Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Cohiba]

[Kim Jong Jordan]

i was at the ceremony celebrating the opening of the IFEZ. It was like the superbowl halftime show and was done completely in Korean except for the mayor who gave his speech in English, which was nice.

[VanIslander]

Good point about the official language and business contracts. Local courts need to recognize English as a legal language of business contracts. But that'd require a level of fluency among the Korean judiciary one cannot yet assume.

[Wangja]

[Wangja]

[Gwangjuboy]

[Milwaukiedave]

[Hater Depot]

[Dev]

Actually, there are a ton of reasons why Incheon won't be the hub of Asia.

1) North Korea - A lot of foreigners feel uneasy about being in South Korea. If Kim Jong il re-starts his nuclear program, international business conferences will be a tempting target.

2) Corruption - South Korea's track record is spotty at best.

3) The English abilities of most Koreans. In this country, you can't even call 119 and get English service.

[jeffkim1972]

What exactly is a "Business Hub" anyway?

Please give examples and criteria for what it is.

Is Japan a Business Hub? Or is it just the 2nd largest economy in the world because they protect their industries?

Are you talking about a model economy like Hong Kong and Singapore?

Germany, are they a business Hub?

Is the US a business Hub?

I don't think Koreans even know what a Business Hub is, they just like using the word "hub". Same as using the adjective "#1", "best", "global".

In a technical sense, Korea does not want to be a Singapore or Hong Kong, nor does it want to be like the US. It wants to be like Japan.

Japan used to be the leader in shipbuilding --> Korea followed
Japan has strong semiconductor and electronics --> Korea followed
Japan is strong in Automobiles --> Korea is following

So, my guess is, the word "Hub" is just thrown around because it sounds nice but Korea really just wants to be Japan.

[billybrobby]

Of course "hub" is just some political konglish catchphrase. It amuses me that so many foreigners take these politicians seriously and then become outraged that the rest of Korea doesn't really care about learning English (beyond getting a job) or making Korea hospitable to foreigners.

[nautilus]

Some useful points there Cohiba.

the overriding factor i think is cultural. korea is just not a foreign friendly culture. Their ways of doing things are unnattractive, confusing and even insulting to most foreigners.
If korea wants to welcome the world, first they have to learn how the rest of the world does things.

[jeffkim1972]

One thing they really need is an addressing system.

Street names and numbers to identify a location. Not this -dong, -ri, -gun, -eup, landmark based system.

But i think they will never change it because it gives Koreans "home field" advantage.

There are no advantages to opening up your economy to any foreign economy, then you'd have colonialism again.

International Politics and relations is the closest thing to Anarchy in the world, so a country can do whatever it must to catch up technologically.

the US just wants to own everything and could if it weren't for some defensive protectionist measures by these smaller countries.

Countries will always put up business barriers, whether it be because of language, or customs, or whatknot.. All foreign products must undergo rigorous testing at our facility in the sticks before it's allowed to be sold.

These policies are implemented all over the world when the IMF goes around and breaks down trade barriers.

[jeffkim1972]

But the irony of it all is, if a country is foreigner friendly, then it doesn't need foreigners.

[Dev]