2S2 is a regular meet-up where expats, and anyone, can get together, build and strengthen connections, learn about Korea and integrate in Korean society. We hope that 2S2 will help expats in Korea participate more meaningfully in the country we share with Korean natives, and that we can have a better experience of Korea by doing so.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

2S2 On Saturday: Also in the Korea Herald

This Saturday, December 12th, the inagural 2S2 Meetup Location is having its third meeting.

If you are visiting this site after reading about 2S2 in The Korea Herald, here is some more background, to learn a bit more about the 2S2 community project:

I'm Roboseyo, and here's the blog post, at my usual blog, Roboseyo.blogspot.com, where I initially explained what 2S2 is meant to be about.

Here's a report on the November meetup, at Foreign/er Joy's blog.

Here's the article about 2S2 that was in The Korea Herald on Wednesday, December 9, 2009.

Also: join the facebook group.

Moreover: 2S2 is looking for founders for new 2S2 pockets in other locations! After all, it's not a network until it has more than a single point. Here's an explanation of what it takes to organize a pocket (not much, really)

From there, all anybody needs to do is send an e-mail to roboseyo at gmail dot com, to tell me the location they've set for their 2S2 meet-up. I'll publish it on the website, and ask my friends online to spread the word. The only other thing is to show up at the given location, at the right time each month. I recommend well-known or easy to find locations, and I dis-recommend bars: the whole point of this thing is to break out of some of the negative expat stereotypes, including the alcohol-related ones.

We're especially hoping for people in cities other than Seoul to start up 2S2 pockets in places like Daegu, Daejeon, Busan, Gwangju, the provinces, and some of the satellite cities around the big cities: Gimpo, Ilsan, Bundang, and so forth.

And if you have a place or an activity to suggest, leave a comment, or send an e-mail. We're especially looking for community building activities, and community engagement activities -- that is, activities that are more than just social meetups, but can double as opportunities for us expats to begin that all-important public relations campaign where we start getting involved, and spreading word about ways that non-Koreans are contributing positively to Korean society.

from the Korea Herald article:

The fact is, nobody really knows when the next situation will arise when everybody shakes their head and wishes we expats were organized enough to do something. Nobody knows when they'll need a few pals in the neighborhood to help them out of a jam, but when that time comes, it'll be good to have a network already in place, and ready to act, whether that's helping someone with medical bills, mounting a positive public image campaign to balance out negative media reports, or simply supplying a couch to crash on, for somebody who's having trouble with their landlord. Whatever the case may be, the expat community in Korea needs to get connected, so that we can add up to more than the sum of our parts, and present an image that is more positive than the one that has been foisted upon us by other people's agendas.

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