Korean Expat Community for National Disasters

Hello and welcome back to my podcast. I’m Natnael Yosefe, and today, I want to share something personal, something I didn’t expect to feel so deeply when I moved to South Korea. It’s about climate change. But not just the science or the statistics. It’s about how it feels, especially when you’re far from home. When the place you live now approaches the issue differently from where you come from, the contrast becomes impossible to ignore. Back in my home country, Ethiopia, climate change wasn’t something we denied, but it often felt abstract. We knew the seasons were changing. We talked about droughts, about floods, about failed harvests. But the conversation rarely moved beyond survival. There wasn’t enough infrastructure, policy, or media focus to make it part of our daily awareness. It was more reactive than proactive. But then I came to Korea. And I was surprised not just by the technology or the rules but by the mindset. Here, climate awareness is woven into the fabric of everyday life. You see it in simple acts: people separating their trash so precisely into food waste, plastic, paper, and general waste. You see signs everywhere about saving electricity. You feel the cultural pressure to follow eco-friendly habits. Even when you order a drink at a café, you're gently encouraged to bring your cup or pay a little extra if you don’t. At first, it felt like a different world. Back home, we still use plastic bags at most shops. Food waste usually ends up in the same bin as everything else. There are some recycling bins, but not enough. And conversations about the environment are often overshadowed by more immediate struggles like unemployment, inflation, or conflict. I remember the first time I watched someone in Korea rinse a yogurt cup before recycling it. That moment struck me. Not just because of the action itself, but because of the care behind it. It made me ask, “What does it take for a society to care like that? And what could happen if more of us did?” At first, I felt guilty like I had failed to do my part back home. But then I realized: this is not about blame. It’s about awareness. It’s about what happens when systems support individuals to make better choices. When education, infrastructure, and community values all work together toward a shared goal. And that’s when the inspiration came in. I started thinking, “What if I could take this mindset and bring it back to Ethiopia, not to criticize, but to share? To show what I’ve learned here, and open up conversations back home.” Being far from home doesn’t just make you miss the food or the language or your family. It makes you see things differently. It makes you notice. And when you notice, you start to care in a new way. Climate change doesn’t just feel like a news story anymore, it feels personal. Emotional. Urgent. It’s made me want to be a kind of bridge between two worlds. To learn from Korea’s environmental efforts and bring those ideas home, one story, one action, one conversation at a time. And maybe that’s the heart of it. Climate change affects us all, but the solutions will come from many places, especially from the connections we build across borders. So if you’re listening from your home country or from abroad, take a moment to look around you. What’s one thing you’ve learned from another culture that could help protect our planet? And how can you share that with others? Thank you for listening. Until next time, keep learning, keep sharing, and keep acting. Because no matter where we’re from, this planet is the only one we’ve got. And we’re in this together.