korea to be hired as a concept designer in a company of 500 or more employees.

Lee moved on the following year to Centum Interactive, where he worked as a concept designer for its new company WiseKids. “(This) is just the beginning in fulfilling a lifelong goal,” he says. “I am constantly learning something new about the field, both aesthetically and technologically. ... It humbles you into realizing there’s always a higher level of knowledge to achieve.” In his free time, he creates art exhibitions, attends events to do caricatures, makes art tutorials and teaches art classes.

He plans to hold more seminars and workshops, and complete and share his personal stories, which he has been working on for the past 12 years. He also operates the art community Artist’s Journey, delivering podcasts with artists, sharing their work online and interviewing them for his eponymous Groove Korea column. Lee claims it is the opportunities he’s had in Korea that have continued to lead him on his journey — and the longer he stays in Korea, the more doors continue to open for him. “It’s a golden age for foreigners” who have the desire to become a part of the art community, he says.

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Story by Sarah Edge / Photo courtesy of Daniel Henney

Daniel Henney Influence Actor Residence Los Angeles/Seoul

Not many would-be actors arrive in a fascinating new country and have their careers simply take off. But it has been done — just ask Daniel Henney. After some well-received acting roles, advertisements and early modeling gigs, Henney quickly found himself on the runway leading to stardom in Korea. Now he stands in the limelight as one of the most sought-after actors in the industry.

Many believe that he is poised for greater things ahead.

On the Hollywood end of the spectrum, Henney is known for his work in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (2009) and “The Last Stand” (2013), and was most recently involved in “Big Hero 6” (2014).

In Korea, a drop of his name is met with approval, nods and the occasional gushing, but mostly approval. Here he has been involved in a number of projects, starting with the immensely popular 2005 drama “My Lovely Sam Soon.” It was from here that Henney’s career skyrocketed.

Speaking in an interview with Meniscus magazine in 2012, Henney said, “I wanted to be an actor for a long time — that was always my goal. When I got the role in ‘Sam Soon’ that was my first time

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being in front of a camera ever. So I didn’t know what the hell to do with myself.

To go through that, and be here, is so surreal.”

Henney’s connection to Korea comes from his mother, who was adopted from Korea at age 1. She had grown up in the Midwest speaking English, and had little connection to Korea herself. “‘Sam Soon’ was a very fortunate opportunity, but I was, in fact, not ready to act in Korea because I had to start learning Korean — from how to say ‘Hi.’ Now I can talk comfortably with friends in Korean, but acting in Korean is a completely different thing as I have to show emotions and body language along with the lines I read,” he remarked in a 2013 interview with the Joongang Daily.

Some could even argue that the timing itself was fortunate, as Korea had had its notable brushes with famous mixed-race Koreans. Generally, however, Korea is a harsh environment for people who are mixed race.

Speaking about this to KBS in 2006, Henney said, “I was lucky, because there had been prejudice existing against people of mixed race when I arrived in Seoul

to work. Previously, Korean TV used to place cultural restrictions on violence or kissing scenes. But I found Korean TV expanded its cultural boundaries after the issue of mixed heritage was handled in ‘My Lovely Sam Soon.’”

Since starring in the drama, Henney has gone on to star in many films, the most notable of which was “My Father” (2006), for which he received a Grand Bell Award and a Blue Dragon Award for Best New Actor, the Korean equivalents of the Oscars and the Golden Globes, respectively.

Working on “My Father” drove the message home for Henney. “If I understood my mother about 75 percent before, now with this film I understand her 100 percent,” he told the Chosun Ilbo in 2007.

Further high-profile roles and exposure in the spotlight has only added to Daniel Henney’s household name status in Korea. But at the end of the day, his feet are still planted firmly on the ground.

“I’m just a guy from Michigan,” he said to Mochi magazine in 2012. “The fact that people even like me and want to support me? It blows me away. So I think you should cherish that, and if you have fans, you have to honor that.”

Edited by Emilee Jennings (emilee@groovekorea.com)

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Story and Photo by Merissa Quek

Influence Jankura Artspace founder Residence Seoul

Mike Stewart had always wanted his own space to do something out of the ordinary.

He envisioned a place where he could run the show and bring something unique to the arts scene in Korea. In 2011, with seed funding raised through selling T-shirts and giving away prints to donors, Stewart formed Jankura Artspace.

As Seoul’s first foreign-owned and operated art studio and art class space, English-language classes, workshops and drawing sessions are held there on a regular basis, and artists can also rent small spaces to create their work in. Although Stewart initially set up Jankura Artspace with the expatriate community in mind, the people who come there are an even mix of Koreans and expatriates.

As expats, however, Stewart and some of his fellow artists found that the language barrier and cultural differences meant that they were not fully accepted into the already well-established art circles in Korea. So Stewart joined, and now runs, the International Artists’ Community, a group of Korean and expat artists which, along with other artist groups, contributes to creating an alternative art scene in Korea.

Taking an all-inclusive approach, the exhibitions organized by the IAC run the whole gamut; as long as it fits into the exhibit theme, the artwork can be from beginner artists or established, internationally recognized artists.

While happy with the way Jankura Artspace is currently running, Stewart says if “it keeps running as it is it’s okay, but I probably would wind up getting bored. I like to flip things upside down, try new things all the time.” Stewart says the space sees many artists, but he has a long-term plan that involves turning the space into “an artists’ pension … either residencies or weekend pensioning with art kind of style.”

Story by Merissa Quek Photo courtesy of Raoul Dyssell

Raoul Dyssell Influence Filmmaker, Roll The Dice Pictures founder Residence Seoul

It was while studying film production in his native South Africa that Raoul Dyssell first watched films made by Korean directors. He found himself drawn to their very real, very raw qualities that seemed reactionary to a conservative Korean society. Inspired, Dyssell wanted to make a film in the same vein. In 2011, he picked up sticks and moved to Seoul.

More info www.jankuraseoul.com / www.koreaiac.com

Dyssell got his start at the Seoul Filmmaker’s Workshop, a loose group of people who came together because they happened to like movies. It was through this workshop that he met most of the people he now collaborates with. It was also there that he was inspired to come up with the idea that eventually culminated in the gritty indie thriller “Amiss” (2014), codirected by Sonny Sonbuchner.

With a feature film under his belt, Dyssell founded his own production company, Roll The Dice Pictures. In a sense, Roll The Dice is a fusion of two worlds — while the style of production is Western, the aesthetic of the works it produces is predominantly Korean, characterized by their raw narratives and visceral acting. “I think Roll The Dice Pictures is the only East-meets-West (production) company in Korea,” says Dyssell. “There is no other production company in Korea that is bilingual.”

In 2014, affected by the sense of mourning stemming from the Sewol ferry disaster, Dyssell wanted to spread a bit of positive energy and made a music video in tribute to Pharrell Williams’ “24 Hours of Happy.” Dyssell aimed to capture the exuberance and spontaneity of Koreans young and old.

Since the well-received “Happy Seoul” video was released, Roll The Dice Pictures has progressed to producing K-pop music videos for one of the biggest entertainment labels in Korea, and their aim is to make legitimate commercial films in the next year or so. With Dyssell at the helm, it may be just a matter of time before a Roll The Dice Pictures film will be showing at a cinema near you.

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Story by Dave Hazzan Photo courtesy of Barri Tsavaris

Barri Tsavaris Influence Seoul Players artistic director Residence Seoul

Barri Tsavaris says she has acted “in every dingy NYC black box theater above and below a supermarket or sushi restaurant.” Five years ago, the 35-year-old Long Island native swapped the U.S. for Korea, and the dingy theaters of New York for the dingy theaters of Seoul.

Now Tsavaris is the artistic director of Seoul Players, a nonprofit

Story by Tom Godfrey Photo by Greg Samborski

Dylan Goldby Influence Photographer Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea February 2013

Dylan Goldby is one of a few expats making a living from photography. His work has appeared in several publications, including Groove Korea, where he wrote the Capturing Korea column. Hailed for his impeccable use of negative space, leading lines, color and light, he has a style all his own.

“You won’t find Dylan going with or necessarily against the current

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organization that produces English-language theater in Korea’s capital.

Along with a board of directors, she decides how the seasons will look, and what the group will look like creatively, season after season.

Tsavaris danced as a young child and began acting in high school, when she directed her first play in her senior year. At Boston University she studied film and acting. “I started a women’s theater group and directed one of the first productions of The Vagina Monologues on a university campus,” Tsavaris says. After university it was back to New York, where she worked mostly with Gotham City Improv and she wrote a play, “I Will Follow,” that ran at the New York International Fringe.

Tsavaris feels the future of Seoul Players and community theater in Korea is “exciting all around.” She’s psyched for the 2015 season, which will include a partnership with the KIFF, the all-new Korea Indie/ Expat Film Festival. “2015 is our most ambitious year yet,” Tsavaris says.

In the long term, she’d like to see more Koreans at the shows, which is why she says Seoul Players is working hard to get quality Korean subtitles. “Seoul Players wants to continue to push the envelope creatively and do interesting work,” she says.

As for herself, Tsavaris relishes the ambiguity. “I’m taking new risks and leaps this year, particularly by starting a fair trade company (with craftswomen in northern Thailand) that will tie me to Asia for many years to come,” she says. “I’m not sure how everything will turn out, but that’s part of the thrill.”

More info www.seoulplayers.org trends in photography,” says fellow photographer Andy Faulk. “You will find Dylan staying true to his personal aesthetic.”

The Australian studied Korean in Melbourne prior to arriving in Seoul in 2004. Since then, the English teacher-turned-pro photographer has been a passionate documenter of the hidden and fading aspects of Korean life. Through his lens, he tells the stories of people who would not otherwise reach expat audiences.

“One day we were sitting outside of a mart and an old hunchbacked cardboard collector passed us by,” recalls photographer Greg Samborski. “Dylan shot off into the store, exited, beverage in hand, caught up to the gentleman and gave it to him.”

Photographer Jessica Berggrun puts it this way: “He gets their stories, he gets their work, the pains, the troubles, but what is bigger and even more alluring is he sees the light that they have inside of them.

He triggers that and then walks away with amazing images.”

Goldby’s body of work is impressive, but what sets him apart is his impact on life in Korea and his willingness to help others who want to better themselves and their craft.

“Dylan helped start and maintain the photographic community here in Seoul,” says Faulk. “He has also committed to the ideal of sharing.

Dylan realizes that photographic knowledge shouldn’t be kept secret.”

Berggrun says Goldby does not see other photographers as competition, but as “fellow light workers, all going towards a common goal of sharing the beautiful things on this planet with each other.”

Goldby is a founding member of the photography group Seoulighters and cofounder of Flash Light Expeditions, an in-field workshop aimed at improving lighting skills.

“From knowing Dylan, I gather he wants the future of photography to hold meaning. I imagine he wants the same for Seoul,” Faulk says.

“He realizes that Seoul and Korea are changing and will continue to culturally erode bit by bit. Throughout most of his tenure on the peninsula, his mission has been to capture a Korea that will never again be.

That is meaningful.”

More info www.welkinlight.com, www.flashlightexpeditions.com

Story by Ian Henderson / Photo by Dukhwa

Edited by Emilee Jennings (emilee@groovekorea.com)

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Sean Maylone Influence SuperColorSuper founder, My Same Ink promoter Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea March 2011, February 2010, May 2012, November 2012, February 2013

Music lovers in Seoul learn quickly that concert options tend to fall into two categories: local bands on the cheap or international headliners you pay through the nose for.

Trying to fill in some of the chasm between those two extremes has become an ambitious goal for some music aficionados, and perhaps none have been more ambitious than Sean Patrick Maylone. Those with a few years under their belt in Korea will probably remember SuperColorSuper, his concert-promoting venture that started bringing international acts at affordable prices to the peninsula in 2009.

These days, the Sacramento native, who first arrived in Korea in 2006, is juggling a few endeavors, but his main day job is working with Visang doing content production for a media app. He’s also creating ditties of his own with Ssighborggg, which wrapped up its EP “Geodesy” and is heading off to play six to seven international dates early this year. Although SuperColorSuper still technically exists, it doesn’t currently have anything cooking. Instead, all of the connections created during that time have spread

out to form a wider web of collaboration.

When asked about how he thinks SCS’ efforts have influenced the scene here, he says there are now lots of smaller promoters organizing shows that have more up-todate tastes on what’s being lined up. “I feel I created a kind of ‘arms race’ scenario for others to demand higher quality in their projects,” he says. Of course, some of the same problems that have long plagued the scene still rear their heads: smaller acts charging 120 bucks for a ticket or larger underground bands still not having a following here at all. All of this makes promoting a roll of the dice.

His work has brought dozens of acts over, including rousing successes like Mogwai, Blonde Redhead, Das Racist and others, but also some laughably tragic fails: The band Liars was forced to stay prisoners in their hotel room for days while immigration played God with their visa status; The King Khan and BBQ Show broke up via a fistfight during one of their Korean dates; and Maylone has generally lost a ton of money with alarming frequency. These days,

the aforementioned web of collaborators is shaping up to what he calls “The Avengers of concert booking.” Operating under the name My Same Ink, the group consists of a handful of eclectic and talented individuals each bringing their own mojo to the table.

But apparently, the occasional villain attempts to thwart his newfound troupe of superheroes. This past year’s aborted Explosions in the Sky concert caused the rumor mill to go into overdrive. Maylone tried to clarify for us: “All the team members at my level quit before things fell apart. We have been working with the police for the launch of the trial against the CEO. The legal pressure has seemed to put enough pressure on him to pay everyone back to avoid a heavy legal punishment. It’s been five months so far and might take a few more to get everything settled, but it’s looking like it will settle up.

“A lot of unfair blame has fallen to me and the other lower staff for the show, unfortunately, so we’d like to get more events up to add more positivity back to the scene.”

More info www.mysameink.com 81

FOOD Introduction by Jaime Stief

For those of us with an interest in the foreign food scene in Korea, our elation over a great new microbrewery or the cheapest Mexican food that’s still head and shoulders over Taco Bell can sometimes be accompanied by pangs of guilt: If you’re an expat in a constant state of wishing that food here was more like food from back home, perhaps it’s time you packed your bags.

Still, the effect of familiar flavors and atmospheres on boosting morale cannot be overstated. And in defense of the “kimchi-free” cuisine so celebrated by blogs like A Fat Girl’s Guide to Eating in Korea, the surge of worthwhile non-Korean food and drink options have demonstrated that there’s a lot to be excited about.

Korea has drawn out such a diverse array of microcultures that, depending on where you come from, the regional cuisine on offer here is sometimes even more authentic than what you might find where you grew up. Southern smoked pork at Linus’ Bama Style

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Barbecue, Moroccan sandwiches at Casablanca, pubs like Magpie or Reilly’s where the brewmaster is often the one pouring pints behind the bar — the entrepreneurs behind these expat haunts have used their time abroad to explore their own cultures more deeply, perhaps the most important of expat experiences.

This section offers a tribute to the people who have taken chances on new foreign food ventures in Korea, along with those who have documented them with unmatched enthusiasm. At the end of the day, the folks who get excited about food culture — whether their own or their neighbor’s — and seek to share it with others are strengthening the foreign community by reminding us of what we bring to the culinary table.

And while local fare continues to be an adventure of its own, this community is a big part of what keeps our time here interesting, and what we take with us if and when we leave.

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Edited by Jaime Stief (jaime.stief@gmail.com)

Story by Tim Cushing / Photo by Angela Shin

James Chun Influence Left Coast restaurant co-owner Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea May 2014

James Chun and Angela Shin fell in love with food made with love. The affair started with the “culinary mom-and-pop joints” and gorgeous produce in their native San Francisco, and crossed the Pacific with them in 2013 with the opening of Left Coast Artisan Burgers in Itaewon last October.

Why Seoul? Chun and Shin swapped cities in order to reconnect with their Korean heritage, but the move wasn’t without its difficulties. “Once we stopped making comparisons to the States and learned our way around,” says Chun, “it got a lot easier.”

With no formal restaurant experience, the duo added another member to their craft burger dream team: French Culinary Institute graduate Norah Chun, a veteran of the Ritz-Carlton and other fine dining establishments in the Bay Area.

Confidence in Left Coast’s chef and menu leaves Chun unfazed by the heavy competi-

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tion in Seoul’s restaurant scene. “I just try to focus and have passion behind my work and don’t worry too much about competing with other restaurants.”

He sees the proliferation of Korean burger joints as a good thing, drawing parallels with the evolution of the American hamburger.

“Burgers used to be just considered as diner or fast food, but now you can have chef-inspired burgers with fresh, high-quality ingredients anywhere in America. That is the difference we wanted to bring to Korea.”

This authentic attention to detail in creations like the cheese-stuffed Juicy Lucy keeps Left Coast packed, but there’s something less obvious at work in the shop’s success — and it’s, like, totally about a left coast state of mind. According to Chun, a laid-back Californian approach challenges the “overly structured, un-genuine or straight unfriendly” dining experiences

that one often encounters in the capital.

“We love Korea and living in Seoul, but while you’re in Left Coast Burgers we want it to feel like you’re dining at a local spot in California.”

So what does James miss most about life in the States? No surprises here: It’s still all about food. “I miss local delis — Ted’s Market for the pastrami on Dutch crunch — and taquerias, like El Farolito for the carne asada burrito and super suiza. When visiting the smaller restaurants in San Francisco, you get great-tasting authentic food and a sense of pride for the community and history from the owners and patrons.”

Gourmands across Seoul are falling in love now, too; and with any luck, the restaurant’s “left coast state of mind” will continue to drive demand for relaxed dining in Korea, one well-made hamburger at a time.

More info www.leftcoastkorea.com

Story by Ian Henderson / Photo by Josh Foreman

Edited by Jaime Stief (jaime.stief@gmail.com)

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Troy Zietzlsberger Influence Reilly’s Taphouse co-owner, craft brewer Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea February 2013, April 2013, October 2014

One of the key players in the beer renaissance currently sweeping the nation is Troy Zietzlsberger, part owner-barkeep of Reilly’s Taphouse in Itaewon, and one of the only cicerones on the peninsula. A most auspicious whim brought the Michigan native to the republic three years ago, when he was living in Bangkok and decided a change of scenery was in order.

His subsequent work at Reilly’s probably best exemplifies the great changes happening around us. “I’ve fought the good fight for craft beer since I arrived here, and it seemed the only option besides the typical soulless mass-produced lager (that is) Hoegaarden and Guinness,” he says. “I’m hoping I’ve had an influence; I’ve certainly put in a lot of effort.”

But the most “hoptastic” selection of draft handles and their own craft concoctions aren’t the only ways this expat is making malty waves locally; he has also started an

import company named 6°. “We are currently importing the craft brewery BrewDog, with a few others on the line,” he says. Unlike most expat misfits, he actually seems to be utilizing his business degree (in international business and marketing) in a non-roundabout manner. Although the community is justified in rejoicing at the fruits being reaped these days, Zietzlsberger is quick to clarify that there is still a long way to go for Seoul to really hold its own among international beer markets. “The main thing that needs to change now for the beer scene to continue to get better is (that) these outrageous taxes that both importers and breweries have to pay need to continue to decrease.”

As if the pub, brewery and importing weren’t enough, he’s got other endeavors filling his schedule as well. Zietzlsberger also studied acting in New York and Chicago and is trying his damnedest to make sure his training didn’t go to waste. Luckily, it’s a fine time to be a

foreign face in Korea’s slowly diversifying film and TV market. “There are now increasingly more opportunities for foreigners to act on TV. You just need to be able to speak Korean, which is another reason why I’m making time to study whenever and wherever possible.”

Picking up the local language, too? It appears Mr. Zietzlsberger isn’t planning on resting on his laurels any time soon, and we can expect much, much more from this influential expat. “I’m going to go for my residency visa in a couple years, (so) I’ll be in and out of Korea for the rest of my life. I love it here. I’ve been presented with a lot of great opportunities. The only bad part is I have to see my family through Skype and not in person. However, I do make it a point to get back home a couple times (each) year,” he says. “My plans for the future? I’m going to open a brewery and continue to pursue acting.

All in due time.”

More info http://reillys-taphouse.com 85

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Edited by Jaime Stief (jaime.stief@gmail.com)

Story by Megan Fox Photo courtesy of Yonaguni Susumu

Yonaguni Susumu Influence OKitchen head chef Residence Seoul Appearances in Groove Korea December 2011, October 2014

Yonaguni Susumu is a chef residing in Korea who has made a strong impression by introducing a whole new style of cuisine to the country. The Japan native quit college and set out to travel the world, not realizing that a dish-washing job would lead to his career as a chef throughout Europe and the United States. It was in his travels that he learned firsthand from master chefs and developed his own cooking

Story by George Kalli Photo courtesy of Jonathan Wilson

Jonathan Wilson Influence Seoul Homebrew cofounder, craft brewer Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea March 2014

Seoul Homebrew cofounder Jonathan Wilson originally came to Korea seven years ago, like many expats, to teach English. The 35-year-old Wisconsin native, now living in Itaewon, followed his university best friend Mitch — another Seoul Homebrew cofounder — all the way here.

