Expats run gift drive for local orphanages

Expats in Gwangju are running a gift donation drive to brighten up Christmas for children at local orphanages. The “Adopt-a-Child for Christmas” campaign is now in its seventh year, and the community is seeking donations to top up the money it has raised from its other activities this year. “We’ve been fundraising for the past few months now, the events so far have included a date auction, a raffle for Kia Tigers autographed baseballs generously donated by Brett Pill, a scavenger hunt and a murd

Dec. 6, 2016

Gwangju center bids ‘Adios’ to 2016

wangju International Center will be holding its annual end of year celebration on Dec. 17.The “Adios 2016” event is an afternoon to look back on the centers activities over the year.The center will also be running a culture tour the same day, with a visit to Hwasun, South Jeolla Province.The tour will take in the area’s UNESCO-listed prehistoric dolmen site, have a Korean meal for lunch and try their hands at making makgeolli.The tour costs 30,000 won for GIC members and 40,000 won for nonmember

Dec. 6, 2016

Seoul Book Club to host Q&A with British author Helen Oyeyemi

British author Helen Oyeyemi, author of “Boy, Snow, Bird,” “Mr. Fox” and “The Icarus Girl” will be talking about her work at the Seoul Book and Culture Club on Sunday. At the event, held in partnership with the British Council, host Barry Welsh will interview Oyemi, with Korean interpretation, before taking questions from the audience. Oyeyemi, who currently lives in Prague, wrote her first novel, “The Icarus Girl,” while still at school studying for her A-levels. Since then, she has published f

Nov. 29, 2016

Seoul Players seeks scripts for 2nd one-act play workshop

Seoul Players is looking for playwrights with original one-act plays to work with for a May performance. Successful scripts will be put through a workshop with directors and actors in March, enabling writers to see how their story pans out and revise it as needed in the run-up to the performance. Scripts should run 30 minutes to one hour in length, and Seoul Players recommends that writers stick to one set and as few scenes as possible, for practical reasons. The workshop approach involves teamw

Nov. 29, 2016

Gwangju center hosts Africa Day

Gwangju International Center will host an Africa Day event Saturday, showcasing various cultures from the continent. The event will open with some family-friendly cultural experiences that guests will be able to try out, such as flag painting, having names written in Arabic and trying on traditional dress. A variety of African finger foods will also be provided.In the second half of the event there will be performances of the djembe, a type of West African drum, and a talk on the links between r

Nov. 22, 2016

‘Life in Busan’ expat guidebook published

The Busan Foundation for International Cooperation has released a guide for expats living in the city. “Life in Busan” is available in five languages -- Korean, Mandarin Chinese, English, Vietnamese and Indonesian -- and aims to provide “all the information needed to help get settled in Busan quickly.”Besides information about immigration services and the city in general, the guide has information on utilities, garbage collection, taxes and other everyday living needs. A list of expat support se

Nov. 22, 2016

Busan-based comedians to play Seoul show

Expat comedy club Stand Up Seoul will host a special stand-up night Saturday with a lineup of comedians from Busan. Stand Up Seoul’s Rudy Tyburczy will compere for 10 comedians from the southern city’s Ha Ha Hole comedy club: Chris Tharp, John Meyerriecks, David Scraggs, Kelvin Brassbridge II, John Durso, Rob Chrisman, Sam Hazleton, Natalie North, Nick Hemsley and Mark Zink.AC/DC cover band Kim Chi/DC will also be performing on the night.The event opens at 9 p.m. at Rocky Mountain Tavern in Itae

Nov. 22, 2016

Seoul Shakespeare Company holds auditions for ‘Winter’s Tale’

Seoul Shakespeare Company will hold auditions Dec. 3-4 for its seventh main stage production, “The Winter’s Tale.”The play -- to be directed by Michael Downey -- will be performed on the last three weekends of April, and rehearsals will be held on Saturdays, Sundays and Monday evenings starting in January.Rather than prepared monologues, those auditioning will be asked to read from short scripts.Auditions are in four hourly slots between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Callbacks will be the following week.To

Nov. 22, 2016

RASKB to host transport talk

The Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch will host a talk on Nov. 22 on the history and recent developments in Korea’s transport system.Andy Tebay and Nikola Medimorec, writers for Kojects, a website about public transport and urban development in Korea, will take the audience through how public transport developed from the first trams in Seoul to today’s subway systems.The two will discuss Seoul’s tram system, which expanded during the Japanese colonial period but was closed in the 1960s, and the

Nov. 10, 2016

Irish association to hold Korean War commemoration

The Irish Association of Korea will host a Remembrance Day event Saturday to remember the soldiers who fought in the Korean War, while also touching on the history of the Irish on the peninsula“Half a World Away” will take guests to the Irish war memorials in the National War Memorial of Korea and at Happy Valley, a battle site of the Korean War, with guidance from Andrew Salmon, a local journalist who has written books on the Korean War.“We’ve also flown in a gentleman called James Dorney, an a

Nov. 10, 2016

Seoul Players runs 10-minute play festival

Seoul Players is holding its annual 10 Minute Play Festival for two weekends, starting Saturday.In its sixth year, the competition received 200 play script submissions, from which Seoul Players chose 16 to be staged in competition.The submitted plays were of any genre, were not performed before and have a maximum running time of 10 minutes. Submissions came from Korea and abroad. Local actors and directors then formed teams to give the plays their debut performances. More than 40 actors are invo

Nov. 10, 2016

Gwangju Center offers new cultural classes

The Gwangju International Center is offering new cultural classes this month, including a course in basic Arabic reading.Starting Nov. 23, the course will run Wednesday and Friday mornings, for four weeks, covering the basics of the alphabet and moving on to reading sentences.The center will also host a GIC Talk on deconstructing the US presidential election this Saturday from 3 p.m. by Steven Ward, assistant professor of political science at Chosun University. Additionally, a one-day class on d

Nov. 10, 2016

Seoul Global Center offers free startup office space

Seoul Global Center is recruiting new businesses for its startup incubation offices in Jongno and Coex.The center provides free office space to new businesses to encourage entrepreneurship. Four spaces in a shared office are available in the Seoul Global Center building in Jongno, and two individual small offices are available in the Gangnam Global Business Center at Coex, southern Seoul.Successful applicants will be able to use the office space for six months, from Jan. 2 to June 30.To qualify,

Nov. 10, 2016

Kindergarten to run fair and market day in Seoul

The Franciscan Foreign Kindergarten near Seoul’s Hangangjin Station will be holding a kids’ market day and fair Saturday.Kids will be able to enjoy a bouncy castle and face painting, or try out some arts and crafts. A flea market and bake sale will run alongside the activities, with a lucky dip and silent auction.The market day runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is 5,000 won ($4.40) for those under 12 and 1,000 won for everyone else. For more information, contact marketday@ffkseoul.com, or vi

Oct. 26, 2016