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Korea

Korean pop culture inspires a Korean-language learning boom at US universities

The World's Global Classroom

The demand for language courses on US college campuses typically has reflected global shifts. Today, universities report that Korean-language classes fill up as soon as they add them and there are long wait-lists. And it’s all attributed to a surge of interest in Korean pop culture.

A man wears a black shiny outfit and performs with backup dancers

The 7 global music trends from the past decade

Music
Boy on horse in carousel, looking at camera. Old, scanned photo

On being Korean in America in the time of the ‘Axis of Evil’ and ‘Rocket Man’

Conflict
A scene from the movie "Okja," featuring the title creature — a humongous pet pig.

A Netflix animal rights movie came at a strange time for South Korea

Culture
A Korean bean sprout dish, kongnamul muchim), gets an Uzbek spin (fresh cilantro) at Cafe at Your Mother-in-Law.

At this Brooklyn restaurant, you can get Korean food with a side of Russian history

Food
Kim Craig has spent the past three years in Korea, hoping to get home to the US.

This woman has been stuck in Korea for three years trying to get home to the US

Justice

Her adoptive parents never filed the paperwork to make her a US citizen. So Kim Craig fell through the cracks. And now she finds herself stuck in Korea after a visit, unable to get back to the US.

Kristyn Leach on her Sunol, California farm, Namu. “There is significance to all this in terms of that sense of pride and connectedness,” she says.

A Korean adoptee finds her heritage through farming

Culture

Krysten Leach was born in Korea, but she didn’t grow up eating that country’s food. Now she grows traditional Korean vegetables and herbs at her farm in California — which has become a destination for other Korean adoptees.

South Korean officials trying to convince youth of importance of unification

As American and North Korean officials try to return to nuclear disarmament talks, South Korean officials are using online video and entertainment to try to convince their young people reunification with North Korea is important.

Can the US catch up to Russia in obtaining more icebreakers?

A new ‘cold war’ is emerging between the US and Russia — over icebreakers

Global Politics

President Barack Obama is traveling in Alaska, the base for any effort by the US to have a larger presence in the Arctic. One to-do on his bucket list is to make sure the US has more than just two working icebreakers in the region. Russia currently owns 40 functioning icebreakers with 11 more in the works.

Kaomi Goetz, 44, (r) with distant relative, Alice Thompson, 28. They're both Korean-American adoptees who found a shared genetic connection on a DNA database, after they had met by chance at a gathering for adoptees in Brooklyn, New York. Kaomi is still t

Korean adoptees are using DNA kits to get a glimpse of their ancestry

Science

Most Korean adoptees have no information about their birth families. Can at-home DNA kits provide some answers?

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