Korea

Koreans work the most, the Dutch the least?

Posted under Internet, Korea, Netherlands on Tuesday, 9 March 2010 by Joop Dorresteijn
I'd recommend to try out Google Public data, it's great! It's the result of Google's partnerships with the World Bank and other statistics gatherers to present an array of data in visual form within Google Labs. You know I am a number freak right, this will entertain me for a while! I was...
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For Tiroler ski, Muju Korea is Austria’s top export project

Posted under Entrepreneurship, Korea, Netherlands, travel on Saturday, 20 February 2010 by Joop Dorresteijn
Last week we spent some time at Muju (무주) Ski resort in S-Korea. An Average area, with 25km of beginner and advanced ski slopes - aimed to host the 2010 winter Olympics, including four ski jump's, fun park and half pipe. But that wasn't what struck me most. It was the export of culture in this...
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Korean Sausages Work Well as iPhone Stylus [Video]

Posted under Korea, asides on Tuesday, 16 February 2010 by Joop Dorresteijn
Phones with Multitouch displays, like iPhone and Nexus one, require gestures with fingers. Most strongly remaked by Steve Jobs, as the 'iPhone would be the end of the stylus'. He did not realize that Chinese characters are actually writen at much faster phase with a pen-like stylus. Steve, unlike...
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Five fun things to do in Seoul

Posted under Korea, tips on Sunday, 22 November 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
I was talking to my friends about my life in Seoul. Our New Delhi cab driver suddenly became excited; he was flying to there the day after! In return, I spend the rest of the drive about the things to do in this marvelous city. He was so grateful for the info that he didn't want any money for our...
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Gathered influential writers to bring you Asian tech news

Posted under China, Entrepreneurship, Japan, Korea, Media / In The News on Wednesday, 14 October 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
I'd like to tell you about a new blog we have launched yesterday. First, let me tell you why we went through all the effort: Personally, I have kept a close eye on developments in countries like South-Korea, Taiwan and Japan over the last years, but have start to observe that India, Bangladesh,...
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Eating bacon in Daejeon

Posted under Korea, travel on Tuesday, 1 September 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
Everytime when I return to Korea, the comic graph by Randall Munroe (displayed above) pops into my head. Who knows if bacon is really that bad, but I have a feeling that I should not eat it too often. I never really liked bacon, until I ate it in Korea. While living there, I had to compensate the...
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Korean Institute pushing Hangeul alphabet across Asian tribes

Posted under Korea on Thursday, 27 August 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
I came across an interesting article on the website of the Korean Embassy in the Netherlands. Apparently, a tribe based in Bauer Indonesia has chosen to use Hangeul (Korean writing) as its official writing system. The 60.000 people of the tribe, were about to lose their native language due to...
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ING Life Korea goodbye party

Posted under Korea on Friday, 22 May 2009 by admin
Yesterday night: Friends, a barbeque and the proper amount of soju on the 24th floor of the Ramada hotel, looking over the ING building and the famous landmark of Seoul, the Namsan tower. What a nice goodbye party! Besides the ridiculous hat you guys made me wear all night, I want to thank...
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MBC Marathon – the results are in!

Posted under Korea, sports, travel on Monday, 27 April 2009 by admin
Those happy faces are me and my collegues, Frank-Jan, Zdenek, Marten and Arjan from ING - just - before we started running our (half) marathon. Perhaps we were even happier when we finished - it would have been better, or at least more fair to share a before / after picture I suppose. Together...
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Dutch Orange ball 2009

Posted under Korea, travel on Thursday, 23 April 2009 by admin
The highlight of the year for the Dutch community in Seoul would be the Dutch “Orange Ball”, held in the grand hyatt. It's was true Dutch evening with "oranjebitter" and a Dutch band that was flown in to Seoul for the occasion. The champagne reception. The theme of the Orange...
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North-Korea vs. South-Korea match at Mapo-gu Stadium

Posted under Korea, sports, travel on Thursday, 2 April 2009 by admin
The national football teams of North and South Korea have played a World Cup qualifier in Seoul today - which the South won by one goal to nil. Although the game was quite boring, there was a good atmosphere in the stadium, especially after Kim Chi Woo scored the first goal for South Korea. The...
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Naver.com to release Opencast this Sunday

Posted under Korea on Wednesday, 25 February 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
South Korean search engine Naver.com announced the release of Opencast this Sunday March 1st. I had a brief introduction by an Naver employee about the new feature. In short, Opencast can be best described as a widget showing random blogposts with a Twitter-like subscription function. (get it?) Ah,...
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Google has a new Favicon, do you like it?

