Tag Archives: army

What an Expat Manager Really Needs to Know about Korean History (MBIK 1)

Posted by on January 6, 2009 No comments

 

I’m just going to make some notes and observations that I find interesting as I read each chapter of Mastering Business in Korean, so don’t expect an exhaustive review.

The first chapter is a brief history of Korea that the author says Koreans might expect people to know about and would help with their relations.

I had always assumed 한글 was adopted right from the get go. I guess 한글 was loathed for a while. It says the educated people disregarded 한글 because “even the women could learn it.” I remember seeing how women couldn’t go to school in the drama, 대장금, so I guess that was an accurate portrayal. The author states that 한글 became widely adopted once the bible was translated by Christian missionaries in the late 19th century.

Another interesting fact was that Pyongyang (current capital of North Korea) was seen as the Christian capital of Korea and Seoul (current capital of South Korea) was the hot spot for debate between the left and the right, so the U.S. and Soviet Russia seemed to have the wrong halves of Korea after World War II.

One thing that seems a little backwards in retrospect is that the U.S. forces tried to keep South Korea’s army very small prior to the Korean war. They felt their job was to stop South Korea from trying to invade the north. This is similar to their policy in Japan, though South Korea was in more danger of being invaded. Of course, Soviet Russia helped North Korea build up invasion forces during this time. Wow, smart move on our part ;) . I have to wonder how much intelligence we compiled together at the time and if we knew that Soviet Russia was building up the North Korean forces.

North Korea’s history doesn’t have much to say about the 500,000 Chinese that died to push the U.S. forces back down to Seoul (which later retreated to the 38th parallel). I’d say that’s in line with their policy of trying to show how independent they are from other nations and how much Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il are gods on Earth.

Go to the next chapter, Korean Hearts and Minds: Traditional Yet Changing or select a chapter.

원스 어폰 어 타임 (Once Upon a Time)

Posted by on December 4, 2008 No comments

18

원스 어폰 어 타임 is an adventure story set in the Japan-occupied Korea. There’s a diamond which the Japanese army is trying to take out of Korea while the Korean Independence Army struggles to keep it in their country, preserving the precious part of Korean history.

I really enjoyed the movie; it shows the dedication of the Koreans to keep their culture alive. It has some great humor thrown in between the many action sequences. The ending is awesome; the main bad guy gets some ironic justice. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone wanting to see an adventure flick along the lines of Indiana Jones.

Trailer

Culture Notes

1. Japan treated Koreans pretty bad (all countries are guilty of this though, even Korea). Japan tried to eradicate the Korean history, language and culture. You can see this theme throughout the movie (one sign says ‘Koreans and dogs not allowed’, multiple times people talk about Koreans who work for Japan being lower than the Japanese, etc.). Because of that, you do see some hostility towards Japan from Koreans that has passed on to the younger generation. In the end of the movie, the same sign from the beginning says ‘Japanese and dogs not allowed’. Once they actually meet each other the prejudice goes away fairly fast.

2. Yes, like 20% of Koreans have the last name, 이. So how can they tell who is close to their family? In addition to their last name, they usually know the town which their family originated from. That way they can tell who is really part of their family and who is not. If two people meet who have the same last name they will often ask what city their name is from.