🫰Make Korea the first step on your Nomad Journey, with Maciej

✨ You’re reading the DNK August 2025 Interview
💬 Contact: [email protected] 

Annyeong Digital Nomads Korea community !

Welcome to our interview of the month, where we put the spotlight on one of our community members. They’ll share their digital nomad story, how they experienced Korea (so far) and give you three personal recommendations at the end.

Today’s a Summer special: we’re resharing with you one of the early portraits of this series. Written in May 2024.

Was it hard to leave everything behind to start your digital nomad life?

It was so easy. I was very surprised at how easy it was. I bought the ticket, got on the plane, and that was it. I wish I could give advice to my past self: don’t overthink so much!

What made you decide to start with Korea?

I started learning the language in January 2023. I wanted to learn something new after giving up on my PhD. Something not technical, maybe another writing system. I heard hangeul, the Korean alphabet, was well thought out and documented. There were also more and more things happening around Korean culture. It got me intrigued, and that’s how Korea naturally became the first stop on my journey.

Did you like it right away?

In the beginning, it felt like I went through the motions. I arrived on Sunday, and it was a lot to process. I mean, you are 10,000 km away from home, you don’t understand the language that much, everything is different, you’re basically wiped out because you’ve just spent 10 hours on the plane… Surprisingly, I didn’t feel that lost. I got off the plane, got my passport stamps, got the SIM card and the t-money card, got on the train, and headed to the accommodation. Easy steps. I trusted the process. Monday and Tuesday, I was getting off the adrenaline of the stress, the traveling. Then on Wednesday, I hopped on the train to the Hongseong countryside.

You started strong! It’s hard to that fast after arriving in a new place, especially with jet lag.

It was a drastic change of scenery (laughs). I went from Poland to a gigantic city, and from a gigantic city to the countryside in such a short amount of time. The food was so different. Suddenly, I was eating raw shrimp in a shady-looking restaurant by the sea - it was great. It felt unreal. I visited a global BBQ festival where I ended up being the only non-Korean person there. This one was the weirdest experience by far. But everything was so much fun. I think I owe my survival in Korea, my sanity, to that trip, to Jeong who organized it, and to the participants.

When you come from Europe, Korea is such a massive change of atmosphere...

Actually, it didn’t feel that strange, that foreign. I watched a fair bit of Korean TV before coming, which was psychologically helpful to help the transition. Still, I noticed there were no subtitles when people were talking (laughs).

That’s a good line. (Laughs.)

I read it online on Reddit, and I kept thinking about it… It’s so true.

What did you like the most about living here?‍

The food and the community. The food culture is incredible. Eating out is the best getaway when you’re working a lot. I’m so happy I got to do this with the community, especially when I started staying at Hoppin House Coliving and Coworking. Honestly, it sucks to be alone to eat in this country. You feel like you’re missing out because so much is targeted at groups.

Do you like living as a digital nomad so far?

I was a bit worried about the social aspect of it, but so far, it feels like joining a digital nomad community makes making meaningful friendships easier. When I made friends at university, it was a very slow, organic process. I met some people before a lecture. We would joke about stuff, and then build our relationship over time. In Korea - in the workation setting, especially - it’s a much faster and intense process.

In that sense, it’s similar to meeting people in guesthouses when you’re backpacking, sometimes.

People are traveling so much that their perception of time is compressed. They have less time to get to know people, and everyone has some obvious shared topics to bond over, like travel. It’s much easier to get into deep conversations. On top of that, I get to reinvent myself, because no one knows me in Korea. I can choose who I am and who I appear to be.

Do you like reinventing yourself?

Yeah! Back home, I know some people, who’ve known me for 15 years... It’s difficult to be someone else. Even when I meet new people, those past relationships kind of block me from changing past labels - either good or bad.

You did three workations in two months, right?

Yes, I went to Hoppin’s Hongseong workation for four days. Then I went to the Jeju workation for a week and the December Winter Workation, just before leaving. I would have never ended up in Hongseong if it weren’t for the workation, but I probably would have gone to Jeju and Busan. Still, a solo trip would have been less nice than doing it with 8 or 10 other people. Especially Jeju, I don’t have an international driving license, and I got to explore the island as a whole.

What’s your next destination?

I don’t have a clear map, just a very loose plan. Maybe I’ll go to Iceland in spring or summer (2025 spoiler alert, he didn’t). That place fascinates me: it’s so tiny and yet there are so many types of landscape there. Then, definitely, I’ll come back to Korea (2025 spoiler alert, he did. 4 times).

I feel like I’m already missing some parts of it, and I haven’t even left yet!

 💚 MJ’s Recommendations

+  🇰🇷 Talk To Me In Korean, an app to learn Korean
+  🎙️ Dive Studios, a podcast to discover the Korean entertainment industry
+  📖 The Hangeul Museum, for the history of Korea’s beloved alphabet