As university teachers, they both had ample free time to brew beer at home, often while discussing potential business ideas to where they could direct their creative energies.

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style. “Cooking is much like art, but combines all your senses. The presentation, aromas of herbs, taste and touch all are part of the creative process,” he says.

While working as a chef in New York, Susumu became interested in pottery. He spent several years studying the art, during which time he met his wife, a Korean artist. Her talent brought them back to Korea, where she was presenting a show. Here Susumu returned to cooking, a profession that allowed him to use his creativity. “An essential part of cooking is participating in the creation of dishes,” he says. “Life is short and it is about being creative in whatever you do. Once you stop creating, you stop living and are just working. When I was a potter, my clients wanted similar pieces. The art became repetitious and then was just work. With food, I have a blank canvas and can continuously create new dishes.”

In Korea, the couple opened a cooking school, which taught both food design and basic skills. Susumu first instilled skill in his students, then inspired them to create. “I tell my students to find a mentor. Work with them for several years and learn the skill. Skill is very important.

Once they perfect the craft, throw it all away and find your own style, create your own dishes.”

Once the chefs graduated, they left the school with a cooking style that was brand new to Korea. Susumu opened OKitchen to allow his chefs an environment to create new and unique dishes. The restaurant has been hugely successful and now has opened branches throughout Seoul. “I am a foreigner in this country. I don’t need to make a name for myself here, but I can give back to this country the knowledge I’ve learned from my life. I want to teach my chefs to think creatively and create artistic dishes.” OKitchen showcases this talent, inspired by Sumusu with creative dishes, elegantly presentation and delicious food.

Their potential business plans included laser tag, mini-golf and a noodle shop. Thankfully for homebrew enthusiasts across the peninsula, after three years of homebrewing together, they realized the best idea was right under their noses and soon to be in their bellies. They agreed to open a business to support their beloved hoppy hobby, and Seoul Homebrew debuted nearly two years ago.

Located in Itaewon, Seoul Homebrew is well positioned to play a role in further expanding this burgeoning market. While their customer base began as predominantly foreigners, the proportion of Korean customers has steadily increased, currently accounting for 70 percent of their business.

Recent advances in the local craft beer scene have been paralleled in the homebrew scene. Wilson was recently involved as a judge in the Fall Throwdown homebrew competition, the first Beer Judge Certification Program-sanctioned event in Korea. Wilson feels that the idea of home brewing is appearing on the radar of more people, particularly Koreans who have only recently been exposed to such beers.

Reflecting upon the experience of opening a business in Korea, Wilson says, “It’s a lot more stress, and work and dedication. You give away all your money and work your ass off for a year to get it back.” To others thinking of starting a business, he advises choosing something you are passionate about; you will need to spend much more time than you anticipate to be successful.

Wilson admits that he might not have met success had he chosen noodle making over beer making. Overall, he is grateful for the confidence and ability gained by taking an idea born from bar-room banter and bringing it to fruition.

While his long-term plans in Korea are uncertain, he assures that Seoul Homebrew will continue to meet the demands of the expanding Korean homebrew scene. Those who are interested in learning how to homebrew can enroll in a Seoul Homebrew brewing class.

More info www.seoulhomebrew.com

Story by Josh Doyle / Photo by Fergus Scott

Edited by Jaime Stief (jaime.stief@gmail.com)

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Daniel Gray Influence Restaurant owner, food entrepreneur Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea October 2007, November 2007, February 2013, July 2014

Daniel Gray might just be the unofficial foreign ambassador of Korean food. A former dining editor for The Groove in its early days, he blogs about Korean food culture and promotes it around the world. He leads international guests on Korean food tours, earning reviews on forums the world over as a lively host and a well of knowledge. He helps teach cooking classes, does food marketing, and writes comics to teach the world how to eat Korean food. In his down time, Gray posts photos of what he eats to Instagram.

Occasionally, he does a little cooking.

Gray was born in Korea and later adopted by an American family from Delaware. “I spent the first five years of my life in Korea, so I think it’s my memories of Korean flavors that helped develop my current interest in Korean food. These flavors were my childhood,” Gray says, reflecting on what sparked his interest in the cuisine of his homeland.

Gray spent most of his young life in the U.S., where an already budding love for food led him to a host of different jobs in the restaurant industry. In university, he pursued his second passion: writing. In 2005, thirsty to know more about his birth country, he

returned to Korea. As an expat he soaked up the culture he’d been so long removed from, but his involvement with the food industry back then went no further than ordering in a restaurant. “I was a teacher and a traveler, like many that came to this country,” he says.

But things changed once he moved to Seoul. His two passions met with the creation of his Korean food and culture blog, Seoul Eats. The blog caught on, and Gray’s enthusiasm started attracting opportunities. His life path was shifting toward all things food, and eventually he gave up teaching to be a full-time foodie.

Gray was recently a partner at O’ngo Food Communications, a company that promotes Korean food and culture internationally. Gray was responsible for an array of jobs there, but his most interesting work is his role as a leader of “food experience tours,” taking everyone from backpackers to business executives around the country and teaching Korean culture over steaming bowls of jjigae (stew) and countless bowls of banchan (side dishes).

“Many aspects of Korean food are new to people, like eating barbecue from a grill at the center of the table. Guests really like to learn

the different concepts, customs and methods of eating Korean food,” Gray says. “The thing many guests can’t eat is beondegi (silkworm pupae), and many get touchy at the mention of dog. Surprisingly, though, almost everyone tries live octopus.”

You don’t have to take a tour with Gray to see he knows nearly everything about Korean food. Watching a video of him stroll through one of Seoul’s markets is enough to answer your questions, and he does it all with a contagious passion. When the topic is food, Gray speaks with such excitement that it’s obvious he’s a man who’s found his niche, who is where he should be — and according to Gray, he isn’t leaving any time soon.

“I opened up a restaurant, Brew 3.14, about a year ago and I haven’t gone broke yet. Plus, my wife likes it here and we’re hoping to raise a family in the near future.

Korea’s a good place to set roots,” said Gray.

Apparently it’s not a bad place to eat, either.

While Gray would probably take anything that isn’t sunji haejangguk (pig’s blood-cake stew), his first choice is a bowl of homemade sundubu jjigae (tofu stew).

More info www.seouleats.com 87

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Edited by Jaime Stief (jaime.stief@gmail.com)

Story by Ian Henderson / Photo by Fergus Scott

Joe McPherson Influence ZenKimchi blogger, Seoul tour guide Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea August 2009, April 2014, October 2014

Google most anything food related about Korea, and chances are that Joe McPherson’s grinning visage will accompany one of the top results. McPherson is a foodie gone pro — the supervillain running ZenKimchi. com, which has become a multifaceted hub for all things culinary and Korean. ZenKimchi originally started out as a blog to document McPherson’s attempts to discover Korean food, both dining out and cooking at home.

McPherson moved to Korea in 2004, and says, “Back then there was nothing concerning Korean food on the net in English.

Even Korean blogs were virtually nonexistent. Remember, at the time (blogs) were still kind of a novelty in the States.”

Then in 2007 fate stepped in when The New York Times contacted him about the rise in popularity of Korean fried chicken stateside. The uniqueness of what he was doing with his blog ended up hijacking the focus of the article, and traffic to the site exploded soon after.

In 2011, the Seoul government offered free business development courses to those who made it through a “Shark Tank”-like selection process. His streak of good luck continued, and he not only was accepted

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but also qualified for government-provided office space to get these hypothetical startups off the ground.

In 2012, McPherson did a few test runs of a variety of food-themed tours around Seoul, as well as a Haunted Tour of the older areas of the city. The success of these prompted him to offer tours on a continual basis. He was commissioned to help do research on promoting Korean food overseas, and bit by bit ZenKimchi slowly became the go-to source for foreign media outlets wanting the scoop on Korean food. The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Lonely Planet, the Travel Channel and many others have sought him out as a gastronomical liaison — he even gave a TEDx talk. “I’ve been really trying to keep all the writing engaging and avoid sterile reporting on the subject,” he says.

Though he was the dining editor for 10 magazine for several years, these days his focus is the international relationship with Korean food. “Yeah, there’s other people doing great coverage of restaurants here,” he explains, “like Gemma (Wardle, Page 95) with A Fat Girl’s Food Guide, she does great work. But I’m looking outward recently.”

Korean food has been getting more

recognition as of late, lots of it positive and some of it ridiculous (see: Bibimbap Backpackers). McPherson says the first seeds of awareness were inarguably planted in 2008

by Roy Choi’s legendary Kogi Taco truck in LA and David Chang’s Momofuku restaurants in New York. “Both of them were in the right place at the right time by offering quality food at cheap prices during and after the economic crash.”

His popularity continues to avalanche, with October seeing five foreign food shows visiting for production. McPherson worked with Anthony Bourdain’s program as a fixer and consultant for an episode set to air in spring 2015. Although he can’t give any details due to contractual obligations, he can tell us that Bourdain really loved his trip this time around, as opposed to a more lackluster experience in 2007.

When asked how he thinks he’s affected the scene, he plays a bit coy: “I think I’ve been more behind the scenes in having an influence. Some organizations here are always trying to promote stuff that no one is really interested in. I’ve been trying to help let overseas media know what the heart of Korean cuisine is.”

More info www.zenkimchi.com

Story by Tom Godfrey / Photos by Fergus Scott

Erik Moynihan, Tiffany Needham

and

Edited by Jaime Stief (jaime.stief@gmail.com)

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Jason Lindley

Influence Magpie owners, craft brewers Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea April 2013, October 2014

Not so long ago, craft beer was hard to find in Korea. Magpie Brewing Co. in Gyeongnidan, now with locations in Hongdae and Jeju, helped to change that when a trio of friends — Erik Moynihan, Tiffany Needham and Jason Lindley — opened their brew space to the public in 2012.

Magpie’s gradual rise caught the attention of both The Wall Street Journal and CNN, and in the years since its opening it has become a pivotal player in the development of the Korean beer scene.

“I came to Korea as a bit of a break from my job,” says Moynihan, originally from Canada. The three active partners of Magpie all came to Korea some seven to eight years ago, starting their careers as English teachers.

Moynihan and Needham, an American,

met in Korea and began using their free time to cultivate into a DIY lifestyle. Moynihan published a zine and opened a men’s clothing store. Moynihan and Needham have gotten into everything from cheese making to creating “Semipermanent,” a TV show on Arirang that explores the lives of their fellow expats. It’s a lot even before mentioning Magpie or Scout, their Hannam-dong eatery.

Lindley got into home brewing between 2006 and 2007, when the early brewing scene was minimal — he calls it a “tight community.”

The couple met Lindley at a friend’s Shabbat party where they bonded over Lindley’s dandelion pale ale. The trio began making beer together and filled the empty glasses of a community itching for innovative beers.

“Community is a big thing for us and we always support local,” says Needham. “The community here has evolved.

“Beer is a symbol of home,” she adds.

“People hang out and drink beer. We wanted to make beers that we wanted to drink every day. We also wanted to expose craft beer to Korea.”

Korea might have a long way to catch up to other beer-rich countries (“Give it time!” says Lindley) but things are looking good.

The group is happy to see more quality imports and other brewers finding success while still being experimental.

“We’ve had lots of opportunities to stray from who we are,” says Moynihan, “but by staying the course, I think we’ve come out much further ahead.”

More info www.magpiebrewing.com 89

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Edited by Jaime Stief (jaime.stief@gmail.com)

Story by Ian Henderson / Photo by Adam Czelusta

Linus Kim Influence Linus’ BBQ restaurateur Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea December 2013

Foreign foods in Seoul are typically faddish — we are currently past “peak burger,” and Mexican joints are now becoming as ubiquitous as convenience stores. True Southern cuisine, however, remains elusive.

Enter Linus Kim. This second-generation Korean-American, raised in Birmingham, Alabama, is cooking up craft barbecue with a level of

Story by Megan Fox Photo courtesy of Kenny Park

Kenny Park Influence Vatos Urban Tacos owner Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea May 2012

Vatos Urban Tacos is at the heart of Itaewon’s foreign food scene, serving up kimchi fries and Corona-ritas that have customers coming from near and far to line up for this tasty fusion treat. One of the main

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skill and dedication that is unheard of on the peninsula. As many a shocked Southern expat will tell you, it can hold its own against anything below the Mason-Dixon Line — a compliment not given lightly.

It didn’t take its current, preeminent role in his life until April 2011, when he came to Korea on a three-month business trip for a completely different enterprise. The plan was to “return to Los Angeles and start some kind of BBQ operation there.” While here, however, he had an opportunity to cook for an American folk musician’s concert in Sinchon. “At the time, smokers didn’t exist in Korea, so I had to build a very crude contraption.”

Kim’s particular brand of BBQ first became known in Seoul through a series of pop-up operations before taking up permanent residence in Itaewon in summer 2014.

In the time since he began serving food on the peninsula, Kim points out that American food beyond the pizza, fried chicken and hamburger spectrum has definitely gained momentum in Korea. Despite its popularity, the combination of soaring meat costs, expensive foreign ingredients and labor-intensive recipes have made it challenging to keep prices reasonable without cutting corners. “It is an American’s God-given right to eat plentiful and inexpensive barbecue,” he says. “But like all things here, we take for granted the crazy obstacles it takes to blaze any kind of trail.”

Looking toward the future, Kim assures that his focus will remain on maintaining the authenticity he prides himself in. “I am interested in expansion, but (only) in terms of making what I do better ... not necessarily more. Food quality will always be my first priority.”

More info www.facebook.com/LinusBbq men behind this favored restaurant is owner and cofounder Kenny Park.

Park first came to Korea in 2009, looking for a fresh start after his business stateside suffered in the financial crash. He was unsure of what his move to the other side of the world would entail, but once here, the restaurant industry just seemed right. “I’ve always felt that eating together is the most universal way for people to come together and enjoy each other’s company,” he says. “I didn’t have any intention of opening a restaurant in Korea at first, but after living here for about a year I noticed that the food and beverage landscape was quite underdeveloped, but it had huge potential.”

This California native with Korean heritage looked at the foods he grew up with for inspiration. “Growing up in Los Angeles, I had access to a wide array of all kinds of cuisine, so mixing different styles and cultures was the normal thing to do,” he recalls. “We actually wanted to offer more authentic street-style tacos to the scene here in Korea, but it just made sense for us to incorporate more diverse menu offerings such as galbi tacos and kimchi carnitas fries. This is what we ate growing up. Our food is essentially a reflection of memories of growing up in southern California and Texas, combined with the homemade Korean food prepared by our first-generation mothers.”

Vatos continues to expand throughout Seoul, with two full-service restaurant locations and additional express shops. Keeping their motto “eat, drink and chill” at the center of their business practices ensures that guests will have great food and drinks while enjoying an atmosphere all its own. “I think the international restaurant scene here is in its toddler phase but has made leaps and bounds in the last few years.

The future is limitless, in my opinion,” Park says. Restaurants like Vatos have set the mold now, pioneering an innovative food style that is helping to shape the future of food in Korea.

More info www.vatoskorea.com

Story by Tom Godfrey / Photo by Colin Dabbs

Edited by Jaime Stief (jaime.stief@gmail.com)

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Dan Vroon Influence Craftworks Taphouse co-owner, craft brewer Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea January 2011, February 2013, October 2014

In November 2010, Canadian-born Dan Vroon opened Craftworks Taphouse in Gyeongnidan at a time when the beer scene left something to be desired. What he and his six friends created was a game changer.

“There were imports,” says Vroon, “but it really took Craftworks to bring craft beer to Korea.”

“The trust (my investors) had in me was amazing,” says Vroon, saddled up at the corner of his Namsan location. “I only had a business plan and it was something that had never been done here.”

Vroon came to Korea in March 2000 at the insistence of a friend who was soon to be married here. At the time, Vroon was managing a bar and restaurant at a ski and golf resort in Canada. Golf season had been busy and he was looking forward to some rest and travel.

Well, this is Korea. Things happen sometimes.

“I ended up working at a hagwon for six months,” Vroon laughs. From there he got into corporate teaching, worked at a nuclear power plant and got an MBA from Sejong University before he developed the idea for Craftworks.

The risk was high.

“This was not a destination location,” says

Guy Citron, general manager at NYK Media Group and occupant of the stool next to Vroon.

“People going out were thinking about Itaewon.

They didn’t think of Gyeongnidan or HBC.” Their gamble paid off, of course. Today there are Craftworks branches in Namsan, Pangyo and downtown Seoul. They are in the process of building one of the largest craft breweries in Asia.

“We need room to innovate and expand our roster of beers,” says Vroon with a grin. “I want to make beers that haven’t really been seen in Korea.”

One thing that sets Craftworks aside is its unique feeling of community inside the bar and dining room. Vroon intentionally hires staff from all around the world. He provides jobs for international students and Koreans looking for an international atmosphere.

“It feels like you are somewhere else,” he says. “It’s an attempt to keep the atmosphere authentic.”

What started out as an expat destination has turned into something that is embraced by the entire population. These days, Korean guests outnumber their expat counterparts, something that makes Vroon happy.

Noticing the demand for more quality beer

choices, other entrepreneurs were quick to follow suit. The area has since become a mecca for Western-style restaurants catering more to local expats than tourists passing through.

“It made the neighborhood better,” Vroon says of the competition. “We feed off of each other.”

But there is more to Vroon than good beer and food. “(Dan is) a hero to the foreign community,” says Citron. “He has experience and advice for doing what you want to do. Brainstorming and networking is hard, but the foreign business community is tight. Dan is always around to help someone out.”

“Having to (start a business) on your own anywhere is scary,” says Vroon. “Doing it in a place with a different language and customs is very scary. It’s the responsibility of everyone who has success in the foreign community to give it back. I really enjoy helping entrepreneurs and people who want to branch away from teaching. I want to see more of that in the future.

“We wanted to introduce craft beer to Korea,” he adds. “The area is blossoming and I hope it continues.”

More info www.craftworkstaphouse.com 91

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Edited by Jaime Stief (jaime.stief@gmail.com)

Story by Ian Henderson / Photo by Josh Foreman

Wahid Naciri Influence Casablanca owner Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea November 2011, February 2013, April 2014, October 2014

No more praise can be heaped on Casablanca Moroccan Sandwiches that hasn’t been heaped already. They rule, and if you haven’t tried one, shame on you. But the famously friendly mastermind behind this culinary delight, Wahid Naciri, has a story of his own.

He arrived in Seoul about a decade ago to study Korean at Hongdae University, because apparently his command of English, Japanese, Spanish, Moroccan Arabic, French and Berber wasn’t enough to satisfy his linguistic ambitions. Hailing from the capital of Rabat, his plan had originally been law school — which he actually completed a portion of, in addition to a stint in a culinary academy. A semester off proved to be the death knell for his legal career, however, as his experience backpacking around Africa instilled an unshakable feeling of wanderlust.

Fast-forward to six years spent kicking around Seoul in various capacities, with one glaring omission in his otherwise well-acclimated existence here: comfort food. “It seemed my only options were sit-down dining, which was expensive, or kebabs, which were more of a snack. I wanted some home-style food that would fill me up without costing a lot.” Necessity is the mother of invention, and thus Casablanca was born

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when his brother Karim flew over to join him.

The dedication to quality and affordability soon made the joint a darling among expats, going as far to be called “the best sandwich in Seoul” by then-food editor Josh Foreman in these very pages.

Soon, storm clouds gathered and a sense of dread fell over the foreign community: The restaurant was featured on several prominent Korean food blogs and TV shows. Usually such attention from trend-followers signals the beginning of the end for many of our favorite establishments here in Itaewon. “That was a really rough time for us, when we got all the attention from tourists. Many of our regular customers who depend on us as part of their daily life had trouble getting in here.

We tried to find a way to take care of our locals with call-in orders, but it was tough.”

Once Wahid popped into the store to retrieve a personal item on a Monday, which is their day off, only to find a line queuing up outside his darkened eatery – such was the insanity at the time. The storm has passed, however, and Casablanca has emerged better for it.

“All the novelty seekers have moved on and we’ve gained some more regular customers in the process, so that’s cool.”

