WWOOFing in Korea

1. Why I went 2. My favorite task 3. The mundane 4. Expectations vs Reality 5. Still a dream 6. On labor and exchange 7. Tips

WWOOF = World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms

I WWOOFed for a week in late June in Gangwon-do, Korea. I knew it would be a special moment—my first solo trip, first WWOOF experience, first time in Korea (barely speaking the language!), and a big check on my bucket list—so I planned ahead to document the experience. I ended up creating a 7-part short-form video series that I posted on YouTube and TikTok. My goals were:

  1. To remember and reflect
  2. To create something I’m proud of
  3. To push myself to share my creative work publicly (I'm terrified of this)

Some technical things I learned:

  • Covers: YouTube and TikTok handle covers differently—YouTube only lets you choose a still from the video instead of uploading a photo. Next time I make a series, I want the title text to appear on screen for at least 2 seconds for visual clarity, instead of the 0.7 seconds I used this time to keep videos under the 1-minute TikTok limit.
  • Editing to music: I noticed a funky uneasiness when I synced visuals exactly to music beats. Turns out our eyes process things slower than our ears—so if you want a visual and audio change to feel simultaneous, you need to place the music change just after the visual cut.
  • I learned to use CapCut!

This project was also an experiment in re-approaching social media and seeing how much I’ve grown. I deleted my personal Instagram a couple of years ago because I felt self-conscious and constantly compared myself to friends, acquaintances, and people I barely knew. Even now, I still care about likes and views, but I’ve gotten much better at managing it. Some things that helped included:

  1. Keeping the apps out of sight (not on my phone’s home screen) and choosing intentionally when to check them.
  2. Reminding myself that the goal was simply to publish the series, not to hit any engagement benchmarks. This made me feel good about posting and immediately leaving the app.
  3. Not following any friends or acquaintances, and disabling “syncing contacts” so I wouldn’t get pulled into the comparison spiral. Somehow, some contacts still found me.
  4. Realizing that the algorithm is pretty arbitrary, and that many high-engagement posts are paid promotions. TikTok, in particular, was surprisingly blatant about this (see pic below). It reminded me that “success” in terms of numbers might just be money or luck, not necessarily better or more polished content. And it reminded me not to chase perfection.

TikTok promotion screenshot