The Korea Childcare Promotion Institute is the nation's only public institution for childcare. It was established to provide education services for the healthy growth and development of young children. Since its establishment in 2010, the KCPI has been focused on developing childcare policies. The KCPI promotes various tasks, including childcare center evaluation, credential & certificate of childcare teachers and capacity building, and quality management of public childcare. To commemo

Young people face a lot of difficulties, and the problem is growing. The youth in rural regions also face many of the same problems as the youth in Seoul. The world is keenly watching Seoul City’s youth policy programs as an example to follow. To give real help to the youth, full understanding of the difficulties young people face was essential. Thus, the city’s youth support plan aims to not just provide financial support, but also raise awareness of the difficulties faced by the yo

Test your knowledge of Korea with our weekly quiz on the language, culture, history or anything K-related. -- Ed. Which of the following best explains the meaning of "kong garu” (soybean powder) in the dialogue below? Find the answer at the bottom of the page. Soybean powder is a special ingredient that goes with several Korean delicacies; sprinkling it over injeolmi or gyeongdan rice cakes can be transformative. But its flavor turns sour when used in reference to a family. A

지난 회에 이어, 유용한 비즈니스 영어 표현들을 소개합니다. ‘비즈니스 영어’라는 게 따로 떨어져 존재하는 것은 아닙니다만, 일상 회화에서 흔히 볼 수 없는 표현들을 활용하는 것도 사실입니다. 저희 책 『나는 더 영어답게 말하고 싶다 비즈니스 편』에서 뽑은 표현들입니다. 〈법적분쟁, 법적절차〉 1 A: It is my hope that we’ll find an amicable solution so we’ll be able to avoid litigation. B: Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that the victim will settle. A: 소송을 피할 수 있는 원만한 해결책을 찾기 바랍니다. B: 불행히도 피해자가 합의를 해 줄 것 같지 않습니다. SITUATION 합의에 의한 해결을 표현할 때 평범하게 It is my hope that we’ll find a solution thro

Most people never use their middle finger when pointing; it is used only as an obscene gesture. Some Koreans unknowingly use their middle finger to point at a menu, press buttons on the elevator, scroll on their smartphone, or adjust their glasses. All of this is done unwittingly because they don't know what it means and is not intended to insult anyone at all. Min Byoung-chul is an endowed chair professor at Chung-Ang University who is widely known as a multicultural educator and for his

In the US midterm elections on Nov. 8, many political commentators and analysts had predicted a “red wave” or even a “red tsunami” that would have resulted in Republicans’ taking control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. However, no such thing happened. Instead, Republicans unexpectedly underperformed in the midterm. Expectations do not always match reality. What people thought would happen initially is that the Republican Party would win the el

Anyone hoping that Russian President Vladimir Putin will soon find himself in the dock of the International Criminal Court should take several long, deep breaths. While Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine has not gone as planned, his grip on power remains unchallenged. And even if the ICC were to indict Putin for war crimes, it has no police force to arrest him. The international community simply lacks such enforcement tools. But Putin’s accomplices may not be as impervious as the

  One of my uncles in my rural village in Senegal said to me the other day, “Malle! Climate change is impacting our access to food, but most importantly it is destroying social cohesion and creating hopelessness. We farmers have heard a lot about the millions of investments in agriculture, but we are not feeling or seeing it. Does anyone care?” My uncle is not alone in asking this question. Millions of Africans, including me, are asking the same question, in villages, in our cou

Halloween is over; Christmas beckons. “Monster Mash” is out; “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is in. Feel-good movies have replaced seasonal zombie and vampire flicks. In the US, our real-life zombie movie is called COVID-19, and it has caused more than 1 million deaths. Along with that, there have been hundreds of thousands of non-COVID-19 excess deaths, and the number of people with long-term disabilities from COVID-19 may top off at a million or more. But no zombie

The timely release of a new film version of Erich Maria Remarque’s "All Quiet on the Western Front" offers a reminder of the close parallels between World War I and the current war between autocracies and democracies. The fighting now is in Ukraine, but, as in WWI, the broader war has several fronts: the energy front, the grain front and, less well noticed, the Western front. Across Western capitals, autocrat-backed lobbyists, enablers, fellow-travelers and “understanders&r

The United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP27, in Egypt, which kicked off Nov. 6 and runs through Friday -- highlights the growing consensus that multilateral cooperation is necessary to avert environmental catastrophe. But with geopolitical tensions spiking and the US-China rivalry heating up, such efforts seem doomed to fail, much like previous efforts to promote global coordination on vaccines, trade, technological innovation and macroeconomic policy. The good news is that the consen

Min Byoung-chul, the author of “Land of Squid Game” and endowed chair professor at Chung-Ang University, recently held a special lecture to talk about the content of his book with his local and international readers. Min, a well-known English educator and K-Culture advocate, explained Korean culture and behavior, along with the traditional games that were introduced in the book. The lecture was held Nov. 9 at the AC Hotel by Marriott Seoul Gangnam in southern Seoul. Published last De