The Koreans and the Korean-Koreans

Yes, I know it’s been a while folks... Times have been tremendously turbulent for me lately. For those who missed the latest development – I’m not based in Korea any longer. An opportunity in Hong Kong opened up, yes folks, HONG KONG! The place where East meets West, a fusion of Chinese and Western culture, which both reside within my very own personality, world-class food, unlimited entertainment, excitement and fun. The place I always wanted to be sometimes in my life – and now I’m there!

But it doesn’t mean I lost track on the Korea Challenge. Turned into a frequent traveler with my new responsibility, I actually hardly ever spent a lot of time in Hong Kong so far, jetting all around to Mainland China, Singapore, Taiwan and Korea for business. But I do still spend a lot of time in the Land of the Morning Calm. My special relationship I built with this country – at times loving it, at times hating it – and the connections I made will never disappear. Probably owing to the ability to speak at least basic Korean and knowing my way around in Seoul perfectly, and having made so many good friends during the two plus years I spent here, Seoul has become kind of a home. It still feels more home than Hong Kong, although I should feel more at home there as I’m basically Chinese and not Korean.

As I have the chance to travel to Korea on a regular basis, I still have loads of interesting, at times peculiar stories to share. Today I’d like to share my observations about two different kinds of Koreans: Those who have studied and lived abroad, and those who haven’t. Let’s call them Koreans and Korean-Koreans.

The first observation about this difference is that I don’t have any Korean-Korean friends at all. Apart from the language barrier, it seems this group is hardly accessible to foreigners because they just don’t want to deal with foreigners. Even if they speak English decently, I never managed to establish a meaningful friendship with any of them. My friends in Korea are either foreigners themselves, or Koreans who studied or lived abroad.

The second observation is that Korean-Koreans tend to live in a culture that I allow myself to call a culture of envy. There is no appropriate word in English that describes the German word “Neidkultur” accurately. What I mean with it is that among Korean-Koreans, standing out and performing too well will be openly penalized by the envy of others. One thing that freaked me out is the fact that individuals in the local company I worked for who spoke almost perfect English were very reluctant to speak English to me when others were present. I never got the point until someone told me in confidence that I shouldn’t be offended by it, they were not trying to exclude me from the conversation, but it was because the other persons who don’t speak English well would resent that individual for speaking English too well in their presence, basically making them lose their face. If someone does this too frequently, the others will punish her or him by excluding the individual from their society, in Korea a serious penalty, as networks and relationships are of utmost importance.

The sad side of this story is, if the Korean society works in this way, they are hindering the outperformers from advancing and succeeding. It is commensurate with the stiff hierarchy which is not based on performance or meritocracy, but on mere age and seniority. What happens is that outperformers will choose to work for foreign companies, leaving the incapable workers behind, who advance within the organization as long as they keep being loyal to the company. This will put the Korean companies at a disadvantage to foreign companies in the long run. I’m not concerned about the world-class companies like Samsung or LG, where Korea already has world leadership, I’m more concerned about the sectors that are not as developed yet, such as the financial sector which I work in.

Having moved back to a global company after my very interesting local company experience, the change couldn’t have been more striking. Those Koreans who work for my current company couldn’t be more different from the Korean-Koreans in my former one. Naturally, as they are based in Hong Kong, they of course have exposure to a foreign country, all of them perfectly fluent in English and a majority of them studied abroad. Ask any of those individuals if they could ever go back to Korea and try to re-integrate into the Korean-Korean society, and you won’t find one who will say they wouldn’t have difficulty with it. In fact, my Korean friends in Korea who tried all without exception find it very hard, most of them preferring to hang out with foreigners rather than Korean-Koreans. This might be the reason why it was so easy to make friends with those individuals as a foreigner – because they feel like being foreigners themselves in their own country.

