What's it really like to study in South Korea? In this episode, I sit down with four exchange students from around the world to talk honestly and openly about their experiences at Korean universities. We cover everything from first impressions and making Korean friends to campus culture, visa challenges, professors, trends, expectations, and the toughest parts of living here as a foreigner.

Dillon

Lia (https://www.instagram.com/lia_nana9/)

Zhaniya

Joana

Topics & Timestamps

0:00 Expectations Before Coming to Korea

10:10 First Impressions

20:00 Interacting with Korean People

30:00 Making Friends in Korea

40:00 Studying in Korea

48:20 Korean Professors

1:07:00 Korean University Campus

1:13:20 Working on a Student Visa

1:21:20 Korean Trends

1:41:15 Hardest Thing About Being a Foreigner

1:56:05 Advice for Studying in Korea

Thanks to Patreon members: Bhavya, Roxanne Murrell, Sara B Cooper, Anne Brennels

Join Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=62047873

David A. Tizzard has a PhD in Korean Studies and lectures at Seoul Women's University and Hanyang University. He writes a weekly column in the Korea Times, is a social-cultural commentator, and a musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He can be reached at [email protected].

Watch this video next: https://youtu.be/vIbpLfWJoZM?si=srRVQ1vRkLvCV076

Subscribe to the channel: @DavidTizzard/videos

Music by Jocelyn Clark

Thank you to 한종철 for helping me record this.

▶ Get in touch: [email protected]

▶ David's Insta: @datizzard

▶ KD Insta: @koreadeconstructed Listen to Korea Deconstructed

▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128

▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE

▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com

In this episode of Korea Deconstructed, David Tizzard speaks with Dr. Roald Maliangkay about the forces that shaped modern Korea, its culture, speed, identity, and contradictions. We explore Korea in the 1980s; North Korean pro wrestling; the rise of gossip magazines; the banning of Chinese characters; the manufacturing of Korean heritage; and the origins of Korea's bballi-bballi (빨리빨리) culture. We also dive into folk music, Sino-Korean relations, Korea's global image, and the evolving future of Korean Studies. Roald's work uncovers how cultural narratives are made, forgotten, and reinvented. This is a conversation for anyone interested in Korean history, identity formation, and the cultural mechanics behind modern Korea.

Roald's Book: https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Voices-Postcolonial-Entanglements-Preservation/dp/0824866657

Discussion Outline

0:00 Korea in the 1980s

10:30 North Korean Pro Wrestling

17:18 South Korean Gossip Magazines

24:00 Banning the Chinese Script

26:26 Manucfacturing Korean Heritage

35:30 The emergence of Bballi Bballi

49:20 Exploring Folk Music

1:02:15 Korea and China

1:14:25 Korea's Image Abroad

1:29:10 The Future of Korean Studies

1:36:20 Closing Idea

Thanks to Patreon members: Bhavya, Roxanne Murrell, Sara B Cooper, Anne Brennels

Join Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=62047873

David A. Tizzard has a PhD in Korean Studies and lectures at Seoul Women's University and Hanyang University. He writes a weekly column in the Korea Times, is a social-cultural commentator, and a musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He can be reached at [email protected].

Watch this video next: https://youtu.be/vIbpLfWJoZM?si=srRVQ1vRkLvCV076

Subscribe to the channel: @DavidTizzard/videos

Music by Jocelyn Clark

Thank you to 한종철 for helping me record this.

Connect with us:

▶ Get in touch: [email protected]

▶ David's Insta: @datizzard

▶ KD Insta: @koreadeconstructed

▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128

▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE

▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com

Many Korean women face both institutional barriers and everyday cultural expectations. Life often feels mapped out in advance, and those who deviate from that path meet resistance or worse. Meanwhile, the media tends to celebrate only the rich and famous, making it harder to see the everyday heroes and role models who truly reflect women's lives in Korea.

In this episode, I'm joined by Minyoung Kim, Victoria Yi, Sarah Soeun Lee, and Sangeun Kim — a team of writers behind a recently published bilingual book that shares real stories of women's experiences in Korea: their challenges, frustrations, families, dreams, and triumphs. Together, we talk about what it means to live honestly in a society that often prefers silence.

Apologies for the sound issues in this one. It was a new set-up and mistakes were made. Hopefully you can still find value in the courage and ideas of the four women.

