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Korea Trip Wrap Up
and a HUGE Thanks
A mix of old and new, traditional and modern, Korea is a country that reflects much of the best of both. I think their architecture expresses it best, everywhere we traveled we saw traditional Korea, small, traditional dwellings aside multi-story engineering wonders. Their culture is much the same, very traditional values and customs with room while embracing the modern way. A delicate balance, but it seems to be working.
It was interesting the way what the speakers said came full circle. We began with Dr. Kim who emphasized "trust." The trust he has in his employees and they have in him. "Team," was also a prevailing theme. Embedded deeply in every Korean is a sense of national pride and unity, I suppose that's what has kept the country alive despite centuries of being invaded and conquered. This sense of national pride overflows into the workplace where teamwork is what keeps companies, especially strat-up entrepreneural companies, alive. Both these attitudes were emphasized by most of the speakers.
One of the prevailing themes of our last Korean business speakers was, once again, trust. For him it was the trust his customers had in him and his company. Daniel followed that with a marvelous closing speach that emphasized the unity and pride of the Korean people and how that attitude carries over into their daily lives. He had a few interesting, and fun, video clips which can be found on our video page.
My most amazing discovery about business in Korea is how much the government is willing to help entrepreneurs. They have start up loans and grants, and have even helped to finance a non-profit company that will train, sponser, and consult with, potential entrepreneurs. This company will help with everything from writing a business plan to marketing a product, and everything inbetween. They also consult with their clients once they have started their business. The charge for this service, about $100. To me, that's amazing.
The support for entrepreneurs in this country is evident. From universities that offer degree programs in entrepreneurship, to non-profit companies to help the entrepreneur get started and be successful and the availability of start-up capital to get things going, you can tell that the government is very invested in gaining a cutting edge in the global market to help support this small country. Knowing what I know now about the people, there fierce sense of national and personal pride, and their commitment to become leaders in the global economy, I think they will soon be an economic power that will be noticed.
I'd also like to give a special thanks to all of those people who made our trip so enjoyable. The desk clerks at the hotel who struggled to understand us and, somehow, managed to accomodate us beautifully. Our tour guide and bus driver who were informative and so very patient with the American sense of time and on time. To the people in Jeonju City who welcomed us with open arms and graciously let us sleep in their homes so we could experience traditional Korea. And very special thanks to Daniel who helped arrange everything and was with us every step of the way. A big thank you also thanks to Daniel's wife who put up with him being away from home for so often and/or on the phone making plans, and being with us instead of home with his family.
August 10, 2006
The Market
Today was a work/leisure day, though non of us had much leisure time. The groups all had appointments with the entrepreneur they had contacted for interviews, and we all had catch-up work to do on our blog's, video assignments, and the compilation of survey data. During this time I was on call for technology issues and to help with video and audio editing. The evening was spent at dinner where we heard from Mrs. Kim, who owns a successful day care center, and bidding Daniel and his wife a fond farewell. Daniel was our guide for the business portion of our Korea trip, and he also arranged our trip to Jeonju City, and he helped take care of any issues that came up. Much of my memory of Daniel is him talking frantically on a cell phone resolving one issue or another, or firming up or rescheduling our entrepreneur speakers. I did, however, manage a couple hours away, grabbed a few people and off we went to one of the markets in Seoul.
One of the things I like about traveling overseas is visiting the markets. By markets I'm not referring to Wall Mart, a farmers market, or a flea market, rather I'm talking about a very large area that sells everything from Kim Chi, to candlesticks. I went to the market with some specific purchases in mind, I wanted to look for leather goods. Leather goods can be purchased in Korea for a very reasonable price, and, if you know how to do it, you can get "A" grade designer wear for a fraction of the price you'd pay in a store at home.
The market today was crowded with people and I knew I was in the right place when I looked around and we were the only Caucasians around. We hit the ground running, and in a matter of a couple of hours we all had, at least some of, what we came for, and we were very satisfied with the prices we had paid. One of the things I miss most living in the USA, is the markets. I'd trade a Wall Mart, Kroger, or Radio Shack for a good market any day.
August 8, 2006
Symbols
A day of travel and playing tourist. It's been wonderful to watch the students work on their projects as we move from one place to another. As soon as the bus starts moving and any announcements are made, the groups huddle up, lap tops and cameras come out, roles and responsibilities are discussed and given, and a synthesis of the most recent speaker, invention, entrepreneur, etc. begins. We have learned so much this week from so many different points of view, that reviewing it all really brings up some areas and issues we would never have thought of. For me, as an educator, it's been wonderful to listen to the conversations and hear the discussions the groups are having.
We visited the Kyongbok palace, which was the palace of the last royal family in the area. Following that we went to a working Buddhist temple. By working I mean that services are held there, and when we went in the temple was full of people in prayer. For me the temple was a highlight of the trip. The experience of walking into the temple and seeing the people, the offerings, and the statue of Buddha was unlike anything I've ever seen before. One of my favorite parts of the temple was to see the ceiling decorated with thousands of paper lanterns, each of which represented a good wish, a prayer, or an askance of Buddha.
The most startling revelation for me was seeing a schwastika painted on the outside of one of the temple buildings. I grew up in Germany during the 1970's and the
German were people still very much ashamed of what Adolf Hitler and the people of Germany did during WWII. I grew up with the knowledge engrained in me that the schwastika represented unequivocal evil. Seeing this symbol blatantly painted on a holy building, and then, later, hanging on a chain as a necklace threw me. What I learned from one of the students was the schwastika is an ancient holy symbol. Clearly I have some research to do.
August 7, 2006
Tradition
Today was an amazing day, we spent the morning visiting businesses run by entrepreneurs where who all gave us a warm welcome, and in the afternoon we visited Jeonju City where we we very gracoiously received, in fact we were treated like celebrities.
