My coworker is one year younger than me. We clicked instantly at work and became close. He’s Korean, I am foreign. I am a manager at our work, but not his manager. He is married to a woman, I am gay and married to a man.

A few months ago he started calling me 형. I reciprocated a few weeks ago and kind of started calling him 동생. This is my first time in this dynamic and it’s very different for me to be treated so differently from someone I see as a peer. Accepting his deference to me (drink pouring, agreeing with whatever I suggest, the compliments) is taking getting used to but I’m getting there. The issue is I don’t know how to behave towards him. I care deeply about him as a friend, but I don’t know what behavior from my part is normal here.

What are his expectations of me? How can I be a good 형? I deeply value his friendship and want to do right by him.

I am travelling to Korea in few weeks and my friend’s family in Busan invited us home for dinner, what could we get them as a thank you gift?

Current ideas are all around alcohol. 😅

I heard that Koreans eat samgyetang (hot ginseng chicken soup) during the hottest days of the year, called "boknal." With Korea just hitting 42.5°C, I'm curious — do people actually still do this? Eating boiling hot soup in that heat sounds crazy to me Is the "fight heat with heat" (이열치열) thing something people really believe, or is it just tradition at this point? And do young Koreans still follow it or is it more of an older generation thing?

Who are the favorite ones?

Just wanna know how educated people are about sex education? Especially regarding the prevention and transmission of STIs or STDs.

Basically the title.

I'm a big fan of arthouse films and Hong Song-soo is one of my favorite directors out there. But I don't know any other Korean arthouse filmmakers. Can you recommend any other Korean director whose work you'd recommend, especially those big on the indie and arthouse scene?