Tales from Korea 1

So here I am sat in front of my Macbook in Suwon, South Korea, wondering how to relate my experiences so far of the last one month that I have been here. There's always something to write about when you're a stranger in a strange land and S. Korea is as strange as they come, especially for someone who's never before stepped out of the chaos that is India and experienced the culture of another land.

I must admit my geography is a bit atrocious and it wasn't until I had reached S. Korea that I actually looked it up on the map and was quite surprised to discover that it's nowhere close to where I had originally pictured it to be. Come to think of it, even Japan isn't where I had pictured it to be. No wonder I'm so bad at directions! Well, it's a bit NE of India with Japan towards the south and China to the North (beyond N. Korea obviously).

Due to this geographic location its culture has been heavily influenced by both Japan and China. Because it was repeatedly invaded by Japan in the past, S. Koreans (and Koreans in general presumably) aren't particularly fond of the island nation, a fact that I was somewhat surprised to hear. Indeed, it's this rivalry that has given birth to a fierce competition between the two in terms of economic and technological progress. Is it any wonder that some of the top technology companies are from S. Korea?

Speaking of tech companies, three of the biggest companies in S. Korea seem to be Samsung, Hyundai and LG. I didn't realise just how big a deal they were until I reached here. They seem to make all kinds of gadgets and machines and on a scale that is awe inspiring. For instance, did you know that Samsung makes high-end cars?

Well I didn't and imagine my astonishment to discover large sleek Samsung cars flitting about on the expansive and truly beautiful city roads. As it turns out it's actually Renault Samsung that makes these cars. Samsung apparently is the Apple/MS monopolistic equivalent in S. Korea and manufactures a whole lot of things. However, is the king of the road here. Almost every other car is a Hyundai, and some of the larger vehicles and heavy machinery is nearly a Hyundai everytime I have seen them. And they make elevators too.


All work and a bit of play

Koreans work like crazy! Office timings are usually 9 to 6 but almost everyone works 12 hours a day. Many of them (like ours) work Saturdays too! It's a wonder then that they find time for leisure like sauna (jimjibang) and sports like table tennis and football. I asked one of my Korean colleagues as to why everyone works such long hours and the answer was "to become rich and successful". Looking at the high standard of living that Koreans seem to enjoy, I do believe he was being quite serious about it. Remember the adage, "Work smart not work hard"? It looks like the Koreans don't subscribe to it.

Mind you, of late the government and some companies seem to have done their bit to reduce work timing and ease pressure but many companies still follow the old ways. Apparently if you aren't working long hours, you aren't working at all and might soon come under the scanner of high brow management types who don't look too kindly at slackers.

For instance, one of the high end companies I spoke about earlier not only encourages employees to work long hours, it also expects them to work on Sundays and late at nights in order to meet project deadlines with no overtime pay. This shouldn't be shocking if you've worked for an Indian company before but considering S. Korea is a developed nation, it does come as a mild shock. To be fair, compensation for good work is quite regular and there are some perks involved in working for such companies.

As you may or may not have heard, the PC game Starcraft is quite popular here. How popular? Well it has a dedicated TV channel which regularly shows Starcraft gaming tournaments (of which there are a lot) and whatnots. Near my place in Suwon there are a number of shops with the word "PC" on their shop signs. They are internet parlors that apart from providing regular web browsing also cater to the popular pastime of multiplayer gaming. As you can imagine, Starcraft multiplayer is the norm although of late MMO games have become the rage.

S. Korea is quite fond of the Internet. To prove this, they have the highest transfer speeds on the planet and almost every nook and cranny has WiFi connectivity. Some of it isn't even secured. I should know because I'm using someone else's unsecured WiFi connection at the moment to make this long winded blog post!

I suppose that's as good a cue as any to put this particular post to an end. More on life in Korea coming up in a few days. Don't hold your breath though!