Posted under Entrepreneurship, Korea on Saturday, 10 January 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
In other shocking news, Google changed their favicon again! As you might remember, Google updated their favicon to a rather *fugly* one last June. A few days later Google challenged its audience to come up with a better Favicon. - Chapeau Google, good strategy to get people sending in...
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National exams, national precautions

Posted under Korea on Monday, 29 December 2008 by admin
Saleem writes about the measures the South Korean government have set for the national exams: "Yesterday was a holiday here b/c 3rd grade high school students took the university entrance exam all across the country. Get this – during the Korean listening and English listening portions of...
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The Korean Demilitarized Zone

Posted under Korea, travel on Thursday, 4 December 2008 by admin
South Korea's military says it is preparing for the possibility that North Korea may try to provoke a naval skirmish along their disputed sea border. (december 2008, voanews.com) While things look calm for an expat, South and North Korea are officially still at war, because of that military...
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[Pictures] Seoul.

Posted under Korea, Pictures on Wednesday, 26 November 2008 by Joop Dorresteijn
Seoul is a magnificent city; it's the worlds second largest metropol but the actual commercial and financial center is about the same size of Berlin's. To give you an idea – I took some pictures around Seoul over the past few weeks, click on them for a high resolution copy. (CC) Taken from...
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5:45 AM, sunrise in Gyeonju

Posted under Korea, Pictures on Monday, 17 November 2008 by admin
The thermometer slowly declined down to zero degrees over the last week. We headed up to the roof to see the sunset in the clean frosty sky, I realized that this was not the first time we were going up for a view.   5:45 AM, sunrise in Gyeonju. We woke up early to see the sunrise in Gyonju,...
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Saturday stroll through rainy Changdeokgung garden

Posted under Korea, travel on Saturday, 15 November 2008 by Joop Dorresteijn
After weeks of sunshine it started to rain in Seoul today. We had a day off and decided to have a look at the Changdeokgung palace, close to our home. Greatest building in Changdeokgung, used for official ceremonies. Nice colors! The stone gate is called Bullomun. "Bullo" means "not to...
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[Pictures] Han river in Seoul

Posted under Korea, Pictures on Thursday, 13 November 2008 by admin
Some pictures I took of the Han river during the last months here in Seoul. The total length of the Han River is 514 km. Although it is not a long river, the lower Han is remarkably broad for such a relatively short river. Within Seoul city limits, the river is more than 1 km wide. We visited...
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A peek inside the British American Tobacco factory in Korea

Posted under Company visit, Korea on Tuesday, 11 November 2008 by admin
Korea is the 10th biggest cigarette market on the planet, not so weird because you see smokers everywhere. I visited the British American Tobacco (BAT) factory in Sacheon together with the DBCK last week. The flight to Jinju was already scheduled at 07.30 AM, took a cab at 5AM. We gained more...
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[Pictures] View over Busan city from hotel

Posted under Korea, Pictures on Sunday, 9 November 2008 by Joop Dorresteijn
We decided to head out to Korea's second largest city – the harbor city Busan. Very moist and clear upon arrival, but dark and foggy when we woke up. I was curious about Busan because I like cities next to the sea, we spend some time on the beach, had an interesting night. Do you see...
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Paragliding at a Korean army base

Posted under Korea, travel on Sunday, 9 November 2008 by admin
Want to join paragliding this weekend? - off course! that's a no brainer! In reality, the relaxing chair and the calm speed got me disappointed, I should have thought of bringing a good book to read. Some people manage to stay up there for a long time! As the first foreigners at this Korean army...
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What do you get when you combine a cinema, pool and cheap hotel?

Posted under Korea on Friday, 7 November 2008 by admin
We visited a jjimjilbang in Busan last night; The jjimjilbang concept comes close to a bath-house, it is a combination of sauna, hotel and gym. I just spend a night there for $10, and I am excited, what an experience! I slept on the marble floor but had a massage in return! Imagine a 24...
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Living abroad? Think about your (future) wife!

Posted under China, Entrepreneurship, Korea, Netherlands on Monday, 6 October 2008 by Joop Dorresteijn
Ask yourself this: What things would you consider if you had an opportunity to work abroad? For many top executives and engineers, its not only the job they are thinking about. The main challenge is usually their free time, wife (or husband) and family. Ask yourself the question: if I will work in...
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Video-conference with a former president

Posted under Korea on Tuesday, 30 September 2008 by Joop Dorresteijn
15th Korean president and Nobel peace prize winner Kim Dae-Jung visited us at the Korean Development Institute today. Amazing, what a circus! Our university is already surrounded by a 4 meter wall, and security posts. Today I noticed FBI style security guards on rooftops and...
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Learn to read and pronounce Korean Hangul in 2 days

Posted under Internet, Korea, Review, asides on Friday, 12 September 2008 by Joop Dorresteijn
You don't need a black belt in Taekwondo to master the Korean language, actually... reading Hangul (Korean writing) is surprisingly easy! That's the main point I am trying to make in this post. While the Korean characters seem complex at first, they are easy to read within one week. Skip the...
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Comparing Korean gas, wine and other prices with Europe

Posted under Entrepreneurship, Korea on Wednesday, 3 September 2008 by Joop Dorresteijn
It's cheaper to live in New York, Hong Kong, Copenhagen or Paris then in Seoul. But not everything is expensive, taking a cab here four blocks further costs about 2 Euros, the same distance in Copenhagen or Paris would cost a lot more. Korean food is generally cheap, so are a lot of other things....
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What can you leave to your descendant?

