Seoul Side
Life, culture, food, music, and the cross cultural lens, from twenty four years living and working in Seoul. An honest, personal view of Korea for the professionally curious.
Seoul Side
Every Piece In Seoul Side
-
Seoul SideSeoul’s Night Economy Plan: What the Data Says It Gets Right and Wrong
Seoul now has a plan for its night economy: ₩5 trillion in extra spending, 30 million visitors and 25 night markets. Here is what...
-
Seoul SideHow Many Taps for a Coffee? Kiosks in Korea, the Good, the Bad and the UX
87.7% of Seoul adults have used a kiosk, and 36.3% of people have given up on an order halfway. Why introverts love them, why...
-
Seoul SideHow to Look Present and Confident in a Korean Video Call
A question that comes up constantly now that so many meetings happen over video: do the same hierarchy rules that shape an in person...
-
Seoul SideWhat Executive Presence Actually Looks Like in a Korean Company
A question I hear constantly from professionals, Korean and foreign, moving into more senior roles here: what does executive presence actually look like in...
-
Seoul SideWhat’s Actually Trending in Seoul Right Now: A 2026 Field Guide
I have lived through enough Seoul summers now to notice when the city actually changes shape, not just when a new cafe opens. 2026...
-
Seoul SideGetting Hired at a Foreign Company While Based in Korea
Every year, a wave of my students and coaching clients decide they want to work at 외국계 기업… a foreign or multinational company operating...
-
Seoul SideWhat South Korea’s Defamation Laws Actually Mean for Social Media, Reviews, and Being Found
A question that comes up constantly with clients and students working in or with Korea, on either side of a screen: what can I...
-
Seoul SideHow Korean Workplace Hierarchy Actually Works (And Why Most Foreigners Read It Wrong)
Korean workplace hierarchy is real, consequential, and almost always misread by foreigners in the first months. Here is how it works.
-
Seoul SideSeoul Spring Trends 2026: What Is Actually Happening in Food, Fashion, and Culture
Every year has its thing. Here is what is actually moving in Seoul this spring — food, fashion, nightlife, and neighbourhoods.
-
Seoul SideKorean Music 2026: What Korea Is Actually Listening To Beyond K-Pop
K-Pop gets the global headlines. What is actually happening inside Korean music culture in 2026 is more interesting.
-
Seoul SideNetworking in Seoul: What Foreigners Get Wrong in the First Ten Minutes
The first ten minutes of a Seoul networking event establish more about your professional credibility than most foreign professionals realise. Here is what those...
-
Seoul SideNaver Blog vs WordPress: Why Korean Professionals Build Audiences Differently
The decision between Naver Blog and a self-hosted platform is not primarily a technical one. It is a decision about where your audience searches...
-
Seoul Side체면 (Chemyeon) in Korean Professional Culture: Not Face, But Keeping Your Word
체면 is usually translated as face. That translation captures the status dimension but misses the more practically useful one: the coherence between who you...
-
Seoul Side인맥 (Inmak): Why Korean Professional Networking Is Not What You Think
인맥 is not the Korean word for networking. It describes something more demanding and more valuable. Here is the distinction that changes how you...
-
Seoul SideThe Meeting That Should Have Been an Email Was Probably Also a Bad Meeting
The standard complaint about unnecessary meetings misses the more interesting problem. Most bad meetings are bad because of what happened before anyone entered the...
-
Seoul SideYou Have Three Seconds to Make a First Impression in Korea. Most Foreigners Waste Them.
In Korea, the way you give and receive a card tells someone more about you in three seconds than your LinkedIn profile tells them...
-
Seoul SideThe Part of Korean Professional Communication Nobody Puts in the Training Manual
Silence in Korean professional communication is not the absence of a message. It is a message. Learning to read it took years. Here is...
-
Seoul SideLinkedIn in Korea: Why the Rules Are Different
The LinkedIn strategies that work in North America and Europe land very differently in a professional culture built on different social norms, different relationship...
-
Seoul SideWhat Seoul Nights Mean to the People Living Them
The data on Seoul’s nightlife audience challenges almost every assumption the industry makes, starting with who is actually in the room. Spending time in...
-
Seoul SideWhat Twenty Years in Korea Taught Me About Professional Trust
Most Western professionals think about trust as something you earn quickly and rebuild if it breaks. Korea taught me that is the wrong model...
-
Seoul Side눈치: The Communication Skill the World Is Finally Starting to Notice
Western professionals have spent decades developing emotional intelligence, communication frameworks, and leadership presence programmes. They have been missing the thing that actually makes communication...
-
Seoul SideWhat Working in Korea for 20 Years Teaches You That Business School Doesn’t
Twenty years is long enough to stop being surprised. Long enough to stop interpreting silence as rudeness, hierarchy as inefficiency, or indirectness as dishonesty....