Their commitment to quality is unwavering, proven by the fact that they have to import

some of their spices from back home. This particular blend — ras al hanout — isn’t just unavailable in Seoul: It’s a particular family recipe going back several generations. In fact, his family ran an eatery in the Moroccan capital of Rabat that catered to taxi drivers, who preferred sandwiches as a matter of convenience, so slinging grub is in his blood.

Understanding the dismay foreigners experience when a great restaurant changes their technique to cater to the local palate, he swears this is one they will never do. “Sometimes when I’m preparing my sauces, I think of the pressure from the touristy crowd who don’t like cumin; then I’ll add a little more for good measure,” he laughs.

Although the taste of Casablanca is traditional, the fact that they serve beer shows they aren’t being hard-line when it comes to being halal. He laughs heartily when asked why they don’t take it one step further and put some swine on the menu. “Maybe we’ll have a Moroccan BLT on the menu one day, you never know,” he jokes in that no-way-inhell kind of tone.

It doesn’t matter. Not even the animal-candy awesomeness of bacon could improve upon what the Naciri family’s got cookin’.

More info www.facebook.com/CasablancaSandwicherie

Edited by Jaime Stief (jaime.stief@gmail.com)

Chris Truter, Roddy Bancroft and Louis Strydom

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Story by Daniel Deacon Photo by Adam Czelusta

Influence Braai Republic owners Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea May 2012

Chris Truter (pictured) and Roddy Bancroft first met nine years ago playing rugby in Seoul. A friendship soon formed, and in 2006 the pair started a business selling biltong, a dried meat snack from their native country, and boerewors sausages, targeting their meat-loving South African brethren in Korea. As the demand for South African cuisine expanded, so did their enterprise, and the restaurant Braai Republic was launched on a quiet Itaewon side street in September 2011.

The opening of the restaurant and the emergence of lamb chops as its signature dish arguably brought about the trend for lamb in many restaurants around the capital. “I’m sure we didn’t start it,” says Truter of the trend, “but we were right there in the beginning. All our friends told us, ‘But Koreans don’t eat lamb.’ We just saw the restaurant as a way to market our sausages and our meat products. We wanted to do something small, and it just kind of got out of hand.” Customers were soon lining up, and compatriot Louis Strydom bought into the restaurant the following year.

Fast-forward to today, and Braai Republic is one of the most popular restaurants in Itaewon. TripAdvisor users rated it the No. 1 eatery in the capital soon after opening, a title it retained for over a year — something no other restaurant in Seoul has achieved. At the heart of the restaurant’s ethos is providing the best service possible, a goal

Story by Dave Hazzan Photo courtesy of Wayne Gold

Wayne Gold Influence Wolfhound’s Irish Pub founder, English Spectrum creator Residence Busan Featured in Groove Korea November 2013

Wolfhound’s Irish Pub was not always the Itaewon institution it is today. Despite working day and night with his partner, Lee So-yeon, Wayne Gold vividly remembers his worst business night ever.

“We sold our Cass for 2,500 won,” Gold says. “And in one night, we sold four Cass. That’s it. That’s all the customers that came in the entire night. So we’re doing the end of the night sales, and it’s

that has not gone unnoticed by the meat-lovers who frequent it. The style of service in South Africa is different than in Korea, notes Truter, so “for Korean people this is something new. It’s not better or worse (than Korean service). It’s just different.”

It’s not just in the restaurant that things have grown and changed: the basement has been renovated into a small meat factory for making their famous biltong, lamb chops and sausage. Might this expansion be down to the demand for more restaurants? “We’d like to open another branch later, and we could supply one from here,” hints Truter. “But I can’t tell you too much about that right now.”

More info www.braaisk.wix.com/braairepublic, www.thebiltongguykorea.com 10,000 won.” Eight months later, on St. Patrick’s Day, “we added three zeroes to that.”

Gold, 43, from St. Catharines, Ontario, first came to Korea in 1998 as another Canadian English teacher. He initially was part-owner of EnglishSpectrum.com, a website and forum for English teachers in Korea. In 2005, it faced a vicious attack from outraged Korean nationalists after posting pictures of scantily clad Korean women partying with mostly white men. The site was taken down and eventually sold.

Though Gold didn’t lose any money on the venture, he says the ordeal was “quite scary as it was happening.”

Outside of his work with the site, Gold began managing Jester’s Pub in 2003, and opened Wolfhound with Lee in 2006.

Wolfhound is now an Itaewon mainstay, with a second branch in Busan, and Gold has become one of the neighborhood’s most successful bar owners. He is also co-owner of two more Itaewon bars: Reilly’s Taphouse, famous for its 28 taps of mostly Korean microbrewed beer; and Route 66, formerly the Pizza Pub, an American-style bar full of cheap shots, cheap beer and cheap food.

Because most of the work happens in the first year of a bar opening, Gold says his life now is “extremely comfortable,” at least until he decides to open another place.

“I live well, I’ve got a lot of free time when I need it,” Gold says.

“I meet a lot of great people, got great support in terms of friends.

If I want to travel, if I want to do nothing for a few days, I have that option.”

With Gold being a bit of a health junkie when he’s not pouring pints, he is thinking that in five years or so he might pick up sticks, move back home and get certified as a personal trainer. “I’m so comfortable right now. I’ve got to get out of my comfort zone,” he says.

More info www.wolfhoundpub.com, www.reillys-taphouse.com, www.route66itaewon.com

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Edited by Jaime Stief (jaime.stief@gmail.com)

Story by Tim Cushing / Photo courtesy of Kip Richardson

Kip Richardson Influence High Street Market cofounder Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea November 2013

When Kip Richardson first arrived in Korea from Sacramento, California, for a yearlong exchange in 1983, he had no visions of starting a grocery juggernaut — or even of working in the food industry. Since his second stint began in 1996, however, he’s laid the groundwork for culinary change and is working hard to make the finest international ingredients available to kitchens nationwide.

The official idea for High Street Market came about when Kip and his friends were lamenting the sparse international options in Korean grocery stores. They assembled a crack team of specialists to bring their vision to life: a wine importer, a cheese importer, a German baker and Richardson, who got his start in Korea in the agricultural importing business.

Richardson is now the only member of the original founders still involved with High

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Street Market, which sometimes finds the competition lurking on its doorstep: “We have actually had to kick a couple of these huge corporate ‘benchmarkers’ out of the store for blatantly snapping photos of every little detail concerning High Street. ... Little ol’ High Street being copied by the chaebol!”

When asked what sets High Street Market apart, Richardson points to quality customer service. “Yes, we have many of the same items, but at High Street we also have staff who know the brands and the qualities of most of the products we stock,” he says.

Maintaining such high standards also presents Richardson with his biggest challenge — aside from rapidly rising rent — at High Street Market: hiring and keeping uniquely qualified staff. “We prefer fully bilingual staff in our management positions,” he explains, “which is not easy in itself.”

So what’s changed in Richardson’s time in Korea? He can remember almost too vividly the state of Western food when he first arrived in the ’80s. “My first pizza in Korea was, no joke, a sandwich ‘cheese’ and odeng-topped crust with ketchup sauce. The only thing remotely resembling pizza was the crust. Cheese was hard to get and mutton was often sold as ‘imported beef’ back in those days.”

High Street Market is just part of a larger operation called The Authentic Group, which Richardson is quickly expanding. The group is working to open another storefront and increase its catering operations for clients seeking prepared Western food. Their galbi meatballs will hit the shelves of Costco in February, and are already in several other Korean establishments.

More info http://highstreet.co.kr

Edited by Jaime Stief (jaime.stief@gmail.com)

Tony Le Rhodes

Story by Daniel Deacon Photo by Joe Gans

Influence Tony’s Aussie Bar & Bistro owner, musician Residence Seoul

Many expats don’t make their mark in the world until after they come to Korea; Tony Le Rhodes, however, made his before he arrived. The Sydney native, a one-time member of Australian rock group the Choirboys, first came in 2002 as the drummer with dance/funk band Party Vibe. Impressed with the way of life, he decided to return for good.

“I actually came back as a nobody,” Le Rhodes says. But soon after, “word got out that there was a hotshot drummer from Australia … and suddenly I was doing sessions and people were writing about me online.” He soon set up his event management company Big Tone Entertainment and began to teach drumming professionally, helping Korean musicians get scholarships in American schools such as L.A.’s Musicians Institute and Boston’s Berklee College of Music.

In 2005, Le Rhodes “just happened to be here at the right time” when he bought three unassuming shops on the hill above Noksapyeong Station. Initially, he wanted to use them as offices for Big Tone, but an Australian-style barbecue thrown together using the kitchen equipment left behind morphed into Tony’s Aussie Bar & Bistro, one of the few expat-owned bars on the peninsula without a Korean cosignatory on its lease papers. “That was going to be a short-term project,” says Le Rhodes. “But the Aussie bar thing kicked off big time,” with people lining up for his fish ‘n’ chips and meat pies.

A lot has changed on Le Rhodes’ little street, a place he calls “the umbilical cord between Haebangchon and Itaewon.”

“In late 2005 I was the first one here, and I’ve seen many changes,” he explains. “The Korean fear of Itaewon has gone now.”

Aside from his food, Tony’s serves up a wide range of entertainment

Story by Mariyah Gonzales Photo by Joe Gans

GrooveCast GrooveCast host Chance Dorland speaks with Gemma Wardle about the rise of the international food scene. Listen online at groovekorea.com or subscribe to the GrooveCast at the iTunes Store.

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that supports amateurs and veterans alike. The venue has helped foster the Seoul Artist Network, a long-running series of open mic, poetry and jam nights, and his Wednesday night comedy events helped to nurture Stand Up Seoul. “I’m all about the entertainment,” says Le Rhodes. “That’s what I do.”

Looking to the future, Le Rhodes will be focusing more on his music. He’s invested in a high-tech drum studio and will begin a new drum teaching project this year. “Tony’s bar will always be Tony’s bar, and it may go through some changes,” he says. “A lot of bars have opened and closed and been and gone, but I’m still here.”

More info www.tonylerhodes.com, www.tonysitaewon.com

Gemma Wardle Influence A Fat Girl’s Food Guide to Eating in Korea blogger Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea October 2014

The Somerset native behind runaway food blog A Fat Girl’s Guide to Eating in Korea, Gemma Wardle first arrived in South Korea nearly six years ago as a language instructor. Relatable and approachable, she’s the sort of friend you text first on a Friday night: This girl gets excited about her food.

The guide came from a place of both ambition and necessity. Frustrated with the transient nature of Seoul’s morphing foodscape, Wardle decided to start building her own. “I was a little irritated with people repeatedly asking me for restaurant recommendations. I felt like I was saying the same thing over and over again, but there was no other place for a foreigner to start,” she says. It was when she started sharing her insights on Facebook that the project really began to take off.

A Fat Girl’s Food Guide, as Wardle styles it, is a kimchi-free zone — only non-Korean restaurants and ingredients need apply — featuring recipes and restaurant reviews, tips for shopping and an extensive Google map featuring all her foodie conquests.

She still has bigger ambitions for the project. “I would love to do pop-up restaurants, a brunch one first. People love brunch!” she says. “I did a drink pop-up at Casablanca in Haebangchon one Halloween with my mulled wine and cucumber gin-and-tonics. That was fun and simple — I would definitely do it again.”

More info www.afatgirlsfoodguide.com 95

Introduction by Jenny Na

community If you arrived in Korea more than 10 years ago, you wouldn’t have found many groups offering opportunities for involvement that catered to foreign residents.

Even further back, before social media existed, the only way to connect was at the local pub. But the landscape of the expat community has evolved quickly, shaped by a dynamic group of people guided by their interests, identities and a drive for something more.

Some had a vision for a different kind of world than the one they saw, like Mahbub Alam, who as a migrant worker was part of a growing but largely invisible population. He started the Migrant Workers’ Film Festival to give his community a voice. Udaya Rai, the Migrants’ Trade Union president, and Yiombi Thona, an author, professor and human rights activist, were motivated by injustices against their communities.

Daniel Payne and Kim Thompson sought to create safe spaces for sexual minorities who aren’t free to be themselves in society.

Others discovered a desire to make a difference for someone else. When Shannon Heit went to a protest for comfort women, she was “so struck by the women’s perseverance and fight for justice that I felt compelled to get involved.” She is now one of the most visible volunteers in the adoptee community.

That’s not to say you need such a serious cause to get active in your community. Brian Aylward, Jeff Sin-

96 www.groovekorea.com / February 2015

clair and Rudy Tyburczy give audiences a reason to laugh and blow off steam each month with the event they founded and maintain, Stand Up Seoul. Others like Robert Gibson and Declan Griffin help run sports leagues that have welcomed dozens, proving there’s more than one way to make a difference. Anna Desmarais, the owner of mixed martial arts gym Body & Seoul, says she wanted to “give others the opportunity to train or otherwise work out in a nontraditional way.” Bryan Hylenski founded KOTRi (Korea on the Rocks Initiative) to ensure the climbing routes he loved to explore would still be available to those who followed in his tracks.

None of this is easy, and anyone who has tried to shake things up or make space for a community knows there are challenges along the way. One of the biggest is finding volunteers willing to give their time and energy. As Gibson says, “Without the volunteers, we wouldn’t function.”

These pages highlight the contributions of just some of the many expats who have helped shape their communities over the years. They are people who have helped direct our energies, created new spaces and inspired us to do things that matter to us.

They’ve discovered that living abroad can give you the freedom to reinvent yourself, and that the only way you can shape your community is by becoming a part of it.

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Story by Moon Soo-hyun and Remy Raitt / Photo courtesy of Joe Wabe

Joe Wabe Influence Art Elemento founder, PIK – Photographers in Korea magazine publisher Residence Gwangju Featured in Groove Korea January 2014

Joe Wabe was a freelance graphic artist when he first came to Korea 11 years ago.

A few years later, he launched his own magazine called Art Elemento, a project he acknowledges was the real start of his artistic venture in Korea.

Art Elemento was created in an attempt to get expats to break free from the conventional way of interacting with Korea and to challenge the notion that the foreigners who come here as exchange students or English teachers must necessarily be defined by these titles.

The magazine also aims to encourage people to see art as something to enjoy, with no defined rulebook, not as something serious, elitist or out of reach. It has now evolved into the project PIK (Photographers in Korea), an online photography magazine that publishes the works of

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expats in Korea and gives tips on better photography skills.

Having studied in Texas, Miami and his native city of San Jose, Costa Rica, Wabe notes that Korea’s four distinct seasons have influenced and inspired him greatly, along with Korean culture.

“There is so much to capture, and the fact that the weather and certain customs will change every four months keeps me going to new ideas and inspiration throughout the year,” he says.

The biggest change he has seen during his time in Korea is that the network of artists and photographers has grown exponentially. He says that thanks to social media the number of people that can be involved in a project has tripled, which he says has made a huge difference. He also notes that increasing numbers of interna-

tional artists and photographers are moving to Korea, and they are getting together and creating their own artistic communities.

“These networks will interact more with each other and the flow of work and ideas is now bigger,” he says. “A few years ago, it was harder to find people who were involved in similar activities.”

Wabe, who currently calls Gwangju home, has friends and a family in Korea, as well as what he calls “a very productive lifestyle in every sense of the word.”

“I’m able to do what I love,” he says. “(I) can’t really picture myself moving or doing all of what I’m doing right now somewhere else. Korea has provided me with everything I’ve ever dreamed about.”

More info www.facebook.com/photoelemento, www.photographersinkorea.com

Edited by Jenny Na (jenny@groovekorea.com)

Jeff Sinclair Influence Stand Up Seoul co-organizer, trivia host Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea September 2013

Some people couldn’t care less about traditional pub pastimes such as darts and billiards. For those who prefer to imbibe with the (possibly) more cerebral activities of trivia and stand-up comedy, Jeff Sinclair is likely your guardian angel at watering holes across the country.

The Winnipeg native has spent most of the last decade in Korea, and is probably best known to readers as one of the plotters and schemers behind Stand Up Seoul (alongside Rudy Tyburczy, Page 104). Stand Up Seoul’s events have changed the face of comedy for expats in Korea and, in the past few years, has also been responsible for a marked uptick in the frequency and quality of overseas headliners coming to perform in the capital.

Sinclair is still rocking a day job in Gangnam teaching Western pop culture to university students, but he also moonlights as one of the more adept trivia masters in operation domestically. (This writer gave him rave reviews in Groove Korea’s trivia night coverage in August 2013.)

Sinclair also integrates multimedia and game shows into one of the most fast-paced quizzes in the country at Rocky Mountain Tavern on Sunday nights. In addition, he’s helped coordinate nationwise trivia nights, orchestrated simultaneously between 13 different bars across the country, and enlisted larger sponsors such as the Renaissance Hotel.

“Ideally, I’d like to have an international trivia night in cooperation with people in Japan, Hong Kong and Shanghai, a ‘Trivia Asian Cup.’ I’ve also been developing an app based on one of the bonus games I do at the end of my weekly trivia night.”

Story by Stephanie McDonald Photo by Katie Gagel

laura klunder Influence Adoptee Solidarity Korea representative, activist Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea September 2014

Laura Klunder, an activist with a master’s degree in social work, arrived to Korea from Minnesota for an adoptee gathering in 2010 and was so inspired by a talk about adoptees living here that she made the move shortly afterward. Three years later, she had a job at KoRoot, a

comm unity Story by Ian Henderson Photo by Joe Gans

More info www.facebook.com/groups/standupseoul Among his future plans is bringing in bigger names for Stand Up Seoul. They’ve also had talks with prominent U.S. comedians about coming out for an international comedy festival in Korea.

In all of his ventures, Sinclair has tried to create a welcoming environment for expats like himself. He says the most unanticipated result of his trivia nights is how easily friendships have been made between those who come out. “Even competing teams of people have all grown into a social circle that travel together,” he says. “It has become an event where you can show up not knowing anyone, and leave with a whole slew of friendship requests on Facebook the next day.”

With Stand Up Seoul, he says he’s tried to make the environment more inviting to people who would like to try their hand at performing, as well as help the current pool of performers become closer and more supportive of one another.

“Being an expat, which is a word that has taken me six years in this country to get used to, means being a part of family,” he says. “I’m thankful for every minute of my time growing with this family.”

guesthouse for returning adoptees where she had stayed on her first visit. While working at the guesthouse, she tried to strengthen the organization’s efforts to make it a more accessible and inclusive place for adoptees by expanding communication with the community. Now she is the representative of Adoptee Solidarity Korea, which tackles Korean overseas adoption issues, and writes for adoptee magazine Gazillion Voices.

Klunder has carried out her work within her own personal experiences as an adoptee. She found her birth family in 2011 and discovered she was born into a poor Korean family who had no access to social welfare.

Today, she is a strong advocate for family preservation — families staying together instead of being broken up and children adopted out.

For this to happen, she says social welfare needs to be strengthened for single parents and poor families, who are stigmatized in Korea.

“Adoption is an individual solution for a societal problem and fails to address the root causes of children in poverty. I believe that adoption and family preservation efforts need to be worked on simultaneously.”

Eventually, she would like to see adoptees gain full access to their birth records as a basic human right, whether or not they choose to search for family.

Klunder has seen a lot of changes in the community over the years, which she attributes to the evolving needs of adoptees who settle here. Those who remigrated before her carved out a space for themselves, launching services and activist organizations and developing a community. Now, the current generation of adoptees is accessing these services, and she is excited to be part of the community as it continues to build upon what has already been developed.

More info www.adopteesolidarity.org, www.gazillionvoices.com 99

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Edited by Jenny Na (jenny@groovekorea.com)

Story by Merissa Quek / Photo courtesy of Declan Griffin

More info www.seoulgaels.weebly.com

Declan Griffin Influence Seoul Gaels chair Residence Seoul

Declan Griffin has played Gaelic football since he was a young lad growing up in Kerry, Ireland, but he fully expected to take a break from the game when he moved to Seoul in 2007. It was two years before he joined the Seoul Gaels, one of Korea’s largest expatriate sports clubs, and he has been involved ever since. Now, as chair, he is at the heart and soul of the club.

Udaya Rai Influence Migrants’ Trade Union president Residence Seoul

The Migrants’ Trade Union has made a considerable impact since its inception in 2005, with campaigns championing workers’ rights and calls to end immigration crackdowns and the indecorous deportation of workers. The MTU, with affiliates in the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, has worked to administer counseling services to migrant workers with mounting workplace-related problems, conduct programs to spread awareness of labor laws and win legalization for Korea’s undocumented workers.

Udaya Rai, hailing from Nepal, has been living in Korea since 2007.