When one of my Korean colleagues asked me if I would give Korea or China a higher chance of succeeding economically, even with the danger of offending her – I couldn’t help saying that I definitely would bet on China. She then asked me if I thought this is because the Chinese were cleverer in doing business, I said of course not – on average, I don’t believe one or another nation is cleverer than another, but the Chinese just tend to be so much more pragmatic. When they see an opportunity, they seize it and don’t bother about social issues. Probably they are just more reckless, but what puts them at a huge advantage is that they do not foster that culture of envy. Outperformers are given the chance to thrive within companies and within the society, in fact, being successful, becoming rich and standing out is one of the highest Chinese virtues.

If the Koreans want to stay competitive next to their big brother with hundred millions of hungry individuals waiting for their chance to stand out and excel, they will have to change fundamentally – and fast.

Korea vs. Hong Kong

Remember when I complained about Korea being less open to foreigners than Hong Kong in my earlier post "Lack of globalization?"

Now I am based out of Hong Kong, with hubby still in Korea. It's been a month in which I jetted around Hong Kong, Beijing, Singapore and Korea. To my surprise, when I got back to Korea, I saw the notorious immigration sign saying "Foreign Passport" and "Korean Passport" instead of "Foreigners" and "Koreans".

This small change does make a difference. Although it still doesn't sound as courteous as "Visitors" and "Residents" as in Hong Kong, at least they now assign the nationality to the passport, and not to the person.

It reflects the already mentioned changes in Korea over the two years that I lived there. Today I was carrying a parcel from Amazon up to our apartment in the elevator when the woman standing next to me asked (in perfect English) if it was now possible to order directly from Amazon. Because two years ago it wasn't. I said that Korea has changed a lot during these two years - to the good - and I mean it. Having been part of that transformation process is a true priviledge.

I often wondered these days what "home" is for me. Is it Switzerland, where I spent most of my life? Hong Kong, where I'm based now and where I speak the language of the locals and life is amazingly convenient? Or is it Korea, where I've lived for the last two years of my life? The reason I felt like coming home to Korea has to do with the fact that I realized how much I've fallen in love with the way I'm being treated by the Koreans. Nowhere else have I felt as warmly received and more friendly treated as in Korea. If someone asks me what I like about Korea, the first answer is the people's friendliness.

Yes, the country might not be as easy and convenient as Hong Kong is for foreigners, and there were many things I did complain about.

But imagine, I got into a ridiculous fight with a taxi driver in Hong Kong because he was not willing to drive me up the hill into a dead end, even if I had a heavy suitcase to carry, and that just because he wasn't willing to maneuver his car out of there again.

On my way back from Beijing, a Hong Kong flight attendant of Dragonair snarled at me that I can put up my bag into the overhead compartment myself instead of helping me, and that because my American neighbor upset her by asking why she had to put her bag up. The flight attendant snapped at her in a harsh tone that it was blocking her from taking her life-jacket, and that it was very important. When the American lady said sarcastically: "Only if you plan on crashing", she took it very personal and picked on me.

Hong Kong people tend to be rude. Many of them. Opposed to that, on the Korean Air flight, the flight attendant asked me politely and with a smile if she might put my bag in the overhead compartment for take-off. And when I got into Korea, I met the taxi driver I ordered. He politely bowed in front of me and carried my suitcase. He even drove the car to a dry spot because it was raining. For no extra tip.

Now you tell me why I feel more at home in Korea, even if I am greeted there as "Foreign Passport" instead of "Visitor"?

