Speakingkorea.com is a website founded in December 2009 by two chaps living in South Korea — Stu Smallwood and Andrew Farrell. As of July 2010, speakingkorea.com was named a top blog by Go Overseas.

What we’re about

Speakingkorea.com is a website about Korean life, news, people, politics and our experiences in this rapidly developing and complex nation. If it’s about Korea, and it’s worth knowing, we want you to know about it. But it is not a personal blog. For example, we will not be reporting what we had for breakfast this morning (Stu had Tesco fruit and fibre, with a banana and a can of V8 — he has this everyday), unless it can somehow provide insight into the Korean experience. We will not discuss personal frivolity in any form, unless it relates to the greater tapestry of Korean living. We won’t write about going downtown some random Saturday night, unless, say, one of us is racially harassed or not accepted into a club on the grounds of our race (happens more than you’d think). And so on.

Why should you read our blog? Because you were thinking of going to Korea too. And if you weren’t then one of your close friends or relatives probably will, already has, or is currently in Korea. So what’s your relative up to? What is it like to live here? What are you getting into when you come? Stick around.

About the Authors

Stuart Smallwood is a Bachelor of Journalism Honours graduate of the University of Kings College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada — a degree which hasn’t benefited him at all since he graduated (mainly due to his own sloth-like qualities).  He has lived in Korea since September 2008 and is pretty sure it will be awhile before he lives anywhere else.

Andrew Farrell is a graduate from NUI Maynooth, Kildare, Ireland with a degree in two of his four favoured subjects, History & Geography. After completing his B.A., Andrew immediately went into the world of journalism, but, like Stuart, he has found his talent not fully appreciated in his home country. Andrew moved to Korea in August and still spends every day debating with himself how he ended up there. Incidentally, his other two favoured subjects have been declared irrelevant for this blog site. They are the fortunes of Leinster in Europe and engaging with two other men and a mobile phone in Germany.

Contact us

We can be reached by email: stuartsmallwood@gmail.com or andrewfarrell84@yahoo.co.uk