All of the speakers were very informative, mixing how they got their business started with information about Korean history and traditions. Having been in education most of my adult life, I found Dr. Kim, from Hoseo University, to have the most fascinating story. He began an entrepreneurship degree program at Hoseo university. I'm not certain what he did to convince the powers that be at the university, but they gave him a building on the campus to use for 30 years (he was a beginning faculty member and had about 30 years to retirement). Since that time he has started a 2 very successful entrepreneurship degree programs, both undergraduate and graduate degrees, he has partnered with some major technology companies, and he has started several companies for the university which are all making lots of money.
For lunch that day we were taken to the cafeteria at the university for a typical Korean lunch. There was an assortment of dishes that were unusual to us, most of which were very spicy. I didn't mind the heat, but one member of our group was heard to remark that it felt as though all the skin on the inside of her mouth had burnt off.
One thing that we found absolutely amazing was how completely honest everyone is. As we approached the buffet counter we noticed the cash register
sitting open with money in, and out of it. Hundreds of people had walked by that register without any incident. I can't imagine being able to do something like that at home. We've been told about how important the code of honor is to the Korean people, and I think this incident really illustrates that.
What happened in the afternoon and evening can only be properly told by someone who was there, and is really too lengthy for a blog entry. In short, we arrived at Jeonju, a small city that has an area that keeps the old Korean traditions with few modern conveniences, to a throng of reporters. Television crews, newspaper reporters, cameras, microphones, everything. Here we were to meet the mayor of the city and helped mix a traditional Korean dish, which is pictured as the opening photo of today's posting. After which we ate some and then headed for our sleeping accommodations. It turns out that our meeting the mayor, etc. really was news. We were featured on the 9PM news that day, and again the next morning, and we made the front page of the paper.
The evening was spent eating a very traditional Korean dinner and we were treated to a few songs in the traditional Korean style. That evening we slept on mats on the floor with traditional pillows. Believe it or not, it was pretty comfortable. All in all, a wonderful day learning about Korean tradition.
"Seoul" ful Living
August 6, 2006
We made it... A VERY long flight, but uneventful. Traveling with a group is a lot of fun, and it sure made the trip more bearable. On the plane we talked, played cards, and some of the groups got together for strategy meetings. It was a nice change over sitting, and sitting, and...you get the picture. Wierd thing about the trip, we traveled East to West, which made us go backward in time zones, but wnen we landed it was tomorrow!!
We arrived in Seoul at about 7PM. We got our rooms keys and headed up to drop our luggage off and then, for those who wanted to, we went to see the sights and find something to eat.
The rooms are a technological wonder, I felt like I had stepped aboard the starship Enterprise. Everything is high tech, including the toilet (see pictures, link is on the left). The rooms have a vending machine, plasma TV, ultra violet glass sterilizer, DVD player, etc. The interesting part is it's also typically Korean. Slippers just inside the door way and another pair in the bathroom. The tub/shower was amazing! It's a big tub that is designed to overflow, creating a waterfall from the edges of the tub into the drain below, reaally cool.
Seoul is an amazing city. Crowds of people, which was surprising for a Sunday night, lots of food vendors on the street and the signage is very colorful. The photo at the top of this entry is from a small side street. There was so much light from the signs that it looked like daylight at 10 PM.s
The trip out and about gave the students their first opportunity to begin working on their scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt involves interviewing 20 people in each country about their views of entrepreneurship. The students had to come with pre-prepared surveys (the groups had to come up with the survey questions and have them translated before we left the states) and then find 20 people in each country to fill them out. The crowded streets in downtown Seoul gave them their first opportunity to do this. We stopped for a moment to get our bearings and when we turned around one group of students was surrounded by willing participants.
We were in one of the local shopping centers and saw something unusual. The shopping center is a large multi-story building with 2 large entrances, one on each side of the block it's on. We walked out of the door and down the staris ontothe street to find a man signing Kerioke, 2 people had set up hair cutting stations and were cutting hair, and there was a group of people who were giving out bowls of soup for people who appeared to be homeless. THis all had happened in the few minutes we had taken to check out the food court in the store.
For dinner we split up, some folks went ti TGIFridays, others went in search of local cuisine. I went with the latter group. We ended up at a Korean BBQ place down a side street near the hotel that looked to be very popular with the locals. BBQ in Korea is different in the states, here the food is cooked at the table (you do your own cooking in an electric BBQ that sits in the middle of the table), in the states, BBQ generally means smothered in sauce. The menu was in Korean, with no pictures. No one on the wait staff spoke English, ordering was an event which we all enjoyed. We had the waitress in stitches and all of us laughing trying to be understood. We ended up with an incredible meal of seasoned beef and pork, and lots of interesting dishes to go with it. I found out that when you eat the BBQ you can either pick pieces up with your chopsticks and dip and eat, or you can put a piece into some plant leaves that were placed on the table and eat that way. Plant leaves...some of them were romaine lettuce, that was easy to identify, the other was some type of large fuzzy leaf that tasted vaguely like mint, delicious!! There wass also all kinds of, for lack of better word, "stuff," to eat with it. A red chile dip, spicy seaweed, a sweet cabbage and pineapple salad (kind of like cole slaw with pineapple (yum), marinated onion, fresh sliced garlic (lucky I slept alone last night), and a type of misop and zuchinni soup. We had a real adventure trying to order rice, we finally got it and now we know what to ask for.
After dinner it was a Tylenol PM and off to bed. We're up and out early tokmorrow for an adventure at our first company, Songwon Edwards, who specialize in Vacuum systems, exhaust management, specialitygases, and some other things.
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