Where the streets have no name - or how to tell the taxi driver in Seoul where to go

In one of my very early posts I wrote about Korea's address system which follows the Japanese structure. Instead of having street names and logically ascending building numbers along them, Seoul is divided into the bigger regions (called Gu) and the smaller districts (called Dong). The numbers that are assigned to a specific address are known to the post office, but not to someone in the street looking for a certain building.
In our first days in Korea, as most foreigners, we were not aware of that system. When my hubby hopped on to a taxi to drive him to his office the first time, he gave the driver his business card with the intention that he takes him to the address printed on it. Little did he know when the driver picked up his cell phone half-way who he was going to call.
Suddenly, my hubby's cell rang. He picked it up - and guess what - had the driver on the line!
"Why are you calling me?" he asked, astonished, and the driver said something in Korean my hubby interpreted as: "Why the heck did you give me your cell phone number?"
So to all the foreigners who are new to Seoul: If you hand a business card with an address and phone number on it to the driver, what he will do is to drive to that district and then call the number on the card to get directions to the right building. The address system in Seoul doesn't leave any other options open.
Another good way is to mention a landmark building or a subway station near the place you want to go and then direct the taxi driver from there. But that only works if you know from the beginning where the place is.
And a last useful hint: If you are looking for a place in Seoul on the internet, you will almost always find a map and directions how to go there.

Konglish in the elevator

As I mentioned in my earlier post about foreigners in Korea, more non-Koreans have moved into our building lately. As one of them got into trouble when he couldn't read a notice about window cleaning, he complained to the building management that they should post important notices also in English.
For a while, we didn't notice any changes. Even when they shut down the DVD room, the notice was only in Korean. So I thought it will probably never happen.
But surprise! Today we walked into the elevator and saw this peculiar notice. After studying it for a while we are now able to decipher what was meant by it:

"The buttons on the inside of the elevator have been sterilized with a disinfectant against A(H1N1).
We ask for your understanding for the chemical smell."

Actually, the other foreigner only asked for IMPORTANT notices to be posted in English. I'm wondering about the future notices.

Best stone-baked pizza in Seoul

Just after I wrote about Korea's growing diversity and ethnic food community in one of my last posts, we stumbled over an Italian restaurant in Hongdae serving authentic STONE-BAKED PIZZA amongst other tasty Italian dishes.
The place is called "Le Tre Campane" and is situated in a back street in Hongdae area. Check out the restaurant's website for directions:
Le Tre Campane
Apart from the big, authentic Italian pizza baked in the stone oven, the restaurant features other common Italian dishes such as carpaccio, pasta, risotto, meat and fish. Their wine card is very limited, but when we were there, we got a very good deal of high quality 2006 Chianti for only KRW 50'000 the bottle.
A must-try for authentic Italian stone-baked pizza lovers! But one thing that always brings a smile to our lips: Even in the most authentic Western restaurants, you will always get a dish of kimchi or sour pickles on the side, just as you see in the picture we took. Buon appetito!

Foreigners in Korea

(외국인 - Waegukin = Foreigner)

Over the last two years we lived in Korea the number of foreigners has apparently increased dramatically. Even where we live, a rather local place where we were the only strangers in the beginning, a few foreigners have moved in the district in the meantime.
The media say that the number of foreigners has exceeded 1 million recently. It sounds like good news for this very homogeneous country's diversity, but needs to be put in perspective.
In Korea's 40-something million population, 1 million is still only some 2%. Compared to Switzerland with 20% plus foreigners the proportion is still puny.

Moreover, the biggest foreigner communities are Korean-Chinese and Korean-Japanese, i.e. ethnic Koreans who grew up in China or Japan. Although they tend to be more culturally Chinese and Japanese than Korean in their behavior, most of them are perfectly bilingual and familiar with Korean customs. According to a recent newspaper article, about half of the foreigners are Chinese, of which about 90% are Korean-Chinese. I would assume proportions with Korean-Japanese would be similar, and we haven't talked about the vast number of Korean-Americans yet. This doesn't leave much room for "real" foreigners, i.e. non-ethnic Koreans. Probably the percentage will shrink below 0.5% when accounting for this fact.

Switzerland has many non-ethnic Swiss who obtained the Swiss citizenship or are second generation immigrants who have Swiss passports, such as myself, which means they are not counted as foreigners in the statistic. So 20% plus foreigners is effectively underestimating the population's diversity, whereas 2% in Korea tends to be an exaggeration.

