Korea Business Success eZine – Winter 2008

Happy New Year and welcome to the Winter 2008 issue of the Korea Business Success eZine of Korean Consulting & Translation Service, Inc. We hope you find this information helpful to your business in Korea and with Koreans everywhere.

Table of Contents

1. Wishing Koreans a Happy New Year
2. Payment by Check
3. Feature Article: Business Lectures at Alabama State University
4. Regions of Korea
5. A New President for Korea
6. Telephone Tourist Information Service
7. A Sister in Korea

1. Wishing Koreans a Happy New Year

The first thing you need to be aware of is that there are two New Year's Days in Korea - one for the solar calendar and one for the lunar calendar. New Year's Day according to the lunar calendar in Korea is the same as in China but it is better to refer to it as "seol-nahl", Korean New Year or Lunar New Year rather than Chinese New Year. You can and should wish Koreans a Happy New Year for both New Years.

Wish Koreans a Happy New Year on or within a few days of New Year's Day. Do it once only the first time you see or speak to someone after New Year's Day but do it for both the solar and lunar New Years. For significant Korean individuals with similar or greater seniority than you, you should definitely make an effort to meet or telephone them to wish them a Happy New Year. Doing it on New Year's Day will make a better impression than doing it after New Year's Day but as with most things, it is better late than never. A face-to-face meeting or telephone call is much better than sending a card. With Koreans who are less senior than you or not particularly significant, you don't need to make a special effort to contact them - just wish them a Happy New Year if you happen to see or call them on or soon after New Year. Naturally, you should return the greeting to any person who gives you a New Year's greeting.

Each year, the Korean (Chinese) New Year falls in either late January or early February. In 2008, it will fall on February 7. The date it falls on in a particular year can easily be found by searching the Internet using the phrase "Chinese New Year" followed by the year in question.

The Lunar New Year is a three-day public holiday in Korea and is a time for families to gather and eat a meal together. For this reason, expect traffic chaos on major roads and difficulty obtaining tickets to travel in Korea over this period. Nowadays, international flights into and out of Korea are also heavily booked out over the LunarNew Year holiday break because many Koreans use the break to take a quick overseas trip. Try to avoid it but if you know you will need to travel over the Lunar New Year break then book months in advance.

Most shops and businesses are closed over the Lunar New Year holiday and ATMs often run out of cash and are not replenished until after the holiday so make sure you do your shopping in advance and have sufficient cash to tide you over.

The Lunar New Year is a time of gift giving in Korea. Adults give envelopes containing cash to children with the amount being determined by the age of the child and the closeness of the relationship. Companies might give gifts to employees or major clients. If you are invited to a family gathering, prepare some envelopes with cash for the children plus some empty spare envelopes just in case. You should prepare a gift, such as a commercially produced gift set or gift basket for the person who invited you as well as for that person's parents. Remember that the parents of the person who invited you are the most senior so they should get the most expensive gift. In addition, take lots of small denomination notes to participate in a variety of traditional Korean gambling games that are played at such gatherings.

The Korean expression for Happy New Year is "seh heh bok mah-nee bahd-oo-say-yoh". It literally means "Receive lots of New Year's good fortune". There is no need to distinguish between the solar and lunar New Years when wishing people a happy New Year. Use the same expression for both.

Related greetings are to wish people a good New Year's holiday break the last time you see them before they head off for the break and to ask whether they had a good New Year's holiday break when you see them again afterwards. The expressions for these respectively are "Seol-nahl-eul chal boh-neh-say-yoh" (flat intonation) and "Seol-nahl chal boh-neh-shoss-o-yoh?" (rising intonation).

Click here to hear pronunciations of the phrases described above:

• Happy New Year!
• Have a good New Year's Holdiay break.
• Did you have a good New Year's Holiday break?

If you are not confident about giving New Year's greetings in Korean, then just do them in English. The fact that you make the effort to contact people and wish them a happy New Year will create a great impression with your Korean associates. If the language barrier means that you are unable to communicate directly with a person that you want to give greetings to then you could ask an English-speaking subordinate of that person to pass on your New Year's greetings. This will create the same good impression.

2. Payment by Check

Personal checks are not used in Korea but banks commonly issue promissory notes, referred to as "soo-pyoh" in Korean. These promissory notes are accepted by any bank and by any individual or business for payment of goods or services and as gifts of money in place of cash. Like cash, they can circulate so someone can accept a promissory note as payment from one party and then later use it as payment to another party in a different transaction. You might be issued with a combination of promissory notes and cash when you take out money from a bank or ATM. The promissory notes have sophisticated security devices and the level of trust in them is high.

It is a legal requirement for Koreans to record the passport number or Alien Registration Number on the back of any promissory notes presented to them by foreigners. (Koreans have a national ID card and foreigners intending to reside in Korea for more than 90 days are required to obtain and carry an Alien Registration card. Prior to obtaining an Alien Registration card, foreigners are legally required to carry their passport with them at all times.)

The reason for the popularity of promissory notes is the fact that the highest value Korean banknote is 10,000 won, equivalent to about US$11 dollars. Korea plans to issue a 50,000 won and 100,000 won banknote in 2009.

3. Feature Article: Business Lectures by Steven Bammel at Alabama State University

In November, I was honored with an invitation from Dr. Percy Vaughn, Dean of the College of Business Administration at Alabama State University (www.cobanetwork.com), to give a couple lectures about the Korean language and business etiquette to students and faculty of the university.

