Mark Manson, an American bestselling author and famous YouTuber, has made headlines by posting a video that he “traveled to the world’s most depressing country” after visiting Korea. Manson, a best-selling author who has written famous self-development books such as “The Art of Turning Off Nervousness,” is a YouTube creator with 1.44 million subscribers.
Manson recently released a 24-minute video on his YouTube channel under the theme of “Traveling to the World’s Depressing Country.” During his visit to Korea, Manson met with Americans, psychologists, and psychiatrists living in Korea to look into depression in Korean society.
In Korea, it’s common to refer to the place as “Korea”, and not “South Korea”.
I’ve heard that “North Korea”, when referred to in South Korea, is best translated as “Northern Korea”. It might not even be generally thought of as a different country at all.
That‘s just normal behavior for people of split countries. It‘s not so normal when a foreigner doesn‘t specify clearly which of the two they’re referring to when speaking to a global audience.
And the part about it not even being considered a different country is of course nonsense. Some folks may be wishful thinking out loud, but the general public does not believe they are currently the same country. Some may think of them as the same people, but the countries couldn‘t be more different and divided.