Nevertheless, Korea has been making great efforts to integrate and make foreigners' lives easier, which I appreciate highly. In only two years time, I've seen quite some improvement e.g. in the supermarket shelves. Many more foreign brands and products are available now. The number of foreign restaurants serving authentic food has also increased. Many people such as waiters and clerks at least try to speak a few words of English now.

Although I complain a lot about this country's protectionism, I must admit that they've come a long way since we first moved here. If they keep up this spirit, I am quite positive that Korea could one day make it to become a more diverse country.

Incheon "Global" Fair

It's possible that after having lived in Korea for almost two years, one starts viewing things through more critical eyes than in the beginning. In one of my earlier posts about Korea's quest to become a more global country (Lack of globalization?) I've already let my opinion about Korea's protectionism shine through. Korea's globalization efforts, although often elaborate and expensive, at times leave the impression of just touching the surface. Like the story of one of my foreign (white) friends, who was hired by a Korean company without really having a function besides to attend meetings (just to look pretty there) and photo shootings to show off how global and open-minded this company was because it employed foreigners.

Another incident which suppported our opinion was Incheon Global Fair. With the main goal of promoting Incheon as a global city to attract foreign investments, this fair took a planning period of roughly 2 years and was announced with a lot of pomp. Curious on what Incheon had to offer to foreigners, my hubby and I drove there the first weekend it opened.

What we experienced there was quite sobering, if not to say disappointing. When we came closer to the site and tried to find out how to get to the fair's entrance, we found that all direction signs were just written in Hangeul. As we are in the meantime proficient enough to understand most of it, we're sure a lot of other foreigners are not. Moreover, there was no explanation whatsoever on how the parking system worked. We drove around for quite a while, and finally saw a marshaler on the road. As it is supposed to be a global fair, I asked her in English how it worked. The girl started to stammer a few English words which we hardly understood. So I asked her to explain in Korean, and she told us we were supposed to park on any of the parking lots and then take the shuttle bus to the entrance. But what about other foreigners who do not speak Korean at all?

The first thing we visited at the fair was the "Green Growth Hall". Curious on the country's recently announced Green Initiative, we wanted to know what new technologies were on the market for it. But we were disappointed again. Most of the exhibitors were Korean companies - nothing against that, but most of them didn't have any information in English - pure Korean only! A few of them made a feeble effort, such as LG, but we walked out there not a tiny bit brighter than we were before.

The other halls offered somewhat more information in English as the exhibitors tended to be more foreigners, but much of it was also all in Korean. One positive experience we made was at the corner where Songdo, one of Incheon's cities, was promoted. We got a special treatment from the lady who showed us around in English. When dinner time approached, we looked for a place to eat - and found there was a food court, but soon discovered they only had one counter - guess what - of course Korean food. Not that we would object to Korean food at all, but it was the only choice at a GLOBAL fair! And it looked so terrible we decided to drive home for dinner. We weren't surprised anymore that we could hardly see any foreigners around. At Incheon "Global" Fair, 99.9% of the visitors were Korean.

Down-Under in winter

We celebrated this year's Swiss National Day in beautiful Sydney and its surroundings.

The Opera House
Sydney's landmark
View from the boat






Bondi Beach
With the million dollar apartments and Ice Cube in the background







The Three Sisters in Katoomba
Blue Mountains







Sunset at Nepean River










Fitzroy Falls
Southern Highlands











Feeding kangaroos



Didgeridoo player



Whale watching



Sydney Aquarium



Hitchcock's "The Birds" revisited: Aggro birds in Hyde Park collectively attacking another species!

This is a woman's world - amazing tailor-made shoes

One thing you'll notice when you walk through Seoul's streets is that especially women attach a lot of importance to appearance (see also post Make me beautiful). It might be true that Korean girls spend a larger part of their income on clothes, bags, shoes and make-up than others, on the other hand, competition of providers is fierce and if you know where to shop, you can get amazingly good deals.

