It’s easy to become jaded and cynical after 3.5 years of living in the Seoul Metro area. I always tell people that even after learning Korean and being here for a few years, Korea still surprises me and I’m always learning new things.

Well, the response I received from the City of Seoul in regards to a complaint I made about a poorly paved section of road  just absolutely floored me:

Dear Mr. Steve,

Firstly, I would like to express my apology for the accident you had suffered because of the poorly paved road of Seoul.

The right lane of ‘Seocho-ro’, where you had the accident, is managed by the Seoul City and is subject to the road expansion plan implemented by the Construction Department of the Seocho District Office. And the accident location had been excavated by the nearby office of Korea Electric Power Corporations and then recovered by the Southern Road Traffic Office.

As for the problematic section, we are planning to repave the whole road in April 2009, linked with the expansion plan, and have urgently repaired the accident location on Mar. 21, 2009.

I promise to make a thorough supervision not to let this happen again. Also, as for your damage, the liability insurance company operated for the metropolitan cities including Seoul and provinces has already received the accident report on Mar. 20, 2009. I will make sure that the concerned insurance company compensates for your damage inflicted by the accident as soon as and as much as possible.

Please accept my apology for the inconvenience. I wish you and your family happiness and good luck at all times.

Sincerely,

Oh Se-hoon
Mayor of Seoul

I immediately replied to the mayor’s office (I seriously doubt the actual mayor knows about my little complaint at all, but that’s still an awesome response), commending them for their professionalism and, most of all, their show of SINCERITY.
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Since the above happened, I can attest to the fact that my damages were paid for entirely, including medical bills, and the road was patched up within days. At first the agent said they would only pay 70% of the damages, but he actually went to bat for me and got the full amount.

It’s been a tough year so far, and I’ve had some ugly instances and bad luck in regards to my life in Korea, but I have to say I still do find some *sparkling* things that helps to keep it all in perspective. Oh yeah and, FYI, I haven’t ridden a scooter or motorcycle since and have no plans to ever try it again.

In one instance where I was able to just walk into the station and the room (although separated by glass) where my friend was being questioned, I kept thinking to myself how if I had to sit there and listen to this guy lying through his teeth with that smug little smile and self-righteous attitude, I would pummel him within an inch of his life, knowing I’d have a good second or so head start before the cops could pull me off him.

Officers at the scene said Kim abruptly pulled out a knife from his backpack and stabbed her in the chest and sides several times. A police officer shot him twice.

Police shot him twice. But then there’s this:

The man was injured in his right calf and taken to hospital. “He is not in critical condition,” police said.

As much against the death penalty as I am, this man should be dead. Who knows, maybe the last couple thrusts he got in after he got shot in the leg were the ones that killed her.

But here’s my real question: When the state takes someone into custody against their will, isn’t there an implication that the state is now responsible for this person?

In my view, the police’s unprofessional, outdated, methods should be held just as culpable for the killing of this woman as the actual person that did it.

In the past, I’ve called the police in a situation where I was trying to be quiet to avoid someone trying to attack me and was told “huh? What? Speak up!” before they hung up on me. I had to in fact call the police three times to get them to do anything. I’ve also mis-dialed the ambulance line in an emergency situation and, rather than being transferred, I was told to hang up and call back.

I’ve gone to the police station with a USB drive full of pictures and audio recordings to file a formal complaint against someone for vandalism and had police refuse to touch the USB drive containing the evidence, encouraging me to go home and think about it first.

All of this pales in comparison to a woman getting murdered while sitting in the police station, but it all speaks to a much bigger issue. They may have stopped forcibly coercing confessions out of people since the 80′s (well, maybe not if we believe Cullen Thomas’ account), but in terms of the way they think, the Korean police have a long way to go.

The one Internet service, aside from e-mail, that has most kept me in touch with family and friends back home has not been Facebook, Twitter, or a blog. It has been Skype.

Most of you have probably heard of Skype by now, but there’s an under-utilized feature that I think has enormous potential for expats all around the world. It’s a combination of a SkypeOut phone number, plus the built-in call forwarding service. Put these two together and, depending on where ‘home’ is for you, you can have a local number for your family and friends that dials your Korean cell phone for the price of $25 USD per year, plus the normal calling rate (I think about 5 cents per minute).

It really is JUST that simple. However, just in case, I’ve broken it down for you into seven steps:

Continue reading on Korpreneur.com

I was recently a guest on the SeoulPodcast, and after the show I got to talking with the other guests about the various social media they use. A few of them were on Twitter but nobody was really devoting much time to it. Except for me.

Twitter has many, many uses for business. Jon Stewart even gave his own explanation of it. I’ll leave it to you to go into all of that, and concentrate my post on the phases I’ve gone through in my own usage of Twitter.

