What do you think?
Rate this book
Bearing My Seoul: Tales of a Black American Girl in a Big Asian City
The truth is always better than fiction!
Bearing My Seoul is a collection of sometimes-funny, always-interesting essays written about a Black American girl taking a job in one of Asia's biggest cities sight unseen.
Back before any of the boys in BTS had even graduated high school, before "Gangnam Style," mukbangs, or most of the world discovered Korean beauty products, Taryn Blake moved to Seoul, South Korea, to become a full-time teacher. Whether a first trip to the public bath, a disastrous blind date, meeting K-pop superstar Rain, or experiencing Korean church culture, like Seoul, this book offers surprises around every corner.
Bearing My Seoul is a collection of sometimes-funny, always-interesting essays written about a Black American girl taking a job in one of Asia's biggest cities sight unseen.
Back before any of the boys in BTS had even graduated high school, before "Gangnam Style," mukbangs, or most of the world discovered Korean beauty products, Taryn Blake moved to Seoul, South Korea, to become a full-time teacher. Whether a first trip to the public bath, a disastrous blind date, meeting K-pop superstar Rain, or experiencing Korean church culture, like Seoul, this book offers surprises around every corner.
- GenresTravel
160 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 18, 2021
16 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 9, 2022
Read this book. You ever have those moments when you walk into your local bookstore and see a book that you immediately feel connected too. But you don’t know why?! Well this was the experience for me. I picked this up feeling immediately connected.
As I read about Taryn’s journey living in Seoul Korea (told via essays) I was swept up in her hilarious honesty and clarity on page. The surprises indeed surprised me. Even more so that no one has reviewed this book and that I’m the one who can leave the first review.
If you want a refreshing reading experience, full of laughter, Resislence, and tour of Seoul on paper read this book. It was so good for my Seoul.
As I read about Taryn’s journey living in Seoul Korea (told via essays) I was swept up in her hilarious honesty and clarity on page. The surprises indeed surprised me. Even more so that no one has reviewed this book and that I’m the one who can leave the first review.
If you want a refreshing reading experience, full of laughter, Resislence, and tour of Seoul on paper read this book. It was so good for my Seoul.
May 21, 2022
Really enjoyed this book. Stories capturing the experience of an American girl teaching and living in Korea. I wish of a little more storytelling and less recapturing of what happened but it was still fun to read it!
May 1, 2025
Bearing My Seoul was a collection of essays of Blake's life in Seoul from 2008 to 2014. I really enjoyed hearing how Blake found community, had cultural shock at times and what she enjoyed about her time there.
I also love that she got to met Epik High’s Mithra and Tablo, MBLAQ Seungho and G.O, JYP and Rain, her favourite artist at the time all in ONE NIGHT. It really showed how small the scene is over there but also how back in the day, moments like those are rare and to be cherished.
But I wish it could have been a full memoir with more stories over the 6 years she lived in Korea. Like in the footnotes, there was a lot that could have been easily expanded upon e.g. more of her friends at church, her second or third time at 찜질방 or even teaching in the area of Seoul she was in. There's also random times she mentioned people in random orders e.g. Hannah which could have been introduced earlier.
It's a good read but it's definitely made me want Blake to write something bigger and with a focus on fiction next time.
I also love that she got to met Epik High’s Mithra and Tablo, MBLAQ Seungho and G.O, JYP and Rain, her favourite artist at the time all in ONE NIGHT. It really showed how small the scene is over there but also how back in the day, moments like those are rare and to be cherished.
But I wish it could have been a full memoir with more stories over the 6 years she lived in Korea. Like in the footnotes, there was a lot that could have been easily expanded upon e.g. more of her friends at church, her second or third time at 찜질방 or even teaching in the area of Seoul she was in. There's also random times she mentioned people in random orders e.g. Hannah which could have been introduced earlier.
It's a good read but it's definitely made me want Blake to write something bigger and with a focus on fiction next time.
December 16, 2024
The only thing I didn’t like about this memoir was that is wasn’t long enough! I finished it in a few hours.
Each essay made me laugh, think and truly smile for her experiences. She is charismatic, witty and open - this was all conveyed through genuine interactions and her ability to record them in such an entertaining way is amazing. I do hope that Taryn is a full-time writer now.
There were a few points in the book which made me almost cringe, like writing in an accent, it came across slightly offensive at times, even somewhat mocking, but for the most part I understood the reason to do so. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoy this short book!
Each essay made me laugh, think and truly smile for her experiences. She is charismatic, witty and open - this was all conveyed through genuine interactions and her ability to record them in such an entertaining way is amazing. I do hope that Taryn is a full-time writer now.
There were a few points in the book which made me almost cringe, like writing in an accent, it came across slightly offensive at times, even somewhat mocking, but for the most part I understood the reason to do so. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoy this short book!
January 29, 2022
Fun to read and hear Taryn's stories of her adventures in Korea. She has a great sense of humor and is very honest about her journey abroad. Footnotes provide some additional details and bits of humor.
June 9, 2024
In 2008, Blake took a leap: she'd always wanted to live abroad, and so she packed up and moved to Seoul to teach English. She didn't speak Korean and wasn't a trained teacher—but Seoul sucked her in, and a planned year turned into more than five.
Bearing My Seoul is a collection of linked essays, though they're interconnected enough that I wouldn't recommend dipping in and out; better to read the book straight through as a memoir. Blake brings a lively energy and sense of humor to the book, plus a valuable directness—I was especially curious about this book because so few of the American-moves-abroad memoirs that I've read (and...I've read a lot of those...) have been from the perspective of a Black woman, and what people see and assume when they look at you is going to have a fundamental impact on your experience in a given place.
I'd love to see a full memoir version of this experience—the current version is quite slim, and with more fleshing out and details we'd get a richer experience. But it pushed me through a bit of a reading slump, so I can't be disappointed!
Bearing My Seoul is a collection of linked essays, though they're interconnected enough that I wouldn't recommend dipping in and out; better to read the book straight through as a memoir. Blake brings a lively energy and sense of humor to the book, plus a valuable directness—I was especially curious about this book because so few of the American-moves-abroad memoirs that I've read (and...I've read a lot of those...) have been from the perspective of a Black woman, and what people see and assume when they look at you is going to have a fundamental impact on your experience in a given place.
I'd love to see a full memoir version of this experience—the current version is quite slim, and with more fleshing out and details we'd get a richer experience. But it pushed me through a bit of a reading slump, so I can't be disappointed!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews