Wordful» korea visit http://wordful.com Content marketing, branding, entrepreneurship and writing Sat, 14 Jan 2012 23:29:14 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Deep Lessons Learned In Korea, Part 2 http://wordful.com/deep-lessons-learned-in-korea-part-2/ http://wordful.com/deep-lessons-learned-in-korea-part-2/#comments Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:37:23 +0000 Charles http://wordful.com/?p=2060 Deep Lessons Learned In Korea, Part 2 is written by Charles Bohannan for Wordful.com, a blog about digital publishing.

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]]> Korean cousinsFamily Will Be Family If my previous post was any indication of anxiety and speculation, this post reflects pragmatism and sobriety. In other words, meeting long-lost family in another part of the world for the first time is not that big a deal. I sat down for an hour and a half with two of my cousins Ko, Se-Shil and Ko, Seon-Gyu at the hotel lobby cafe, and we got to know each other a bit. They were attentive and offered to fill-in for me any missing details of our family. The Ko family is pretty normal, I learned. We share many of the same aspirations and dysfunctions as everyone else. My grandfather was a bank president, later an artist, fathered seven children and taught himself English. He and my grandmother had a fiery, turbulent relationship, and a couple of our uncles are quasi-destitute. As far as me being the legendary first-born son of the Ko family, I’m embarrassed to say that was self-imposed hype. To them, I was simply known as “Chucky,” the distant cousin known for being a nice kid and good in math (which is kinda funny because I suck at math). A few days later in the city of Daejeon, I had dinner with my uncle Ko, Kwan Jin. He was a pretty normal guy, too, talking mostly about what it’s like to do business in Asia and how I—if so desired—could get a piece of the action. For me to do anything, he said, I must first learn to speak Korean.

Totally Homogeneous People

I never understood what homogenized milk is, but I can definitely tell you about homogenized culture. Korean people are extremely homogeneous, meaning they don’t mix with others from outside their country. During my first disorienting day in Seoul, I saw a grand total of two Westerners, and it was unsettling. There are ups and downs to this. I can’t say which outweighs the other, but having everyone in your country the same ethnicity means very few universal differences. As a result, the Korean people seem cohesive, peaceful and single-minded in purpose. Koreans are also kind and helpful to outsiders. During many moments of stress, I’d ask a bystander in English for help catching a train or subway and they would offer to carry my bag as they led the way. Everywhere I went, I felt safe (including the smoky underground bar I strayed into near Hongik). I can’t quite articulate the down side to being in a completely homogeneous culture other than it’s not America. I didn’t realize until I went to Korea that the USA is definitely one-of-kind in a wonderful way. The contributions and influence of every race and shade of person in the world is the cornerstone of our culture. I don’t think we always appreciate this. Korea was great, but home is where my heart is.

What This All Means

To be honest, I’m uncertain what this trip represents. Is it a one-time hello and goodbye to still distant relatives or is this a newly opened door of opportunity? While it may be easy to choose the latter, keep in mind the work to cultivate this connection is all in my hands. street in Yeongdeungpo-dong, SeoulAs it always has been, my Korean family members live very separate lives from me. They are settled in a country that is origin to their entire lineage and ancestry. I am a foreigner in nearly every way, bound only by my mother who left and never turned back 35 years ago. The only realistic path I see is to slowly teach myself Korean, much as my grandfather taught himself English. Then sometime in the near future I can bring my wife and children to Korea to meet the country and the family. From there, we could establish a deep and meaningful connection that—without my intervention—may have never existed. One can only hope for these things.

Deep Lessons Learned In Korea, Part 2 is written by Charles Bohannan for Wordful.com, a blog about digital publishing.

Related posts:

  1. Deep Lessons Learned In Korea
  2. 10 Lessons in Blogging Learned the Hard Way

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