As a one-stop support organization for international residents in Seoul, the Seoul Global Center has been providing a range of services including counseling on daily living, business consultation and cultural and educational programs. There are 400,000 foreign nationals living in Seoul and an increasing number want to start their own business or are seeking opportunities with local companies.Catering to the needs of foreign entrepreneurs, its Biz Lounge recently opened on the sixth floor of the

Expat LivingApril 22, 2014

Two Korean operas and classic Italian, French and German operas will highlight this year’s Korea Opera Festival set for May 2-June 1. In its fifth year, the monthlong festival will present five stage productions which organizers say will help deepen, broaden and diversify the local opera scene. Two free outdoor concerts, including a closing gala, are planned as part of the festival’s efforts to entice new opera fans. The five works to be presented are Richard Strauss’ “Salome” by Korea Opera Gro

CultureApril 22, 2014

The Korean Film Archive has rediscovered the original reel of a popular film from the 1960s based on a real-life diary kept by a child from an impoverished household. The film, titled “Sorrow Even Up in Heaven,” enjoyed enormous popularity when it was released in theaters in 1965, drawing 285,000 viewers in Seoul alone. It is the highest-grossing black-and-white Korean film of all time, according to KOFA.Despite its box-office success, the film went missing along with many others produced before

FilmApril 22, 2014

As the weather begins to brighten and the promise of greener pastures is just around the corner, a handful of popular artists have organized a series of concerts, moving away from the typical overcrowded, flashy K-pop stage settings. Shin Seung-hoon, IU, Lena Park and other stars will be performing a series of intimate concerts on small stages across the city to usher in the spring. Veteran singer Shin, oftentimes dubbed the “King of Ballads” in Korea, has announced that he will be holding a str

April 22, 2014

Actress Han Ga-in, 32, and her husband, actor Yeon Jung-hoon, 36, are expecting their first child after 9 years of marriage.“Han Ga-in is currently pregnant. Yeon is very happy, because it’s their first child after years of marriage,” Han’s agency BH Entertainment said in a statment on Monday. “However, as the nation is in grief over the ferry disaster, the couple notified only their families and relatives of the pregnancy.”According to the agency, “Han will be focusing on prenatal care for the

April 22, 2014

As U.S. President Barack Obama had once pointed out, South Korean’s zeal for education is second to none. But English language education author Patrick Jackson said effort alone is not enough when vying to become a polyglot. For young language learners, the key is to keep the work interesting, enjoyable and connected to the real world. “The amount of content (Korean) students go through in a year is much more than any other place I know, more than possibly anywhere in the world,” he said. “But i

PeopleApril 22, 2014

Monochrome gelatin and vintage silver prints of subjects ranging from completely random strangers to some of the world’s most influential politicians were on display at the Coex Convention Center last week to celebrate 100 years of Leica photography. The exhibition was held from April 17-20 and featured some of the German camera company’s most prized possessions, including 50 vintage cameras and 50 iconic Leica photographs. The event featured an array of vivid, artistic photographs of icons like

CultureApril 21, 2014

BROOKLINE, New Hampshire (AP) ― In the portrait, the little boy’s blue eyes twinkle as he looks straight ahead. His apple cheeks shine. There’s a gap in his teeth, and his reddish-brown hair is just slightly tousled. He’s an all-American boy. He’s Dick, of the illustrated “Dick and Jane” series that helped teach generations to read from the 1930s to the 1970s. He’s also Nancy Childress’ childhood neighbor and the model for the drawing by her father, Robert Childress, that along with Jane, Sally,

PerformanceApril 21, 2014

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Captain America continues to vanquish box office foes, triumphing in ticket sales for the third consecutive week and dominating over megastar Johnny Depp’s new movie.“Captain America: The Winter Soldier” added another $26 million to its coffers, according to studio estimates Sunday, while Depp’s sci-fi thriller, “Transcendence,” opened in fourth place with $11 million. Directed by longtime Christopher Nolan cinematographer Wally Pfister, the Warner Bros. film is Depp’s third c

FilmApril 21, 2014

A young man follows a middle-aged woman from a distance. She moves through a park in a wheelchair. Once she enters her apartment, she fastens the sturdy door lock tight, making a few blunt clicking sounds. She gets out of her wheelchair and finds a beam of sunlight shining directly into her eyes. The light is reflected off a window in the building across from her apartment block. Behind the window stands the man who was following her through the park. He is tilting the window to point the light

PerformanceApril 21, 2014

Korean-American rapper Snacky Chan, 33, has always been an independent artist. From his start in the Boston underground hip-hop scene in the late ’90s to his move to Korea in 2008 and up to today, he said he’s never been out to get signed. Instead, he relies solely on himself. “When I first started ― first debuted ― the whole system kind of changed. People were doing stuff independent and building their own fan base, getting on the radio without depending on your label’s backing,” he said in a r

PerformanceApril 21, 2014

The members of EXO-M, the Mandarin unit of popular K-pop band EXO, recently returned home to China, where they performed their newest single “Overdose” for the first time on CCTV’s “Global Chinese Music” live stage music ranking program on Sunday.EXO’s upcoming “Overdose” mini-album was originally set to be released on April 21, but has been officially postponed as the nation continues to mourn for the victims and missing passengers, mostly students, of the Sewol ferry sinking. Because of the tr

April 21, 2014

Andy, a member of K-pop band Shinhwa who has been lying low after having been caught gambling illegally late last year, will attend a fan meeting in China next month, his agency said Monday. “Yes, Andy is going to China on request from fans. But it is not a signal of his comeback to the stage or small screen here,” an official at TOP Media told The Herald Business, the sister paper of The Korea Herald.           OSENAccording to the agency, the 33-year-old singer will meet his Chinese fans in th

April 21, 2014

The man inside the Spider-Man suit in the recently released Hollywood blockbuster “The Amazing Spider Man 2” is not only Andrew Garfield, but also Korean-American Ilram Choi.According to Sony Pictures Releasing Walt Disney Studios Korea on Monday, “The Hollywood stuntman Ilram Choi has participated as one of Andrew Garfield’s stunt doubles in the recent Amazing Spider-Man movie series, as he did during the first movie.” (Director Marc Webb’s SNS)According to the motion picture distributor, Choi

PerformanceApril 21, 2014

In Bong Joon-ho’s 2006 film “The Host,” its gigantic, amphibious monster ― which emerges after an American military pathologist dumps bottles of formaldehyde into Seoul’s Han River ― does not move forward. The ferocious creature stays by the river, as if it is trapped, even after kidnapping a teenage girl. Scholar and filmmaker Kim So-young thinks director Bong’s monster is a symbol of South Korea’s geographically isolated condition ― the country is practically an island as its division with Nor

FilmApril 20, 2014

VIENNA (AFP) ― Tyres “burn” in a corner, gas masks and truncheons hang from the ceiling: as unrest rocks Ukraine, art from Kiev’s Maidan is already making its debut in a Vienna museum. The exhibit is titled “I Am a Drop in the Ocean” after a slogan used by the protesters on the Maidan, or Independence Square. Thrown together in just five weeks, the works by some 40 Ukrainian artists were inspired by or eerily prescient of the clashes that helped topple the government in February. Protesters with

PerformanceApril 20, 2014