So, I call up a friend of mine in Pennsylvania.  His dad picks up and my friend Sandor isn’t home.  We get to talking for a few minutes and I tell him who I am.  I explain that I am Sandor’s friend and that my name is “Byung.”  He retorts, “Bee-yoooooouuuuung?”  I said, “Yes, it’s Byung.”  He asks what my last name is.  I tell him “Na.”  He rebutts, “Bee-yoooooouuuuunggg Naaaaaaah?”  I say “yes.”  He asks me, “Do you know what ‘Byung Na’ means in Korean?” I tell him no.  I just say I know it’s my name.

 He says “First of all, Byung means ‘disease’”  “‘Na’ means ‘to have.’”  He told me that my name means “To have a disease.”  So, that’s why he was so confused about my name.  Of course I clarify my FULL name is “Byung Hyu Na” which is still confusing for Koreans, but much better than just my first & last name without the middle part of it, which most Korean names are composed of. 

“No, seriously, I want you to send it up to room shit, shit…” So, I literally could say this when ordering food from any of the local restaurants. Let me explain why…

I was reminded of the humorous nature of my condo unit number (”officetel” is the literal Korean name for condos) while going to the dry cleaners today. I live in unit 1818, which is pronounced “Ship-pahlr, Ship-pahlr” if you just say “18-18″ in Korean. However, the word if said very fast sounds like “shit” or a profane Korean phrase that means basically “shit”, but with even more significance. You don’t want to be using that word unless you REALLY are angry at something. It’s not as casual as we say “shit” in America.

Nevertheless, I got a little giggle out of the dry cleaning owner when I told her where I lived: “Unit ’shit, shit’ …

In a country where television dramas reign “Queen” (as opposed to “King” — women really have strong influence in this country), you would think that all that television watching and less social interaction as a result would decrease peoples’ ability to be social. However, it won’t be all the television watching that will probably do it. It will most likely be the way they communicate these days instead of calling each other on the phone.

From 1st graders to most 6th grades and almost every living person over the age of a middle school student, South Korea has cell phones in each of the hands of its’ consumers. On top of the ubiquitous nature of the cell phones in the country, Koreans don’t just use them to call their friends, but to be frank, to save costs on the cell phones, they send text messages instead. Kids and adults alike type faster on their cell phones than they do on the keyboard. They communicate sometimes faster via text than via live conversations. You see constant vibration of their phones or hear the “received a message” voice coming from everyone’s phones & then the consumer jumping right back on the phone to deliver a message back. A lot of students have mastered the one handed typing.

The text messaging phenomenon is an interesting one. When you think about it, people are communicating via a delayed message like emails where sometimes miscommunication occurs and tone, feeling, the opportunity to immediately respond, sensitivity and a multitude of other things that are more effective in live communication are lacking. People get used to telling their coworkers or bosses they disagree or can’t make it to work via text message instead of face to face. Koreans also express their love for one another via this medium instead of “in person.”

It may also a good thing because people now have the courage to say some things they may have kept hidden as well. This medium makes it definitely more easily. It will be interesting if this cultural phenomenon actually positively or negatively affects the soclialization and communication in this country. I wonder if it potentially increases efficiency in business or education, but we’ll see about that over the next decade or possibly century. It is definitely fascinating to see it in action…

So, I’ll probably explain more about the “reasons for going back to Korea,” but one reason that definitely stands out that is a very strong justification for the migration back: cost of living.

I didn’t expect this, to be frank. I came back originally to escape many of the pressures of life that seem to be overwhelming in Issaquah. However, after moving here, I’ve been making a bit less than in the U.S. The year before I entered the Real Estate business, I topped out at about $63k/year plus options and other benefits at Expedia. It wasn’t a bad salary, but we were still going into further and further in debt. My year in Real Estate generated about $130k in income…maybe more…probably closer to $150k, but I had a hard time keeping track. It was the first time I did so well in life. Plus, minus the tax man, I didn’t really have any reason to keep track as long as it didn’t disappear.

After arriving here in Korea, I was just seeking to make at least 3 million won a month, which seem to be the high end of salaries posted on all the different boards advertising English jobs. If I found a corporate job, I think I may have made more, but since my Korean skills were lacking and I didn’t have the established network locally, that wasn’t possible. CDI helped me make that initially.

However, when I was promoted to HI, my salary quickly bumped up to the 3.5 to over 5 million mark in some months when I worked a lot. Right now, I’m making about 5 million won a month, but sending Jooyoung between 3 and 3.5 million a month. I spend about 1 million a month in monthly expenses and save about 500,000 won a month. It may not seem like a lot, but it’s better than the debt I was accumulating before moving out here — despite making all that money in Real Estate. We were paying as much as $2000 a month for just our cars. I won’t beat this one too much, but let’s just say “I didn’t need to drive an Audi,” but someone did.

So, Korea has been wonderful when it comes to the fact that I’m finally saving in my life and that includes paying most of my salary to my family, taking a couple trips — been to Fukuoka and the U.S. already this past year & I do eat well on a regular basis. My housing is paid for though…so that’s a little extra, I guess. However, the lack of other expenses really makes life financially great.

The other thing I started to realize very much was that this was meant to be. I’m finally starting business(es) that I’ve been dreaming about doing for a while. My current lifestyle allows for that with little risk. Also, I didn’t realize it as much until recently, but I’m at, if not very close to center stage of the world for the next 50 years. While the U.S. still dominates the world economy. I’m going to argue that the Chinese will overtake the U.S. in the next 5-10 years and that being here is actually a little more exciting in many ways.

