The Korea Herald

Busan seeks talent show entrants

Expat LivingAug 19, 2014

The Busan Foundation for International Activities will hold a talent show for the city’s foreign residents on Oct. 1 as part of its celebrations for Hangeul Day, which falls later that month.The show will feature entries in three categories ― short presentations, short plays and performances. There will also be a “Golden Bell”-style Korean language quiz.Prizes of 1 million won ($980) will be given out to the winners of each category, and quiz prizes of 500,000 won and 300,000 won will be awarded
[Herald Interview] Ivy finds her place in ‘Chicago’

CultureAug 19, 2014

Singer returns as Roxie Hart in musical
Korean pro-baseball fan gets hero’s welcome in Kansas City

PeopleAug 19, 2014

Lee Sung-woo, a 38-year-old South Korean office worker, has become an online sensation after visiting Kansas City in the U.S. at the invitation of its pro baseball team the Royals early this month.He was given a hero’s welcome in the city and drew a great deal of attention from citizens and Royals’ officials, players and fans.The club invited him as he has been an ardent fan of the Royals for nearly two decades despite having no connection with the U.S. pro baseball team or the city. Lee Sung-wo
Last stop on the Kimchi Bus

CultureAug 17, 2014

Four Koreans cross Latin America with kimchi and sense of adventure
Swimming in summer and ear infections

HealthAug 14, 2014

Going to a swimming pool or a beach during summer vacation is quite enjoyable and indispensable. But while swimming, your ears could be affected when unclean water enters.When swimming or taking a shower and water gets into your ear, you feel deafened or you may notice your voice sounding strange. This is a phenomenon caused when water remains between the external auditory canal and eardrum to interfere with the vibration of the eardrum. You stick one of your fingers into your ear or try to wipe
Tic disorder patients on the rise

HealthAug 14, 2014

The number of patients with tic disorders has been on the rise in Korea for the past five years, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.A tic is an abrupt and repeated movement that can occur in any body part, such as the face, hands, or legs. The uncontrollable making of noises such as sniffing and throat clearing is called a vocal tic.According to the ministry, the number of Korean patients with a tic disorder increased by 7.8 percent, from 16,000 in 2009 to 17,000 last year. More tha
Study questions need for most to cut salt

HealthAug 14, 2014

A large international study questions the conventional wisdom that most people should cut back on salt, suggesting that the amount most folks consume is okay for heart health ― and too little may be as bad as too much. The findings came under immediate attack by other scientists.Limiting salt is still important for people with high blood pressure ― and in fact, a second study estimates that too much sodium contributes to up to 1.65 million deaths each year. The studies both have strengths and we
Amy Bloom’s ‘Lucky Us’ leaves little to care about

BooksAug 14, 2014

“There is no such thing as a good writer and a bad liar,” Amy Bloom wrote in her 1999 short story “The Story,” which remains my favorite of all her work. It’s a vivid bit of double vision, Bloom commenting on the process of storytelling even as she engages in it, and it suggests an edge, a brittle humor that I associate with her. In “The Story,” Bloom describes a widow, coming to terms with new neighbors she calls the Golddust Twins ― until, halfway through, she changes direction, bringing her n
Book artist probes act, art of reading

BooksAug 14, 2014

Peter Mendelsund’s “What We See When We Read” may be the liveliest, most entertaining and best illustrated work of phenomenology you’ll pick up this year.An acclaimed book-jacket designer and art director, Mendelsund investigates, through words and pictures, what we see when we read text and where those images come from.His breakdown of the reading and visualizing processes yields many insights.For example, readers of Tolstoy may feel intimately acquainted with Anna Karenina, but that doesn’t me
Ted Hope tells of indie filmmaking

BooksAug 14, 2014

Hope for Film: From the Frontlines of the Independent Cinema RevolutionsBy Ted Hope with Anthony Kaufman (Soft Skull)Ted Hope’s new book “Hope for Film” is part memoir, part manual, part manifesto as it traces his long career in independent filmmaking, mostly and most notably as a producer but more recently with a brief excursion into the nonprofit world and then onto the evolving interface of technology, creation and distribution.Eagle-eyed readers will spot the plurals in the subtitle, “From t
Murakami recounts pilgrim’s progress

BooksAug 14, 2014

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of PilgrimageBy Haruki Murakami (Alfred A. Knopf)When the bottom falls out of your life, you can’t always figure out what the hell happened. You just have to get through it.But getting through it and getting past it can be the difference between surviving and living.“Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage,” Haruki Murakami’s accessible and often moving new novel, underscores that difference, and the personal journey necessary to bridge that ga
Pope Francis to arrive in Korea Thursday

CultureAug 13, 2014

A symbol of peace, love and new understanding, Pope Francis will arrive in Korea on Thursday for a five-day official visit to a nation still gripped by Cold War geopolitics. A chartered flight carrying the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and his entourage from the Vatican is expected to land at Seoul Air Base, just south of Seoul, at around 10:30 a.m. Thursday. President Park Geun-hye will welcome him at the airport, Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday. “(The president) will treat (the pope) with t
[Graphic News] Pope’s itinerary in Korea

CultureAug 13, 2014
[Newsmaker] Francis: ‘People’s pope’ and SNS star

CultureAug 13, 2014

As afternoon turned into evening on March 13, 2013, in Vatican City, white smoke rose from a chimney atop the Sistine Chapel, signaling that a new pope had been elected. About an hour later, the identity of the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church was unveiled: Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires. He would be named Pope Francis, it was announced. Since that moment, Pope Francis never stopped surprising the world ― Catholics and non-Catholics alike. As the first pope born outside of
Trip signals Vatican’s shifting geographic focus

CultureAug 13, 2014

Young, dynamic and fast growing, Korean Catholicism contrasts with West