This Week
On one day in 2023, millions of South Koreans woke up a year or two younger. Here's the reason: Korea ran three different ways of counting age at once — and your Korean friend might still tell you a different number than the law does. The three systems, the math, and why age matters so much in the first place.
For one Thursday every November, a country of 51 million rearranges itself around a single exam — planes grounded, the stock market opened late, police sirens carrying stragglers to their desks. Here's what the Suneung is, why the hagwon machine turns a school day into a 16-hour one, and what all that pressure costs.
How a boy drilled in the basics by his father in Chuncheon became Korea's greatest export in cleats — a Premier League Golden Boot, a military exemption won on a football pitch, a trophy at last, and now a record-breaking new life in Los Angeles.
South Korea has a word for its national impatience — 빨리빨리, 'hurry-hurry.' Coupang, the country's answer to Amazon, industrialized it: order at midnight, and a box is on your doorstep before you wake up. Here's how a Harvard dropout's daily-deals site became a next-day-everything machine — and what that speed costs.
An ordinary office manager reactivates a buried black-ops past to find his kidnapped daughter — and became 2026's biggest global K-drama, the first Korean show in two years to crack a 20% rating while topping Netflix in 79 countries. Here's why the least prestige-coded formula on Earth out-traveled the auteur dramas — and the old controversy its success dragged back into the light.
It's the most screenshotted goal in all of K-beauty — poreless, lit-from-within, smooth as a pane of glass. Here's where the term actually comes from, the richer Korean vocabulary it flattens, and the honest breakdown of how much is skincare, how much is makeup and a ring light, how much is a dermatologist's needle — and how much is just genetics.
Navigate
What to binge, what to skip
11 stories
No. 02Comebacks, scandals, deep cuts
9 stories
No. 03Skin, hair, grooming, obsession
9 stories
No. 04From street cart to Michelin star
15 stories
No. 05Society, work, and modern Korean life
12 stories
No. 06Seoul, Busan, Jeju, and beyond
19 stories
No. 07Slang, shortcuts, survival Korean
8 stories
No. 08Who's dating who, who's rising fast
8 stories
No. 09Chaebol, chips, and the Korean economy
7 stories
No. 10Naver, Kakao, gaming, and AI
4 stories
No. 11Football, baseball, esports, and the roar
5 stories
No. 12Signed essays and arguments
2 stories
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