In one of my earlier posts I mentioned the area around Ewha Woman's University, which is truly a woman's world. One of my friends called the shops on the street leading down to the main gate derogatorily "Weiberläden", which is German and translates into something like "broads' shops". However, it is the place where you get those amazing deals that make it possible for women in Korea to dress up to the nines.

Never in my life would I have thought to get high-quality tailor-made shoes for just about 50 US dollars a pair. But it's true in a shop on the main street called "WITH" (on the left side when you walk down to the university main gate). The way it works: They have a huge selection of designs you can choose from. Once you have found the design, they will take measure of your foot and tell you to return in a couple of days to pick up the shoes, perfectly tailored for you. If you want a different color, another fabric - no problem at all. You can choose from a large selection of fabric samples and colors. I've been very happy with the shoes I got from there. Comfy, stylish and good quality.

If you already own a pair of shoes you like - and which woman doesn't know how it is once you have found a pair of shoes that are awsomely comfy and you got so fond of, but then they wear out and you just can't get yourself to throw them away - it's absolutely no problem now! Just bring all your favorite shoes to them and ask them to make a copy. You can even say you want a copy but choose different color and fabric. Or you want a higher or lower heel. Unbelievable but true: Same price as for their own design. Around 50 bucks for a pair of pumps. Expect a bit more for boots as they will need more fabric to make them, but it's still a good deal. Oh, and one more thing: Bargain! It is one of the rare places in Korea where you still can bargain, even if buying from a shop. 10 - 20% off the first price is reasonable.

Ex-US Senator Mike Gravel intends to make Korea more democratic

Coming from Switzerland, a country with a long history of direct democracy - according to Senator Mike Gravel the only country in the world! - and having had the chance to listen to this Ex-US Senator's vision to launch a National Initiative in Korea to give the people more power attracted our attention.
Mike Gravel decided to launch this Initiative after having found out that the Korean Constitution - which was written using the German and Japanese Constitutions as a role model - states that only the people can amend the Constitution - which is why he thinks the Korean Constitution is superior to the US Constitution!
Senator Gravel's idea is to get enough people on board to sign on the Initiative and create a non-partisan Central Election Management Committee to conduct all elections.
We hope that he will succeed in this ambitious project!
Senator Gravel will be back in Korea in September 2009.

Link to the National Initiative in Korea

"Korea, Democratic People's Republic of"

Something I have to mention at this point as North Korea is in the news intensively again: I'm always stunned anew that, again, we received a letter from abroad addressed to "Korea, Democratic People's Republic of". And it was not some ignorant lunatic, but a reputable consulting firm! Believe it or not: Even the Swiss government used to send our mails to North Korea, until we notified them about the error.

To clarify: "Korea, Democratic People's Republic of" = NORTH Korea - the country under the dictator Kim Jong-Il. But no worries: We live in "Korea, Republic of" = SOUTH Korea, a country with a representative democracy.

Just when I thought this couldn't be topped, I received another letter from the Swiss authorities with the correct address in Seoul, but stating the country as... CHINA! Is this as good as it gets? I wonder...

Our dear northern neighbor

KAL's cartoon in the Economist May 30 - June 5th 2009 edition "Kim's bombshell"

In South Korea people take the North Korean issue much less seriously than in the rest of the world, although the nuclear threat would be greatest for this country. It needs to be said that not much is known in the world about North Korea, and the media tends to jump at every little piece of news they can get to make it a sensation.
The South Korean calmness probably comes from the fact that the South Koreans can identify more easily with the North Korean culture than other countries. Although the countries have been at war for decades, a diplomat who's dealt with both Koreas once told me that the people are exactly the same - Koreans - except they are thinner and on average 8 centimeters shorter in North Korea.

