Useful Korean Websites

After I came to US, I was surprised that there were so many people who didn't know about South Korea well, even less than North Korea. (They recognized North Korea negatively though..) I think I feel sort of patriotism more when I'm in abroad than in Korea. In Korea, I was the one who criticize Korean politics, life style and norms. But, here, I feel thankful if I meet someone who show interests in my culture and my country. And if they ask me something about Korea, I feel a sense of duty that I have to inform correct information to them. So, I started to look up some Korean sites in English, which were useful to introduce Korean culture to foreigners. And, I'd like to introduce some of them to you.

1. Korea. net
http://www.korea.net/
This site introduces some general information about Korea such as Korean history, politics and economy. So, it would be helpful if you want to know overall information of Korea or have to research Korean information in a short time.

2. Korea Sparkling
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/index.kto
It is a traveling information site for Korea. There are some explanations of what you can do, join and taste in Korea. It would be useful if you have a plan to visit Korea, but you don't know how to make a plan. Make sure it is quite different to just travel Seoul with to travel other parts of Korea.

3. Arirang
http://arirang.caption.imbc.com/
I think the best way to know how Korean people live and think is to watch a Korean TV drama. I have watched a lot of TV dramas from different countries such as US, China, Japan, and UK. Korean TV dramas do not fall behind the other countries in my personal opinion. If you don't know what to start watching, I'd like to recommend you to watch 'Couple in Trouble' or 'My Lovely Sam-Soon' first. They are very funny dramas, and the background is current Korea, so it would be helpful to understand how Korean people live and think nowadays.

4. JoongAng Daily
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/list.asp?cat_code=030101
It is the one of the translated in English-newspaper website which is attached to JoongAng Ilbo (Korean news paper). You can check what is a hot issue in Korea or how Korean people deal with world wide issues through this website.

I hope they would be helpful for you if you have interest in Korean culture.