The following is a write up on my Korean language program as part of the requirements of the Fellowship I am on which is generously provided by the Light Foundation at Yale University.

Overall Impression: I find the focus on speaking and listening at Sogang to be really helpful and my language abilities improved a lot this semester. I still have a long way to go especially in improving the accuracy of my Korean (terrible) and in picking up the vocabulary I need for my work (i.e. obscure words used in North Korea) but the program has been a lot of help.

Pedagogy: I have never taken upper level classes at other programs, hence its hard to compare Sogang’s approach to those of other programs. However, talking with some people who attend other programs at Yonsei, it appears the main difference is that at Yonsei, most classes involve repeating lines used by the teacher, while at Sogang, most of the time is spent using grammar patterns while talking to your classmates. I personally find the Sogang approach much more lively and interesting - however, this depends on whether you get a good teacher or more importantly, chatty classmates. I would not underestimate the motivation factor when attending classes five days a week for 4 hours a day.

Vocabulary: My biggest gripe about Sogang University is that at least up to level 3 and to some extent level 4 are focused very much on learning words that one can use in everyday life. These are very useful in helping one get around but less so for my purpose (academic work). Then again, I have very niche interests and the learning of words should not stop at the door of Sogang’s Arrupe Building.

Outside of the Classroom: While not technically part of Sogang’s program, I was involved heavily with work on Choson Exchange outside of the classroom. It is easy to fall into a routine with homework and classes at Sogang especially since they take up so much time. But there is a lot to be said about being involved in life outside of the classroom - especially since those experiences keep reminding me how bad my Korean is. You also get to see a very different aspect of Korean life.

Through my work, I keep meeting 50+ year old people (e.g. Partners at Banks and Accounting Firms, Academics…etc.) whose Korean I can only understand 10% of (I console myself with 하나를 보면 열을 안다고 하잖아). These people also remind me that I do a sloppy job of separating my formal and informal speech since most of these meetings use very formal forms of speech. I point out to my teachers that I will fix the problem after moving to Pyongyang since the North Koreans just might shoot me if I use the wrong 조사 (particles) when referring to Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Il.

Blogging: Not sure if this will be a problem for others but I realized that 99 percent of the interesting things I have encountered in Korea comes through my work. Unfortunately, most of it is confidential, which made blogging difficult for me. Aside from language study and working on Choson Exchange, the most exciting activity is sleeping, which I don’t do enough of.

As the American, the Korean and I wandered around Aleppo, two Syrians who happen to be driving around suddenly stopped and asked us where we were from. They asked if we could speak Chinese and I answered “yes.” The younger of the two was an interpreter for his Boss who only spoke Arabic. It turns out that they need to negotiate with their business partners in China but no one could speak Chinese. We agreed to follow them back to their office to help them.

They have been ordering supplies from a manufacturer in China for years. I asked what equipment they were ordering, and as the younger person explained, his boss told him that it was not important. I had fanciful visions of stumbling upon some clandestine nuclear imports, but the truth is probably the banal version of textile manufacturing.

They have been having major delays with the current shipment and have been unable to ascertain the reasons for it. Later, as I helped them work through their issues, I realized that two years of using English to communicate has led to layers of misunderstanding and mistrust piling up which neither side was resolving or even bringing up. The issues were complicated and often circular. The Syrians complained that their Chinese counterparts always delayed their orders. In return, the Chinese said they were unable to fulfill orders early because the Syrians were always late in their payments (and they added, often much later than international norms in the business). In return, the Syrians said they paid late because they got their goods late.

The Syrians were also insistent that the Chinese shipped the goods through Taiwan (which was what they had in an original contract). They can get a higher price by claiming that the equipment was “imported” from Taiwan. It turned out later that part of the reason was that they were afraid of the Chinese undercutting their middlemen role by selling directly to customers. By shipping the goods through Taiwan, they had a differentiating factor. The Chinese on the other hand mentioned that doing so caused delays and additional costs, as their old contact who helped “facilitate” the movement of goods through Taiwanese ports had apparently quit the business.

There was much haggling over who should bear the cost of this - the Syrians were very aggressive and the Chinese pretty much accommodated their demands. I was caught in the middle trying to bring both sides to an agreement. After 1.5 hours, we came to an agreement. I counselled the Syrians to clarify some outstanding issues and work with the Chinese to agree on shipment route, payment schedule and cost-sharing on transit, which I thought would be major issues in their future business relationships.

The NGO world is often a far more political and selfish place than we believe it to be. This is very much also the case with a lot of NGOs operating in North Korea. Through my work, I have come across quite a few of these NGOs. To be fair, the partisan and often ideologically-charged debate when it comes to non-profit work in North Korea does make the people working in the field rather reticent and defensive. However, my biggest gripe comes from the lack of knowledge sharing among these NGOs. Instead of working together to figure out how best to aid North Koreans, some NGOs tend to be very possessive of any resource they have and unsupportive of other efforts.

A lot of these NGOs talk about their “special relationship” with Pyongyang. Such talk unsettles me because the mentality is one where the NGO is constrained by the need to “buy favors” from Pyongyang, rather than focusing on the results the relationship is supposed to produce. North Korea tries to compartmentalize the NGOs it works with, resulting in different rules for different organizations. Each NGO assumes that their experience is the norm, and instead of sharing with others information in order to shape the norms of the environments they all operate in, they readily accept the rules of their compartmentalized relationship.

I got to the bus station to wait for the bus taking me to the border with Syria. I met a Korean doctor-in-training there preparing to make the same trip. She was in the same boat - hoping to get her visa at the border. The next morning, we arrived at the border. The process was a breeze and it took us all of 15 minutes to get the visa. That said, the border people for some reason flipped through all 131 pages of my passport before settling on stamping the page with the Cuban stamp. Birds of a feather flock together perhaps.