Four Seasons in Seoul

View from our apartment on Yanghwa Bridge
Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter & Nightview

Ex-President Roh Moo-hyun commits suicide

While we were in Switzerland, we happened to see the headline about South Korea's former President Roh Moo-hyun falling off a cliff, allegedly committing suicide because he couldn't stand the pressure of the corruption allegations against his family.
When we got back to Korea, Roh's funeral was held in Seoul attracting large numbers of mourners. Once again, we were overwhelmed by the fact how emotional the Korean people could become, despite their culture of rigorous discipline. Like when Nandaemun Gate burned down more than a year ago, thousands of people were seen crying loudly at the pompous ceremony.

Experience in a Korean hospital

I felt I should share my experience in a Korean hospital with those of you who should ever need medical care for fractures in Korea. While trying to turn a double pirouette en arabesque yesterday morning, I slipped and something cracked in my left foot.
Ossi drove me to Yonsei Severance Hospital in Sinchon, where Dr. Linton, a Korea-born American MD runs the International Health Care Center, which is a not very cheap, but very comfortable place for foreigners needing medical care to turn to. The hospital is vast, modern and inspires one with trust.
I was seated into a wheelchair - the first time in my life, yippie! And was driven to the x-ray center by my husband. I felt I could get used to that kind of comfort :)

After the first x-ray it was clear I broke the 5th metatarsal foot bone - obviously a very typical sports injury as the bone couldn't stand the pressure from the botched pirouette. The bone was also shifted out of alignment through the hard hit it received. Dr. Linton said I might need surgery. But it seems medical doctors in Korea always tell you the worst case first. Although Dr. Linton is American, he grew up in Korea, is completely fluent in Korean and does have a Korean mind. Well, at least he didn't mention amputation.

Dr. Linton sent me to an orthopedic specialist in the same hospital. The advantage of such a huge hospital is that they have all the specialists in-house, but the disadvantage is that you have to go to ten different places and in each place wait for your turn, which consumes a lot of time. All in all, I spent almost 4 hours in the hospital.
The orthopedist was a Korean with limited English knowledge. After having a look at the x-rays, he just told me he needs to do a "reduction" and then put a cast or spline on my foot. I never heard of that word in a medical sense and didn't know what was expecting me, and the physician's English was so poor he couldn't really explain. In fact, I got the feeling medical doctors in Korea never bother to explain anything, even if they speak English well, they don't answer your questions. So I just let them push me into another room where a medical staff was in the process of putting on a cast on another patient's arm.

A few minutes later, the orthopedist entered and told me he was going to do the reduction now, but it would be very painful. However, it would only last about a minute. I stared at him with big round eyes and said: "A reduction? You mean you are going to re-align the bones?" He nodded. "Can you give me some anesthesia for that?" I asked, horrified. He just said: "No." I swallowed hard. I knew it wouldn't make sense starting to argue with a Korean physician. Had that happened to me in Switzerland, I would have asked why he would do it without anesthesia, if there was a particular reason. I could live better with the pain if I knew the reason why I cannot get anesthesia. But here, I just gave in. I checked the internet for "closed reduction of bones" afterwards and found out that normally a local anesthesia is being applied. But not here in Korea, it seems.
The orthopedist got hold of my left foot and started to squeeze the bone into the right position. A sharp pain went through my whole body. I moaned and whined like a baby. I never felt more relieved in my life when the doctor said: "I'm done." After the torturing, they put on a splint and I was wheeled into the x-ray room again. Back in the orthopedist's room, the x-rays showed the reduction had been successful. The bone was nicely realigned again, and the fracture was a mere small line now. The orthopedist warned me not to put any weight on my left foot for the next two weeks, otherwise he would need to perform surgery. I hope at least that would be done under anesthesia! He gave me some prescription for pain killers and dismissed me. In the end, I was glad the reduction, although extremely painful, went well and that I didn't take anesthesia for it. In fact, if it is not absolutely necessary, doing it without probably speeds up the healing process. But the physicians here wouldn't bother to explain that to you.

