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Thoughts of the Times

Thoughts of the Times

Being in nature

Looking at flowers lets me be happy and peaceful. It is always a cheerful sight to see our neighbors taking care of flowers and plants here and there. When I take a walk in the mountains, what a joy to see a good man planting various flowers and taking care of them along the walking paths. In another nearby mountain ridge, there is a man who constantly tidies up the winding walking path by pulling weeds with an iron rake. One day, I asked him if he is a volunteer for an environmental protection group. He replied simply, “I am just exercising by pulling weeds.” While walking the trails, I observe farmers reclaiming a field at the foot of the mountains. Sometimes, I appreciate wild flowers blooming in their fields. Being surrounded by flowers and being friendly with nature always bring us much joy, hope and consolation. I think the spirit of being in nature and with nature has been inherited from Toegye Yi Hwang (1501-70). To him, nature was not a simple background, but an object of realizing human nature and cultivating the self sincerely. He believed that nature and humans are mirror

16h agoBy Kim Ae-ran
Being in nature
Thoughts of the Times

How should we live in an age of anxiety and exhaustion?

Alexis de Tocqueville once observed a peculiar melancholy lingering amid abundance. Nearly two centuries later, his insight feels relevant to contemporary Korea. Recently, I came across a social media post titled, “I love Korea, but I also dislike Korea.” It captured a familiar tension — affection for the warmth of "jeong" and the efficiency of everyday life, alongside discomfort with a culture marked by sharp competition, status-consciousness and the quiet normalization of social indifference. Beneath Korea’s success lies a question many are asking: What kind of society have we become? For generations, Koreans pursued self-improvement with determination, seeing hard work and discipline as pathways to dignity and social mobility. Yet beneath this achievement lies a persistent anxiety about inequality, insecurity and the future. These pressures shape institutions but also what sociologist Robert Bellah described as the moral and cultural dispositions that quietly guide how people think, value and relate to one another. In the Korean context, cultural critic Jin Joong-kwon identif

Jun 17, 2026By Chang Se-myeong
How should we live in an age of anxiety and exhaustion?
Thoughts of the Times

An American general's statue

In Korea, June is designated as the "Month of Patriots and Veterans," a time to honor those who sacrificed for the nation’s survival and freedom. For many of us, however, remembrance often feels abstract, confined to ceremonies or history books. Yet sometimes, related memories come back to us in usual surroundings. In my case, it was during a routine walk through the Children’s Grand Park in my neighborhood. Amid playgrounds and shaded paths, I noticed a statue I had long passed without much thought: the bronze figure of John B. Coulter (1891–1983). He was a U.S. Army general whose name is unfamiliar to most Koreans today. As the deputy commander of the Eighth U.S. Army during the 1950-53 Korean War, he played a crucial role in combat operations. Still, unlike generals such as Douglas MacArthur and Walton Walker, whose fame mainly rests on battlefield victories, Coulter distinguished himself by his commitment to Korea’s recovery. After the war, he was deeply involved in stabilizing civilian life, supporting concrete and practical reconstruction as the agent-general of United Nati

Jun 16, 2026By Sho Chang-young
An American general's statue
Thoughts of the Times

Hip Buddhism and Korea’s generational rupture

It’s not entirely inaccurate to link Korea’s post-war industrialization and headlong dive into capitalism with the rise of Protestantism. Its ascendancy eclipsed the traditional and indigenous religious landscape of Korea across a vast swath of Korea’s society, especially among the well-to-do and wanna be’s. This dominance extended into the Korean diaspora. Growing up in Paraguay when I was little, I remember hiding my parents Buddhist religious artifacts from other Korean friends who came to play since I knew that every Korean in Asuncion was a devout Christian with avowed hatred of Buddhism, which seemed backward and superstitious. Based on that trend line, Buddhism should be on its last legs in South Korea. The country is one of the most wired, urbanized, and secular societies in the world. Young people are delaying marriage, abandoning organized religion, and spending more time online than in temples. Yet one of the most unexpected cultural stories of the past two years has been the rise of “hip Buddhism.” In fact, the Korea Times recent published an article titled, “F

Jun 15, 2026By Jason Lim
Hip Buddhism and Korea’s generational rupture
Thoughts of the Times

Life after the curtain falls: What 'Wild Sing' asks of former idols

The performance has ended, but life must go on. The humor in "Wild Sing" begins when actors Gang Dong-won, Um Tae-goo and Park Ji-hyun subvert familiar screen images of bodies that might once have commanded a stage reduced to ordinary survival. Director Son Jae-gon turns the desperate comeback of the fictional Triangle, a once-popular 1990s co-ed trio that disbanded overnight, into a road movie. Through the collision of absurdist comedy with financial precarity, the film turns laughter into social recognition. The comedy soon dives into the realities of life. The group’s leader drifts from one minor gig to another, while another, crushed by debt, swallows his pride for a paycheck. These scenes move beyond comic humiliation to expose the damaged dignity of people pushed offstage and left to survive without applause. Most poignant is the group's only woman, who has traded her glamorous past for a suffocating marriage, only to escape back toward the stage. Their journey confronts an uncomfortable truth: The industry that once consumed these performers as commodities offered them no real