As MTU president since September 2014, he and the union face a number of obstacles to their existence. The Korean government suggests migrant workers don’t have the same legal rights as other workers and has acted with aggression toward the MTU. “The government does not see (the MTU) as a legal union,” says Rai. The MTU has had issues with the Korean government violating laws against migrant workers, even calling previous MTU leader Michel Catuira — vocal about the superfluous force, indiscriminate arrests and expulsions suffered by migrant workers — to stand before the Korea Immigration Service under suspicion of illegal obtainment of his work visa.

Though Catuira had legal work visa status, Korean authorities purported that he acquired it illegally and canceled it in 2011, giving him an exit date for the next month. Still, “they did not deport him,” says Rai. This attracted the attention of Amnesty International, which has systematically taken note of the Korean government’s crackdowns on the MTU and its disregard of freedom of association and right to form trade unions. “Migrant workers can’t make a union, they can’t bargain, they can’t strike,” says Rai — simple rights in most

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Over the years, Griffin has seen the Gaels’ growing membership evolve from an overwhelming Irish majority to a more international makeup; last year saw several more Koreans joining both the women’s and the men’s teams. “We don’t want to be just a foreign club,” says Griffin. “We want to be more integrated into Korea.”

With so many new members on its roster, the club’s main focus has been engaging with their new members and making sure they felt at home. Going forward, Griffin believes that the challenge is getting the balance right between being competitive and being fun.

League members currently play in clubs in Busan and Daegu, and the Seoul Gaels sends several teams to the Asian Gaelic Games and the North Asian Gaelic Games every year. Last year, they sent a hurling team to the Asian Gaelic Games for the first time.

But it’s not all about sports. The club is heavily involved in organizing the St. Patrick’s Day Festival in Seoul, an annual event attended by thousands, and organizes fundraisers for the team and local charities.

Despite an already packed schedule, Griffin is hoping to do more.

Over the last couple of years, Seoul Gaels has run a summer camp in Ireland, helping a dozen Korean children improve their English, soccer skills and understanding of Irish culture. The club has also been running a youth league for the past two years, an area that Griffin hopes to further develop in the future. In the meantime, he hopes to obtain funding from the Gaelic Athletic Association to get more kids involved with the sport.

Though Griffin has benefited from the sense of community that has developed around the Seoul Gaels club and its members, his real motivation is his love for the game.

Story by Clint Stamatovich Photo courtesy of Udaya Rai

first-world societies.

The MTU’s role has been particularly significant since the unprecedented results of Amnesty International’s “Bitter Harvest” — a comprehensive report documenting accounts of physical violence toward migrant workers from Korean employers. The report found that employers breach contracts by neglecting pay or paying late or in installments, but suffer no legal penalties under the current Employment Permit System.

“The MTU is against the Employment Permit System, which is unfair for migrant workers,” Rai says. The system is mandated by the Korean government, under which migrant workers are inherently set up for unfair conditions, he says. Switching jobs requires a consent form from the present employer, who largely ignores the requests.

“There are many problems for the migrant workers in Korea,” says Rai. With approximately 700,000 migrant workers here, he has his hands full providing standard legal and human rights to people like him in a country where it should be commonplace.

More info mtu.or.kr

Story by Christopher Green / Photo courtesy of Lee Hyeon-seo

Edited by Jenny Na (jenny@groovekorea.com)

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Lee Hyeon-seo Influence North Korean defector, activist Residence Seoul

She may now hold a South Korean passport, but Lee Hyeon-seo is an expat all the same. She was born in North Korea, a place she called home for 17 years until she made her way to South Korea in 2008.

In the beginning, Lee was just an ordinary student. Diligent and determined, her goal was gaining entrance into an elite university.

That’s the norm in South Korea, and there was nothing to suggest that she would soon be a bright light on the international stage. Her path to fame was, she acknowledges, “quite random.”

Lee’s rise began with a last-minute request to take part in a British Embassy event. The brief speech she gave drew many compliments, leading to an invite to give a TEDx talk, and from there to enter a global TED competition. The voters made it clear what they wanted: an authentic North Korean voice at the big annual TED conference. In February 2013, Lee took

the stage, stunning the audience.

“They just wanted me to tell my story,” she shrugs, “so that’s what I aimed to do.”

But telling of her meandering, prolonged and difficult journey to South Korea, first through China and then Laos, is no simple tale. It “went pretty well,” she concedes, “even though my English pronunciation wasn’t great.”

“Pretty well” is an enormous understatement. The official video of the talk has been viewed more than 3.7 million times to date and is beginning to crop up on university curricula. Lee is by no means the first refugee to talk about human rights abuses in the country she left, but few have reached such a massive audience.

Lee says it has been an incredible and unexpected journey so far, but she’s not done yet. Following her imminent graduation from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, she hopes to launch an

organization to provide promising North Korean refugee students with opportunities to study abroad. A master’s degree in East Asian studies also beckons. And then there is her long-awaited book, which is slated for publication in summer 2015.

North Korean refugees still suffer discrimination in the South, but that is now starting to change. Lee points to the hundreds of South Koreans who participated in a 2012 campaign outside the Chinese Embassy in Seoul to prevent the forced repatriation of North Koreans caught in China, and the thousands more who tune in weekly to the cable TV show “Now On My Way to Meet You,” a South Korean TV show where defectors talk about their lives.

Lee’s voice has added to the number of firsthand accounts of atrocities in the North, a public face for those directly impacted by the regime.

More info facebook.com/hyeonseoleepage

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Story by Eileen Cahill / Photo by Adam Czelusta

Yiombi Thona

Influence Author, professor and human rights activist Residence Gwangju

More than 12 years ago, Yiombi Thona escaped from the prison in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where he had been detained and tortured. An intelligence official, he’d risked his life to expose misconduct within his own agency. After arriving as a refugee in 2002, Thona is now a wellknown author, professor and human rights activist in Korea, with numerous published interviews and TV appearances. His 2013 book “My Name Is Yiombi” was well received in Korea, and an English-language version is in the works.

Since his arrival in Korea in 2002, Thona has experienced poverty, discrimination and brushes with death — he once collapsed in the street and needed surgery, but passersby stepped over him and posed for pictures while making the peace sign — plus predatory bosses who took advantage of his undocumented status. It was not until he obtained official refugee status that Thona could work legally and bring his family here.

In 2013 he joined the faculty at Gwangju University, where he teaches human rights.

He also works with police departments and the Ministry of Justice to stop discrimination

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and improve service for members of marginalized groups. As a consultant to many Korean NGOs and as the new chair of the East Asia working group within the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network based in Thailand, he frequently travels to different countries to discuss the treatment of refugees.

Korea was the first Asian country to enact a special law for refugees, separate from its immigration law, in part because of Yiombi’s work. Now asylum seekers can receive food, shelter and professional interpretation services — none of which were available when he needed them himself.

Still, the laws have a long way to go; Thona says he cannot always access the services he’s entitled to under the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.

His second book, which he has completed and sent for publication, also deals with human rights abuses and systemic discrimination in Korea. One chapter tells the story of a 12-year-old girl from Togo who was hit by a car. The driver, a Korean woman, persuaded her parents not to call an ambulance, promising to drive her to a hospital,

but instead dumped the girl on the road and drove off.

The parents were refugee applicants with no money and no medical insurance, and sent their daughter to live with her grandmother in the countryside in Togo, where proper medical care was not available, Thona says. She died a month later.

At the time of his interview with Groove Korea in July 2014, the police were still checking the camera footage to determine the identity of the driver. The accident was three years ago.

“They will come if (they think) an African did something wrong,” he says. “They will come quickly. But if an African has a problem, they will not come.”

Some critics might discourage refugees from speaking up about problems in their host countries. Thona has little sympathy for that perspective.

“We love this country,” he says. “We would like to help. Now don’t tell me that, ‘Oh, your country, in Congo, there are many human rights abuses, you want to change Korea? ... If I didn’t mind those problems, I would stay in the intelligence service.”

Edited by Jenny Na (jenny@groovekorea.com)

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Jon Dunbar Influence Music writer and urban explorer Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea October 2014

Jon Dunbar is the most important person associated with Korea’s punk scene who does not thrash a guitar or drum set to death. By his own admission he has “zero musical talent,” but he sure can write. This year he’ll be putting out the 20th issue of Broke in Korea, Seoul’s iconic punk rock zine.

Broke in Korea “is basically about what’s happening in the (punk) scene, as well as other news and stuff,” the Edmonton-raised Dunbar, 35, says.

Dunbar formed the zine in 2005 with American Paul Brickey, who played with bands Rux, Suck Stuff and Heimlich County Gun Club. “It was called Broke in Korea because we were both broke at the time and living off women,” Dunbar says.

Originally they wanted each issue to be bilingual, but this proved impossible. However, he still tries to get as much Korean content into the magazine as possible and strives to create a bridge between foreigners and Koreans in the scene.

After the Broke in Korea online message board for local punks petered out, Dunbar began the Korean Punk and Hardcore page on Facebook. He also contributes to Korea Gig Guide and Do Indie.

Brickey left Korea last year.

Otherwise, Dunbar is one of Korea’s busiest urban explorers. “I’ve got an extremely large collection of pictures of places in Korea that have been abandoned or are awaiting demolition,” he says. Daehanmindecline, Dunbar’s photo blog, hosts pictures from both his urban

Story by Josh Doyle Photo by Hanna Drabon

Ben Wagner Influence Lawyer against HIV-related discrimination Residence Myanmar Featured in Groove Korea April 2013

Benjamin Wagner is an American rights advocate and legal professional who’s spent most of his adult life in Korea. After coming here as a teacher in 1993, he became interested in the workings of the country and the issues facing its people. “I had a little bit of Korean language ability and a whole lot of passion for the country,” Wagner says.

That passion found an outlet in examining issues related to Korea’s changing status as a multicultural society. Through newspaper articles, commentary and interviews, Wagner has provided ongoing insight on the issue of discrimination in contemporary Korea, and has been one of the few willing to tackle HIV-related prejudice. “Sadly, the situation in Korea

Story by Dave Hazzan Photo by Andrew Faulk

explorations and the punk scene.

Broke in Korea, Daehanmindecline and the urban exploration prepared Dunbar for his transition to writing for Korea.net, the official website of the Korea Culture and Information Service. In 2013, he moved on to work as an administrator at Sungkyunkwan University.

Dunbar feels it’s impossible to get bored in Korea — a far cry from Canada — and he doesn’t foresee ever leaving the country permanently. If he has any regrets, it’s that he didn’t come here sooner.

“There are always developments happening in the Korean music scene, and urban exploration never gets boring,” he says. “There’s always something very strange to see, and I’m usually one of the first people to see it.”

More info www.facebook.com/koreanpunkandhardcore, www.daehanmindecline.com

is much like it was in the U.S. back in the late ‘80s — just virulent, unchecked stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV or even just suspected of being HIV-positive,” Wagner says.

Despite being a wealthy nation with international medical facilities, the disgrace thrust upon people living with HIV in Korea is still so common that some hospitals refuse treatment, leaving people with nowhere to turn. “It’s awful, a totally preventable tragedy. People with HIV in rich countries are living healthy lives and they’re living for just as long as or longer than people who don’t have the disease — that’s because they are getting diagnosed and treated properly,” he says. “Korea has the money and the state-of-the-art facilities, but the stigma surrounding the disease in this country keeps people from seeking out voluntary testing because of the mistaken belief that it’s a ‘foreigners’ disease’ or a ‘gay persons’ disease.’”

Korean medical professionals, he notes, have recently raised concerns over a spike in the number of cases of HIV infection among young Koreans. “We’re going backwards in our efforts to prevent the disease and that has to stop. The country has to get serious about education and prevention.”

Wagner legally represents two cases against the Korean government for violations of international law relating to its HIV policy. Both cases have been ongoing since 2009, Wagner says. One, which involves the U.N. Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, will be decided in May while the other, which is being heard by the U.N. Human Rights Committee, is expected to conclude by the end of the year. “It’s essential to let everyone in Korea know that remedies for discrimination are available if they need them.”

Wagner left Korea in 2012 to work as an attorney in Myanmar, though he says he gets back to Korea more often than to the States. He explains that it’s very likely he’ll live in the country again in the future, noting, “I’ll always be involved with Korean issues. It’s part of my life.”

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Story by Ron Roman Photo by Adam Czelusta

John Nowell Influence Retired USFK officer, international public relations consultant Residence Yongin

John Nowell has been the U.S.’ unofficial goodwill ambassador to Korea since 1966. He was the face of the U.S. Forces Korea in greater Seoul for many years, serving as both public affairs and community relations officer and appearing as a regular guest on the now-defunct AFKN TV/Radio network. He was also the master of ceremonies for innumerable Korean-hosted events for USFK personnel at Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul.

His career took a turn in 1978, when he began appearing in Korean

films and dramas, in addition to narrating military films for the Defense Ministry and U.S. Army. He continues to appear on television dramas and variety shows.

Nowell, now a spry 72, first arrived in Korea in January 1965 as a would-be Army artilleryman with the 7th Infantry Division at Camp Casey. He took his first job as a U.S. civil servant in May 1966 with the Eighth U.S. Army in Yongsan and retired in September 2008 with 41 service years under his belt.

Nowell says the job of public affairs officer has changed since his time in service, owing to the growth of social media.

“The change has been devastating for the older generation (those born before and during World War II),” he says. “Some unit newspapers are no longer published, and other weekly publications have shifted to biweekly editions. The older retired military (those over 70) will be less informed as they may not subscribe to digital media.”

In the future, he imagines social media will play an even greater role in shaping the training given to public affairs specialists in their job of telling the military story. He says, “These specialists must be adept at digital communications to be responsive to the media, as well as to their respective commands in communicating the latest developments.”

Though he’s now retired from Uncle Sam’s employ, Nowell remains as active as ever, between serving as consultant to the Grand Ambassador Hotel in Seoul and as special adviser to the chairperson of the Korea headquarters of People-to-People International, an organization he helped found.

A personal note from an old friend bears testimony to his long love affair with his work: “If Korea is in danger, count on me to join the fight. To support her good people. Because I got to know them during my tour. A fellow named John helped get me started.”

Rudy Tyburczy Influence Stand Up Seoul co-organizer, comedian Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea September 2013

Story by Ian Henderson Photo by Joe Gans

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If you’ve been to a stand-up comedy event around these parts, you’ve likely seen a bushy red beard with a microphone telling jokes. The person behind the beard is Rudy Tyburczy, and he’s one of the key players bringing the funny your way in Seoul.

Hailing from Eugene, Oregon, Tyburczy rolled into Korea in 2008, getting involved with Stand Up Seoul soon after. He eventually stepped into the role of co-organizer with Jeff Sinclair (Page 99), in addition to being a regular performer. In the years following the departure of founder Brian Aylward (Page 110), Tyburczy and his fellow comedians helped keep the wheels turning while expanding the group’s scope in unforeseen ways.

Tyburczy has witnessed quite a few changes since the group came under his stewardship. “Many performers have branched off and created their own rooms, tours or even competitions,” he says. “Another thing I think is pretty cool is that Seoul is gaining a bit of traction among professional comedians in the States and overseas. They’d like to come and check it out because their peers have said good things about it.”

He says he recognizes the cathartic role comedy plays for expats here, where for a few hours no one feels out of place and everyone can get together for a few drinks and some laughs. Although he enjoys his time here, it’s very much “a one-contract-at-a-time kind of thing.” He says he definitely plans to continue performing and being involved with the scene.

Proving that comedy is truly as much social commentary as humor, he adds sagaciously, “I never thought I’d be here this long, said every expat ever.”

More info www.facebook.com/groups/standupseoul

Story by Josh Doyle / Photo by Sasha Don

Edited by Jenny Na (jenny@groovekorea.com)

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Jeff Lebow Influence Koreabridge portal creator Residence Busan

If you’ve ever sold anything online or looked for a job while in Korea, there’s a chance Jeff Lebow had a hand in it. He’s best known as the creator of Koreabridge, one of the largest portal sites serving the expat community. Lebow’s long history of helping expats connect online stretches back to 1995, when he moved to Busan and found it something of a secret to the English-speaking world. He began the project of making information about his new home more available via his first site, Pusanweb.

While the site filled an important niche, it got little attention until Lebow made a purchase that was a bit of a breakthrough in the late ‘90s: a digital camera.

“Back at that time, nobody had cameras on their phone, so I became the photographer of Busan,” he says. “I’d take pictures of people getting drunk on Saturday night. People

started tuning in and it grew from there.”

Now, 20 years later, there are a lot more people taking pictures of their friends drinking on Saturday nights and a lot more places to post them online. Lebow has expanded too, now running a handful of websites that all share the goal of promoting “homegrown webcasting.” Koreabridge is his most popular, thanks largely to its extensive job listing and a famous “For Sale Items” section, known to get things sold within hours, sometimes even minutes, of posting. This is a bit of a departure from Lebow’s original goal, but he says he can live with the results.

“I wanted it to be a civil place to discuss the issues that expats discuss about Korea, and that Koreans discuss about expats,” Lebow says. “It wound up being a place where people sell used chairs, but that’s okay.”

Lebow hopes that in the future Kore-

abridge will expand into a site not just for expats, but for people from around the world who are interested in Korea. Considering the growth of Korea’s international presence, this doesn’t seem too far fetched. “With the Korean Wave being so immense, we’re getting more and more traffic from people (around the world), who want to consume stuff about Korean culture,” he says.

When Lebow isn’t building online communities, he teaches at Busan Foreign Language University, and enjoys sitting on the veranda with his wife, a Busan native.

Lebow says that while Korea isn’t perfect, it’s the package deal (“Everything in life is a package,” he says) that has kept him here and will keep him here for the foreseeable future. In his own way, Lebow has done what he could to make that package a little better.

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Story and Photo by Tom Godfrey

Nevada Rhodes Influence Actor, Itaewon personality Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea July 2014, September 2014

Nevada Rhodes has been keeping Koreans and foreigners entertained for years, currently starring on MBC’s long-running television show “Surprise.” He is quick to offer a drink, lend a hand or tell a joke. He also happens to be an openly gay man who has turned his standard apartment with roof access into something more.

Rhodes is a character. He stands tall and speaks with an explosion of enthusiasm. He is also a man with a heart that outweighs all boundaries. He once got a call in the early morning hours asking him to tell a waitress to bring the “sauce that comes with meat” over the phone. He did it.

Rhodes, a native of Las Vegas, first arrived in Korea in 1996 as a very different person.

“I came to Korea as a Mormon missionary,” Rhodes says with an almost apologetic tone. “Self-righteousness is a blindfold.”

His evolution becomes even more pronounced when set against his actions at Pride last summer. “At the parade a protester laid down in front of the (procession),” explains Laura Di Nucci, a friend and fellow actor. “(The man) said that his leg was hurt, but he was just trying to stop the parade.

Nevada lay down next to him and started to sing him love songs. He was able to move this guy without any threat or violence.”

To understand who Rhodes is today, one needs to understand what his garden is. To

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say it’s just a rooftop garden would be doing the space a huge disservice. Rhodes and his guests instead refer to it as the Hanging Gardens of Fabulon.

Rhodes started the garden as a simple way to keep guests from falling over a gap in the rail on his balcony to a soju-induced death. Over the years, however, it has grown in tandem with his enthusiasm and knowledge. He also speaks seriously about forming a partnership with a person or group that could help spread the idea of vertical gardens as a sustainable source of food.

Like the garden, Rhodes’ house is a treasure chest of homemade determination.

There are chests that he has refinished, things he has built from scratch and furniture he has salvaged. Stepping inside, the first sight is a statue or mannequin whose modesty is maintained only by potted plants and a pair of panties. “I didn’t want her to be naked,” Rhodes laughs.

In a side room is a bed with a computer monitor rigged so that a person lying on their back can see it clearly — a relic from when he was hit by an ambulance in 2004.

Doctors managed to save him, but his brief journey into the unknown left a mark on him. A man who was once pulling 3- to 6-hour workouts six days a week could hardly stand for 30 seconds without help. “I made a video about it all to really pull at the heartstrings,” he laughs. “It hasn’t even hit a

thousand views.”

Rhodes talks a lot about YouTube, which he says has been his outlet as well as his teacher. He uses his downtime, sometimes while lounging in his pool, to think of and film short videos for his channel. The videos are a collection of random, often hilarious, glimpses into his mind. At their heart, they are just plain fun.

“He tries to put a smile on anyone’s face, even strangers,” says fellow actor Juana Urbano Jiménez.

As a longtime entertainer, he’s witnessed a lot of changes in the industry over the years, especially in the number of foreigners who speak Korean. Where once they were scarce, “now we are everywhere.”

In the future, he’d like to be more involved in the industry, but his goals are more about quality than quantity.

