Seoul · 9 hours
A Day in Korea
For someone here for the first time who wants to spend one day properly.
Not a route through the places you have already seen photographed, but where people actually go — a market counter, an arcade my father grew up on, an alley that has been open sixty years. Nothing here was renovated for visitors. It is just still open.
And it happens in Korean. I have taught Korean since 2018, to learners across five continents. So the day is not narrated at you in English — you order your own dinner, you say the thing yourself, and I am beside you when it comes out wrong.
All of it is filmed — two microphones, a gimbal, and no performance asked of you. Most days in a new place disappear. This one does not.
I've travelled a fair bit of the world, and what stays with me from each place was never the landmarks. It was the moments someone local pulled me past the surface and simply let me in.
The day itself
However much time you have — a full day through the city, one that runs on into the night, a single evening, or a few hours between meetings.
Pick the one that fits. Below is how a day usually flows — a typical rhythm, not a fixed timetable. Every stop and every hour bends to you.
10 AM – 7 PM · three places, unhurried
A sample shape. Each day gets built around what you want to practise.
01
10:00
Warm-up
Meet & warm up
You'll probably be a little nervous. Most people are. So we start with coffee and no plan at all — just talk, until you forget you were. Somewhere in there I'll teach you the handful of Korean you'll actually use today. By the time we stand up, you won't feel like a tourist anymore.
02
10:30
Museum — words in the wild
Yongsan, where I go to think about my own country
I interpret the panels. The history is theirs to tell.
03
12:00
Lunch — you order
Lunch, your first real meal
A proper sit-down at a place I'd bring a friend. You'll order it yourself in Korean — I'll be right there — and that small win tends to make the whole trip click.
04
1:30
Out in the city — 광화문 & 종로
Old Korea, Gwanghwamun & Jongno
The traditional heart of Seoul — the plaza, the palace gates, and Jongno's old alleys and market. This is my favourite part of the city to walk in, and I'll tell you what it means to me rather than what a plaque would say.
Gyeongbokgung or the nearby art museum if you'd like — tickets are yours, no rush either way.
05
4:00
An early dinner — you order again
An early dinner, the local way
We sit down again, somewhere good and unshowy, and eat the way locals really do. Slow and easy — this is usually where the most honest conversations start.
06
5:30
Walk & talk
Walk & talk, Gangnam
We finish with a gentle walk through modern Korea — ambition, polish, and the pressure underneath — with a stop by Olive Young for skincare and small finds worth taking home. This is the talk tourists never get.
7:00
Dessert & coffee
Coffee, and goodbye
One last café, the way Koreans really end a day — something sweet, and no hurry to leave. Nine hours behind us, and this is usually where someone says the thing they've been thinking about all day. Then you head off into a city that doesn't feel strange to you anymore.
All the way through, I'm quietly filming — and you keep everything I shoot.
Food, coffee, entry tickets and transport along the way aren't part of the fee — we each pay our own, as we go.
What you take home
What’s included — and what isn’t
You’re paying for my time and my work — the language, the conversation, the film. Everything we spend out in the city, we each pay our own, the way two friends would on any other day in Seoul.
Included
Language
- Your prep pack before you land — a Korea pocket guide and a phrase sheet, every line recorded in my own voice
- Live coaching all day — you order, you greet, you ask; I’m beside you, correcting gently as we go
- The words for wherever we happen to be: the café, the counter, the market, the taxi
Time and attention
- Nine hours, private — one day, and never shared with strangers
- A route built around you, after we’ve traded messages
- The places themselves — chosen by me, well off the tourist track
Conversation
- An hour or two set aside for the real conversation — whatever you’ve always wanted to ask a Korean
- Honest answers from my own life here, and the questions I’ll ask you back
What you keep
Part of what you're paying for is the record. I film through the day — quietly, not in your face — so you leave with the day itself, not just the memory of it.
- Every photo and video from the day, as original files on a private link
- Photos within 3 days, video within 14 — yours to keep, use and edit
- A parting gift — something Korean, chosen for you
Not in the fee
Out in the city
- Meals, coffee, entry tickets, transport — and anything you buy for yourself
Arranged separately
- Dermatology, golf, omakase, massage — booked and paid at the place
Most people spend ₩40,000–70,000 across the whole day — two meals, coffee, getting around. I never take you anywhere expensive, and you’ll know the price before we walk in.
The fee is for the day, not per head — each extra person adds $49. Up to 8.
Nothing is charged here. Tell me your dates and I’ll write back within a day. Once we’ve settled on the day, I send a PayPal invoice for the amount above, and the day is yours.
- What arrives after
- Your photos reach you within 3 days and your video within 14, as original files on a private link.
- More than one
- Most people find one isn’t enough. We can set another date — the same thing, a different corner of the city.
- How often I run them
- Two a month, no more. It stops being the day it’s meant to be if I do more.