Book Links

📘 Amazon: https://a.co/d/hCzXIyF (Currently only the eBook is available.)

📗 The printed edition will be officially released on major global retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and others on December 19th.

If you can't wait, you can purchase the printed version directly through BookBaby: https://store.bookbaby.com/book/bethekey

Discussion Outline:

0:00 Introduction

8:05 Beyond Stereotypes

15:40 The Power of Community

28:05 Writing a Book

42:00 On Feminism

56:52 Hierarchical Korean Language

1:06:50 Changes in Korean Society

1:27:00 Hope for the Future

1:40:40 Recommendations

Thanks to Patreon members: Bhavya, Roxanne Murrell, Sara B Cooper, Anne Brennels

Join Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=62047873

David A. Tizzard has a PhD in Korean Studies and lectures at Seoul Women's University and Hanyang University. He writes a weekly column in the Korea Times, is a social-cultural commentator, and a musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades.

Watch this video next: https://youtu.be/vIbpLfWJoZM?si=srRVQ1vRkLvCV076

Subscribe to the channel: @DavidTizzard/videos

Music by Jocelyn Clark

Thank you to 한종철 for helping me record this.

Connect with us:

▶ Get in touch: [email protected]

▶ David's Insta: @datizzard

▶ KD Insta: @koreadeconstructed

▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128

▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE

▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com

Liss Anda is a clincal psychologist and associate professor working at the University of Stavanger, Norway. Her research currently centers on perinatal mental health. She is especially interested in how cultural understandings and practices of maternity interact with mental wellbeing in new mothers. She also receives clients in a private practice as a therapist, where she takes a humanist and eclectic approach.

She has two kids, two cats, nine fish and some shrimp, has fully renovated two traditional wooden houses from 1908, the latter of which also just about fits her husband. She loves travelling, reading, cinema, eating and laughing. She is a Korean adoptee, born in Busan.

Find Liss online

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/psykologliss/

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@psykologliss

Her book: https://enkelbutikk.no/psykolog-liss-anda

Discussion Outline

0:00 Postpartum depression

5:39 Baby wearing

11:50 Is motherhood innate?

16:50 Are attitudes to children changing?

21:10 Are we better educated?

31:00 Are parents different from non-parents?

35:50 Korean motherhood

50:40 Teenage Mothers and Exporting Children

58:00 Changing gender attitudes

1:08:55 Is the collective unconsciousness real?

1:19:00 Love in Korean society

1:36 Advice for parents

Appendix and Glossary of Terms: https://www.patreon.com/posts/141703371

Thanks to Patreon members: Bhavya, Roxanne Murrell, Sara B Cooper, Anne Brennels

Join Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=62047873

David A. Tizzard has a PhD in Korean Studies and lectures at Seoul Women's University and Hanyang University. He writes a weekly column in the Korea Times, is a social-cultural commentator, and a musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He can be reached at [email protected].

Watch this video next: https://youtu.be/vIbpLfWJoZM?si=srRVQ1vRkLvCV076

Subscribe to the channel: @DavidTizzard/videos

Music by Jocelyn Clark

Thank you to 한종철 for helping me record this.

Connect with us:

▶ Get in touch: [email protected]

▶ David's Insta: @datizzard

▶ KD Insta: @koreadeconstructed

Listen to Korea Deconstructed

▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128

▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE

▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com

Born in Taegu with roots in Jeju, Juhee then immigrated to the U.S. at age eight. As a 16-year-old Korean American girl, she ran away from home in Queens, New York, to become an architect. Having fulfilled that ambition, she returns to South Korea to reconcile with her abandoned heritage, resolve the family trauma, and achieve a sense of han puri. Find Juhee Online Personal Website: https://www.jleehartford.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jleehartford The Fortune Teller Story: https://ghll.truman.edu/juhee-lee-hartford-the-fortune-teller/ Discussion Outline 0:00 Rejecting Korean Identity (The death of a mother and Park Chung-hee on the same day)

8:52 Korean Architecture

19:30 Shamanism

23:05 Modern Korean Living

32:45 How Our Houses Shape Us

40:00 Jeju – The Land of Exile

43:25 Korea as an Emotional Land

48:50 Architecture as Class

54:00 Han Puri

1:01:34 Recommendations

Episode Glossary (New!): https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-appendix-140730565?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Thanks to Patreon members: Bhavya, Roxanne Murrell, Sara B Cooper, Anne Brennels

Join Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=62047873

David A. Tizzard has a PhD in Korean Studies and lectures at Seoul Women's University and Hanyang University. He writes a weekly column in the Korea Times, is a social-cultural commentator, and a musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He can be reached at [email protected].