“I see more foreigners on TV entertaining in one way or another, but most of them seem to be there just because they are a foreigner. The ability to act or entertain at all hardly ever seems to be an absolute necessity,” he says. “I hope to see myself as part of a skilled, entertaining group of like-minded people who give a shit about what they’re doing and where they’re going.”

More info “Surprise” airs on Sundays at 10:35 a.m. on MBC. www.youtube.com/user/TheNevadaRhodes

Edited by Jenny Na (jenny@groovekorea.com)

Mahbub Alam

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More info www.mwff.org

Influence Migrant Workers’ Film Festival founder Residence Bundang

Mahbub Alam came to Korea from Bangladesh in 1999. Educated in commerce and leaving a job at a publishing company, Alam soon found himself working in a garment factory in Seoul. As a migrant laborer, he was determined to make a difference.

“In 2002 I thought, ‘I have to make a documentary about migrant issues, issues like deportation and the rights of migrant workers,’” Alam says. “I wanted to make a documentary about cultural diversity. I wanted to make a movie that I wanted to see.”

Alam made several, and in 2006 he organized the first annual Migrant Workers’ Film Festival to raise awareness about those issues.

“The migrant population has been increasing,” says Alam, “but there was no event where you could all be friends and learn. (There were) a lot of festivals made by Koreans, and migrants were the guests. … We invited everybody to watch and have fun together. I wanted it to be a cultural junction where people could talk and discuss.”

The first festival had its share of problems. Alam was serving in multiple roles as tech support, subtitle writer and programmer, and the lack of staff complicated the effort. Still, it was a success, with 400 people showing up. Since then, the festival has grown in tandem with a rising awareness of migrant issues. Alam notes that around 1,500 people attended the 2014 festival. The next festival is scheduled for late summer.

There are still hurdles, however, particularly with regard to funding.

The government once lent its support, but the current administration has not been as generous, and in 2013 Alam was forced to cancel the

Story by Jenny Na Photo by James Little

Kim Thompson Influence Meet Market cofounder Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea July 2012 and June 2014

Kim Thompson is a poet and performance artist from the United States who is best known here as the founder of the Meet Market, a party for the LGBTQ community and their allies that is arguably the first of its kind in these parts. Since her arrival, she has also shared her perspective as a queer adoptee living in Korea through a column for the U.S.-based Gazillion Voices magazine.

Thompson made the move to Seoul in October 2009 from Minneapolis, where events like the Meet Market were the norm. “(Back home), it’s a total mixture of allies and queers and I’ve only ever seen that as a very positive thing, so I couldn’t help but believe

Story by Tom Godfrey Photo by Syed Munna, courtesy of Ekushey TV

event.

“If you don’t have money, you can’t (attract) good films or have a good location,” says Alam. “You can’t do a proper festival.”

These festivals are important for a minority population that’s often painted negatively in the Korean media.

“The image is not good,” says Alam. “I think we have to make the change by ourselves. Festivals, films — these things can help people become friends easily. They help us to talk to each other. Films are a powerful tool.”

Alam himself has found mainstream success as an actor in such award-winning Korean films as the 2009 drama “Bandhobi.”

His dreams for the future are simple: “I hope someday we won’t use that word, ‘migrant.’

“Maybe in 10 years we can use ‘interesting,’ ‘diverse’ or ‘colorful,’” he says. But to do that, “We have to be a part of Korea.”

that it could be positive here,” she says.

And it was. She started the Meet Market with a friend in October 2011, and the event was a resounding success. It has continued every month or so and features saucy drag and burlesque performances, in line with the organizers’ wish to promote the two genres.

The clever name and costumed antics are all in good fun, but at its heart the Meet Market is about creating a safe space for the queer community and its allies. The organizers also hoped to see the tiny space inhabited by the queer community in Korea expand as much as it has in the West, through personal connections between people of all races, genders and sexual orientations sharing a laugh, a drink or a dance.

Thompson talks a lot about the importance of allies. In an editorial she wrote for Groove Korea in June last year, she discussed the evolution of Korea’s LGBTQ community and what expat allies can do to “support our fellow queer and transgender Korean brothers and sisters in their march toward equality.” Part of that involves a shift “from Westerners being the face of these events to Korean citizens determining what these events look like.” To that end, the plan was always to hand the Meet Market over to a Korean team. The change happened last September; the new organizers had their first event on New Year’s Eve and have another planned for Valentine’s Day. “We’re not the permanent or dominant culture here and I don’t think we should try to be that way,” Thompson says. “I think that sometimes we think we’re here to change things for them, and I would argue that we’re not. We might be here to model a certain sense of selfacceptance that says it is important to be able to value yourself and feel okay with who you are, but I don’t think we’re here to change how Koreans deal with being queer.”

More info www.gazillionvoices.com www.facebook.com/meetmarketseoul

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Story by Simon Hunter-Williams Photo by Baruch Ezagui

Rabbi Osher Litzman Influence Jewish community leader Residence Seoul

Rabbi Osher Litzman arrived in Seoul in 2008 with his wife Mussy, their toddler daughter and a mission to expand the city’s small Jewish community by building a synagogue and making kosher food available for locals and Jewish visitors alike.

Fast-forward a little. There is now a thriving Jewish community of about 1,000, according to Litzman, and he has been integral to its growth.

Litzman and his family were brought here by the Chabad organization, said to be one of the largest Orthodox Jewish Hasidic movements in the world, following a request by the Israeli ambassador for a leader.

Before the Litzmans’ arrival, Jewish people in Korea seeking reli-

Story by Tim Cushing Photo by Adam Czelusta

Jessica Adel Influence Samdong International director of international relations, expat theater actress Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea April 2013

American-Canadian Jessica Adel came to Korea in 2011 with a theater degree and an open mind. In addition to joining Samdong International as their director of international relations, Adel serves on the board of Seoul Players, acts in the Seoul Shakespeare Company and was a cofounder of Cut Glass Theatre.

Samdong is an aid organization based in Korea that works across Asia (Adel is their only non-Korean employee). Although the project involves lots of travel overseas, work in Korea is an integral part of the operation. An upcoming project will bring 100 families to Korea from countries in need and provide them with medical treatment previously

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gious services had only one option — the U.S. Army base in Yongsan, which served the greater community but required security protocols that hindered access.

The lack of a synagogue wasn’t the only challenge awaiting him.

Kosher food was hard to come by, so the rabbi would trek out to a farm to get milk to make kosher dairy products. These days, Litzman says finding kosher foods is easier, and that’s largely thanks to his efforts to open a kosher shop and restaurant.

The Jewish community is centered at the Chabad House of Korea near Hangangjin Station. The center, which doubles as the rabbi’s family home, offers educational services for both Jews and non-Jews, including a kindergarten, a Sunday Hebrew school and a Torah study group for adults, as well as regular services for Jews of all backgrounds.

“Our specialty is Jewish education and awareness, and to love every person — we are here to be part of the community,” Litzman says.

The community has members serving in the military, doing business or serving as English teachers, students and diplomats. But where it once consisted of people on short-term assignments, more of its members are staying. “(The Jewish community) is growing, as Korea is more and more open for foreign business, and Jews from all walks of life are coming here,” Litzman says.

In the future, the rabbi hopes to continue his work expanding the community, which he says has changed “tremendously,” with more people now all over Korea.

“We hope to build a real Jewish community center so we can host the community for events such as the Passover holiday, when we barely have space at the dinner,” he says.

It’s hard to know how long it will take to achieve that goal, but he says he plans to stay “till the Messiah will come, hopefully today.”

More info www.photo.jewishkorea.com unavailable to them.

So how does an actress find herself involved in work at an NGO? Adel says it was completely by accident; she kept herself open and the opportunity presented itself. She has learned all of her international relations skills from volunteering, self-studying and onthe-job experience. She says her theater background also helped her immensely in her new role, as part of her training was “designed to cultivate the ability to thrive in uncomfortable situations.” Together, these skills have helped her to forge connections with communities building sustainable infrastructure in Laos, Myanmar, Mongolia and Nepal.

Adel’s passion for her work and mission are palpable: She points out that while North America and Korea thrive on older energy systems, developing countries “have the potential to be leaders in a new frontier of responsible development.” From her perspective, Samdong provides the ideal platform to approach this mission. “We really do live our philosophy,” Adel says, “which is to never push an unwanted agenda in any of the communities in which we work; we come with ideas, of course, but we also come with open ears, to really learn about the needs of the community.”

Even so, it’s a struggle — “a race against big industry who are also clamoring to get pieces of these growing economies.”

Adel seems undaunted by the task, however, and plans on growing with Samdong in the years to come. As if that doesn’t keep her busy enough, Adel hopes to soon add “filmmaker” to her resumé. “My plan is to make a documentary about how storytelling and theater can act as liberators and educators in the battle against modern slavery,” she says.

More info www.sdi.or.kr

Story by Daniel Deacon / Photo by Fergus Scott

Edited by Jenny Na (jenny@groovekorea.com)

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Toby Dawson Influence Korea national ski team coach, Olympic bronze medalist Residence Seoul

Toby Dawson hit headlines around the world in 2006 for two reasons. The first was winning a medal at the Winter Olympics in Turin.

The other was his incredible life story. It’s this backstory that has brought him to where he is today.

Dawson, now 35, was born in Busan as Kim Bong-seok. At age 3 he found himself separated from his mother in a crowded market, was placed in an orphanage and later adopted by two skiing instructors from Vail, Colorado.

Growing up, his surroundings and environment instilled a lifelong love of skiing into him.

He later began competing in mogul skiing World Cups, winning the 2005 competition, and in 2006 he medaled at the Turin Games, picking up the bronze in the men’s mogul event.

It was after this win that the Korean media reported his story. His biological father came forward and they were reunited in 2007 when Dawson returned to Korea for the first time.

Dawson has since retired from competitive skiing after a decorated career. He was given an honorary Olympic ambassador award and last October was inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame.

He flew to South Africa in 2011 to help the

Korean bid for the Winter Olympics. “Some very influential people in Korea decided that my story would be one that would resonate well with people in Durban, and especially with IOC voters,” says Dawson.

At the event he gave a heartfelt speech about the Olympics bringing opportunities for Korean skiers that they hadn’t had before. “In the United States, we had a system where we had (skiing) programs … that prepared an athlete to become a World Cup skier,” he said. “Those opportunities were not presented (in Korea).”

Pyeongchang won the bid for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, of course, and Dawson was tapped as Korea’s national freestyle ski team coach. He admits that he has given himself a big challenge because the Korean skiers “were kind of like weekend skiers, what we would call weekend warriors,” as he puts it. “They loved to ski, they loved to go out, but they weren’t training to go ski and they weren’t going to the gym. To change these guys into world-class athletes has been the biggest challenge.”

Dawson is trying to get his skiers to push their limits and become world-class athletes.

“I think we got a lot of talent,” he says. “The whole reason that I came to Korea is to

search for a medal.”

His skiers now train with the U.S., Swedish and German national teams. Last year he took them to Sochi to experience the Olympics firsthand. He wanted them to learn how to juggle the inevitable media attention they’ll face while staying focused on the task at hand: performing well. “(The media) can be too intrusive and get into an athlete’s head, asking silly questions like ‘Are you going to win a gold medal?’ which really have no bearing on what’s going on,” he says. “The question should be ‘are you focused, are you ready to compete?’”

Dawson says he doesn’t know if he’ll remain the coach after the 2018 Games, but that it’s nonetheless important to him to give back to the sport he loves and to acknowledge his Korean roots. To do so, he wants to produce a strong Korean contingency for freestyle skiing because “that just makes the sport even better,” inserting Korea as “one more country that is competitive in a sport that not a lot of countries are competitive in.”

“I’ve taken this challenge,” he adds. “I know it’s a big one, but I think we’re starting to see some good results and I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.”

More info twitter.com/TobyDawsonUSA

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Story by Ian Henderson / Photo by Jonathan Atherton

Brian Aylward

Influence Comedian, Stand Up Seoul founder Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea October 2008, May 2010, March 2011, June 2012, November 2014

Brian Aylward has made a name for himself in Korea as a stand-up comic and the founder of Stand Up Seoul. He has also been a humor columnist for Groove Korea, writing The Last Laugh. The comedy institution he started, Stand Up Seoul, is thriving and now supports a growing local stand-up scene. With the number of awesome international headliners who have flown in to perform, not to mention the burgeoning local talent, the seeds Aylward planted have flourished, bearing tons of funny fruit.

The Newfoundland native spent six years in Korea — 2003 to 2006 and 2007 to 2010. In the second stint, he performed hundreds of shows throughout Korea and across Asia. As he was leaving Korea for the second time, Groove Korea asked what the best thing about living here was. His answer? “Thailand.” Though a funny joke, there seemed to be an element of truth to it. Now he’s back for round three on the peninsula.

Aylward’s return brings his story, close to a decade in the making, full circle. Like many expats, he was here in his 20s as a lost soul. Then one day in 2005, he got up

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on stage in Anyang to take his first swing at comedy. After returning to Canada and a stint performing there, he and his wife returned for financial reasons on their second proverbial tour of duty, which ended in late 2010.

It was during that second period in Korea that Aylward really came into his own as a performer. He started Stand Up Seoul, did shows all over Asia and arguably helped nurture the entire continent’s English comedy scene. After that, he had a good run of it in the Great White North, having been showcased in numerous festivals and opening for bigger acts such as Nikki Payne. He was a finalist in Yuk Yuk’s “Great Canadian Laugh-Off” and SiriusXM Radio’s “Canada’s Next Top Comic,” and appeared on CBC’s “The Debaters.”

During one Toronto performance he acted out a classic encounter with the dreaded dong-chim (poo-needle), a violating experience familiar to many teachers in Korea.

One of his idols, Colin Quinn of “Saturday Night Live” fame, happened to be in the audience and came up to him afterward, saying, “Great story man. Very funny.”

Back in Korea, he seems to be hitting

the ground running with renewed optimism.

Ambitious would be an understatement considering what he’s got in his sights.

Last fall, Seoul was the launch pad for a stand-up tour taking in seven Asian countries. He’ll be back in Seoul twice this spring as part of a seven-city tour of Korea from March 6 to April 3, with more dates to come.

He’s also writing a book — a collection of stories about his “idiotic adventures” — with a publication goal of early 2016, and plans to film his first comedy DVD, to be released in the spring.

In retrospect, what does he think about his parting words in 2010 concerning Thailand? He clarifies: “‘The best thing about Korea is Thailand’ is just a great one-liner I had — a joke, of course. Everybody knows the best thing about Korea is kimchi jjigae.”

For his part, Aylward seems to be relishing his return to life as a Canadian expat in Korea. “I’m looking forward to the tour, filming my first DVD, writing the book. Just living life. Loving life. Who knows? Be open to what the world is saying. Plus, I just really miss Asia.”

More info www.twitter.com/bagsofsoup

Edited by Jenny Na (jenny@groovekorea.com)

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Dave Sperling Influence Dave’s ESL Café founder Residence California

In the 1980s, Dave Sperling stumbled across a book called “Jobs in Japan.” Having already backpacked the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe and Africa, the Los Angeles native got the idea to combine his love of travel with the ability to earn a living. In 1985, he flew to Tokyo, picked up the Japan Times, found a pay phone and started calling for interviews. He would spend the next decade teaching English in Japan and Thailand.

It was in 1992 when Sperling bought his first computer, which came with a modem and Internet access. “I was instantly hooked,” he says.

Three years later, in December 1995 while teaching English at California State University, Northridge, Sperling had his students publish a Web page with their photos and writing. “That got my creative juices flowing, and I began to create Dave’s ESL Café with this excitement.”

The site was inspired by the Thorn Tree Café in Nairobi, Kenya, a place he encountered while traveling across Africa in 1982. “(It) had a gigantic bulletin board built around this beautiful thorn tree. It was, in a sense, a meeting point for all travelers in Africa, and that is what I wanted with Dave’s ESL Café.”

The ESL industry has, of course, boomed in the two decades since those first pages were published. While teaching abroad was once an anomaly, it’s now become something of the norm, notes Sperling.

Though he’s never lived in Korea, Sperling’s influence on the expat community here has been profound, and Korea is now ESL Café’s

Story by Tim van der Kooi Photo by Mike Pletz

Robert Gibson Influence Canadian Ball Hockey Korea organizer Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea February 2013, January 2014

It’s 1994 in Gwangju, and Robert Gibson, a Canadian fresh out of university, has just arrived in Korea. There’s no Internet, no Western restaurants and, most importantly, no ball hockey, a sport he’d played since he was a kid.

More than 20 years later, Gibson is one of the lead organizers of Canadian Ball Hockey Korea, which brings together nearly 120 people each season in up to 10 teams. Since 2008, the 45-yearold from Edmonton has spent much of his free time coordinating a dedicated group of volunteers to help run the organization.

In the late 1990s, Gibson had found success as an ESL professor at Shingu University in Seongnam, where he still teaches, but hadn’t yet found a place to play hockey.

Story by Daniel Deacon Photo courtesy of Dave Sperling

biggest market for job postings, with China a close second.

Now settled back in California with his family, Sperling admits that he doesn’t have much time to spend on the Korean forums section of the website. He maintains the site by himself, and most of his focus is on processing and posting the job ads and answering emails. It’s a sevenday-a-week undertaking, and he hasn’t missed a day since 1995.

Looking to the future, Sperling says he’s taking one day at a time and focusing more on his health and enjoying life. “I am surprised that I’ve managed to do this full-time for over 15 years and make a good living from it,” he says. “In the beginning I lived for my work, and now I more or less work so that I can live.”

More info www.eslcafe.com

That changed in the early 2000s, when he and a small, tightknit group of expats started playing together in a Suwon parking lot. After years of pick-up games, Gibson’s friend, Ed Leahey, discovered an outdoor rink in Jamsil. By fall 2008, the tiny group had evolved into four teams and formed the CBHK. Gibson has played multiple roles for the league in the past seven years, acting as the treasurer, booking the rink and cleaning up the arena after the lights go out. “I love playing and I’ve had time to help out,” Gibson says humbly.

He isn’t one to take all the credit, though. He minimizes his contributions in comparison to the work performed by league volunteers and board members, such as website maintenance, refereeing, stat-keeping and goal-judging. “Without the volunteers, we wouldn’t function,” he says.

For Gibson and CBHK members, the league is more than just hockey; it’s a powerful social group that has strengthened the expat community.

“Sunday is when members can blow off some steam by playing hockey and relaxing with pals after,” says Gibson. “It also gives people instant contacts, not only for friendships, but for jobs, travel advice and buying and selling things.”

Gibson and the CBHK board have also generated business opportunities for expat bar owners. Ten bars from Seoul sponsor league teams, and players frequent their teams’ bars to support them.

Despite all this, the CBHK’s future is uncertain, with the possibility of the rink being replaced by a domed baseball stadium.

Still, Gibson believes this won’t break the bonds made by the league. Former members reconnected last year in Toronto for their second annual CBHK reunion game.

“It was amazing how easy it was to reconnect with people who haven’t been in Korea the past five years,” he says.

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Story by Michael Burkhardt Photo courtesy of Eric Sandrin

Eric Sandrin Influence Korea Basketball League player Residence Bundang Featured in Groove Korea October 2008, July 2010, April 2013

Eric Lee Sandrin is a basketball nomad. He has played hoops professionally in Luxembourg, France, Brazil, Portugal, Germany and Singapore, not to mention in his native U.S. with the Sacramento Kings, several development teams and the Harlem Globetrotters. The 37-year-old entered the Korea Basketball League in 2007 and plays for the Wonju Dongbu Promy.

Sandrin’s Korean fans know him as Lee Seung-jun, the name he chose when he took up Korean citizenship six years ago so he could

Story by Tom Godfrey Photo courtesy of Abigail Flores

Abigail Flores Influence Bras for a Cause founder Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea October 2011

Abigail Flores was given quite a scare when she was first referred to the Korean Breast Cancer Foundation four years ago. Her testing came back negative, fortunately, but the experience still inspired her to rally against the deadly disease.

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play on the national team. His younger brother Daniel, who goes by Lee Dong-jun, came to Korea two years before him and plays for the Samsung Thunders. Both brothers represented Korea in the 2012 Olympic qualifying tournament.

The sons of an American father and Korean mother, Eric and Daniel grew up in a suburb of Seattle, and have always been best friends. “I originally wanted to play soccer when I was younger, but my brother liked basketball and I wanted to play with him, so I decided to play that instead,” he says. His father was a solid player himself, and taught his sons the fundamentals of the game. “We used to play threeon-three in our driveway with my dad and a few other kids from the neighborhood. When I started beating my dad consistently, I thought more seriously about basketball as a career.”

