Articles by mgedwards

Talent Show caps a long week

Tonight I performed two songs at our community Talent Show.  I performed a solo version of the Roy Orbison classic, “Oh Pretty Woman” and a duet of “Endless Love” by Lionel Ritchie and Diana Ross.  We did very well.  In fact, everyone who performed did a fabulous job.  My partner on “Endless Love” also performed a solo of a French song (she hails from Belgium and is fluent in French).  We made a couple mistakes during our rendition, but we got the crowd into our duet and had a lot of fun.  Preparing for two three-minute songs was a lot of work.  We practiced a couple of times together and worked out singing logistics.  We used a large karaoke machine and sang along to instrumental versions of the songs.  We didn’t win the competition, but I’m sure it was a crowd pleaser.  I’m so tired now that I will retire early tonight after I finish writing my blog. 

 

All in all, it’s been a long, long week.  It ended with the Talent Show.  It also included a presentation at Chung-Ahn University in Seoul and an important meeting with my section chief.  I put together a pitch to sell my chief on the idea of implementing a quality management system (QMS) and achieving ISO 9001 certification for our section.  Although it’s an office, it still functions much like what I affectionately call “a white-collar factory.”  The principles of operations management used in manufacturing can be modified and implemented in an office setting.  My chief agreed, and he gave me the green light to start working on implementing a QMS and pursuing ISO 9001 certification.  It will be a huge undertaking.  My goal is to achieve certification before I leave Seoul in 2007.  Implementing a certified QMS requires a lot of documentation, employee cooperation, and support from management.  The task will be daunting, but I think it’s achievable within two years.

 

CNN reported today that three members of a family in the area where I grew up were brutally murdered, and two children from the same family were abducted by an unknown assailant.  Coeur d’Alene, Idaho is usually a quiet, unassuming place.  This murder must be an extreme shock to local residents.  When I grew up there, I never heard of murders in our area.  Murders always happened in the big metropolis of Spokane, Washington (population 175,000).  It’s such a sad, sad story.  I’m so sorry to hear what happened and hope that police find the murderer and the abducted children before anything happens to them.  I have no idea why anyone would do such a thing.  My parents still live in the area, so this story hits close to home for me.

 

I often hear from many Americans about how dangerous it is living and traveling overseas.  For example, when I lived in Austria as a youth I wanted to visit nearby Zagreb, Croatia.  The Bosnian conflict had recently ended, and my family insisted that I forgo the trip because they thought that visiting Zagreb was “too dangerous.”  Perhaps, but sometimes perceptions do not match reality.  I respected their wishes and regretfully aborted the trip.  Danger is not limited to urban or war torn areas.  I feel much safer here in Seoul than I did living in the Washington, D.C. area, even though Seoul is more than twice as large as D.C.  I even feel safer here than I did in Seattle, which is a fairly safe American city.  I think statistics meted out my contention that sometimes living outside the U.S. is safer than living in America.  Coeur d’Alene used to feel safe, a place where you did not even have to lock your door.  Now my idyllic hometown has been shattered by a brutal murder and abduction splashed across headlines throughout the country.  It goes to show that danger can happen anywhere, at any time.  I think it’s best to live life with that thought in the back of one’s mind without letting phobia control of your decision making.  In 2001, immediately following 9/11 and before the Afghan War, my wife and I toured the Middle East on tour.  We seriously considered aborting the trip.  I am so glad we decided to go anyway despite tensions in the Middle East.  We met just four Americans during our journeys there.  Tourism was so depressed at the time that we felt like we had the entire place to ourselves.  I am so glad that at that time I did not let caution thwart our trip.  Live life to the fullest, I say.

It's all about the key money

I had lunch with a Korean coworker today.  We talked about life in Korea, and somehow the conversation migrated towards talking about housing and commuting in Seoul.  She lives with her family in northwest Seoul, works downtown, drops her child off at daycare in south central Seoul, while her husband commutes to work in southeast Seoul.  Unfortunately, her daily commute is long and complicated.  I asked her why she hasn’t move south to a more convenient location.  She answered that she rents an apartment in Seoul close to where her parents live.  Her parents take care of her son every morning before they drop him off at daycare.  Also, housing near the Han River is very expensive, making it cost prohibitive for them to relocate to that area.  It’s unfortunate that their housing options are limited.  Until they rent or buy elsewhere or change jobs, they will continue to have a long work commute via subway or bus.  Because parking is at a premium in Seoul, bus and subway are usually the best options for the typical Seoul commuter.