Watch this video next: https://youtu.be/vIbpLfWJoZM?si=srRVQ1vRkLvCV076

Subscribe to the channel: @DavidTizzard/videos

Music by Jocelyn Clark

Connect with us:

▶ Get in touch: [email protected]

▶ David's Insta: @datizzard

▶ KD Insta: @koreadeconstructed

Listen to Korea Deconstructed

▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128

▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE

▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com

Jun Bum Sun joins me to talk about Korea's unique energy, pungryu, its history, and the healing power of music. We cover Choi Chi Won, Tangun, the Hwarang, Shamanism, Choe Je-u, Tongdo Sogi, AI, K-pop, North Korea, Taoism, and the world ahead.

This episode was recorded in Bum Sun's book shop in Haebangchon. Find the video online and you can see the wonderful setting we recorded in as well as his dog 왕손 walking around.

Find Him Online

Jun Bum Sun: https://www.instagram.com/junbumsun/

The Yangbans: https://www.instagram.com/yangbansmusic/

Discussion Outline

0:00 History as Therapy

9:33 The Taeguk

17:35 Where Do We Come From?

26:30 The Power of Music

40:20 Confucianism

48:40 Tangun as a Shaman

55:30 Wind and Flow (Pungryu)

59:40 The Donghak

1:13:10 Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism

1:20:25 North Korea

1:38:40 The Samguk Yusa

David A. Tizzard has a PhD in Korean Studies and lectures at Seoul Women's University and Hanyang University. He writes a weekly column in the Korea Times, is a social-cultural commentator, and a musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He can be reached at [email protected].

Watch this video next: https://youtu.be/vIbpLfWJoZM?si=srRVQ1vRkLvCV076

Subscribe to the channel: @DavidTizzard/videos

Thanks to Patreon members: Bhavya, Roxanne Murrell, Sara B Cooper

Join Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=62047873

Music by Jocelyn Clark

Connect with us:

▶ Get in touch: [email protected]

▶ David's Insta: @datizzard

▶ KD Insta: @koreadeconstructed

Listen to Korea Deconstructed

▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128

▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE

▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com

While much of the world focuses on the beauty standards of Korea's rich and famous, its K-Pop stars, actors, and influencers, we are left wondering how much of this actually applies to real life. Do regular Korean citizens face the same scrutiny around weight, fashion, surgery, and tattoos? I brought 4 Korean adults together to talk about these ideas and also to reveal some things about their own lives.

Today's Guests

Sage https://www.instagram.com/twopercensage/

Jeoung https://www.instagram.com/jjong___s2/

Nuri https://www.instagram.com/nurichoii/

AJohn https://www.instagram.com/ft.ajohn/ / https://www.youtube.com/@ftajohn

Discussion Outline

0:00 Nail culture

7:40 Pretty Privilege in Korea

18:00 Showing Skin

24:45 Does K-Pop Affect People?

37:40 Fashion Turnoffs

42:05 What's Hot?

46:25 Weight and Fitness

57:10 Men's Hair

1:03:05 Skin Color / Being White

1:08:35 Tattoos

1:16:28 Plastic Surgery

1:25:00 K-Beauty and Cosmetics

1:30:22 A Message about Beauty

1:36:20 Recommendations

David A. Tizzard has a PhD in Korean Studies and lectures at Seoul Women's University and Hanyang University. He writes a weekly column in the Korea Times, is a social-cultural commentator, and a musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He can be reached at [email protected].

Watch this video next: https://youtu.be/vIbpLfWJoZM?si=srRVQ1vRkLvCV076

Subscribe to the channel: @DavidTizzard/videos

Thanks to Patreon members: Bhavya, Roxanne Murrell

Join Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=62047873

Music by Jocelyn Clark

Connect with us:

▶ David's Insta: @datizzard

▶ KD Insta: @koreadeconstructed

Joseph Bengivenni is an artist and photographer who has spend most of the past twenty years living in and exploring South Korea. The Korean mountains and temples have captured his heart and mind, as he obsessively searches for scenic areas to photograph and auspicious places to practice Dharma.