Foreign players entered the sport in Korea 16 years ago, and since then have been part of the sport’s evolution. They bring an artistry to the court that is both fun to watch and a model for aspiring Korean athletes. “When young players come to games and watch me and my brother play in person, they think, ‘I can actually be that guy,’” Sandrin says.

Sandrin doesn’t say much about the possible challenges of being half-Korean, and passes off any initial hostility as competition for playing time and the language barrier. Nobody on his first team spoke any English, which posed practical difficulties in understanding the coach’s calls from the sidelines and in bonding with his teammates.

Sandrin says he is excited about the future of Korean basketball, especially given how tournament titles can affect a sport’s popularity.

“If the national team does well, the whole country is proud and it can universally generate interest in the sport,” he says. If Korea’s 2014 Asian Games gold medal and qualifying for the 2014 World Cup are indicators, the future of Korean basketball is exciting indeed.

“I come into contact every year with someone who has it,” says Flores, a California transplant who has been in Korea since 2001.

Flores has been the driving force behind Bras For a Cause in Seoul for the last four years. Each fall, with the help of friends, volunteers and sponsors (some of whom have been with her since the beginning), Flores decorates bras and auctions them off at various events including the annual bOOb Crawl, a multi-bar event that features prizes, entertainment, lollipops shaped like breasts and a bra auction. Last year’s event drew around 120 people and raised over 2 million won.

The organization started small. Flores, a former Peace Corps volunteer with a flair for humanitarianism, got the idea for Bras for a Cause while participating in charity events with the running group Hash House Harriers.

“My sister and I said, ‘Let’s try to do a real event for the public.’” Flores estimates that they raised 700,000 won to 800,000 won that first year.

Nowadays, Flores has fundraising down to a science. She begins preparing for the fall events in the summer, collecting bras and hosting decorating events. The organization has raised around 25 million won to date, including nearly 10 million won last year, but Flores and her team have distributed more than just donations: They have also raised awareness for a disease that is not often talked about in Korea. “I want more Koreans to come out and do something,” she says. “I want them to understand why we are doing this and see that it’s okay to talk about (it).”

As word of the organization spreads, Flores has noticed more Koreans attending her events, with bras being sent to her from as far away as Busan.

Bras for a Cause is but one of the many projects she has been involved in while living abroad. “I stay in Korea because it’s easy for me to do these things here,” she says. “A lot of people think it’s hard to volunteer here if you don’t speak the language. Actually, it’s not.”

More info www.facebook.com/BrasForACauseSeoul

Story and Photo by Shelley DeWees

Edited by Jenny Na (jenny@groovekorea.com)

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Anna Desmarais Influence Body & Seoul Martial Arts and Fitness Center owner Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea July 2010, August 2011, November 2011, May 2012, April 2014, October 2014

The petite but powerful Anna Desmarais had never imagined herself fighting in competitions, but now she is a hard-bodied fighter and the founder of Body & Seoul martial arts gym in Itaewon. It has since emerged as the go-to fitness center for expats in the neighborhood.

The American came to Seoul in 2001 to do her last semester of college at Yonsei University’s Graduate School of International Studies and has never looked back. Prior to her arrival, she co-owned a restaurant/lounge bar and helped her taekwondo master run his dojang, so she wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with entrepreneurship.

Desmarais makes a great case for martial arts and isn’t afraid to laud its benefits. “The inner confidence, strength and sense of discipline you gain is incomparable to any other hobby I know,” she says. “And all the while you’re getting in great shape, having fun, making friends and learning new things. I mean, what more can you ask for?”

Inspired, motivated and longing for a place to practice her hobby, Desmarais threw some

money together and opened up Body & Seoul in 2010. It’s been going strong ever since, attracting folks from all over the city: English teachers, diplomats, businesspeople and stay-at-home moms all train together under the easily forged bond of a mutual goal.

“It’s become a center for expat life,” she says, “a nonpretentious place where everyone receives world-class training in a relaxed environment. There aren’t many gyms in the world where you hear so much laughter.”

That’s not to say there isn’t a serious amount of work going on here. Muay Thai, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, no-gi grappling and Krav Maga classes meet multiple times each week in between sessions of yoga, Pilates and yogalates (a combination of the two). But the most popular class is FightFit, which, despite the name, doesn’t involve fighting.

“Lots of people take this class on its own to get in shape quickly, regardless of whether they intend to join our martial arts classes,” Desmarais explains, “but often they’ll try some other things in conjunction with FightFit and end up loving it.”

FightFit accommodates all levels of fitness and is a favorite among newcomers at Body & Seoul, but it’s a wicked workout for everyone involved and avails members to a pure, powerful, ass-kicking experience that’ll melt the pudge away.

Boosted by its ever-growing popularity, Body & Seoul opened a new gym above Tous Les Jours in Gyeongnidan last March. The new place is double the size and full of new equipment, new classes, extra sessions of old favorites like FightFit and yoga and offers classes in Korean.

She says she opened Body & Seoul because “martial arts had changed my life for the better, and I wanted to give others the opportunity to train or otherwise work out in a nontraditional way.”

She’s done just that, and has lots of ideas for the gym’s next phase, including “getting into the health food side of things.” With her energy and commitment to her goals, she’s sure to see some of those ideas come to life in the near future.

More info www.seoulmartialarts.com

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Story by Ara Cho / Photo by James Little

daniel payne

Influence Open Doors Community Church pastor emeritus, Rainbow Safe Space cofounder Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea April 2012, January 2014, July 2014, October 2014

As the founder and pastor emeritus of the first church in Korea to accept members of the LGBTQ community, Daniel Payne sought to create a safe space for sexual minorities to explore their Christianity without the kind of prejudice and discrimination they experience in their daily lives. In addition to Open Doors Community Church, Payne also helped to found the Rainbow Safe Space, a shelter that opened last year to “assist, care for and empower LGBTQ Korean youth in at-risk situations, and to offer resources for their continued healthy self-development.”

Payne grew up in the Bible Belt of America in Pensacola, Florida. He was born into the Free Will Baptist faith, went to a fundamentalist Christian school and married a Southern Baptist when he was just 19.

“This was mostly an attempt to change my sexual orientation in order to make my family happy and soothe my own doubts about the morality of homosexuality,” Payne says.

The marriage lasted almost four years, after which he moved to Seoul in 2003 to start a new life.

After divorcing by age 23 and coming out to a very fundamentalist Christian community that refused to accept him, he went through many years of questioning God. It was in

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these dark years that he gained a better understanding of his purpose in life: “The LGBTQ community has been burned many times by the Christian Church, and some have been burned one too many times and have given up on Christianity altogether. For this, I cannot blame them. It is my prayer, though, that any LGBTQ person in Korea who loves God or feels drawn to God, but has been burned in the past, will find a home at ODCC.” In the beginning, Payne spent many months searching for a place to worship, having to deal with rejection and chastising emails from English-speaking pastors. In November 2011, he secured a space at a Korean church in Bangbae that knew of the congregation’s LGBT-affirming nature. But a month later, when the church realized that the objective was not to convert these men and women to heterosexuality, the congregation was asked to leave. The church has since settled into its current location in Haebangchon.

Payne’s commitment to Korea’s LGBTQ community extends beyond the church to include its younger members. Those who choose to come out in Korea are often ostracized in society or kicked out of their homes,

and bullying and suicide are prevalent among the youth population. “Many queer Koreans feel that it is impossible to come out to their friends or family for fear of the rejection they will almost certainly endure,” he says. “Nearly all the youths I’ve spoken to prefer to stay in the closet, safe and sound, though the darkness and pressures of that closet are sometimes just as dangerous as what lingers outside.”

Payne helped found Rainbow Safe Space with a coalition of five other LGBTQ organizations as a way to “help queer teens find hope and a home, as well as a community in which they can feel accepted, affirmed and supported.”

He is already seeing changes outside the community that could eventually contribute to this goal: “As Korean society slowly — emphasis on slowly — opens up, many young, gay Koreans are feeling more and more empowered to be out in other places and areas of life.”

As for ODCC, Payne says he hopes it will one day expand beyond the LGBTQ community to welcome a congregation that’s “truly open … diverse in the true sense of the word.”

More info www.opendoorskorea.org

Edited by Jenny Na (jenny@groovekorea.com)

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Brian Deutsch Influence Brian in Jeollanam-do blogger, Waygook.org cofounder Residence Pittsburgh, USA

Brian Deutsch ruled the K-blogosphere in the mid- to late 2000s.

An interest in Korean pop culture and language and a desire to try teaching English brought Deutsch to Korea from Pittsburgh in July 2005. The next year his blog, Brian in Jeollanam-do, was born.

Deutsch conceived the blog as a way to connect to the local English-teaching community. “I knew very little about the area and hadn’t even seen a picture of Gangjin (South Jeolla Province), where I lived,” he says. He also wanted to share photos and talk about local news and points of interest.

The blog quickly picked up readers attracted to his insights, critical analysis and advocacy for and on behalf of the expat community. Not everyone was impressed, however: In 2008, Korean netizens campaigned to get him deported for being too critical of Korea. That was also the year he won the dubious distinction of being the “angriest blogger in Korea” at an expat-hosted blog awards event. Though he understands where the label came from, he says, “I also think the (blog’s) coverage of local news and events, and the way Jeollanam-do had a large English-language online presence for just about the first time, was far more significant than any rant.”

The year he founded the blog, Deutsch also launched Waygook.org with his roommate, who still runs it. Their aim “was to simply have a way for all the new arrivals to stay in touch” and create an online hub for English teachers in the area. Facebook groups have now taken over this role, he says.

Story by Michael Burkhardt Photo by Jonn Jeanneret

Bryan Hylenski Influence Korea on the Rocks Initiative founder Residence Daegu

Not even mountains can stand in Bryan Hylenski’s way. Whether he is picking his way up a chunk of Himalayan granite 6,000 meters above sea level, teaching sports or serving as the founder of KOTRi, the first expat-owned nonprofit company in Korea, Hylenski knows how to get things done.

Hylenski is originally from the U.S. state of Delaware and grew up on the East Coast. He moved to Japan to teach English after finishing university, but in 2006 he traded jobs with a rock climber friend in Sokcho, who had raved about the fantastic climbing here. He is now teaching sports at a university in Daegu and lives with his wife and daughter close to the natural areas that he loves.

Story by Daniel Deacon Photo courtesy of Brian Deutsch

Deutsch left Korea in February 2010 and is now settled back in Pittsburgh with his wife and year-old son. These days he skims Korea blogs only “once in a blue moon.” “There is considerably more content written by expats for expats,” he says. “The best change, to me as an outsider, has been the huge jump in talented photographers who have found beauty and character in practically every part of the country.”

Deutsch now works as an administrator at the University of Pittsburgh’s English Language Institute. “Sadly, they don’t want to pay for writers here in the U.S.,” he says, “so I’m doing something else.” He hasn’t ruled out a return to teaching at some point, but says, “I enjoy doing what I do now: working with international students and helping them have as fulfilling an experience in Pittsburgh as I had in Korea.”

More info www.waygook.org “People might describe me as driven, focused or persistent,” Hylenski says, adding that these positive attributes can sometimes cut both ways and he’s lost friends in the process. While all roads to success have a little roadkill, the living, breathing community that he helped create is evidence of his talent to connect with people and bring them together.

Today, climbing is popular with Koreans and expats alike, but the sport didn’t really take off here until the early ‘90s. As popularity surged, many outdoor routes were bolted, walls constructed and climbing clubs formed. Over time, the steel bolts on outdoor routes rusted and many crags and climbing areas fell into disrepair. Enter KOTRi. Hylenski created the nonprofit in 2010, organizing cleanup and repair crews, hosting fundraising events and reaching out to the Korean climbing community. Over the years, more than 1,000 volunteer hours have been spent installing hundreds of new stainless steel bolts and anchors at 14 climbing areas nationwide.

KOTRi then partnered with Mammut Korea, the local distributor for the Swiss climbing gear company. Through Mammut’s sponsorship, donations and fundraising events like an annual film tour, KOTRi has established several programs. The Community Assistance Fund was created for members who need financial aid due to an accident or death related to an outdoor adventure. The Community Development Program is an annual grant awarded to members to complete climbing-related projects. Mammut Korea recently pledged 4 million won for 2015 CDP projects and applications are still being accepted.

Hylenski says the organization will be less directly involved with projects in the future, instead offering its expertise, vast network of industry professionals and providing support to the community here by enabling people to accomplish their goals.

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Story by Megan Fox Photo by Marc Champod

Shannon Doona Heit Influence Activist and community organizer Residence Seoul Featured in Groove Korea December 2013

Shannon Doona Heit has given voice to issues concerning adoptees, unwed mothers and comfort women and is active with the Korean Unwed Mothers’ Families Association, the Women’s Global Solidarity Action Network and Unian (For a Unified Korea).

Heit believes in the importance of being involved in one’s community and that a great way to do so is through volunteering. Her first volunteer experience in Korea was with the House of Sharing, a home for former comfort women outside of Seoul. She went to a Wednesday protest and “was so struck by the women’s perseverance and fight for justice that I felt compelled to get involved.”

“I think people should become involved in their communities,” she says. “We have all received help and support and we should all work in solidarity with others to ensure and protect the rights and well-being of others.”

Heit was adopted with her twin sister into a white American family in 1986 at age 4. She returned to Korea in 2006, and after several years of Korean language study she entered graduate school, eventually receiving her master’s in anthropology from Hanyang University in 2013.

Heit is now fluent in Korean and has often interpreted for other adoptees being reunited with their Korean families. She was unsuccessful in her own search for her birth family for nearly six years, due to inaccurate information in her adoption records. Only after auditioning for a popular singing show and gaining media attention was she able to find her Korean mother. They reunited in April 2013.

It was after the reunion when she learned that the adoption agency falsified her records in order to send the sisters for adoption without their mother’s consent. This has fueled her passion to advocate for the rights of both adoptees and unwed mothers in Korea through media appearances, speaking engagements and her blog.

Heit is a strong proponent of the 2012 revision to the country’s adoption law, which she says brings Korea closer to international standards for children’s rights pertaining to adoption. “I think it has positively affected vulnerable children and families by ensuring that both the rights of the children and the first family are protected,” she says. “Specifically, protected against coercion for relinquishment and protecting the rights to one’s personal information for the child by ensuring proper record-keeping is done.”

Heit continues to make an impact in Korea and throughout the world, though she is modest about her accomplishments.

“I hope that my very small efforts play some part in supporting unwed mothers to be able to raise their children and give more and more adoptees access to their personal histories,” she says.

More info www.peaceshannon.tumblr.com, www.kumfa.or.kr

Ronel Laranjo Influence Outgoing PIKO president Residence Quezon City, the Philippines

With multiculturalism set to grow in Korea, the government is encouraging more students to come here to strengthen PhilippineKorean relations. Pinoy Iskolars sa Korea looks after them when they arrive. Founded in 2006, PIKO works closely with the Philippine Embassy to promote cooperation and strengthen ties between Korea and the Philippines by ensuring student welfare and promoting the benefits of multiculturalism and the exchange of science and technology.

Ronel Laranjo, 25, first came to Korea from Quezon City as an exchange student in 2008. Returning in 2011 to pursue a master’s degree in applied linguistics at Korea University, he heard about PIKO from fellow Filipino students. “I actively participated as a member,” he says, “especially in activities related to Filipino culture and language, because it was my major back home.” In 2012, he became its public relations officer, and was elected president in 2014.

Since last year, five new chapters have been added to the organization. “I think Filipino-Korean diplomatic relations (have become) stronger and stronger,” Loranjo says, pointing to the Philippine president Benigno Aquino III’s official state visit to Korea in 2014. “Hopefully we will be able to form chapters in other regions as well.”

Last year, PIKO organized a multiculturalism class for kids at the Children’s Folk Museum in central Seoul to share their Filipino heritage through language. Laranjo, who taught Filipino culture in

116 www.groovekorea.com / February 2015

Story by Daniel Deacon Photo by Joe Gans

the program, told the Korea Times that he was disheartened when he met a Filipino-Korean child who had rejected his Filipino roots.

“It was really touching when the child finally called me brother in the Filipino language,” he told the newspaper. “It motivated me to start my advocacy for Korean-Filipino children.”

Loranjo is now an instructor at the University of the Philippines Diliman, where he plans to teach Filipino language, linguistics and Philippine studies as well as do research related to the Filipino and Korean languages. He says he will also give lectures about Korean society to Filipino students.

“Filipino students are actually ambassadors of the Philippines to Korea,” says Laranjo. “As we graduate from universities and institutions here in Korea … the students’ role in Philippine-Korea relations becomes more vital in bridging the two countries, especially in knowledge exchange and technology transfer in the future.”

More info www.filipinoscholars.org

Story by Dave Hazzan / Photo by Adam Czelusta and courtesy of Jenny Maxwell

Edited by Jenny Na (jenny@groovekorea.com)

comm unity

Caitlin Gillespie and Jenny Maxwell Influence Little Travellers Korea/Rubber Seoul organizers Residence Dongtan, Gyeonggi Province and Calgary, Canada Featured in Groove Korea August 2012, November 2012, November 2014

In KwaZulu-Natal, a southeastern province of South Africa, over 40 percent of adults are infected with HIV/AIDS. All over the world, legions of volunteers are helping alleviate the crisis by selling Little Travellers — beaded dolls made by women in KwaZulu-Natal who have family members infected with the disease or are themselves infected. And for five years, Jenny Maxwell and then Caitlin Gillespie have represented Korea in the battle.

“What it does is it helps support the women,” Gillespie says. “It’s a lot to help these women support their families, plus to do research.” Little Travellers runs a hospice and the Hillcrest AIDS Centre, which provides medical care, education, emergency food parcels, long-term agricultural development and income-generation programs for the women in KwaZulu-Natal.

Gillespie, 30, came to Korea five years ago from Wenatchee, Washington, to teach kindergarten. It was her passions for charity work and indie music that got her into Little Travellers Korea. She met Jenny Maxwell,

then head of the organization, while putting on a concert for a kindergarten in Malawi.

“I really liked music when I came to Korea and then I fell in love with music while I was here,” Gillespie says. “And now I put on Rubber Seoul, I write a blog about music, and it’s kind of an interesting world because not a lot of expats know about the Korean indie music scene.” She also runs Gillespie Events & PR, which does event planning and public relations in Seoul.

Rubber Seoul is the backbone of Little Travellers Korea.

“Rubber Seoul is a huge music event in Hongdae, with five venues,” Gillespie says.

“The musicians actually donate their time for the main event and all of the profits go to Little Travellers Korea.” So far they’ve raised over 10 million won, with 4 million won raised last year.

Maxwell, 30, from Dublin, began volunteering with Little Travellers Korea in September 2011. “While running Little Travellers, our greatest achievements were spreading

awareness of HIV/AIDS and the importance of safe sex, and the amount of money we raised during my time with the organization.

We also did things like handing out condoms at events, making people aware of safe sex options and options if you do need to be tested for anything,” she says. “I mean, just the scope and impact our events had on other people were amazing achievements to see.”

Maxwell now lives in Calgary and is “in wedding-planning mode, so for the immediate future wedding dresses are on the horizon,” she says. “I loved living in Korea.

I ran a successful charity, I ran a popular blog, I loved my job. It was one of the best experiences of my life. And I met my fiancé, Ian Chiasson, who also helped me run Little Travellers.”

Gillespie lives in Dongtan, and plans to leave Korea next year and pursue a career in event planning in the U.S. In the meantime, she’s training in jujitsu and getting ready for the next Rubber Seoul in November.

More info www.facebook.com/little.t.korea

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118 www.groovekorea.com / February 2015

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sure that our live e ak m to rd ha k or t we w te.’ ence can apprecia sound on record, bu di w au lo e el m th t ty a et th pr ng a hi ‘We have r songs into somet ks shows transform ou Part Time Coo Saul Goode,

Part Time Cooks Featured in Groove Korea December 2014 Photos by Peter Burns

Part Time Cooks is an artistic collective comprising hip-hop artists Black Moss (pictured right), Joe Rollins and Saul Goode (left), with visual artist Peter Burns. TAfter forming in 2014, the collective released their “Midnight Snack” EP and has begun making waves in the music industry. Goode discusses the reaction to their music, what to expect at their shows and what the group is cooking up for 2015.

Groove Korea: What can the audience expect at a Part Time Cooks show?

Saul Goode: Tons of energy. You can also expect to see a huge differentiation in height. Saul is small and Moss is tall as fuck. We have a pretty mellow sound on record, but we work hard to make sure that our live shows transform our songs into something that the audience can appreciate.

What’s the best thing about performing live?

