Many Koreans don’t consider putting Europe and the Middle East together on their itinerary when planning a trip overseas. However, with Qatar Airways one can experience the essence of the Middle East on their way to Europe at a very reasonable price.The airline, one of only seven awarded a 5-star rating by Skytrax, offers many routes from Seoul to European cities via a stopover in Qatar. One can s

Travel July 13, 2011

The winners of the 56th the National Academy of Sciences Award (from left) Oh Saeng-keun, Suh Se-won, Lee Kil-seong and Song Jin-won (Yonhap News)Four scholars have been selected as winners for the 56th the National Academy of Sciences Award, the national research institution announced on Friday.Oh Saeng-keun, professor of French literature at Seoul National University has been selected for the hu

People July 10, 2011

Poet Ko Un speaks to reporter Claire Lee of The Korea Herald near Nowon Art Center in northern Seoul on Friday. (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald)Highly acclaimed poet publishes his first collection of love poemsDressed in a sky blue blazer and wearing his signature glasses with black plastic frames, poet Ko Un could not hide his spontaneous, child-like nature on Friday afternoon. “Let’s do this int

Books July 10, 2011

 Poet Ko Un speaks to reporter Claire Lee of The Korea Herald near Nowon Art Center in northern Seoul on Friday. (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald) Highly acclaimed  poet publishes his first collection of love poemsDressed in a sky blue blazer and wearing his signature glasses with black plastic frames, poet Ko Un could not hide his spontaneous, child-like nature on Friday afternoon. “Let’s do this

Books July 10, 2011

Point Blank (France)Opening July 13.Thriller. Directed by Fred Cavaye. Samuel (Gilles Lellouche) is a nurse living in Paris who is happily married to his wife, Nadia (Elena Anaya). One night, however, two unknown men break into Samuel’s apartment and kidnap his seven-months-pregnant wife. The only way to have his wife back is to get one of the wounded patients out of his hospital and deliver him t

Film July 8, 2011

Seth Gordon knows from bad bosses. He once worked as a dishwasher in an old folks home, where his micromanaging supervisor told him everything he did was wrong ― whether it was stacking the plates, cleaning things in the right order or moving fast enough. “It was really about her need to be in charge,” Gordon says, “and I’ve seen versions of that ever since in different forms.”Which makes Gordon t

Film July 8, 2011

You’re NextBy Gregg Hurwitz(St. Martin’s Press)Gregg Hurwitz delivers a chilling look at one man’s efforts to save his family from his haunted past in “You’re Next.”Mike was left at a foster home when he was 4. His last memory was his father promising to return. He never did.Flash-forward to the present: Mike has an amazing wife and a wonderful 8-year-old daughter. He runs a construction company t

Books July 8, 2011

RustBy Yang Gui-ja(Jimoondang, 5,000 won)What happens to your dreams when you know you can never reach them?In answer, author Yang Gui-ja’s novella “Rust” presents a portrait of a middle class man who no longer wants to be what he wanted to be, and is deeply disillusioned by his old ideals and aspirations.Yi, who used to dream of becoming a journalist, was rejected for his dream job as someone els

Books July 8, 2011

She had to kill off Precious.That was what Sapphire, the 60-year-old author of the 1996 underground classic “Push,” the novel that was the basis for the unflinching movie “Precious,” concluded.The California-born literacy teacher, poet, and author had no choice, given her commitment to social realism: An HIV-infected black woman in the 1980s would not have lived long enough to make it past the fir

Books July 8, 2011

Photographer Yousef Karsh took this famous portrait of Ernest Hemingway in 1957. (MCT)For much of the 1980s, beginning when I was in college, I used to read a Hemingway book a year. The point was not self-improvement but rather a kind of exploration: What was it, exactly, about his writing that I’d missed? I had read “The Sun Also Rises” in high school and had admired its spare portrayal of 1920s

Books July 8, 2011

Cho Joo-hee, Seoul bureau chief of ABC News, poses at a press conference promoting her book, “Aspire with Grace,” in southern Seoul, Tuesday. (Yonhap News.)Cho Joo-hee, Seoul bureau chief of ABC News, has published her first memoir “Aspire with Grace“ in Seoul this month.Having worked for both ABC News and the Washington Post as a foreign correspondent in Seoul since 1999, Cho seemed more than con

Books July 7, 2011

Researcher Song Soon-ok at the Academy of Korean Studies shows a copy of the Royal Genealogy of Joseon Dynasty to the members of Korea’s jongga, the prestigious households descended from distinguished ancestors through the eldest son of each generation, at the newly opened Jangseogak Archives of the Academy of Korean Studies in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. (Claire Lee/The Korea Herald) Ne

Books July 6, 2011

  Five significant copies among 297 returned Uigwe shown to mediaThe National Museum of Korea on Monday revealed five significant copies of the total of 297 retrieved ancient royal books, known as “Uigwe,” to the media for the first time since their return from France earlier this year.Korea retrieved the royal documents ― which contain both text and hand-drawn illustrations of significant royal r

Performance July 4, 2011