It's all about who you know....
In this country, it's all about who you know that gets you places. The common belief in Korean management has always been that males make better management: the reason being that a lot of the management positions for hire are handed out to friends of those men already entrenched in positions of power. However, "it's all about who you know" stretches far beyond just management positions and paybacks....
A perfect example of this happened just the other night. A friend of mine who is actually a Korean living in Canada for the past six years came back to Seoul to do research for her Korean company in Toronto. She reconnected with a friend of hers, and her friend offered her tickets to the Chinese National Symphony Orchestra that was playing last Friday night at the Sejong Arts Center main hall (see here).
I was lucky enough to be invited by her, because she was given free tickets from her friend who was able to catch their first Orchestra concert on Wednesday at the smaller venue in Seoul. I arrived in time for the show, and we were promptly greeted by the VIP usher, and ushered to the front row; we sat in the most expensive seats in the whole theatre; our face value tickets were 150,000Won, or 185 Canadian at today's rate. The theatre was packed with people, and the show was amazing. I've never appreciated the violin so much as I did after watching the show. When you sit so close, you appreciate things more.
Another perfect example happened last year involving my cell phone. When my old phone died on me, I was left searching for a new phone. One of my Korean friends put me in contact with a friend of hers who deals with large phone purchases, or in bulk quantities. I ended up going to a basement dimly lit office space, but walking out with a phone that was more than 50% the price that it was selling for in the store, and I get to keep the phone. Typically, when you cancel a phone contract, the cell phone company keeps the phone that you were using - I however get to keep this phone for as long as its needed, canceled contract or not.
So it just goes to show you, that whenever you meet someone in Korea, do your best to remember them, because Korean's love to try and use their connections for you (and love when you use yours to help them). It's all about who you know.....
God bless,
me
A perfect example of this happened just the other night. A friend of mine who is actually a Korean living in Canada for the past six years came back to Seoul to do research for her Korean company in Toronto. She reconnected with a friend of hers, and her friend offered her tickets to the Chinese National Symphony Orchestra that was playing last Friday night at the Sejong Arts Center main hall (see here).
I was lucky enough to be invited by her, because she was given free tickets from her friend who was able to catch their first Orchestra concert on Wednesday at the smaller venue in Seoul. I arrived in time for the show, and we were promptly greeted by the VIP usher, and ushered to the front row; we sat in the most expensive seats in the whole theatre; our face value tickets were 150,000Won, or 185 Canadian at today's rate. The theatre was packed with people, and the show was amazing. I've never appreciated the violin so much as I did after watching the show. When you sit so close, you appreciate things more.Another perfect example happened last year involving my cell phone. When my old phone died on me, I was left searching for a new phone. One of my Korean friends put me in contact with a friend of hers who deals with large phone purchases, or in bulk quantities. I ended up going to a basement dimly lit office space, but walking out with a phone that was more than 50% the price that it was selling for in the store, and I get to keep the phone. Typically, when you cancel a phone contract, the cell phone company keeps the phone that you were using - I however get to keep this phone for as long as its needed, canceled contract or not.
So it just goes to show you, that whenever you meet someone in Korea, do your best to remember them, because Korean's love to try and use their connections for you (and love when you use yours to help them). It's all about who you know.....
God bless,
me