That moment when everyone is excited and on the same page. We had a couple shows last year where everything just clicked.

Those are the shows where I feel like we really get the crowd pumped and it feels great.

How do you think your shows are different from other expat artists in Korea?

We like to keep the crowd involved. At our

CD release parties, we gave the audience a custom-made cupcake when they came through the door. During the performance, we gave everyone milk and cookies. We like to do cool shit like that sometimes, haha.

Will there be any new music from you at the Groove 100 show?

There’s always new music at our shows.

We are working on our new album “Baker’s Dozen” at the moment, and will probably be performing a few tracks to get them ready for the 2015 release.

How has the reaction been to last year’s “Midnight Snack” EP? It was wonderful. We got a lot of love on SoundCloud for the album, and everyone who got a hard copy of the album has really been supportive and shared it with friends.

We couldn’t be happier.

What have you learned so far about being an artist and performer?

This year really solidified in all of our minds that music is not only what we want to do for a living, but what we have to do. We’ve learned that working as a collective, rather than just as solo acts, we can reach a lot more people and make better music. We all love working together.

What are you cooking up for 2015?

Recording, recording, recording. We are really excited about the songs we are working on now and just got back in the studio last week. We can’t wait to finish up the album and get back on the show circuit.

Part Time Cooks is a full-time thing this year. You can expect a lot of new music.

More info www.facebook.com/parttime.cooks www.twitter.com/parttimecooks

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e t and unique. … Th e en er ff di is ow sh e th aring ‘Every liv rforming live is shing hard pe t ou ab g in th st be dience and rock emotion with the au me space.’ together in the sa tton Sungsoo Lee,

HarryBigBu

HarryBigButton Featured in Groove Korea September 2014 Photos cour tesy of HarryBigButton

While some say that Koreans don’t rock, HarryBigButton is out to prove them wrong. The group, made up of Sungsoo Lee on vocals and guitar, Neil Smith on bass and Taegi Keem on drums, first appeared on the rock scene in 2011 with an acclaimed EP, “Hard’N’Loud,” a title that embodies what you can expect from their music. The guitars are heavy and bluesy, a mix of hard metal and ‘90s alternative. The band released the full-length album “King’s Life” in 2012 and “Perfect Storm” EP in 2014. Sungsoo Lee discusses the rock scene in Korea and what’s important for the band at their shows.

Groove Korea: What were the band’s highlights of 2014?

Sungsoo Lee: We released our second EP, “Perfect Storm,” in April 2014, containing five new songs. The most memorable moment of last year would be our performance at the Pentaport Rock Festival. The audience was absolutely amazing. They made a huge circle pit around us.

audience properly. However, it has slowly become known as many bands play live gigs overseas these days. Hopefully, Korean rock music gets more exposure to a larger audience in the near future.

What’s the best thing about performing live?

Unlike recorded albums, every live show is different and unique. They are never the same sound-wise, performance-wise and so on.

They only exist at that exact moment and go What do you think about the rock scene in away as soon as the show ends. For me, the Korea? best thing about performing live is sharing the The scene has been going through ups and emotion with the audience and rocking hard downs for many years. It has become more like the mainstream music scene than the rock together in the same space. scene, because bands play so many different What can the crowd expect at a HarryBigButton styles in their own ways. Nowadays it’s quite show? hard to define what rock music is and what it Don’t know anything about HarryBigButton? is not.

Don’t worry at all. We will let you taste multiple The Korean rock scene was only focused on excitements! the local market in the past, as Korean rock music has never been introduced to the global

120 www.groovekorea.com / February 2015

What’s important for you when you perform live?

When it comes to a live show, we prepare so many things regardless of the size of the venue or length of stage time. There are many elements I’m always concerned about, such as making the best tone, the set list order, keeping condition and balance and so on. The most important thing is devoting our all energy to the show.

What have you got planned for 2015?

I am writing new songs right now, so releasing new songs is my priority. We have been doing great collaborations with other musicians in different genres. We have exciting plans for more collaborations this year, too. I can’t wait to reveal this project! And by the way, many congratulations on Groove magazine’s 100th issue!

More info www.harrybigbutton.com, www.facebook.com/harrybigbutton

d. t and original soun en er ff di a e ad m really to other bands. Weix all of them in really cool way.’ d re pa m co t en er sound diff e want to m ‘I guess we want toare many styles in rock music, so w na Fall g There ongmo Do, Ma Jo

Magna Fall Featured in Groove Korea April 2013 Photos cour tesy of Magna Fall

A Korean-expat hybrid, the four-piece Magna Fall is made up of Kevin Heintz (guitar, vocals), Joongmo Do (guitar), Younsoo Lee (bass) and David Holden (drums).

The band’s music combines spacey tones with tight chords and jagged melodies punctuated with occasional electronic bursts. They formed in 2010, and their latest EP “Space Kitchen” was released in March 2014. The band talks to Groove Korea about “space rock,” showing off and audience surprises.

Groove Korea: How would you describe Magna Fall and your music to someone who has never heard you before?

Kevin Heintz: “Space rock” is a term I coined during a trip in the mountains of Zimbabwe in the early ‘90s.

Younsoo Lee: I don’t want to define Magna Fall music as just space rock. It’s about reflection; delayed, blurred feelings. If I get so high, that is my music, our music.

Heintz: We are thinking of removing the space rock label from our sound. Personally, I think “progressive stoner rock” is the best as it takes into account the prog rock elements of Rush, Radiohead and Muse, and the straightforward rock elements of Queens of the Stone Age, Red Fang, Soundgarden and Foo Fighters.

Joongmo Do: I guess we want to sound different compared to other bands. We really made a different and original sound. There are many styles in rock music, so we want to mix

all of them in really cool way.

What’s the best thing about performing live?

David Holden: Crowd surprises. ... There’s one person there (surprise!), or it could be a full room, which obviously is better. The best thing really, though, is when we create, with the help of the crowd, a good atmosphere in a club or wherever we play.

Do: Showing off!

Holden: Yeah, he’s a show-off all right.

What can the audience expect at the Groove 100 show?

Heintz: At a Magna Fall show, you can expect intelligent comments from Joongmo (ahem), awkward faces from Dave, slimy looks from Younsoo (the spider) and pure elegance from me. Except for that last part. Oh, and some good, hard, full-of-energy music to satisfy your ears and minds.

Will there be any new music from you at the Groove 100 show?

Holden: Yes, there will be. We’re currently in the later stages of writing an album. Since “Space Kitchen” (was released last year), we have a lot of fresh material, some of which will be previewed at the Groove show probably for the first time.

What have you got planned for 2015?

Holden: A new album — our first full length.

That will be followed by many cool spring and summer shows. That’s about it for now.

Thanks, Groove Korea, for inviting us to your Groove 100 show. We’ll do our best to make it one to remember. Cheers for all the support since the beginning!

More info www.magnafall.com, www.facebook.com/MagnaFall

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of like the musical ‘(Our music is) kind ald’s, but minus the on equivalent to McDh. Oh, plus it’s probably is shame and angu sound we drive as a duo.’ h surprising how muc orggg Sean Patrick

Maylone, Ssighb

Ssighborgggg (feat. Josh Lee and Kevin Lowther) Featured in Groove Korea March 2011 Photos cour tesy of Ssighborgggg

The blind spot between noise, electronica and rock, Ssighborgggg is a two-man outfit founded by Americans Sean Patrick Maylone (pictured top left) and DeAnthony Nelson Jr. (top right) in 2009. The music is a fusion of rock and electronica using live drums, guitar and keyboards that is often called math rock and draws comparisons to bands like Battles and Boards of Canada. The group is gearing up to tour Asia this spring in support of a new EP. Maylone and Nelson discuss shame and anguish and a special arrangement for the Groove 100 show.

Groove Korea: How would you describe Ssigborgggg and your music to someone who has never heard you before?

Sean Patrick Maylone: It’s kind of like the musical equivalent to McDonald’s, but minus the shame and anguish. Oh, plus it’s probably surprising how much sound we drive as a duo.

sound setup and check (so that) everything is at the best we can get it.

Nelson: Enjoy playing to the fullest while “touching” the audience.

What have you learned so far about being an artist and performer?

Maylone: Creating something you are satisfied with, even for a moment, is the healthiest, freest high.

DeAnthony Nelson Jr.: There is always someone out there listening or watching.

How does the audience react to your music?

Maylone: Fans express the joy of watching the ideas and process of it. I think we’ve gotten good at holding attention by putting energy in and arranging the set.

Nelson: We always have a nice talk with them after the show.

What’s the best thing about performing live?

Maylone: Free beer, usually.

Nelson: Making people move.

Will there be any new music from you at the Groove 100 show?

Maylone: Yes, we will be performing a onetime special arrangement as an ensemble (Ssighborggggestra) along with Kevin Lowther on live violin and Josh Lee on bass guitar. Normally we are a two-piece.

What’s the most important part of doing live gigs?

Maylone: Giving the most physically in the playing, and staying mentally focused through

122 www.groovekorea.com / February 2015

What can the audience expect at a Ssighborgggg show?

Maylone: All sweat everything.

How do you think your shows are different from those of other bands in Korea?

Maylone: We are in a kind blind spot between noise, electronica and rock that is pretty deserted territory in the SoKo. Nelson: We have a complicated setup for a duo.

What do you think of the Korean music scene?

Maylone: It’s pretty fun. Small but fun. Like a Game Boy. What were the band’s highlights of 2014?

Maylone: Taking some risks to make some music videos for some songs we’ve had, which got attention and got us on Singapore’s Baybeats Music Festival. It felt amazing.

What have you got planned for 2015?

Maylone: We released a free EP in January and will be touring Asia to support it.

Nelson: I’m expecting … a new cymbal!

More info www.facebook.com/sighborggggg

it’s a ergy on stage and Every en of t lo of t ou t .

‘I pu ve some love back joy when people gimething different to offer. performer has so moves me (so much) In my case, reggae lp but give it my all.’ that I just can’t he JoshRoy

JoshRoy Featured in Groove Korea July 2013 Photos by Michele Farley

Uganda-born JoshRoy arrived in Korea in 2006 and has been performing his reggae fusion up and down the country since 2008. He’s collaborated with Canadian hip-hop artists The Prime Minister of Sound and U.S. musicians Benny Fax and Bryan Simmons, as well as touring with Korean reggae artists Rude Paper, Kingston Rudieska, M. TySON and Tehiun. “It’s been wonderful to share with fellow musicians from Korea and other parts of the world,” he says. JoshRoy talks with Groove Korea about the many variations of reggae, the growth of the Korean reggae scene and what to expect at the Groove 100 show.

Groove Korea: How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard you before?

JoshRoy: It’s important to understand that reggae has many variations, much like rock and jazz. My music consists of different genres of reggae.

And while I sometimes do collaborations on beats, mainly the music is all original and composed by Paul Shan and myself.

As a reggae fusion artist, I cover what reggae is best known for in Korea, the “one drop” roots rock reggae, then lovers rock, rocksteady, dancehall, Afrobeat and pop reggae.

What were your highlights of 2014?

At the start of the year I hit the stage at Rise Again Vol. 1, a Korean reggae festival now in its third year. I have written and recorded 15 new songs and (have)

20 more unrecorded, a couple for other artists. It was a busy year for international collaborations, among others, for the video “Brighton Beach,” as well as a few performances with Korean reggae artists Rude Paper and M. TySON as part of Wild Born System.

What do you think of the Korean music scene and the reggae scene?

Over the years the expat and Korean music scene has grown a lot! More Korean reggae groups are joining the Rise Again celebration each year.

What’s the best thing about performing live?

I love the interaction with the audience. I put out of lot of energy on stage and it’s a joy when people give some love back. Every performer has something different to offer.

In my case, reggae moves me (so much)

that I just can’t help but give it my all.

How does the audience react to your music?

Some of my songs get people dancing straight up, some sway or sing along, sometimes it’s a bit overwhelming for the audience and I don’t know what’s happening until the end and then the cheers come. It’s always a surprise.

What can the audience expect at the Groove 100 show?

I’m looking forward to the celebration. Of course, “Valentine” will be in the mix, along with a few favorites, but it will be an occasion for me to perform for the first time some of my new songs from my upcoming album.

More info www.facebook.com/pages/Fans-ofJoshRoy/221392781477

INSIGHT Edited by Matthew Lamers (mattlamers@groovekorea.com)

Your biggest banking questions

The Money column

Everything you need to know about Korean banking basics Column by Paul Sharkie / Illustration by Darren Farrell

Based on years of interaction with our foreign customers, here are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions:

Identification Korean law can sometimes seem quite strict in comparison to other nations, especially when it comes to banking. However, we assure you that we take security very seriously for all of our customers, which is why identification laws are universally applied to Korean and non-Korean customers.

Q: Why do I need to show my ID at the bank?

A: In Korea, under the authority of the Real Name Transactions Law, each and every customer’s identity must be verified in order to complete most transactions.

If you get a new passport or, after initially opening your account with your passport, later receive an alien registration card (ARC), visit your bank as soon as possible so that they

may photocopy your ID and update your account details on their system.

Thereafter, you should bring your passport or ARC each time you visit a branch.

TIPS • If you register for online or mobile banking, you will make fewer trips to the branch and will not have to worry about your ID each time you carry out a banking transaction.

• Your ARC allows you to take advantage of many more banking products and services including online banking and international checking and debit cards.

ABOUT THE writer Paul Sharkie is the Foreign Client Relationship Manager for Shinhan Bank’s Foreign Customer Department. Please visit Shinhan Expat Banking on Facebook for more information. The banking information provided in this column is based on Shinhan Bank policies and may not be applicable to all banks in Korea. — Ed.

Passwords We know that you will have a few more passwords to remember when banking in Korea. Here is a short explanation as to what you should expect.

Please note that it is extremely important to remember these passwords as they cannot be changed online or over the phone. A branch visit would be required (with your passport and/or your alien registration card) to reset any passwords you made at a branch or at home.

Q: What passwords do I need to remember?

A: You will need to make and take note of the following passwords initially: Password

Description

4-digit account password

Create this at a branch when you open your account. This will be used when making transactions at a branch or when using our online banking service.

4-digit (ATM) card password (PIN)

Again, create this at a branch. We suggest making this the same as your four-digit account password, although you can make it different if you want.

Thereafter, should you register for online or mobile banking, you will also need to make and keep note of the following passwords: Password

Description

6-8 digit transfer password

Made at the branch when you register for Internet banking. May be the same as your four-digit account password and/or card PIN plus two or more extra digits.

8-16 digit digital certificate password

Create this at home when downloading your digital certificate online.

Security code card / OTP (one-time password) device

Your teller will issue you with one of these based on your preference. (The security code card is free whereas OTP devices start at 5,000 won.)

Overseas remittance (international wire transfer) Q: How can I send money overseas?

A: You may send your money overseas via the following methods: Method

Description

At a branch counter

Bring your passport and overseas banking details to a bank teller.

If you have been issued an ARC, you can also send money overseas via the following methods: Method

Description

Online or mobile banking services

Register with your ARC for secure online banking and/or mobile banking services.

ARS phone banking service

Register with your ARC and overseas banking details at a branch to transfer money overseas by making a quick and easy call to an automated service.

ATM overseas remittance service

Register with your ARC and overseas banking details at a branch in order to send money abroad from ATM machines. It’s quick, secure and simple.

INSIGHT Edited by Matthew Lamers (mattlamers@groovekorea.com)

Q: May I send money overseas with more than one bank?

A: No. While you are free to open a bank account and make domestic transfers with as many banks as you like, you may only send money overseas using one bank. Your chosen bank will give you a form to sign that will designate that bank as your primary foreign exchange transaction bank.

Q: How much can I send overseas each year?

A: You may transfer up to $50,000 (or the equivalent) overseas each year (January to December) via any mode of remittance.

Should you wish to send more than this amount, you will need to provide proof of where you sourced the funds. An amount above $50,000 (or the equivalent) may only be sent by visiting a branch.

without the correct routing number or international banking code may be unable to be processed and/or may incur additional fees.

You will also need the receiving customer’s name, phone number, address and bank account number.

Receiving money in Korea: There is no limit on the amount of overseas remittance you can receive into your Korean bank account. However, depending on what the money will be used for, you may have to report it (normal living expenses do not have to be reported). Your teller will advise you on this.

Q: When sending money overseas, which fees do I have to pay and how much?

A: While some fees are set, the overall amount depends entirely on the mode of remittance and how much you wish to send. Any intermediary and receiving bank charges imposed will also differ from bank to bank.

There are usually three banks involved in an overseas remittance: The money goes from your bank in Korea to an intermediary bank, and finally to the receiving bank. Normally this results in four potential fees:

In general, the remitter will need the following info from the receiving bank: • Receiving bank’s name and branch name • Your bank’s SWIFT code (Shinhan’s is SHBKKRSE) • Your bank’s address. You may use either the branch address or the headquarters’ address (Shinhan’s HQ address is: 20, Sejong-daero 9-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul 100-724, South Korea)

1. Telegraphic transfer (T/T) fee: flat fee of 8,000 won 2. Local bank handling fee: varies by mode of remittance and amount sent. Shinhan Bank’s fees are as follows:

TIPS • There will be no inward remittance fee if the amount is less than $100 (or the equivalent), but there will be a 10,000 won fee if the amount received is greater than or equal to $100 (or the equivalent).

Amount (USD or equivalent)

Branch Remittance

Online / Mobile / ARS / ATM (50% discount)

≤ $2,000

10,000 won

5,000 won

≤ $5,000

15,000 won

7,500 won

≥ $5,000

20,000 won

10,000 won

3. Intermediary bank fee (check with the intermediary bank) 4. Receiving bank transfer fee (check with the receiving bank) TIPS • The remitter (the person sending the money) will always be responsible for paying the first two fees and the beneficiary (the person receiving the funds) will be responsible for the receiving bank transfer fee (if any).

• When remitting online, via an app or at a bank counter, the sender can choose to pay the intermediary bank fee or have the receiver pay it. However, when sent via an ATM or via the ARS phone banking service, this fee will automatically be charged to the beneficiary.

Outward overseas remittance: In order to send money overseas from your bank, you will need the following bank account details from the receiving bank: • Name, address and branch name • *Overseas routing number or international banking code: This can also be referred to as a SWIFT code, ABA number, transit number, BLZ code, IBAN code, sort code or other routing number. *While the name of the routing number or international banking code varies by country, the purpose is always to identify the beneficiary’s specific country, bank and branch, and ultimately to ensure the efficient delivery of funds.

We normally recommend that our customers obtain this information from the receiving bank first as any overseas remittances made

126 www.groovekorea.com / February 2015

You will also need the recipient’s personal information, including their name, phone number, address (in Korea), email address and bank account number.

Leaving Korea: Overseas access Q: Can I access and manage my accounts from overseas?

A: In theory, yes. Shinhan does have excellent English online and mobile banking services that you can access from anywhere at any time. However, in practice, no.

As with any bank in Korea and under the authority of the Real Name Transactions Act, should you forget any of your passwords or lose any of your security devices, you would have to visit a branch in Korea to reset or replace these. Likewise, if you have an international debit card, if you lose or damage your card or even forget your four-digit ATM PIN, new cards cannot be sent overseas and your PIN must be reset at a branch in Korea. *For this reason, we advise traveling customers to take extra care, and for those who are leaving Korea forever to transfer their funds overseas (preferably before they leave Korea) and close any accounts.

If you are to receive any funds post-departure (salary payments, for example), we suggest asking your employer to remit the funds on your behalf or to take extra care with your passwords and transfer the funds (online or via mobile banking) as soon as possible. We do not charge any fees for bank accounts left open. Otherwise, any time deposits or installment accounts should be closed.