Continue reading On Twitter at Korpreneur.com

I recently made a tough personal decision to leave the publishing industry in order to return to teaching, my profession for much of the 1990s… … This time, I’m focusing primarily on adults who don’t yet speak English proficiently, because I believe these folks are more vital than ever to the well-being of U.S. businesses and to our country as a whole.

This isn’t related directly to Korea, but since there are many people in Korea teaching English, I thought the article might be of interest to many of The Hub of Sparkle’s distinguished readers. Read the rest on your own.

I’ve been working at a desk in a field of cubicles for about two years now and, though I’m far from an expert, I do believe I’ve learned a few things about the life of a foreigner working in the lower levels of a Korean company, so I thought I’d share by offering my ten principles of working in/with a Korean corporation without going insane (in no particular order):

1. Draw your line and stick to it.
   Don’t stay late unless overtime pay is on the table. Know for yourself what areas you’re willing to compromise on, and where you have to draw the line. Once your coworkers and managers know your boundaries, they’ll be happy to respect them, as long as you’re nice about it (see #6)
2. The first answer is not the final answer.
   When it comes to negotiations and conflict resolution, the manager’s first instinct is going to be to lower your expectations. Your chain of command fully understands that you are not Korean and are subject to a different set of rules that the rest of the employees.
   The problem, I’ve found, is that as understanding as the manager may be, he/she knows full well how the director would react if they were to voice the issue on their own behalf to the higher-ups.
   My Korean managers have always sought, first, to lower expectations. This, in turn, just infuriates me further. If you’re a Korean manager reading this, you should know that the #1 thing you can do is to simply make your expat employee feel HEARD. They understand fully that you have a chain of command and we know that we sometimes make special requests that are highly unusual. But to us, it’s not unusual at all to speak frankly with your direct supervisor (see #3). We don’t expect you to solve this problem or commit to a course of action right then and there. We just want to feel like you’re listening to us and are aware of the issue.
3. The final answer is not the final answer
   Contracts in Korea do not mean the same thing as they do in the west. Whipping out your contract when the boss asks you to do something above and beyond is not the best way to handle a situation. A better approach is to appeal to precedent and employ my fool-proof method of conflict resolution (see #8).
   This can also play out in other situations. A project that has gotten the green light and you’re busy working on may be abruptly canned without warning.
   Koreans aversion to officialdom (signing contracts, paper trails, etc), on a bad day, seems like they’re just trying to reserve the right to reneg at any time. On a good day I recognize that it wasn’t so long ago that appealing to authorities, or, ‘the law’ in Korea meant going to officials of the dictatorship meaning that, in a way, you were betraying your brethren by appealing to a system for help that ultimately exists to oppress your people.
4. Understand and consider the ‘Korean way’ of dissenting. Understand the rules, then, and only then, break them.
   If nothing else, consider this an exercise in cultural awareness. You’ve got to learn to judge when the Korean way is going to serve your purposes the most, and when it’s time to revert to metaphorical gunslinging.
   Westerners know how to approach a conflict straight on, speak frankly and logically, and not back down, all while not taking anything personally. We’re not afraid to go directly to what we see as being the source of the problem. Converesly, we respect the ability in others to face down an opponent in a tough negotiation and then shake hands and smile after.
   When raising issues, Koreans tend to beat around the bush, but it is not seen that way. Rather, my Korean colleagues have always gone through intermediaries to get their complaints known.
   I actually think there is some wisdom to this approach. This way you can preserve the relationship with the higher-ups and everybody has plenty of time to consider their responses to issues that arrive, without the risk of saying something you might regret. We like to say, ‘it’s just business,’ but how many of us can honestly say we don’t harbor secret grudges against out western bosses that shoot us down?
   I’m not saying this is a perfect system at all, and a clever boss can certainly manipulate the system to ensure that your complaint falls on deaf ears. All I’m saying is, I think I have an inkling of an understanding of why things play out this way.
5. Never be the first to compromise.
   This is mostly true in the beginning stages of your employment with a new company. The company is probably going to push you to see how much ‘like a Korean’ they can get you to act. Be aware that working ‘like a Korean’ means deferring to the chain of command for all decisions and always having a smile on your face. It’s a good strategy to, after the company does make the first compromise, offer a surprisingly substantial compromise on your own. This gives positive reinforcement for the company to go your way in the future.
6. Reward desirable behavior; flat-out ignore the undesirable.
   Truly an extension of #4, but worth noting on it’s own. Although this is the golden rule of ethical animal training, what are humans but big animals ourselves? I have taken this so far as to resolve a last-minute hang-up in a contract negotiation. We’d already agreed on all the contract terms, and I was simply taking a day to read over the contract before I signed it, when I got word that HR had a nit-picky protest about one of the conditions, and wanted  to take off a significant portion of my vacation days. I was pissed, but after cooling off, I just took out the contract, signed it, and took it to the director. I put it on his desk and said with a smile, ‘It’s a done deal. All you have to do is sign it.’
   He signed. Faced with the prospect of going back to the drawing board and starting negotiations from the beginning, going back to the previous agreement is hard to pass up. JFK did something similar to solve the Cuban Missile Crisis.
7. Take a lesson from Hapkido.
   A softer approach is always advised when dealing with your managers, coworkers, and directors. A smile will always get you farther than getting upset. Before you open your big stupid mouth, even if you think the company is trying to screw you over, step back, think it over, and figure out how to frame your problem in a constructive way. Hapkido students learn to counter force with leverage, so that the opponent’s own force turns out to be their demise. Learn this lesson well.
8. My go-to method of conflict resolution
   To put it simply, when I need something from my company, the first words out of my mouth are, “Here’s the problem I’m dealing with…” I then outline the reasons leading up to my request.
   Then I say, “I hope you can help me find a solution to this problem. The way I see it, we have to either… or we could try…” This presents two options, and if I’m really hoping for one of the options, then I’ll set one up as kind of a ’straw man’ that has glaring disadvantages, and I am full well the company will not pick it.
   This actually employs the ‘Korean way’ of thinking. When a Korean embarks on an attempt at persuasion, they start with all the details and lead up to the main point. Sometimes they won’t even state the main point, hoping that you can infer the conclusion for yourself.
   You can turn this all on it’s head by using the methods against your superiors, and they may actually appreciate you for framing the issue in this way, rather than a more direct, western, approach.
9. Give your company some credit
   I have, on a few occasions, gone too far in my low expectations of the company. I’ve finally learned not to assume the worst case scenario when I hear the answer to my proposal or rumors about some new company policy. In fact, I find that things usually pan out in my favor and that people are pretty cool about it over all. The problem is in the cultural differences and communication issues at the front end. Your time at the company is going to be much more productive professionally as well as personally if you step back a little and don’t take anything too seriously, at least until there is more information on the table.
10. The chain of command needs time to make a decision.
    Countless times, I have heard about some big new project that I’m going to be assigned to, only to never hear about it again. When people start talking, take it to mean that it is merely an idea under consideration.
    Western business people in Korea are well aware of the importance of the company dinners and the after-hours drinking parties (…and the after hours.. uh.. other stuff…). What is happening is your Korean counterparts are bonding and becoming comfortable with you while they consider the deal.
    Also, you may have waited three months for their deliberations on your proposal, but when you finally get the go-ahead on it, they expect it to all be finished on a ridiculously short timeline. I mean, like, NOW. The best defense against this is to be clear up-front about the necessary timeline, giving reminders that the project is going to take some time to get going. Personally, I think this is the biggest reason Korean employees burnout, get sick after months of sleep deprivation, and suddenly change jobs without warning.
    I have found it necessary to regularly send emails asking for a ’status update.’ Otherwise, these long decision times makes it very easy and convenient to kill an issue without actually having to do the ugly business of informing the interested parties.
    Don’t take it personally. I can’t even count the number of times a project has been nixed or deemed ‘finished’ and no one bothered to tell me, even if I would have been happy to hear the news.