Jun 15, 2026By Park Myung-kwan
Life after the curtain falls: What 'Wild Sing' asks of former idols
Thoughts of the Times

South Korea’s most successful export is curiosity

Following BTS’ return after their military service, the number of Duolingo users in the U.S. learning Korean rose by 22 percent compared to the previous year, according to The New York Times. Well, Korea is usually described through its cultural exports: K-pop, TV dramas, cosmetics, brands and perhaps kimchi. It’s a handy formula, but it only explains the audience’s initial reaction. What’s far less obvious is this: very often, interest in Korean content doesn’t stop at the content itself. It’s just the starting point. Because many people start with music or K-dramas and unexpectedly end up somewhere completely different. At first, it’s a single music video or an episode. Then comes the second episode, followed by a playlist, then short videos about life in Seoul. Next, videos about Korean universities, cities, customs and even everyday details like how people spend a typical day suddenly appear. And at some point, it becomes a little awkward to admit: the interest is no longer in the content. The interest is in the country. This is precisely what makes the influence of Ko

Jun 14, 2026By Oksana Vaneeva
South Korea’s most successful export is curiosity
Thoughts of the Times

The unexpected Korean phenomenon

Six months ago, when I moved to Korea, I expected to spend most of my time in Seoul studying Korean. I did not expect that within a few months I would find myself sailing on a sunset yacht off Korea's west coast, sitting around a bonfire in rural South Chungcheong Province and creating tourism content alongside people from dozens of countries. Even more surprising was how I got there. Before moving to Korea, I had never heard of a supporter program. Since arriving, however, I have discovered that they are everywhere. Government agencies, tourism boards, universities, public institutions and companies regularly recruit supporters, volunteers who help promote their activities through social media, articles, events and cultural exchange. Having previously lived in New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom and China, I was surprised to discover how common supporter programs are in Korea. While ambassador and volunteer programs exist elsewhere, I have never encountered anything quite like Korea's supporter culture. It is a uniquely Korean phenomenon and one that reflects how seriously the c

Jun 11, 2026By Geoffrey Chen
The unexpected Korean phenomenon
Thoughts of the Times

When humility becomes code: How AI is learning to say ‘I don’t know’

Leo Anthony Celi, an intensive care doctor in Boston, is working to make artificial intelligence (AI) more humble. He works at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, leads research at MIT's Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and teaches at Harvard Medical School. In a recent interview, he said, "Right now, we use AI as an oracle. We could use it as a coach." Preventable medical errors kill between 200,000 to 400,000 Americans every year. The range is wide because researchers disagree on the count. Johns Hopkins, in its widely cited 2016 estimate, put the figure above 250,000. AI was meant to bring that number down. ICU studies show the opposite. When a physician's instinct disagrees with AI, the physician tends to defer to AI, especially when it sounds certain. Researchers call this automation bias. Celi's team proposed an inversion. Don't make AI smarter. Make it more humble. Their framework, published in 2026 in the medical journal BMJ Health & Care Informatics, is called BODHI — Balanced, Open‑minded, Diagnostic, Humble, Inquisitive. The idea is simple. Before answeri

Jun 10, 2026By Choi Hee-jin
When humility becomes code: How AI is learning to say ‘I don’t know’
Thoughts of the Times

Pet peeves

There are many frequent subjects of complaint with me. However, the top one is drivers using smartphones without hands-free Bluetooth. The other day, one person was swerving outside of their lane, even driving on the borderline of the road. Firstly, I thought perhaps it was an inebriated driver, but on passing, I could see a lady was holding a smartphone close to her face with her left hand and steering with her right hand. I have observed frequently the manual and visual distractions of such accident-prone drivers. I wish I had the supernatural ability to shut their phones down in the middle of their conversations. Paraphrasing one of author Maya Angelou’s essays, "If you can’t change something, then change the way you look at it." I met her many years ago when she visited our university to discuss one of her books. Remembering her words, I sought to change my perspective. My mental point of view about the relative importance of drivers using smartphones as like the lady mentioned above is subdued. I try to think she could have received a shocking emergency call, causing her to s

Jun 9, 2026By William R. Jones
Pet peeves
Thoughts of the Times

Remembering the Rev. Pharis J. Harvey

Many foreign nationals have devoted themselves to the development of modern democracy in Korea. One notable figure is the Rev. Pharis J. Harvey. Following a visit to the U.S. State Department decades ago, I paid a courtesy call to Harvey in Washington, D.C., where he was serving as the executive director of the North American Coalition for Human Rights in Korea. The meeting was arranged by a colleague of mine who had served as a U.S. State Department official. During my visit, I presented him with an English translation of a guidebook on Donghak (Cheondogyo, Korea’s native religion) that I had authored. He showed a profound interest in the egalitarian philosophy of Donghak, whose values transcend religious affiliation. This egalitarian thought served as a vital intellectual foundation for the development of modern democracy in Korea, mirroring the country's democratization process at the time. Harvey, a Methodist minister and passionate advocate for Korean democracy, was expelled from Korea in the 1970s for opposing the military dictatorship. Yet even from afar, his dedication remaine

Jun 8, 2026By Choe Chong-dae
Remembering the Rev. Pharis J. Harvey
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