It will also provide more opportunity. One of my ideas of creating an information portal in English to China is honestly very timely. While others will do similar things, I think I’ll be more successful because it will be a collaborative effort. It won’t be about making money either as much as it will be about creating good information for all those who are interested & educating Chinese on how to speak, read, listen and write English via the website. So, look for http://chinapedia.info to be honestly a very highly trafficked site moving forward. I’m really excited…

I’m blogging a mile a minute, but most of you don’t want to know about all the other blogs or what I’m doing daily at work or all the aspirations I have.  Rather, you probably want to just know how the boys are, how JY is doing or how life is…so I’ve finally decided to just update you on the “goings on” in my life here instead of what I’ve been blogging in all the other sites.

First question you guys ask: How are the boys?

Well, they are great. Kade and Kamden are wonderful kids, but I don’t get to see them as much as I hope. Four weeks ago, they met the famous Korean swimmer Tae Hwan Park and took photos with him. He even gave Kamden a personal lesson for a few minutes. JY is going to give me photos later, she says. I’ll try to post them here, if I get them scanned.

The boys take swimming lessons and it’s one of their bigger focuses lately. Thus, the meeting with the famous swimmer.

They also go to an English academy called Korea Poly School. My boss referred it to the “Academy for Royalty”, but we’re definitely not royalty. However, I do send about 80% of my monthly income to JY … so maybe we’re “acting like royalty.” I don’t question her on it yet. I think it’s $500 each for Kade & Kamden even with the twin discount. What do you think? Any comments on what’s too much for spending on the kids?

I feel a bit guilty since I only see them like twice a month these days. It’s horrible, I know. I live in Busan and the kids and JY live in Daejeon which is about 2.5 hours away from Busan by KTX — 40 mins on the subway and 1 hr 50 mins on the high speed train. It’s also not cheap every time I go there. Hopefully, after I build my salary up a bit, I’ll get to go more often. Otherwise, I’ll have to send less.

On the note of sending less, the other question sometimes people ask is “How’s JY?” To be honest, I don’t really know that much these days. It’s going to be 9 years this fall for both of us, but we may not last that long. I’m in the middle of trying to legally separate with her. Unfortunately, we weren’t destined to be with one another for the long run.

For some, this may be a suprise, but for others I’ve been able to confide in over the years, this was probably in your minds destined from the beginning.  JY is a great woman in many ways.  However, we were honestly not meant to be with each other for the long run.  We fight too much to stay together and our interests and goals are really different, to say it lightly.

However, the great thing is that both of our interests in the boys are the same: to provide them the best conditions available to allow them have the most opportunities in life in a healthy and relatively comfortable environment.  No matter what, I will always be there for them despite the lack of contact.  When I do visit them, they do ask me constantly if I will be back the weekend after.  They are curious, I can tell about why I don’t come as often or see them as often, but they don’t seem to be hurt yet.  If they are, I will have to look into other ways of satisfying the needs for a father, but for now, I think they are o.k.

I do miss them.  I wish I had them with me, but I also know the same is true for JY if not with a greater need because she doesn’t have a lot of things on her plate to preoccupy her mind.  The boys are her life and I understand that and so I’m willing to sacrifice on some levels.  So, the long and short of it is that I will sacrifice for now, but I will always be around for them.

In terms of work and personal interests, I have this to say (in bullet points)  ;) 

• I’m trying to keep up a dozen blogs that I’m not sure if I really can keep up over the long term, but it’s good to write down the thoughts while I have them.  The topics include everything from working here in Korea, to an actually corporate blog for my company to ideas about businesses moving forward and my idealistic wish of trying to save the world.
• my company has tasked me as a Director (small company though) to basically manage all the HR affairs that a foreigner can handle like negotiations, recruiting, online marketing, new programs for retention, policies to keep them in line, promotional opportunities and everything that HR basically deals with minus the paperwork for the local gov’t. 
• while doing this plus teaching (but I’m reducing the teaching hours next quarter to 3 classes, maybe at the max), I’m trying to do my own things, but was just approached by the CEO to actually launch a few things.  I may actually try to leverage the CEO’s wishes to do my personal projects “within the company” and try to get a slice of all the little entities I create.  They include an affiliate marketing company, a SEM consulting company for local businesses, and a few content sites that charge money for advertising jobs teaching English as a 2nd language.  With the boom occuring in China, there may be some really large upward profitability at stake.
• doing a bit of pondering if I’m going to stay here forever.  However, given the state of the world and how most things are going global, I think it wouldn’t be a bad bet. 

So, that’s it in a nutshell for now.  My brother had a baby boy earlier this year.  My parents are running their new grocery store outside of Olympia.  It’s huge on like 3 acres of land, but the gross profits aren’t as big as they were used to in the past.  It keeps them busy and that’s what matters.

I feel like a heel for not keeping up as much with people despite the interconnectedness of the Internet, but I hope this will help.  Also, I’m on Facebook.com and LinkedIn.com which I recommend highly to join.  It’s a nice way to keep in touch. 

Oh, by the way, I haven’t lost the initiative to do WhenILeave at some point.  I will get to it regardless of what others do out in the space.  However, I am more motivated than ever to do it.  Basically, one of the biggest reasons is because my cousin has tried to commit suicide 3 times while I was away.  One thing I wanted to let her know is I really care for her & that she is loved.  However, I wasn’t able to communicate that to her as much while abroad.  I think her family like her mother and sister also feels the same way, but they are always so busy that they also don’t communicate important thoughts like that.  So, WhenILeave needs to be created to prevent losses like this in life.  It really, really does…if you anyone wants to ever support it, just let me know.  I think it will be financially lucrative over the long term, but truthfully, the purpose in helping people let each other know that they love one another is the bigger and more important reason, I believe.