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5. Mark Peterson

More on Korea's dual age system demise

I've been thinking more about the “Korean age,” “international age” issue. “Mannai” means “international age” in Korean. Another way to look at the two is to say “solar age” and “lunar age” or, more properly, one's age by the solar calendar and one's age by the lunar calendar. But I've been looking into the issue a little more, and I've found a couple of insights I'd like to share.

2023-07-17 16:35

Good riddance to Korean age

As a “cultural columnist,” I suppose I need to respond to the news of June 28, 2023, the date when Korea abandoned “Korean age” and adopted, officially, the age system used in the rest of the world - “man-u-ro.”

2023-07-04 16:35

What I want to tell Confucian leadership of Korea

Confucianism in Korea is in sharp decline. I would like to speak to the Confucian Association leaders at some point, and when I do, I would like to point out several ways to save Confucianism from an ultimate demise - which it seems to be racing toward.

2023-06-11 16:35

The lost opportunity of Korean language teaching

On my recent trip to Korea, I had the privilege of sitting down with an old friend and “hubae,” Ross King, Ph.D. in linguistics from Harvard and professor at the University of British Columbia. We talked about the dismal standing of Korean language education (KLE) in North America.

2023-05-07 16:30

Lessons from Jeong Mong-ju

On my recent trip to Korea, I visited, for the first time, the grave of Jeong Mong-ju, the famous Goryeo official who chose to die rather than support the upstart Joseon Kingdom in 1392. It's always good to visit the site of important events like the homes or graves of important historical figures. I learned a lot from the visit.

2023-04-03 16:29

The Korean family of the future

The Korean family is changing. That might be the understatement of the decade. Given that fact, then what is it going to change into? It's hard to predict things like this, but there are some signs we can use for our divination.

2023-02-28 16:50

Home ownership and solving the marriage problem

In my last article I wrote a semi-optimistic, semi-pessimistic piece about the new year. I was optimistic that it would be a post-pandemic year with opportunities. But I was pessimistic concerning Korea's population decline, specifically the trend of low marriage rates and the low birthrate. Subsequent to writing my article, in the Korea Times where my article was published, there was an article about government policies to increase population growth. The proposal, in effect, was for the government to pay couples to have children.

2023-01-31 16:50

Upcoming social developments in 2023

I'll leave the political forecasts to others, but I want to focus on social issues. Let's look at social trends and predict where things might go in 2023. And good riddance to 2022, a really awful year - the third year of the COVID pandemic. Maybe I need to admit that this view of 2022 is highly subjective - the fact that it is perhaps the final year of the pandemic is a positive thing - if, indeed, it turns out to be the final year of the pandemic. There is hope, at this point, that 2023 will be a better year.

2023-01-05 16:52

New book on Korean history

I just returned to the States from a trip to Korea - my first trip in exactly three years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was an eventful and busy trip. I worked on a documentary film about the “miracle battalion” from Utah during the Korean War. I had meet-ups with my YouTube followers and made more videos with them. I attended two conferences on “Sijo” (a Korean traditional poetic form) and the spread of Sijo in America. But the events that kept me busiest were about the publication of my new book on Korean history - “Views of Korean History by a Frog Outside the Well.”

2022-12-04 17:02

Sadness upon returning to Korea

After three years of carefully observing COVID-19 restrictions at home in America, I decided that, with five vaccination shots and a decline in the number of illnesses in both America and Korea, it was time for me to return to Korea. I have been struck with so many things about Korea after this long absence, but the most unfortunate, of course, is the tragedy in Itaewon.

2022-11-06 17:00

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