Author Information:

Maarten Meijer spent his childhood years in the small town of Zeist in the Netherlands. After completing his school education, he traveled extensively, from Ireland to Turkey, from Finland to Spain. When Europe became a little small, he sailed a yacht across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. After touring the Caribbean islands, he landed in the USA. He enrolled at the State University of New York, receiving a bachelor's degree in science and a master's degree in philosophy. In 1982, he met his wife Myra, a New York City native. In 1991, a taste for new adventure drove the family, which by then included a daughter and a son, to Russia. Maarten taught philosophy in Moscow, and again traveled widely, from Riga and the Crimea in the west to Lake Baikal and Vladivostok in the east. He received his Ph.D. in Russian literature from Moscow State University, writing a dissertation on an old favorite, Leo Tolstoy. In Russia, the family befriended Russian Koreans and Korean natives and developed a taste for kimchi and Korean hospitality. This ultimately inspired a move to Korea in 2000. Maarten taught English at a Seoul university for several years. He is fluent in English, German, Russian, Dutch, and knows survival-French and Korean. He is the author of What's So Good about Korea, Maarten? (Korea, 2005), Guus Hiddink - Going Dutch (Australia, 2006), Dick Advocaat - de grote droom van de Kleine Generaal (Netherlands, 2009), Education War (Korea, 2009), and Guus Hiddink - portret van een supercoach (Netherlands, 2010). From March 2006, he has taught philosophy and ethics at a private international school in the Korean mountains, while continuing his activities as an author, a football commentator, and a social critic. Maarten and Myra have a daughter and three sons. The second son was born in Moscow; the third in Seoul.