We were victims of a quick bait and switch at the border. Admittedly, we were shocked at the cheap cost of our nice big air-conditioned bus which had a total of three people. Once across the border, we were told to get off and wait for a small van that would take us to Aleppo. While having breakfast at Aleppo, we ran into an American who became our travel companion for the next couple of days in Syria.

The three of us made our way to the Ummayid mosque in Aleppo. What I like about the mosques here is that they create a common space that has such different meaning to its different constituents. The mosques in this area have a huge space in the center. To the adults at the mosque, the inner sanctum is meant for their dutiful prayers. To the kids, the open space is a playground. They kept coming up to us to have their photos taken. And after prayers, the space becomes a place for worshipping pilgrims to capture photographic evidence of their semi-touristic journey.

I popped into Australia for a 2 day conference at Australia National University to present some work and to meet officials at the DFAT, Australia’s ministry responsible for trade and foreign affairs. I was looking to find out more about the impact of their previous training programs for North Koreans and to see if they are interested in restarting those programs. I managed to meet the person tasked with running those programs and he had an overwhelmingly positive view of how those programs were reshaping the dialogue on economic activity in Pyongyang. Interestingly, their program only took North Koreans under 35, and the North Korean government readily agreed to it. However, according to the professor, the programs were killed by the Bush administration, which push to cut off all UN funding for technical training in the DPRK.

The DFAT people I met involved in the North Korean desk were unfortunately far less impressive than I would have expected. I assumed that they would have good experts working on the issues but I guess it is too much of an expectation given how peripheral North Korea is to Australian interests. The people we talked to were downright condescending - preferring to lecture (about things I know already and issues I have struggled with myself) rather than listen. They did not know much about North Korea beyond the very limited amount about the country anyone can get from mass-media. It reminded me of what a friend of mine who used to cover North Korea for the International Crisis Group said: you can read 5 books on North Korea and know more than 90 percent of people working on the country full-time for the US State Department.

Because of mechanical issues, Qantas had to reschedule my flight, which left me with three hours of sleeping time before work on the next day. And to boot, they left my bag in Sydney as I made my way to Seoul.

I spent two days hopping from town to town in the Cappadocia region. It was nice to get out of the main touristy town as it is far too convenient. It even has a lone Family Mart to serve Japanese/Korean tourists. One stop was Yelmati Sehir. The city has a 7 story underground city that was first home to Hitties hiding for safety and later for Christians. This reminded me of how Christianity really had its roots in the Middle East, instead of the Western character we attribute to it today.

I made it to Uchisar next and climbed a Byzantine rock castle 1500m above the ground. My readers, who are definitely smarter than me, will realize that it was a stupid idea to do so in sandals. There is something beautiful in standing on top of an ancient castle overlooking the desert and hearing the call to prayer pouring forth from minarets and echoing across the plains.

I compounded my mistake by walking down a valley and back to the next town to catch the bus taking me to the border at Syria. I would learn there whether it was a stupid mistake trying to get my visa at the border there rather than at a Syrian embassy. On the bus to the border, there was an amusing advertisement for a Turkish brand using only Korean actors. The reach of Korean pop culture is amazing. I also met a 60 year old former hippie who in the 70s took a bus from Amsterdam to India. When I asked how it was, he said he was too high to remember much of it.

During my last semester in undergraduate, I was seized by the desire to explore more of the US. Using a free ticket I got off a company I had interviewed with, I made my way to Las Vegas to fulfill my long-held wish to see the Grand Canyon. It was a grand sight and I swore that one day, I would return to hike it. Unfortunately, as a poor NGO type, that wish is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

The thought stayed with me and so, I was glad when I stumbled upon Cappadocia in Turkey enroute to Syria. It had the moonscapes of the Grand Canyon, and a desert-like valley that I eagerly crawled all over. It also had the churches carved into rock walls very much like what I saw in Dunhuang in western China. The churches dated to the time of the Byzantine empire and many of the saints had their eyes gorged out by later generations of occupants. Like the Hagia Sophia, these hidden churches had domes in them.

I made my way through a valley that hid these churches and slowly winded my way around the valley as it sloped upwards until I reached a ridge overlooking the landscape. It was breathtaking. I stopped to take out my Ipod and danced to wonderful beats and the beautiful scenery.

After hearing a friend who works at Samsung describe the life there, I am struck by some similarities it shares with a certain genre of countries. I write this post in half-jest of course. But perhaps we should not be too ready to dismiss how some tools are commonly used to build imagined bonds of solidarity. Compare the Mass Games with the Samsung Summer Camp which is used to initiate new employees to the firm. Samsung employees perform at this mini mass games during an annual event meant for building bonds within the organization. During the parade, pictures of executives are flashed on a telescreen. The executives marched out, introducing the proud commanders of the company.

(Istanbul, Turkey)

(Istanbul, Turkey)

In addition to such a spectacle, the firms tries to build an aura of omnipotence and worship among the founder family who still runs the firm. This is not unlike many entrepreneurial start-ups. Friends from Google tell me about how there is an obsession with what Larry and Sergey says or thinks. Portraits of Samsung’s founder decorate some offices and at certain times during the day, speakers in rooms throughout Samsung broadcast corporate messages - these cannot be turned off. Employees often tell others how lucky they are to be working at such a glorious firm.

It is tempting to call such activities a Korean cultural traits. However, I have yet to exactly pin down what would make these uniquely Korean as I have seen similar methods applied across a wide-range of organizations across a wide range of country to build cohesiveness.