Dr. Linton came by and gave me a pair of crutches. I am in the process of getting used to balancing on one leg and stumbling around with the crutches now, which is really harder than I thought. Small things in life, like short distances and stairs became an almost invincible obstacle. The next few weeks I would have to take a cab to work. I tried to take the subway yesterday evening, but it was so stressful I decided not to even think about taking it during the rush hour.
To all of you living in Korea: Try not breaking anything here, especially no fractures where you need a closed reduction.

On air with TBS eFM

Every Tuesday evening, 7:07pm Seoul time, TBS eFM radio host Sid Kim has me in his evening show to analyze global and local business & economy.
This English speaking radio station is aimed at the expat community in Seoul and Koreans who are interested in international news and topics.

Link to TBS efM (101.3FM)
Stay tuned!

Due to my departure to Hong Kong, my last regular corner is on 13 Oct 2009, but I will be likely calling in again once in a while, from Hong Kong or during business trips in Seoul!

The winter of the century - Saas Fee, Switzerland

It was the winter of the century in Switzerland this season, with loads and loads of great amazing snow, and of course, as Murphy's law suggests, we do not live in Switzerland any longer when it happens.



At least we got to go to beautiful Saas Fee during our annual leave this year. Two days before our arrival, it obviously snowed so much that Saas Fee was completely cut off from everything - tourists couldn't go up to the resort and those who were already up couldn't go down. When we were there, it was stunningly sunny and we had awesome snow conditions, but it was so windy the lifts were completely closed down on two full days.

On one day we had lunch in the restaurant on top (3500 meters above sea level) when suddenly the windstorm set in. It is impressive to experience the forces of nature when you are just a small human being in the eye of the storm. We decided not to take the black slope down this time as one couldn't even see half a meter ahead as the wind blew thick blasts of snow ungraciously into our faces, which turned into icicles immediately, and opted for the red slope. Even then we had a German lady who fought alongside with us against the wind and almost started crying. "I can't see anything and I'm scared, please help me", she whined. When we made it down safely and wanted to go up to the top again, it was closed. But we knew now why.

Martial morning exercise

A few weeks ago, something remarkable started in my office. It’s certainly true that the motivation of financial industry employees is not at its zenith right now. But I didn’t expect anything like this. As I was sipping my morning tea a bunch of motivation trainers invaded our place and asked us to stand up. A little confused, I asked my colleague what this was about.
“It’s a new program called Vitamin”, he explained, “and we will have this every morning from now on.”
I curiously listened to what the trainers said in Korean. In the meantime, I do get the main points without really understanding every word. Obviously “Vitamin” was a measure to cheer up the bank employees in this grim market environment. We were assigned a neatly dressed lady with lips painted as red as cherry.
First she made us sing a song with a movement combination. Then we were taught some hand-clapping combinations with a partner while speaking rhythmic verses. After that she made us close our eyes and make turns to the right, left or back when she clapped her hands. The exercises went on in a similar fashion and ended with the slogan “I feel really good” in Korean, which was shouted out loudly and combined with rhythmic hand clapping.
A bit bewildered I sat down again. As an introverted Swiss, such exercises make me feel like I made a complete fool out of myself. From then on, Ms. Cherry Lips came in every morning. However, we soon went off to Switzerland for our annual home leave so I missed Ms. Cherry Lips the next two weeks.

When I came back to the office, I discovered that Ms. Cherry Lips was replaced by a television screen which played a military march and shouted names of exercises and counted from one to eight for each, and the whole department’s employees moving like clone warriors to it every morning at 8:45.