These are all true in my own, limited, experience. How about yours? Anything to add to the list?

Today’s Engrish pic snapped in Kyobo Bookstore (kyobo Tower, Gangnam) on December 20th, 2007.

Of course I just heard that the won is a little bit stronger this week than it has been recently, which helps me a little personally, but the global financial crisis continues full steam ahead.

Update
Sungwon has just posted Part 2 of this series, where he analyzes my situation and points out where I’ve done good and bad. He will post part 3 tomorrow.

Two prominent South Korean women’s magazines have featured U.S. beef in their December issues, signaling a possible change in the public attitude toward U.S. beef in this key export market. Woman Chosun and Woman Sense each produced lengthy and very positive articles in their current issues that are targeted to a key audience – the housewives who purchase groceries for family meals. One editor already has reported that the articles have been positively received.

I could write alternate headlines to this post for hours and hours.

Judge Bang Seung-man said the Hebei Spirit crew could have moved the ship to avoid the collision and it failed to take sufficient measures to limit the spill.

source

Sounds suspisciously vague, which makes me wonder if it’s similar to how traffic accidents on the streets of Seoul are settled. I’m sitting at a stoplight in my Kia, and you in your Mazerati rear-end me, and I’m 40% at fault basically because I commited the sin of existing and not having the psychic powers to know you were about to hit me, and since it’s at an intersection fault is automatically a 60/40 split. So you have to cover 60% of all of the expenses from the accident, and I have to cover 40%. But the 40% I have to pay on your Mazerati costs more than everything I own combined.

So this is why people are basically terrified when they see a nice car in Seoul.

I could be totally wrong about this mentality having anything whatsoever to do with the judgement in this case though, so take that all with a grain of salt.