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Showing posts with the label Transnational Middleman

From an Aussie Mental Hospital to Korean Universities: A Journey through Misguided Assimilation

In the year 2012, while travelling through Australia with my family, we set out on a quest to see kangaroos in the wild. After scouring the internet, we stumbled upon a series of Korean blog posts that indicated we could encounter these fascinating creatures frolicking in vast, verdant meadows in a small town, roughly two hours northeast of Sydney. We arrived in this quaint, sparsely populated town by train, only to learn we had to journey another 20 minutes by taxi to reach our desired location. A local Aussie lady, upon seeing our group waiting for the taxi, appeared bemused, then left us with this parting comment before continuing on her way: "Our quiet town has recently begun to see many visitors from South Korea." Once we encountered the kangaroos, bounding freely through the grassy expanse, our family was filled with a sense of exhilaration as our ignorance and curiosity were simultaneously satiated. As the lady at the train station suggested, Korean tourists indeed see...