mgedwards – Page 146

Inside North Korea

My eyes and ears still perk up whenever I see or hear something about the Koreas. This video clip showing footage of life inside North Korea produced by National Geographic is absolutely heartbreaking. No explanation needed. Watch it for yourself before it’s yanked off YouTube for copyright violation or another reason.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTNvaZu30UQ

Life never seems so bad whenever I watch video footage or see photos from North Korea.

Do they ever get out of Davos?

On March 1 the World Economic Forum (WEF) based in Davos, Switzerland announced its inaugural survey on worldwide travel and competitiveness. Not surprisingly, European countries dominate the list of twenty most competitive nations when it comes to travel and tourism. I would venture to guess that the Swiss-based WEF was a bit biased when it ranked Switzerland at the top of the list. If you’ve ever traveled in Switzerland on a limited budget, you’ll probably remember a few moments when you told yourself, "Why is it so expensive here?" or wonder why it feels so darn sterile. I’m also surprised that the WEF considers the United States the fifth most competitive nation. Considering the U.S.’s size, diversity, and the fact that it beat out usual suspects Sweden, Holland, France, Germany, Italy, among others, the United States could quite possibly be the world’s most competitive nation in terms of travel and tourism if geographic factors are taken into consideration. If you’ve ever stayed in Europe at a budget motel with chipped marble, aged Renaissance-era, faux-baroque furnishings, and corroded pipes, you’ll understand why the average U.S. hotel beats a European hotel any day.

This survey piqued my interest because I wondered where our past destination, Korea, and our future destination, Paraguay, ranked in this survey. They were listed as #42 and #111, respectively. In East Asia, Korea is less competitive than #25 Japan and #30 Taiwan, R.O.C., but it is more competitive than #72 China. The Korea Tourism Organization might agree, because it is constantly wondering how to get more tourists to pay attention to Korea. Surprisingly, China is less competitive than #65 India, which I find hard to believe given India’s infrastructure woes and inadequate lodging options.

In South America, Paraguay finished last in terms of competitiveness in travel and tourism. This is not surprising until one considers that Bolivia (#109) and Guyana (#100) finished ahead of Paraguay. Guyana? In addition, the WEF ranked Tajikistan just ahead of Paraguay (#110). When one considers that the U.S. Department of State’s hardship differential for Paraguay is 10% and 35% for Tajikistan and that Tajikistan’s increased from 25% to 35% in 2006, one must conclude that the WEF’s survey results are inconclusive or that they only apply to short-term tour and travel (hardship differential represents the perceived hardship of a locale relative to life in the United States). Fortunately, the WEF had the common sense not to rank Chad (#124) higher than dead last on its list…at least this year.

We will be on tour in Paraguay, albeit for two years. I was disappointed to see it ranked so low. I feel defensive when it comes to Paraguay, and I’ve never been there. It really can’t be that bad, can it? Sometimes–not always–a tourist destination is what you make it. You can have a good trip or a bad trip depending on your own attitude. Sure, Paraguay might not be on the top of my list of must-see tourist havens, but then again, neither are many of the countries listed ahead of Paraguay. Regardless of what the prognosticators in Davos think as they analyze the world from their ivory towers, sipping their glasses of 1993 Bordeaux Château d’Eau Contraire as they listen to the sounds of yodeling emanating from their sauve Alpine valleys, I’m planning to enjoy the country as much as I possibly can.

For more information on the results of this survey, visit:

http://www.weforum.org/en/media/Latest%20Press%20Releases/Tourismpressrelease.

	Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index
Rank	Country/economy	Score
1	Switzerland	5.66
2	Austria	5.54
3	Germany	5.48
4	Iceland	5.45
5	United States	5.43
6	Hong Kong SAR	5.33
7	Canada	5.31
8	Singapore	5.31
9	Luxembourg	5.31
10	United Kingdom	5.28
11	Denmark	5.27
12	France	5.23
13	Australia	5.21
14	New Zealand	5.20
15	Spain	5.18
16	Finland	5.16
17	Sweden	5.13
18	United Arab Emirates	5.09
19	Netherlands	5.08
20	Cyprus	5.07
21	Belgium	5.07
22	Portugal	5.05
23	Norway	5.04
24	Greece	4.99
25	Japan	4.99
26	Malta	4.96
27	Ireland	4.93
28	Estonia	4.90
29	Barbados	4.86
30	Taiwan, China	4.82
31	Malaysia	4.80
32	Israel	4.80
33	Italy	4.78
34	Tunisia	4.75
35	Czech Republic	4.75
36	Qatar	4.71
37	Slovak Republic	4.68
38	Croatia	4.66
39	Mauritius	4.63
40	Hungary	4.61
41	Costa Rica	4.60
42	Korea, Rep.	4.58
43	Thailand	4.58
44	Slovenia	4.58
45	Chile	4.58
46	Jordan	4.52
47	Bahrain	4.45
48	Jamaica	4.41
49	Mexico	4.38
50	Dominican Republic	4.35
51	Lithuania	4.34
52	Turkey	4.31
53	Latvia	4.31
54	Bulgaria	4.31
55	Panama	4.28
56	Uruguay	4.28
57	Morocco	4.27
58	Egypt	4.24
59	Brazil	4.20
60	Indonesia	4.20
61	Serbia and Montenegro	4.18
62	South Africa	4.18
63	Poland	4.18
64	Argentina	4.18
65	India	4.14
66	Georgia	4.13
67	Kuwait	4.08
68	Russian Federation	4.03
69	Guatemala	4.00
70	Botswana	3.99
71	China	3.97
72	Colombia	3.96
73	Namibia	3.95
74	Armenia	3.93
75	Azerbaijan	3.92
76	Romania	3.91
77	El Salvador	3.90
78	Ukraine	3.89
79	Sri Lanka	3.89
80	Tanzania	3.86
81	Peru	3.86
82	Kazakhstan	3.81
83	Macedonia, FYR	3.81
84	Gambia	3.81
85	Trinidad and Tobago	3.79
86	Philippines	3.79
87	Honduras	3.78
88	Vietnam	3.78
89	Nicaragua	3.76
90	Albania	3.75
91	Mongolia	3.72
92	Mauritania	3.71
93	Algeria	3.67
94	Zambia	3.66
95	Moldova	3.65
96	Cambodia	3.64
97	Ecuador	3.64
98	Kenya	3.62
99	Venezuela	3.62
100	Guyana	3.56
101	Uganda	3.56
102	Kyrgyz Republic	3.54
103	Pakistan	3.52
104	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3.51
105	Mali	3.50
106	Nepal	3.49
107	Zimbabwe	3.48
108	Suriname	3.47
109	Bolivia	3.46
110	Tajikistan	3.46
111	Paraguay	3.44
112	Madagascar	3.44
113	Burkina Faso	3.41
114	Malawi	3.31
115	Nigeria	3.30
116	Benin	3.28
117	Ethiopia	3.26
118	Cameroon	3.25
119	Mozambique	3.23
120	Bangladesh	3.21
121	Lesotho	3.12
122	Angola	2.89
123	Burundi	2.88
124	Chad	2.68

It sure beats studying an Asian language!

One of the derivative consequences of spending seven years studying East Asian languages is that when you study virtually any other foreign language, you find it inherently easier to learn the language. After spending four years studying Chinese and three years studying Korean and using it in Korea, I absolutely love learning Spanish. When I studied Korean and Chinese, I found myself continually procrastinating and finding excuses not to study. My present experience studying Spanish is much different. Perhaps in a couple of months when I take my Spanish language exam my perspective might change, or maybe when I dig further into the language I’ll find Spanish progressively frustrating. I doubt it. I get Spanish, and thanks to Korean, I’m thoroughly enjoying language learning for the first time in years. I may still have a ways to go until I am fluent, but at least I "get" Spanish. That’s more than I could say for at least a year after I started learning Korean and Chinese.

This is especially true of Korean. Along with Chinese, Arabic, and Japanese, the Korean language is considered one of the four most difficult languages for native English speakers to learn. Korean gets an asterick for being especially difficult to speak. The Korean alphabet (hangeul) is much easier to learn than the other three languages. Korean grammar is more difficult than either Chinese or Arabic (I’ve heard), and it is on par with Japanese. However, Korean pronunciation is more difficult than Japanese. It’s not a tonal language like Chinese, but it has inflections that Japanese does not. I digress. The point is that going from studying one of the most difficult languages, one that can leave a student feeling utterly stupefied, to studying one of the languages considered easiest to learn is cathartic. I get Spanish, and it feels great. It’s nice to be able to carry on complex conversations using a steady stream of English cognates rather than struggling to put together simple sentences using words you struggle to recall.

I built a foreign language dictionary database using Microsoft Access to help me learn Korean, and I modified it to learn Spanish. I am surprised at how many words were missing from the database, basic words one needs to know to adequately speak a language. The Spanish dictionary I’m building now is much more comprehensive. When I learned Korean, I felt (rightly) that my vocabulary was inadequate. I’m determined not to make the same mistake in my Spanish studies. Every day I try to learn 40-50 new words. I’m also trying to change bad habits by focusing more on listening and reading comprehension and watching programs, such as the educational telenovela "Destinos."

While I have less than three months to achieve proficiency in Spanish, I’m confident that I can do it. After just 2.5 weeks, my Spanish is much improved. What a difference a language can make.