You can follow his journey

on Instagram: @oxherder_photography

The history of Korean Buddhism: koreanbuddhism.wordpress.com.

Photos: https://oxherder.smugmug.com/

Discussion

0:00 Introduction to Buddhism

34:00 Seosan, Korea

45:48 Meditation and Hwadu

1:01:20 Gyeongheo

1:19:20 An Ox with No Nostrils

1:27:48 Daehaeng Kun Sunim

1:38:00 Recommendations

David A. Tizzard has a PhD in Korean Studies and lectures at Seoul Women's University and Hanyang University. He writes a weekly column in the Korea Times, is a social-cultural commentator, and a musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He can be reached at [email protected].

Watch this video next: https://youtu.be/vIbpLfWJoZM?si=srRVQ1vRkLvCV076

Subscribe to the channel: @DavidTizzard/videos

Thanks to Patreon members: Bhavya, Roxanne Murrell

Join Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=62047873

Music by Jocelyn Clark

Connect with us:

▶ Get in touch: [email protected]

▶ David's Insta: @datizzard

▶ KD Insta: @koreadeconstructed

Listen to Korea Deconstructed

▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128

▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE

▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com

Rob York is director for regional affairs at Pacific Forum in Honolulu, working on Korean Peninsular security and Indo-Pacific information warfare. He previously worked as production editor at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong and as editor of NK News from 2013 to 2016. He earned his PhD in Korean history in 2023. Pacific Forum: https://pacforum.org/ Discussion Outline

0:00 Lee Jae Myung

17:50 Trump and Korea

39:00 North Korea

43:10 Communism

47:55 China in the 21st Century

1:10:00 Korea and Japan

1:15:50 The International Order David A. Tizzard has a PhD in Korean Studies and lectures at Seoul Women's University and Hanyang University. He writes a weekly column in the Korea Times, is a social-cultural commentator, and a musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He can be reached at [email protected]. Watch this video next: https://youtu.be/vIbpLfWJoZM?si=srRVQ1vRkLvCV076 Subscribe to the channel: @DavidTizzard/videos Thanks to Patreon members: Bhavya, Roxanne Murrell Join Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=62047873

Music by Jocelyn Clark

Connect with us:

▶ David's Insta: @datizzard

▶ KD Insta: @koreadeconstructed Listen to Korea Deconstructed

▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128

▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE

▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com

In this episode of Korea Deconstructed, I sit down with Ra Jong-yil, a scholar, diplomat, and influential figure in modern Korean politics. We recorded this conversation in his house in Seoul. Born in 1940 during the Japanese occupation of Korea, Ra Jong-yil has lived through some of the country's most defining historical moments. And, in many cases, helped shape them. We talk about his father's role in the Provisional Government in Shanghai alongside Syngman Rhee, Kim Ku, and Ahn Chang Ho. Ra also reflects on his mentorship of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, two presidents who helped usher in Korea's democratic era, and with whom he later served in high positions as well as in the role of Ambassador of the ROK in the United Kingdom (2001 - 2003) and Ambassador of the ROK in Japan (2004-2007)

The Baekbong Political Culture Research Institute: http://bbi.or.kr/

Inside North Korea's Theocracy (book): https://www.amazon.com/Inside-North-Koreas-Theocracy-Song-thaek/dp/1438473729

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra_Jong-yil

Thank you to Han Jong-chul for helping me record on location: https://www.instagram.com/the_story_from_you/

Discussion Outline

0:00 Korea Under Occupation

9:10 Baekbong Na Yong-kyun (Jong-Yil's father)

22:30 Liberal Democracy in Korea

44:18 On Kim Dae-jung

1:07:17 On Roh Moo-hyun

1:27:05 On Compassion, Books, and Myths

David A. Tizzard has a PhD in Korean Studies and lectures at Seoul Women's University and Hanyang University. He writes a weekly column in the Korea Times, is a social-cultural commentator, and a musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He can be reached at [email protected].

Subscribe to the channel: @DavidTizzard/videos

Thanks to Patreon members: Bhavya, Roxanne Murrell

Join Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=62047873

Music by Jocelyn Clark

Connect with us:

▶ Get in touch: [email protected]

▶ David's Insta: @datizzard

▶ KD Insta: @koreadeconstructed Listen to Korea Deconstructed

▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128

▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE

▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com