About Me – Ethan
My name is Ethan Brooke and I am currently a student at Korea University in Seoul. I am from New Zealand, and I spent my whole life there until moving to Korea when I was 18. Since then, I have spent the entirety of my young adult life in South Korea.
New Zealand does many things great. However, as someone who was just entering university, I wanted to go somewhere exciting. New Zealand is known for the nature and tranquillity that it has, and this is reflected in the cities too. While there are many fantastic cities in the country, I felt a bit bored of them all. I wanted to move somewhere exciting.
In 2016 I moved to South Korea after being admitted to a few universities here. Korea University was my final decision as I thought that the student culture looked among the best. While the university definitely isn’t perfect, I have greatly enjoyed my time there.
Korea has quickly become my favourite place to live. While it’s hard to pinpoint an exact reason why I like living in Korea, it’s something to do with the fast pace of life, the unique culture, and the extreme convenience of things. Oh, the country is also beautiful so that helps!
Currently, I study and do freelance work. Of course, I also manage Seoulinspired as well as a few other blogs and websites. Most of my freelance work revolves around photography, writing, website design, and digital marketing. I am passionate about all of these fields and Seoulinspired managed to combine them in a way that I didn’t think possible.
I hope to continue Seoulinspired in the future. I have no plans to stop producing content for this website. On the contrary, I have many plans that I hope to use to expand the content – both into new mediums and on new topics. I hope you will join me on this journey as I still have so much more to share!
About Me – Seoulinspired
Seoulinspired first began in mid-2018. Although I was writing articles before then, they were all hosted on third-party blogging websites or social media. When I first started out, the blog was less of a blog with articles, and more of a photo library from my experiences in Korea.
When I first came to Korea I took thousands of photos to share with my family and friends back home. I created a Google Photo album that I shared with everyone I knew in order to share these photos and to keep people up to date. However, something that I quickly realised is that photos are limited.
Despite apparently being worth 1000 words, there was something missing. I couldn’t explain why photos were relevant or meaningful to me, and I realised that I would have to start writing more if I wanted people to understand better. Therefore, in 2017 (a few months after moving to Korea) I decided to start blogging.
This went on for a while before I realised that I would eventually need my own platform. My family and friends had already suggested that I should make my blog public, and after some thoughts on the matter, I agreed.
After doing a lot of research I started Seoulinspired. While many people think that blogging is an easy skill (or job for some), it’s actually quite demanding. For that reason, Seoulinspired began to take more and more of my time and I learnt a lot in the process.
These days I run a few different blogs and websites. However, my passion for Seoulinspired stays as strong as ever. For now, I will continue writing about South Korea and that will continue for as long as I stay here. However, in the future, this blog may also expand to include other areas.
I can’t say what will happen for sure yet. But, I can say that Seoulinspired will continue to be updated for years to come. There are still so many articles left to write!
Final Words
Before I sign off, I want to mention one thing about Seoulinspired.
While I always do my best to write positive articles and to share good experiences, there is no denying it. Korea is not perfect. I love living here, and I love the country and culture. However, there are bad times too. I will share these experiences too. For example, I was quite critical about studying in South Korea.
It’s important to remember that these (and everything on this blog) are just my personal experiences. You may have had different experiences, or you may disagree with me. That is okay! But I do want to be honest about how I feel.
Since March 2018 I have been pouring my heart and soul (that pun did tempt me) into Seoulinspired. I want to make this blog as true to my experiences and those around me as possible. While it might not be what everyone wants, I value honesty and real experiences above all. I am constantly striving to increase the quality of content and I always value feedback.
If you would like to contact me, please feel free to do so. Either here, or with the email [email protected].