Alabama State University, located just down the road from the Hyundai automobile factory in Montgomery, is at the forefront of efforts to bridge the cultural divide between Korea and the local community. Spearheading this work with Dr. Sang-Man Lee, professor at Chungang University in Seoul and Professor Emeritus at Alabama State University, Dr. Vaughn has overseen the establishment of the East Asia Institute for Business Research and Culture, which promotes a globalized outlook to today’s business and political issues, including sending student and faculty delegations to Korea annually.

My first lecture of the day was a short introduction to the Korean language. Without getting bogged down in too many grammatical, vocabulary or pronunciation details, I shared with the attendees a general overview of Korean so that when they come in contact with the language, they will already understand some basic concepts. In fact, some of the students are scheduled to visit Korea in a few months with the next delegation from ASU, so they were particularly keen on the lesson.

In the afternoon, I shared about Korean business etiquette in an outline generally based on the 7-Day Korea Business Etiquette eCourse on the Korean Consulting & Translation Service, Inc. website (www.koreanconsulting.com). Building on this outline, we were able to go into much more detail about the etiquette nuances, an understanding of which enables Westerners to more effectively interact with Koreans in business and social settings.

(The PowerPoint file prepared for this presentation is too large to attach here, but those wishing to have a copy for their reference may email me and I’ll be glad to send a download link.)

Returning to Dallas from the busy day in Montgomery, I reflected on the eagerness with which the attendees wished to learn and considered how these opportunities to share cultural understanding are a small part of helping the world turn peacefully. The effort we make to understand the cultures of those with whom we do business and interact is a powerful expression of respect which establishes a strong foundation for fruitful dialogue and understanding.

4. Regions of Korea

Korea does not have a federal system so, the provinces are just administrative regions of the central government. They are not independent and lack a legislature. Health, education and law enforcement etc. are nationally standardized and controlled but administered regionally and locally.

There are nine provinces, six metropolitan cities and one special city. The metropolitan cities and special city were once part of the provinces but became large enough that it was considered prudent to remove their administration from the provinces and establish them as separate administrative regions. Details of the provinces, metropolitan cities and special city are shown in the tables below.

In some cases two provinces have the same name with a "north" or "south" added. Please be aware that these are separate provinces - not two halves of the one province.

"Hoso" refers to the combination of North and South Chungcheong provinces and Daejeon Metropolitan City. "Honam" refers to the combination of North and South Jeolla provinces and Gwangju Metropolitan City. "Yeongnam" refers to the combination of North and South Gyeongsang provinces and Busan, Daegu and Ulsan Metropolitan Cities.

There are reported to be some differences in temperament and aptitudes between people of the different regions. For example, women from Jeolla are reputed to be the most beautiful and charming as well as being great cooks and men from Gyeongsang are reputed to have a strong masculine character. This is why there is one Korean saying that says the perfect marriage is between a man from Gyeongsang and a woman from Jeolla. Of course, not everyone agrees with this assessment. :-)

There are also differences in terms of industry, development and political orientation between the regions.

Seoul is informally divided into Gang-buk, the region north of the Han River, and Gang-nam, the region south of the Han River.

Jeju Province refers to itself as a "special self-governing province". This statement is made in reference to the fact that between 1915 and 1946, Jeju was administratively part of South Jeolla Province but has since had its status upgraded to being a separate province in its own right. It does not indicate that it is politically independent from the rest of South Korea or has any special privileges or rights compared to the other provinces. It is however special in the sense that it is geographically separate from the peninsula and very distinct geographically, climatically, culturally and in terms of dialect.

5. A New President for Korea

Myung-bak Lee was recently elected president of South Korea. He replaces the outgoing president Moo-hyun Rho. Myun-bak Lee is a Christian from the conservative Grand National Party and formally served as the mayor of Seoul.

He was born in Osaka, Japan in 1942. This is not unusual because at the time Korea was occupied by Japan and significant numbers of Koreans were in Japan either voluntarily or as forced laborers.

One of the first things the president-elect did was to meet with Korean business leaders. In the meeting he promised a more deregulated business environment in order to encourage business investment and spur employment growth. The banner of his homepage states that he is for a prosperous people, caring society and strong country.

Of note, Myung-bak Lee has named David Eldon, Chairman of Dubai International Finance Center Authority, as a member of his Transition Committee. Eldon will take up the post of Joint Chairman of the Special Committee for Strengthening National Competitiveness, making him the first foreigner to assume a post in a presidential transition committee.

It is customary to refer to Korean presidents in newspaper articles using the first two letters of their name in English. Myung-bak Lee may also be referred to as MB.

6. Telephone Tourist Information Service

By dialing 1330 in Korea, you will be able to speak to an English-speaking tour advisor who can advise you regarding local attractions, accommodation, transportation and festivals.

The service is available every day of the year between 9am to 6pm nationally and between 9am and 8pm in Seoul.

The service is designed to provide local information. If you call from a landline, the exchange will detect where you are calling from and direct your call to the local advisor. If you are calling from a cell phone or want information about another region in Korea, you will need to dial the area code first.

7. A Sister in Korea

Many cities in Korea have sister city affiliations with cities around the world. Having a common connection is an important means through which relationships are established and built in Korean culture. Having a sister city connection would certainly open doors and make Koreans more willing to assist you. It should not be the sole basis for deciding on where to do business in Korea but is certainly a factor worth considering and a bonus if it works in your favor.

The two links below list cities that have sister cities in South Korea but the lists may not be entirely accurate or up-to-date.

• US Sister Cities in South Korea
• South Korean Sister Cities

To find out more information on a particular Korean city, check out the following link. List of cities in South Korea

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