After a twelve-hour descent I reached my destination. As I cautiously walked out of my abyss that is the airplane, I instantly get a hit of the cruel humidity of South Korea. The sky still covered in clouds suggested that it would soon cool off but of course it was all just a painted picture as the beads of sweat that started from my neck continued to race down the crevice of my spine and down to my hip. I decided to travel to South Korea alone in order to fully grasp and understand the culture that my family grew up living in.
The first thing I noticed was how short everyone was, this lead to an extra kick in my step and an obnoxious protruding self-confident walk. I was being stared at like I was some sort of prized possession either because I was taller than everyone else or that I was a foreigner. Koreans love their foreigners; to a blind eye even though I looked the part of a Korean, they could tell who the foreigners were and they were definitely not fooled. It took some time before a little boy had the courage to confront me and display all the cool English phrases he had learned at ‘hagwan’. Hagwan is school on weekends taught by tutors and is very common that everyone attends these classes. Soon after, I was completely mobbed by Koreans of all ages, and my most memorable conversation I had was with this man in his thirties. The man and I had an endless conversation about soccer, the economy and travel. I remember the first words he said were “People don’t take trips, trips take people” he later explained that he meant that people need to ignore their final destination as an endpoint, but rather the beginning of a new unexpected trip. After our conversation I pulled out my map and asked him to draw in Dongdaemun. He repli...
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...laxing where I’m from but here in Korea there are a couple rules to follow. Again, status plays a role, similar to the handshakes, if an elder offers to pour you a beer, you must hold your glass with both hands and if it is your first drink you should always accept it, as it is polite to. Also you must keep both hands on the bottle when pouring for elders. Elders however are allowed to use one hand as it shows authority. Apparently it is also very rude to pour yourself a drink, as I learned out the hard way, my new friends disciplined me by giving me a couple shots of Soju. Needless to say, that was I all I remembered from that night. You should always leave some alcohol in your glass and keep in mind that this flowing alcohol won’t stop for a while. So blame the alcohol and their rules when you see a group of coworkers stumbling down the streets in broad daylight.
Clark, Donald N. "1. The Story of the Korean People." Culture and Customs of Korea. Santa
-Many Korean immigrants came to America because they wanted to give their children a better future and because of the American Dream. They worked hard to achieve that dream; working hard everyday, and saving up every penny (Sa-I-Gu: From Korean Women's Perspectives, 1993). As immigrants, they were only able to get very low paying jobs and made very little. The only property they could afford to buy was in South Central Los Angeles. The property there was cheap because many people/companies didn't want to run a business there because it was in such a bad neighborhood (Sa-I-Gu: From Korean Women's Perspectives, 1993). The Korean immigrants knew how to run a successful business. They worked long and hard hours, and had family members work instead of employing people from the neighborhood. This way, they were able to cut labor costs and were able to survive and...
The period from 1905 to 1924 is characterized by quite a different group of Korean Immigrants. One part of this group was made up of Koreans who were running from their government and students who were studying in the US. Syngman Rhee, who would become the leader of South Korea during the Korean War, was earning his Ph.D. at Princeton University during this time. About 500 students and political refugees arrived in America (...
Little is known about North Korea except for news stories concerning international terrorism, nuclear arms threats, and prison camps. From space, North Korea is shrouded in darkness like the history that surrounds this country. This is due to the nation's strict closed-country policy: not many outsiders have visited there and not many North Koreans have traveled to the outside world. While little action can be taken to help the North Korean people, action taken by the United Nations is crucial. Recently, United Nations human rights investigators issued a horrific report documenting massive human rights violations in North Korea. The United Nations feels these crimes of humanity should be brought to the International Criminal Court. UN members work to "promote and encourage respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion” (Youth For Human Rights). North Korea unlike any other country in the world cannot be reported on fully because of regulations on people entering its boundaries.
This response will focus on the key issue of fragmentation. In his book Korea’s Twentieth-Century Odyssey, Michael E. Robinson wrote “Multiple interest groups resided within the bureaucracy and even divided the royal house” (p. 16). Arguably, Korea’s sovereignty was lost in large part, due to the lack of unity among different groups and faction. It was clear from the readings that some Korean individuals and groups prioritized their self-interests above their own country’s benefit. Nowhere was this most evident then the issue of national security.
At the end of the catastrophic World War II on October 24, 1945, fifty-one nations gathered to officially form the United Nations, an organization that promoted peace and security for all of its members. Despite the success of establishing a worldwide peace-keeping force, tensions were high between the powers of the Western Bloc (the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact). Ironically, a mere five years after the formation of the UN, the first major outbreak in the Cold War occurred: the Korean War. The effects of the Korean War would not only forever change the state of North and South Korea, but also have a significant effect on all the other nations involved in the Korean War.