Korea’s housing sector functions somewhat differently than that of the U.S.  Many Koreans rent apartments.  Most renters pay a “key money” fee that grants them the right to live in a rental (exceptions include those who rent from other family members).  “Key money” is a very steep deposit renters must pay landlords up front before moving into a rental.  Renters can get their “key money” back after they move out of the property.  However, they receive no additional return for their deposit.  Consequently, Korean renters pay a lot of “key money” and have nothing to show for it once they get their “key money” back.  Koreans can buy their homes, but because they have to pay the entire cost up front, most Koreans do not buy homes until they are older.  They finance home purchases out of pocket, use funds provided by family members, or tap moderate lines of bank credit.  Few Koreans assume American-style mortgages.  Putting “5 per cent” down on a home is virtually impossible to do in Korea.  Those who cannot afford to buy or rent a home typically live with their parents until they marry or accrue enough “key money” to move out on their own.  Americans’ ability to buy a home with little money down gives them an opportunity to become independent at an earlier age and to start accruing equity early life.  While Americans saving very little and frequently have burdensome personal debt, many increase their net worth through home ownership.  In recent years, the U.S. housing market has boomed, and most U.S. home owners have benefited from substantial capital gains on their homes.  In Korea however, many Koreans wait until later in life to buy, and they miss out on early opportunities to purchase a home and build home equity.

Of students and eruptions

This afternoon I gave a presentation to college students at Chung-Ahn University in Seoul.  It’s the first presentation I’ve given in some time.  I thought I would be nervous, but I was not.  About 30 students showed up to learn more about studying in the U.S. and about steps they need to take to study there.  I used a PowerPoint presentation written in Korean as a guide (I frequently referred to notes in English).  The students seemed to enjoy the presentation, and I tried to liven it up a bit with some understated humor.  A colleague of mine joined me and did an excellent job translating my monologue into Korean.  The students were quiet throughout the presentation, and I had to coax them to ask questions at the end.  I’ve been told that silence is not typical during these types of gatherings.  Presenters are typically bombarded with questions.  Perhaps my presentation was so thorough that I answered all of their questions, or maybe they’re just introverted.  I doubt it.  I think they were shy.  After the presentation, some of the students came up to me with more specific questions, reinforced in my mind that they were interested in what I had to say.

 

I also spent time with one of the vice presidents at Chung-Ahn.  He received his Ph.D from the U.S. and had a fabulous grasp of English and the American education system.  I told him some of my impressions about the Korean educational system, including some I wrote about yesterday.  He clarified that Korean students do not have to necessarily change schools if they change majors.  However, changing majors is much more difficult to do in Korea than it is in the U.S.  He said that most Korean students go to the states to study English and then return to Korea to finish their degrees.  He appreciated that my colleague and I visited the school a community service to help Korean students learn more about study in the U.S.  He also pointed out that the university hosts many foreign students, and I told him that I was glad to hear that the university gave foreign students the opportunity to learn more about Korean culture.  Korean exchange programs are great outreach programs.

 

Today is the 25th anniversary of the initial eruption of Mt. St. Helens in Washington State.  I did not live in Washington at the time, but my dad was living there in anticipation of our eventual relocation there.  My family joined him in Washington State months after the blast occurred.  57 people lost their lives in the eruption, including Harry Truman, an elderly gentleman who had lived near the mountain for years and refused to leave despite repeated warnings.  The pre-eruption photos reveal what was once one of the most beautiful mountains in the U.S.  Mt. St. Helens even now looks quite barren and misshapen.  The area that surrounds it is still very devastated, although the vegetation has started growing again.  The remnant of what used to be gorgeous Spirit Lake at the base of the mountain is just a shadow of what it used to be.  My wife and I visited the mountain for the first time several years ago.  It’s quite humble standing before a mountain that has so obviously been scarred by a volcanic blast.  The mountain has recently started rumbling again, and its volcanic dome has begun to grow again.  It frequently lets off steam.  No one knows when it will erupt again.  It’s unlikely that it will have another devastating eruption like it did in 1980, but you never know.