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  • Korean Newspapers’ Headlines Are A National Embarrassment

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    Korean Newspapers Need to Apologize to Japan
    Here is the Japanese link to the Korean newspapers’ coverage of the enormous earthquake in Japan on Friday. For those that know no Korean, “침몰” translates to the word sinking. So, the headline on both of the newspapers in the link is, basically, “Japan Sinking.” ARE YOU $%(*Y$% KIDDING ME?  What’s next?  “The Japan Syndrome?”

    It Is No Excuse
    The natural excuse here will be that Japan Sinking is the name of a Korean movie based on a Japanese book. That isn’t a good excuse when it actually happens. There are many long-standing, justifiable grievances that Korea has against Japan. Now is not the time nor place to resolve them. Headlines like this make Korea look foolish, spiteful, and infantile on the international stage. These newspapers (서울신문 and 중앙일보) owe Japan an apology. Now.

  • Korean Food Inflation Highest in OECD

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    Food Inflation at 11.6% Over One Year
    A number of headlines from the news, who are telling us what we already know. Inflation is getting to be very painful in Korea.
    Here are the headlines:

    The difficult balance among inflation, foreign exchange rates, and interest rates continues.  As the first two articles correctly state, much of the source of inflation is due to supply difficulties.  The only way to combat supply issues, when those supplies originate from foreign countries is to have a stronger currency.  A stronger currency is usually correlated with higher interest rates.  The difficult position posed by this combination has already been explained early this year, and can be reviewed here.

    Japan’s Tragegy = Bank of Korea’s Opportunity? Just Maybe
    Oddly, the earthquake may provide the BOK some needed flexibility. How is that? Well, the fact is the Japanese will need to buy the Yen. The reason is that Japanese will need to bring back money back to Japan in order to pay for the massive human tragedy. Insurers will need to pay claims denominated in the Yen. In short, there will be demand for the Yen over time. Since the JPY/KRW exchange rate is the real mechanism through which Korean conglomerates have benefited, the Bank of Korea can allow the Korean Won to strengthen versus the USD, while not necessarily strengthening against the Japanese Yen. The result would be stronger purchasing power for the Korean Won to pay for more expensive raw materials and imported food. Of course, it cannot be that simple, and it will not be. The impact of the Japanese tragedy on global demand for end products (including Korean-made ones) is unknown. Nevertheless, the Bank of Korea may be able to allow a stronger Won in order to aid against the obvious inflationary pressures facing everyday Koreans.

  • Question from a reader: coming to Korea with a kid?

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    A reader writes in:

    Hi Chris,

    I am considering moving to Korea; however, I’d be traveling with my 3 year old.
    Do you think this is something feasible with a child. Would you happen to know any American teachers in similar situations.

    I saw a posting from www.asia-teachers.org on my school’s career development site.
    I am currently unemployed; I’m not able to find full-time employment in my field-user experience research. My last project was 6 months ago.

  • Lee Kun-hee Hates the Idea: Of Course He Does

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    Large Korean Conglomerates Dominate Korea
    Samsung Electronics chairmain Lee Kun-hee “shocked” Korea by making statements critical of the the program proposed by President Lee Myung-bak which would effectively subsidize small and medium-sized businesses in Korea. Here is the Wall Street Journal blog which describes the situation.

    The Next Zuckerberg Can’t Come From Korea
    Recently, the Chosun Ilbo asked whether or not the next Zuckerberg will come from Korea. The article openly questioned this idea, despite President Lee’s declarations of support. The article pointed out red tape and other barriers. While those may be true, there are greater forces at work that prevent a very successful company being established in South Korea. Some of these examples are blatant. Dong-a Ilbo reported this example of a small company that could not obtain access to certain technology, and also reported that large conglomerates often steal technology from small or medium-sized “partners.” The real point is that newly founded companies do not dare compete with Samsung Electronics or LG Electronics. These newly founded companies do not have access to funds as they do in the U.S. The reason for that is that private equity funds invest in a portfolio of different startups, some of which will inevitably fail. In Korea, the best graduates do not dream of becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs. They aspire to work at the largest chaebol. That is the way that the largest chaebol wants to keep it. Google, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter have taught once-dominant Microsoft and Yahoo! some very painful lessons. It is logical that Samsung Electronics and the other large chaebol don’t want to learn those same lessons.

    Conclusions
    The Chosun Ilbo article is correct, but only partially so. The underemployment of college graduates may provide the inspiration to a young person to begin his/her own venture in Korea. However, there is a great deal of bureaucracy which prevents this. Korean students still aspire to become part of the chaebol structure due to its relative stability (often false). Finally, the largest chaebol want to keep the status quo: Lee Kun-hee’s comments made that perfectly clear.

  • Can an outdoors-ey person survive in Korea?

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    Peterson and I are a bit “crunchy” (read: granola eating, nature lovers).  And in South Korea, we were in good company: hiking is practically a national sport. Even if you don’t like hiking, there are still plenty of pictaresque views to take in while living and teaching South Korea. Although we chose to live in Seoul, a concrete jungle in many respects, it certainly DID NOT limit our nature possibilities.  Here’s why:

  • The Daily Grind

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    Hey friends.  Steve here.  I thought I'd drop in and write a little about our job so that you can have some insight into what we do on a daily basis.  Obviously, we love to travel to new places and meet up with friends, but we have to work sometime, right?

  • plans and concerns

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    I recently started reading “Cognitive Surplus“, a book about how people can create collaboratively online.  The thesis of the book is that for years, TV demanded that we only absorb media.  Modern media -delivered by the internet – is more of a give-and-take* proposition. We can do more that receive information; we can create it, too.

  • Five easy day trips out of Seoul

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    Seoul is a wonderful place to go exploring. With several historic palaces, dozens of Buddhist temples, and more shopping than you have money, you might be wondering ‘why go anywhere else around Korea?’ The simple answer is to get off the beaten path, and to explore some places tourists / foreigners don’t go as often.

    All of these day trips are easy to reach from Seoul’s excellent public transportation system.

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