Fukuoka, Yasunori “Koreans in Japan: Past and Present,” Saitama University Review, vol. 31, no.1, 1996.
“The Korean Experience in America, 1903 – 1924” The Korean experience in America during the years 1903 to 1924 is very unique. When compared to other East Asian immigrants, Korean immigrants were relatively small. Most of them were students and agricultural laborers who emigrated to Hawaii as plantation laborers. Many of them decided to come to America due to constant invasion by Japan and also to earn a lot of money.
One Saturday morning, while other teens were probably sleeping in, I woke up early to get ready for my first day of Korean school. My mother had gracefully accepted my urge to learn Korean a few weeks before and enrolled me in a Korean school located at a nearby high school. As I arrived, I could feel the warm sunlight shining in my face while I saw other children who were definitely younger than me scurrying around and playing in the quad. My mom and I stepped into the office and met with the director. He was an older gentleman who looked experienced. They conversed in Korean, while I was questioning myself deciding if this was the right choice. Several minutes later they finished and my mom whispered in my ear, "I will pick you up at one when your first lesson ends." I waved and then director told me to go to room five. I did not know what to expect as I was finding the room, still deciding to back out at the last minute. This was what I wanted and I had to go on with it. For what seemed like a long time I found the room and gently opened it to see what was in store for my new skill.
...y say that I was able to get a good overview of Korean history with a strong sense of knowledge gained. What I specifically gained was a better sense of Korea as a unique cultural entity with its own sense of excellence and its individuality. I have also learned that regardless of the hardships Koreans have suffered in this century, they have successfully endured every worst situation a nation can ever experience. From Japan's colonial rule to the heavy influence Korea felt from Russia's communist state and America's democracy, Korea was able to withstand all these instabilities and overcome to what may be a healthy and modernized nation. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who would like a broad yet thorough overview of Korean history because; this book is precisely written and sectioned accordingly to not make learning history difficult or confusing.
orean War The Korean War was seen to be a turning point for the cold war but the world is still left in confusion and the tension is still strong between North and South Korea present to this day. On June 25th of 1950 the Cold War had turned hot and the involvement of the two major superpowers the US and the USSR contributed to an increase in tension. The Korean War was the one of first big steps America took in enforcing the new policies of Containment. The Korean War was thought of as the ‘forgotten war’; though it had been thought of forgotten it had a large influence on the cold war world wide, communist growth and modern Korea.
Robinson, J. H. (2000) 'Communication in Korea: Playing Things bye Eye'. Intercultural Communication Journal: A Reader. Vol.9, pp. 74-81.
The Lao People’s Democratic Republic, or Laos, is a politically stable and peaceful landlocked country in Southeast Asia, centrally located in the Mekong sub-region. The country occupies about 236,800 square kilometers and almost half the length of the Mekong River that flows through it. It is bordered by China to the north, Myanmar and Thailand to the west, Cambodia to the south and Vietnam to the east. The country has a tropical monsoon climate with a rainy season from May to October. Temperatures range from highs of 40°C along the Mekong River in March and April to lows of 5°C in the high mountains in January. (The World Fact Book) Most of Laos is covered by mountains and dense forests and its population density is among the lowest in Asia. Laos has a population of about 5.6 million, comprising 47 ethnic groups.
From generation to generation, North Korea stands as one of the last remaining communist regimes in the world. In a country built on oppression and regulation, why is it that no one seems to rebel? The sad truth remains that loyalty and obedience to North Korea’s supreme leader is an inescapable fate. From the day they are born, idolization of “The Supreme Leader” is drilled into the minds of those unlucky enough to be born into North Korea. Some would argue that extreme control is imposed merely to preserve a way of life. The question posed, is whether North Korea has gone too far in trying to protect this way of life. Through extreme limitations on use of electronics, speech, and religion, prohibiting virtually all contact with the outside world, and extensive use of propaganda, North Korea has greatly crossed the line from protecting a country’s best interest to taking away any and all freedom from its people.
A nation’s innovation system is shaped by how the nation leverages its endowments—natural resources, culture, history, geography, and demographics—through policies that create a thriving market-oriented economy and accelerate the transition of new technologies, processes, and services to the market (Branscomb and Auerswald 2002). The aim of this assignment is to evaluate South Korea’s innovation policies, in light of its latest ranking as the second most innovative country in the world.