Korea So Far

I am going to Korea next year. I look forward to being able to relay travel observations. Here’s what I can say so far.

I have several distinct personal points of connection to Korea through my family, my husband’s family, and my next-door neighbor here in Alabama. There is a George Mason U. campus in Korea. I hope to explore all of those connections when I go.

KPop Demon Hunters was an absolute phenomenon on Netflix last year. Every school child in America, across every race and state, knew the songs. As for the soundtrack, I determine:
“Golden” – correctly rated
“Soda Pop” – overrated
“What it Sounds Like” – underrated
And what is interesting in September of 2026 is how fast the whole thing died out. Trends come and then they really go in the monoculture (is this the “unicontext”?).

I am learning Korean by doing one lesson per day on Duolingo. Progress is slow, partly because I do not expect to need to become fluent ever. I am enjoying this. I have frittered away a good number of hours on cognitive trivia like computer Solitaire and Wordle. On the margin, I encourage a few of you English speakers to make learning a Non-Romance Language your new game. I have also used Duolingo to try to brush up on Spanish and French, but it’s fun to enter a totally different mindset altogether. It’s also difficult and might be frustrating if I had a higher bar for my performance.