Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Alyssa]

Korea's Own 'Wine Doctor' Recalls Oenophile Struggle


Bang Jin-sik


Bang Jin-sik, is a wine consultant in Korean Air's catering department. The 58-year-old received a doctorate from Kyonggi University in 2005 for a dissertation on wine, the first Korean so decorated.
Despite the fact that he works for an airline, Bang says he did not go on holiday with his family for the seven years when he was studying for master's and doctorate degrees because he used up all of vacations attending classes and writing his thesis. Limited time was not the only obstacle. Because he was working on a pioneering topic, there was little previous work and few people to consult and seek help from.

"When I was doing my research, I discovered that there were some theses and dissertations that I could consult at the University of Adelaide. I contacted the university, and they told me I could buy those dissertations if I went there directly. So I bought about 60 dissertations for US$1,000. Writing my thesis was a long and winding journey."

What helped him to get through was his unwavering passion for wine, which began when he was a child. Born the third son of a family that owned a vineyard in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, it might be natural for someone to enjoy "homemade" wine from an early age.

"I was assigned to the Paris office of Korean Air in 1988, and there I drank wine almost daily," he recalls. "After two years of drinking wine every day, I began to understand it. I had about 800 wine labels when I came back to Korea from France. Now I have a collection of 3,000 labels."

As a Korean studying wine from all over the world, he said he feels a responsibility to know more about Korea's own, and about other liquors. "Even though I am a wine doctor, I soon thought I wouldn't be a doctor in real sense if I didn't know much about Korea's own liquors. So I have studied, for instance, makgeolli (traditional unrefined rice wine) and soju (traditional distilled liquor)," he said.

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[curiousaboutkorea]

Not necessarily. You'd have to look at his thesis. Would you be questioning him if he had simply bought books? The University of Adelaide incurs costs in maintaining those dissertations. Those dissertations are also good reference material. Thus, the university is able to recover some of those costs by charging a small fee for buying copies. Ban Jin-sik may very well have given appropriate credit to the authors of the purchased dissertations. When one is doing research, other people's work must be consulted. That's what Ban Jin-sik did. We shouldn't assume he passed off the work of others as his own.

[Bramble]

[img]http://www.14thpeak-shop.com/images/comfort%20sock%20graphite.jpg[/img]

Can we still post images here?

ETA: Guess not.

[Goku]

Plagiarism is taking written material and posing it as your own. There is nothing to support the idea that he

1) Directly copied

or

2) Didn't cite sources

So at this point, there is no compelling evidence to conclude he plagiarized.

Having written countless papers, I can tell you it's incredibly hard to write a good innovative thesis without looking at other thesis'.

[samd]

Nice try Trollyssa.

I like how you lay low for a while, and then spark up again hoping to find a bunch of new posters who are unaware of your reputation.

[ryoga013]

When cheating is not "bad" in a country and many cases have been so well known, it is easy to think in such a way. I hope that this person did not cheat and continues to set a good example in their endeavors. I also hope that Korean university students reading this don't simply read the "bought 60 dissertations" and stop thinking after that.

[Scotticus]

Alyssa, you're a dumbass.

1) It's "plagiarize." Google is your friend.

2) Writing a dissertation involves stupid amounts of research and reading. That reading often involves other people's dissertations, amongst other things. Dissertations come with massive work's cited pages. If he copied these people word for word with no citation, do you really think he'd be advertising it in news articles?

[candyteacher]

Im writing my dissertation right now (or trying to start should i say) its common practice to look at other dissertations, there really good referance points and offer different insights to what your researching!!

[poet13]

Alyssa obviously doesn't have a higher degree. A dissertation is published. So he bought 60 "books" for for 1,000 dollars. Big deal.

[michaelambling]

This is arguably the stupidest post I have ever seen on this website. As previously noted, obviously Alyssa has no idea how academia works. I wish I'd been able to purchase 60 theses when I wrote my dissertation; would've saved me a LOT of trips to various libraries.

[Jane]

I think Alyssa gets the point, y'all.

All research is, is building on what other's have discovered, so no, I don't think this guy is doing anything illegal. Furthermore, wine is still an undeveloped industry in Korea --it being still somewhat new to Koreans--so it's understandable he had to look elsewhere for past studies and research.

Upon second glance however, I think Alyssa brings up another issue, that is, we are more inclined to think that a Korean will plagiarize than to give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps this is a case of 'hwang-ism'.

[Alyssa]

Oh, right, I am the dumb one

Come on, you have not ever read his 'thesis'. Lets have a contest. If you think you are so smart, you get his thesis and see if he copied. Sounds like he is a loser if he had to consult 60 other sources, not his own work but the work of others. Plus.... I am in Japan, a perfect apartment, making tons of money, and no stress. Yes, I am the dumb one, ha ha ha ha.

I can come to daves and post from the quiet living room and then go eat sushi or takiyaki and when my husband comes home from work (with a job making over 4times per month what a kteacher makes, yes, it comes to over 10 million won a month, and that goes straight to our bank in Canada, and we live off of my teaching money, yes, I am the dumb one. I feel sorry for those who still have to rely on korea for a job, how sad but, I am the dumb one

[bluelake]

[Lonewolf]

This is Korea no one cares here even if he did.

[michaelambling]