LISTINGS

Edited by Sean Choi (sean@groovekorea.com)

EMBASSIES American Embassy (02) 397-4114 • 188 Sejong-daero, Jongnogu, Seoul Canadian Embassy (02) 3783-6000 • (613) 996-8885 (Emergency Operations Center) Jeongdong-gil (Jeongdong) 21, Jung-gu, Seoul British Embassy (02) 3210-5500 • Sejong-daero 19-gil 24, Jung-gu, Seoul Australian Embassy (02) 2003-0100 • 19th fl, Kyobo bldg., 1 Jongno 1-ga, Jongno-gu, Seoul Philippine Embassy (02) 796-7387~9 • 5-1 Itaewon-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul Spanish Embassy (02) 794-3581 • 726-52 Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul French Embassy (02) 3149-4300 • 30 Hap-dong, Seodaemungu, Seoul

TRAVEL AGENTS Fides Travel (02) 755-5470 • fidestravel.co.kr Prime Travel (02) 6739-3570 Shoe String Travel (02) 333-4151 • shoestring.kr/eng/abo01.htm Soho Travel (02) 322-1713 • sohoholiday.com Top Travel Service (02) 737-4289 • toptravel.co.kr/eng Unique Travel (02) 792-0606

DOMESTIC TOURS Adventure Korea (010) 4242-5536 • adventurekorea.com Discover Korea (02) 398-6571 • discoverkoreatour.com/en

Explore Korea sonyaexplorekorea.com Joy Leisure Service (02) 2307-8642 • joyleisures.com Panmunjom Travel Center (02) 771-5593 • koreadmztour.com Seoul City Tour (02) 774-3345 • seoulcitytour.net Tour DMZ (02) 755-0073 • tourdmz.com Travel Pants Korea (010) 9961-5765 • travelpantskorea.com

HOTELS & RESORTS Banyan Tree Club & Spa Seoul (02) 2250-8080 • San 5-5, Jangchung-dong 2-ga Jung-gu, Seoul Novotel Ambassador Gangnam (02) 567-1101 • 603 Yeoksam 1-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul Grand Hilton Seoul (02) 3216-5656 • 353 Yeonhui-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul Somerset Palace Seoul (02) 6730-8888 • 85 Susong-dong, Jongnogu, Seoul

Seoul Samsung Hospital 1599-3114 • 50 Irwon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul Asan Medical Center 1688-7575 • 88 Olympic-ro 43-gil, Songpagu, Seoul Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center (053) 250-7167 (7177 / 7187) • 56 Dalseongro, Jung-gu, Daegu

Airlines Korean Air 1588-2001 Asiana Airlines 1588-8000 Lufthansa (02) 2019-0180 Garuda Indonesia (02) 773-2092 • garuda-indonesia.co.kr Jeju Air 1599-1500 T’way Air 1688-8686

Eton House Prep (02) 749-8011 • 68-3 Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul A unique British-style Prep School for children of all nationalities from 2-13 years of age. A broad, challenging and innovative curriculum preparing pupils for senior school and life beyond. www.etonhouseprep.com Branksome Hall Asia (02) 6456-8405 • Daejung-eup, Seogipo-si, Jeju Island Daegu Intl. School (053) 980-2100 • 1555 Bongmu-dong, Donggu, Daegu

Dulwich College Seoul (02) 3015-8500 • 6 Sinbanpo-ro 15-gil, Seocho-gu, Seoul admissions@dulwich-seoul.kr www.dulwich-seoul.kr The curriculum from Toddler to IGCSE (ages 2 years to 16 years) follows the best practice of the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework and English National Curriculum enhanced for an international setting.

Jin Air 1600-6200 D ETUR

Park Hyatt Seoul (02) 2016-1234 • 606 Teheran-ro, Gangnamgu, Seoul Lotte Hotel Busan (051) 810-1000 • 772 Gaya-daero, Busanjin-gu, Busan Park Hyatt Busan (051) 990-1234 • 51, Marine City 1-ro, Haeundae-gu, Busan 612-824, Korea

EMERGENCY MEDICAL CENTERS Gangnam St-Mary’s Hospital 1588-1511 • 222 Banpo-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul Yonsei Severance Hospital (Sinchon) (02) 2227-7777 • 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul Seoul National University Hospital 1339 • 28-2 Yeongeon-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul

PO NS MU

NDO

British Airways (02) 774-5511 Cathay Pacific Airways (02) 311-2700

AMUSEMENT PARKS

Delta Airlines (02) 754-1921

Everland Resort (031) 320-5000 • 310 Jeondae-ri, Pogok-eup, Cheoin-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do

Emirates Airlines (02) 2022-8400

FAMILY & KIDS

Lotte World (02) 411-2000 0 • 240 Olympic-ro, Songpagu, Seoul

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS

Pororo Park (D-Cube city) 1661-6340 • 360-51 Sindorim-dong, Guro-gu, Seoul

Yongsan Intl. School (02) 797-5104 • San 10-213 Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Children’s Grand Park (zoo) (02) 450-9311 • 216 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul

Seoul Intl. School (031) 750-1200 • 388-14 Bokjeong-dong, Sujeong-gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do

Seoul Zoo (02) 500-7338 • 159-1 Makgye-dong, Gwacheon-si, Gyeonggi-do

BOOKSTORES

Animal hospitals

What the Book?

(02) 797-2342 • 176-2, Itaewon 1-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul • whatthebook.com Located in Itaewon, this English bookstore has new books, used books and children’s books.

Chunghwa Animal Hospital / Korea Animal Transport (02) 792-7602 • 21-1 Itaewon-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul www.cwhospital.com

Kim & Johnson 1566-0549 • B2 fl-1317-20 Seocho-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul

Woori Pet Hospital (02) 393-6675 • 299-1 Youngcheon-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul

MUSEUM & GALLERIES

HEALTH DENTAL CLINICS

UPENNIVY Dental (02) 797-7784 • 300-26 Ichon 1-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul Mir Dental (053) 212-1000 • 149-132 Samdeok-dong 2-ga, Jung-gu, Daegu Esarang Dental Clinic (02) 701-2199 • 26-16 Singongdeok-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul Chungdam UPENN Dental (02) 548-7316 • 131-20 Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul SKIN CLINICS TengTeng Skin (02) 337-4066 • 10th floor, First avenue Building, Nonhyeon 1-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul If you have a skin problem, Dr. Julius Jon will take good care of you. English is spoken.

Nova Skin (02) 563-7997 • 2 floor A Tower, 822-1, Yeoksam 1-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul ORIENTAL MEDICINE Lee Moon Won Korean Medicine Clinic (02) 511-1079 • 3rd fl., Lee&You bldg. 69-5 Chungdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul Specializes in hair loss and scalp problems and offers comprehensive treatments and services including aesthetic and hair care products.

National Museum of Korea (02) 2077-9000 • 168-6 Yongsandong 6-ga, Yongsan-gu, Seoul The NMK offers educational programs on Korean history and culture in English and Korean.

National Palace Museum of Korea (02) 3701-7500 • 12 Hyoja-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul This museum has a program called Experiencing Royal Culture designed for English teachers to help learn about Joseon royal culture.

Seodaemun Museum of Natural History (02) 330-8899 • 141-52 Yeonhui-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul Don’t know where to take your kids on weekends? This museum exhibits a snapshot of the world and animals.

National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea (02) 2188-6000 • 313 Gwangmyeong-ro, Gwacheon-si, Gyeonggi-do Leeum Samsung Museum of Art (02) 2014-6901• 747-18 Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Closed on Mondays, New Year’s Day, Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays.

Kumho Museum (02) 720-5114 • 78 Sagan-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Closed on Mondays.

Soseng Clinic (02) 2253-8051• 368-90 Sindang 3-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul

Gallery Hyundai (02) 734-6111~3 • 22 Sagan-dong, Jongnogu, Seoul The first specialized art gallery in Korea and Yaksan Obesity Clinic accommodates contemporary art.

(02) 582-4246 • 1364-7, Seocho 2-dong, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Closed on Mondays, New Seocho-gu, Seoul • www.dryaksan.com Year’s Day, Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays.

FITNESS Reebok Crossfit Sentinel (02) 790-0801 • reebokcrossfitsentinel.com

Exxl Fitness Gangnam Finance Center, 737 Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul • www.exxl.co.kr Daily Morning Ashtanga Yoga Mysore Classes (English) Jivamukti, Forrest, Universal Yoga (Korean) Apgujeong Rodeo Stn, Exit 4 (02) 515-6011• www.taoyoga.kr

UROLOGY & OB Tower Urology (02) 2277-6699 • 5th fl. 119 Jongno 3-ga, Jongno-gu, Seoul

Plateau (02) 1577-7595 • 50 Taepyung-ro 2-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul 10 a.m.-6 p. m. Closed on Mondays.

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul (MMCA SEOUL) (02) 3701-9500 • 30 Samcheong-ro, Sogyeok-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul Daegu Art Museum (053) 790-3000 • 374 Samdeok-dong, Suseong-gu, Daegu Art space for local culture presenting Daegu’s contemporary fine arts and internationally renowned artists.

Restaurants

Hair & Joy Served as Art Director at London’s Renowned RUSH SALON and nominated by the Guardian for “Best Hairdresser”

Trained at Toni & Guy and Vidal Sassoon Academy in UK Color, Perm, Magic Straight, Treatment and more English Spoken For more info, call Johnny Phone 02.363.4253 Mobile 010.5586.0243

Hair&Joy

Mapo-gu Dong gyo-dong 168-3_ 3F Seven Uniqlo Springs

HonhIk Univ. Stn. Line2 Exit8

www.hairandjoy.com Gangnam Apgujeong Branch

Qunohair

Phone 02.549.0335 www.qunohair.com 10-6, Dosan-daero 45-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul

range Cab

Travel In Comfort!

Best taxi service to Incheon and Gimpo airports We charge by meter (toll fees subject to surcharge)

TAXI orangecabwork@gmail.com

010-5960-0679

AMERICAN & BRUNCH

JAPANESE

Jo’s Basket Grill & Dining (02) 744-0701 • 31-37 Dongsoong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul

Jin Donburi (02) 2235-1123 • 103-9 Jeodong 1-ga, Junggu, Seoul The chef here trained in Japan and serves an authentic Japanese-style donburi (donkatsu over rice) at an affordable price. Katsudon goes for 6,000 won.

KOREAN & BBQ

Small Happiness in the Garden (02) 975-3429 • 28-3 Jeodong 1-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul

DONKATSU

Jang Sa Rang (02) 546-9994 • 624-47 Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul The menu at this traditional Korean restaurant ranges from classic kimchi pancakes and stone pot rice to an array of meats and veggies.

Dr. Oh’s King-size Donkatsu / O Baksane Donkatsu (02) 3673-5730 • 131-32 Seongbuk-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul This place serves donkatsu the size of a car wheel and this restaurant dares you to finish it in one sitting.

Ondal (02) 450-4518 • 177 Walkerhill-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul Looking to impress a date or a business partner? Head to the premier traditional Korean restaurant in Seoul.

Myeongdong Donkatsu (02) 776-5300 • 59-13 Myeong-dong 1-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul This is the most popular and oldest Japanese-style donkatsu restaurant in Myeong-dong. Try the wasabi.

Hadongkwan (02) 776-5656 • 10-4 Myungdong 1-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul This place simply has the best gomtang (beef soup) in Seoul.

Namsan Donkatsu (02) 777-7929 • 49-24 Namsandong 2-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul Since 1992, this casual Korean-style donkatsu restaurant has been a favorite of Namsan hikers and taxi drivers.

Two Plus (02) 515-5712 • B1 fl. 532-9 Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul Served here is a high-quality beef loin at a reasonable price.

Tosokchon (Samgyetang) (02) 737-7444 • 85-1 Chebu-dong, Jongnogu, Seoul A popular Korean-style chicken soup with ginseng is a specialty. Former presidents enjoyed this restaurant. A bowl of soup costs just 15,000 won.

INTERNATIONAL Battered Sole (02) 322-8101 • 52-23 Changcheon-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul Battered Sole is a relative newcomer, but they serve up some of the best fish and chips in Korea. This is the real deal.

Simply India (02) 744-6333• 1-79 Dongsung-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul

THAI & VIETNAMESE

VEGETARIAN

Pho Hoa (02) 792-8866 • 737-4, Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Sanchon (02) 735-0312 • 14 Gwanghun-dong, Jongnogu, Seoul www.sanchon.com

ITALIAN & FRENCH Pizza Hill (02) 450-4699 • 177 Walkerhill-ro, Gwangjingu, Seoul The first restaurant to serve pizza in Korea.

MEXICAN & TEX-MEX Dos Tacos (Gangnam) (02) 593-5904 • 104 Dessian Luv, 1303-35 Seocho-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul The best and largest taco franchise in Korea.

Try out their shrimp potato burrito.

Grill5taco (02) 515-5549 • 519-13 Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul

Veggie Holic 070 4114-0458 • 204-59 Donggyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul www.veggieholic.co.kr March Rabbit (02) 3444-4514 • 560 Sinsa-dong, Gangnamgu, Seoul Daegu 5th Lounge (053) 764-3579 • 207-10 Doosan-dong, Suseong-gu, Daegu This fabulous lounge does just about everything right. If you’re in search of space for private parties, this is the place.

G’day (American & Brunch) (053) 746-1217 • 980-9 Suseongdong 4-ga, Suseong-gu, Daegu This Aussie brunch cafe serves the best brunch in Daegu at the best price. www.facebook.com/CafeGday

Night clubS The Paris (Italian & French) (053) 763-8998 • 207-10 Doosan-dong, Suseong-gu, Daegu This place offers fine dining in one of the few authentic French restaurants in town.

Dos Tacos (Mexican & Tex-Mex) (053) 255-4885 • 34-4 Dongsung-ro 2-ga, Jung-gu, Daegu Pan Asia (International) (053) 287-7940 • 2 fl., 21-9 Samdeok-dong, Jung-gu, Daegu South St. (American) (053) 471-7867 • 664-10 Bongdeok 3-dong, Nam-gu, Daegu Bagel Doctor (Café) (053) 421-6636 • Samdeokdong 2-ga, Jung-gu, Daegu Miyako (Japanese) (053) 761-5555 • 402-5 Sang-dong, Suseong-gu, Daegu Beyond Factory (Italian/café) (053) 255-7614 • 40-63 Daebong-dong, Jung-gu, Daegu Italy & Italy (Italian/French) (053) 423- 5122 • 22-2, Samdeok-dong 1-ga, Jung-gu, Daegu

La Luce (European) (053) 255-7614 • 40-63 Daebong-dong, Jung-gu, Daegu Ariana Boccaccio Hotel Brau (Buffet) (051) 767-7913 • 200-1, Dusan-dong, Suseong-gu, Daegu Thursday Party (Bar) 21-23 Samdeok-dong 1-ga, Jung-gu, Daegu Busan Rock N Roll (Bar) 2 fl, 56-5, Daeyeon 3-dong, Nam-gu, Busan Wolfhound (Irish Pub) (051) 746-7913 • 2 fl, 1359, U 1-dong, Haeundae-gu, Busan Fuzzy Navel (Mexican Pub) (051) 754- 6349 • 178-13, Millak-dong, Suyeong-gu, Busan Farmer’s Hamburger (American) (051) 244-5706 • 35-1 Daechungdong 2-ga, Jung-gu, Busan The Pho (Vietnamese) (051) 256-8055 • Saeabusan town, Sinchangdong 1-ga, Jung-gu, Busan

The Grill On The Beach (Pub) (051) 731-9799 • B1 fl. Sea star bldg., 1417-2 Jung 1-dong, Haeundae-gu, Busan This submarine-themed pub carries international beer and a wide selection of wine.

Paniere (Café) (051) 817-8212 • 225-1 Bujeon-dong, Jin-gu, Busan The European-style brunch restaurant/café serves fresh fruit juice and sandwiches.

DRINKS

Octagon 175-2 Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul Cocoon 364-26 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul Eden

Ritz Carlton 602 Yeoksam-dong, Gangnamgu, Seoul Elune

1408-5 Jung 1-dong, Haeundae-gu, Busan Mass 1306-8 Seocho 4-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul

BEER AND COCKTAILS Once in a Blue Moon (02) 549. 5490 • 85-1 Chungdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul A live jazz club in Seoul that hosts renowned musicians from Korea and around the world.

Massage, Spa & Beauty Lucy Hair (02) 325-2225 • 2nd floor, 30-10, Changcheon-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul Look your best effortlessly with the help of Lucy. Her internationally trained hair stylists treat your locks with the best hair products in a modern and cozy environment.

132

COMICS

Games

EASy

Crossword - Sudoku

Medium

Across 1. “Darn!”

5. Indian discipline 9. Hit it off well 14. Touched down 15. “__ See Clearly Now” 16. Dike, Eunomia and Irene 17. Tired feeling 19. Intense pain 20. Enticed 21. Italian range 23. Australian ranch 25. Jousting weapon 26. Desist

28. Mace bearer 31. Jet speed measure 34. Euphoric state 36. Beau’s pa 37. U.N. arm 38. Stout clubs 40. Mentalist Geller 41. Summer of music 43. Comfort 44. Proof annotation 45. Light 47. Fasten firmly 49. Plume’s source

51. “Cat on a Hot __” 55. Stuffed tortilla 58. Poems 59. Likewise 60. Small­time 62. “__ a million” 63. Behold, to Pilate 64. Drudgery 65. Mythical enchantress 66. Scottish terrier 67. Support

18. “Each Dawn __” (Cagney film) 22. Apprehend 24. “Hawaii Five-­O” locale 27. Actress Samantha 29. Orpheus’ instrument 30. Cut and paste 31. Skirt style 32. Sleep like __ 33. Linked 35. Indecision 38. Robert Louis Stevenson title 39. Son of Jacob and Leah

42. Lingerie item 44. Watercourses 46. Serpentine swimmer 48. A deadly sin 50. Recordings 52. “Ready __ ...”

53. Port of ancient Rome 54. Touchy­__ 55. Land in Genesis 56. Muses number 57. Adorn 61. Name tag?

HArd

Down 1. Singer Lou 2. Native Alaskan 3. Jeweled headdress 4. Time in the slammer 5. Yang’s opposite 6. City near San Diego 7. Fight for air 8. Photographer Adams 9. Conduits 10. In accordance with reason 11. Resolved 12. Walking stick 13. Piano pieces?

Evil

Easy

Medium

HARD

EVIL

JANUA ry AnswerS

Crossword

Horoscopes Pisces

Februa ry 2015

February 19 - March 19

Don’t spread yourself too thin at work this month, Pisces. It’s OK to delegate tasks when the going gets tough. A romantic encounter leaves you confused. Trust your own instincts when you’re looking for the right answer. A Virgo associate surprises you with offensive behavior.

Aries

March 20 - April 20

You’ll have time to do the things you really enjoy. Feel free to delve into hobbies, read a book or spend time with friends. There’s nothing wrong with a little playtime now and then. Dress extra-special at a social event this month. Good news regarding finances is on the way.

Taurus

April 21 - May 21

A former friend, with whom you’ve severed ties, may try to contact you and patch things up. Before you get lost in sentimentality, remember the cons of the friendship – and be on the lookout for an ulterior motive. A social event this month may be canceled at the last minute.

Gemini

May 22 - June 21

Working on a tough project? Draw inspiration from those around you and accept their encouragement. It’s OK to seek assistance now and then. Does your life seem like a juggling act lately? Try declining an invitation for once, and spend some time by yourself.

Cancer

June 22 - July 22

Your intuition could lead you to good luck mid-month. Trust it. Mixing business with pleasure will work to your advantage, especially on Fridays. An important introduction could be made, boosting both your career and your social life. Accept last-minute invitations. Avoid dishonesty of any kind.

Leo

July 23 - August 23

If you’re playing the role of mentor, be patient. Try to give the advice you would have wanted to hear long ago. A change of scenery is just what you need to put the spark back in your fire. Take some time to relax and get away from it all. In areas of love, learn from your mistakes.

Virgo August 24 - September 23

A troubled friend will come to you for advice. Use your logical mind to get your friend back on track. A love relationship needs your attention; try to be a little more understanding in this area. If you’re in a creative field, this month is your time to shine. An old friend from out of town may pay you a visit.

Libra

September 24 - October 23

A negative attitude is your worst enemy. Stay positive and you’ll get through a tough situation with success. Plans could be canceled at the last minute; however, an alternate plan could prove just as enjoyable. Your intense emotions may be too much for a loved one.

News of an engagement is possible.

Scorpio

October 24 - November 22

Stay physically active this month. It will ease stress at work. Problems in romance? Telling only part of the story can make you look suspicious. Being honest is the best answer. A compliment to a female family member goes a long way. Stay close to home as the month ends.

Aquarius

January 20 - February 18

Jealousy will get you nowhere, especially if you’re involved with a Sagittarius. Be strong and talk things out from your head and your heart — and don’t let emotions cloud your judgment. Young children play a role this coming month. Cancer has some news.

Sagittarius

November 23 - December 21

Trouble in paradise? Remedy a romantic falling out. Take a selfless approach to love, especially if you have a Scorpio or Aries mate.

Matters at work are not as pressing as they seem. Take a serious approach to handling “emergencies.” Keep spending to a minimum.

Capricorn

December 22 - January 19

While your career may be flourishing, your personal life needs some attention. Take a romantic partner’s needs seriously. Make the effort to make things right again. A Leo has good advice this month. Listen carefully, Capricorn! Don’t give in to unfair demands from family.