The telescreens in George Orwell's 1984 inevitably came into my mind.
“Are we preparing for an invasion by North Korea?” I asked my colleague after the exercise, stunned.
She laughed and said: “Do you know these exercises stem from the time of Park Chung-hee’s military dictatorship?”
I said I thought that it had some “communist” flavor to it. In fact when I lived with a host family in Beijing my hostess also followed very similar exercises everyday, from a video which must have been taken during Mao’s regime, claiming it was very healthy exercise for your body.
Although being far from a communist country, Korean people can sometimes give me the chills in situations like that. Their frightening obedience and conformity to any kind of common activities reminds of me of brainless mass behavior, which in the past often led to disastrous results. They seem like a crowd that can be easily influenced and moved by a strong leader. If you had a television screen screaming out exercise orders in Switzerland, I don’t think anyone would even bother to budge. Here in Korea, you’d be the outcast if you didn’t follow every move.
So I follow the exercises every morning, too, due to peer pressure. It reminds me of a scene in “Life of Brian” when Brian calls out to a crowd: “You are all individuals!” and one guy shouts back: “I’m not.”

In the meantime, I found out about the name of that martial exercise: 국민체조 (Gungminchejo) which means "National Gymnastics". See video below!

The Swiss rock at the 27th Yongpyong International Ski Festival

The Swiss got it all this time: As one of the smallest representative group with only one table at the 27th Yongpyong Ski Festival, our small country won 3 gold medals in the adult, 2 bronze medals in the children and junior category, AND the prize for the best decorated table.
Luckily the event was hosted by the Norwegian Ambassador this year instead of the Swiss Ambassador as per tradition. Otherwise we could have even been accused of nepotism!

As last year, the weather was amazingly sunny and dry, but the temperature was much more moderate this year, so nobody had to freeze to death while watching the ski race. The gala dinner, accompanied by plenty of bottles of red wine from the Wallis, was entertaining as ever.
There was just one downer at this event. I get more and more freaked out about the skiing style of some people in Yongpyong. Too many ski and snowboard way beyond their abilities and have no "ski etiquette" at all. Coming back from Niseko, Japan, where skiing couldn't be more civilized, Yongpyong was a real shocker. While skiing with one of our friend's 6-year-old kid, he got overtaken by a lunatic wanna-be racer on carvers who only missed the kid by a few centimeters. A few weeks earlier, someone we know was hit by such a lunatic and broke an arm. And the worst thing - that lunatic didn't even bother to stop and help the poor guy whose arm he broke.

Which ski resort to choose in Korea?

It's hard to tell why skiing is especially barbaric in Yongpyong (see post above), of which people say it is the best ski resort in Korea. Now we do not quite agree with that statement anymore.
Yongpyong might be the biggest resort, but not necessarily the best. When we skied in High1 resort (Kangwonland) over Xmas this year, we didn't get the feeling that people behaved as uncivilized as in Yongpyong. Besides, although the resort is much smaller, the snow quality tends to be better, and there are a few advanced and expert slopes which were at least as challenging as the ones in Yongpyong, if not more challenging. It could be that a little more advanced skiers, who know what they are doing, tend to go to High1 more than Yongpyong, making it a safer place to ski.

Muju resort is another popular destination, which boasts to have a European flavor and architecture, however, the resort is still far from being what we are used to in Switzerland and Austria. Moreover, the place is extremely crowded, as the slope layout is not very cleverly designed. If you want to go from one mountain side to the other, you need to go all the way down to the base ski lifts and gondola, where you can line up for up to 1.5 hours. The line at the gondola is a bit shorter, but you need to pay extra for it, and at the seat lifts, they have an extra line for members (i.e. the ones who pay millions of wons per year to the resort), who get the priviledge of getting on the lifts quicker - but that means the line for the non-members crowd gets even longer. Last but not least, if you want to stay over for a weekend in the high season, you won't find a place in the nearby hotels as all rooms are reserved for members. Korea is an elitist society in many aspects, and unfortunately, skiing is one of them.

For advanced skiers who do not want to spend millions of wons to be a member of some resort and are looking for relatively civilized skiing, we therefore recommend High1.

These are the English websites of the mentioned resorts for those who are interested:
High1, Yongpyong, Muju