Posted under Entrepreneurship, Korea on Wednesday, 27 August 2008 by Joop Dorresteijn
I visited a Korean art expo on Saturday the 23rd, and met a fascinating artist named Hae do Park. He dedicated his life to learn a new skill, and aims to inspire younger artists with his work. The combination of using silver and his apply his technique create objects that almost seem real. The...
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Meanwhile, at the blind-Korean-GPS-marketed-witch-doctor’s house

Posted under Korea on Tuesday, 26 August 2008 by Joop Dorresteijn
I visited a very special practitioner on Friday the 22nd. A blind chiropractor called Mr Ahn, with a special approach. – for his diagnose, he touches certain body points, after which he gives lifestyle advice or prescribes natural medicines. The man has gained popularity, and people from all...
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If you like the web, I bet you love South Korea too

Posted under Entrepreneurship, Korea, asides on Thursday, 17 July 2008 by Joop Dorresteijn
This is the conclusion of my web series about the internet in South Korea, published on ReadWriteWeb and TheNextWeb.org two weeks ago; I put it on my blog for completeness of the serie. That is, if you like to be connected to the Internet all day, while enjoying the fastest connections in the...
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Conclusion of the South Korean web profile serie

Posted under Internet, Korea, Media / In The News on Tuesday, 10 June 2008 by Joop Dorresteijn
Enter the hyper connected society, Korea has an astounding 90 percent connected to the Internet with 3G and a nation wide coverage of a South Korean version of Wimax. What websites are popular over there, and does Korea have a web 2.0 scene? To find that out, follow my first...
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Search engine Empas.com is ready for a comeback in Korea

Posted under Internet, Korea, Review on Friday, 30 May 2008 by Joop Dorresteijn
Empas.com is a South Korean web portal dating back as far as 1998. They became big with their cocky slogan: “If Yahoo can’t find it, Empas can.” Empas ranks five out of five on our list of (most visited) Korean web companies, However, Empas has lost ground against competitors as Naver...
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Daum: boring, but innovative in user generated content

Posted under Entrepreneurship, Internet, Korea, Review on Wednesday, 28 May 2008 by Joop Dorresteijn
Daum communications is huge, they are the biggest operator of Korean websites and they also operate in China with 365ren.com, and in the U.S. with the acquired Lycos portal. The word 'Daum' is Korean for 'next', but at first sight, they might come over as another boring web portal aiming for...
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Search engine Naver is best in localized results, example for others?

Posted under Entrepreneurship, Internet, Korea, Review on Tuesday, 27 May 2008 by Joop Dorresteijn
We see increasing amounts of search engines popping up on the internet, they are using advanced algorithms to come up with better results. Not in Korea, at least not at Naver. Employees analyze, index and produces content for their search engine by hand. Even though this labor intensity, they count...
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Social community Cyworld a trendsetter in E-commerce?

Posted under Internet, Korea, Review on Monday, 26 May 2008 by Joop Dorresteijn
Cyworld is a social networking site, not big, and attempts to go abroad have failed in both Europe and Japan. Currently, they don't even have an English interface. However, Cyworld got my attention because of their business model, and the generated revenue they receive from it. While the...
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Why so little Korean web companies get ‘Techcrunched’

Posted under Internet, Korea on Friday, 23 May 2008 by admin
Most Koreans are addicted to the web, I wondered; Seoul must be a breeding place for new web ventures? I approached Chang W. Kim, to get an idea of what is going on. Chang is CEO of the biggest blog portal (80%) in Korea. He explains his views on European projects, the Seoul web-scene and funding...
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A profile of the connectivity in South Korea

Posted under Entrepreneurship, Korea on Monday, 19 May 2008 by Joop Dorresteijn
South Korea is the most connected country in the world, their network leaps far beyond that of Europe, the Arabic countries, China or the USA. It's all part of their vision to create an "ubiquitous networked world". Well, I had to lookup the word ubiquitous, and found out that it means...
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Introduction to the South-Korean web serie

Posted under Korea on Tuesday, 13 May 2008 by Joop Dorresteijn
During the next few weeks I will publish a series of posts about the South Korean internet market. I want to raise discussion about the trends, review web 2.0 websites and blogs and interview influential web 2.0 entrepreneurs from South-Korea. The series will be brought down in three broad...
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Flying to asia during the Olympics

Posted under Korea on Monday, 12 May 2008 by Joop Dorresteijn
Flying to South Korea is expensive during the Olympics in Beijing. My friend from Beijing told me that the prices are dramatically increased for every Asian country for that matter. In search of a solution, I asked businessmen/women from different nationalities where they fly with, after...
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