My hotel was right by this river, had a beautiful view, and wonderful aroma from tons of restaurants around the river.  One night during my stay, I got caught up with some work and stayed up late.  It was about 1AM when I finally started feeling very tired.  As I didn’t finish all the things I wanted to get done, I decided to step out to the balcony to refresh myself while looking down the river and all the buildings downtown.  So I stepped out, stretched and sat there for a while enjoying a little peaceful moment.  As I got up and tried to open the sliding door, I realized that the door was locked behind me!  I didn’t know what to do, so I sat there and thought for a while what I was supposed to do in order to solve that situation.  I looked down the river, but nobody was around as it was late.  But I decided to get people’s attention.  By the way, my room was up on the 8^th floor.

I just screamed and shouted “hello” many times…  Finally a group of people passing by the hotel and they heard me.  All the way from the 8^th floor, I shouted explaining to them what happened and asked them to please go to the lobby and let them know that I was locked in the balcony.  (I doubt that he is reading this blog, but thank you very much!!!)  So, about 10 minutes later I could see somebody was trying to open the room door through the curtain from the outside of the balcony.  But alas!  The deadbolt was on, and the hotel crew couldn’t even get in.  One assistant from the hotel walked outside and explained to me what was going on, of course shouting, all the way from the ground level.  They couldn’t open the door so that they were thinking about either taking the door down or calling their senior security officer who might be able to unlock that deadbolt.  I was very frustrated and petrified.  But what can you do?  I just had to wait.  All I could do was sitting there looking into my own room through the white curtain and looking at my beloved laptop screen displaying my screen saver while they were trying to “rescue” me.  When I was finally rescued, it was already way passed 2AM.  The hotel profusely apologized and offered to give me the credit for that night since it was their fault that the door was malfunctioning.  Well, actually, it didn’t make a big difference at all to me since I didn’t pay for the hotel. 

So, all of you, be careful when you close the sliding door behind you.  Better yet, when you work with me next time, please make sure that the sliding door of the hotel works.  My requirement for a hotel used to be “high speed internet” and “workout facility”, now I have one more requirement to say “no auto-lock sliding doors”.  And watch out for that deadbolt…  That really is the bolt of death.

Heejeong Haas

www.queenofseoul.com

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Major Korean Holiday Alert: Chuseok

To be honest, I was contemplating a great deal what to write about and how I am supposed to sound like. Since there are just too many things to talk about I was feeling rather lost among all different things I could talk about. On top of that, I didn’t know that writing a blog post periodically requires a certain discipline and diligence. I finally got a wake up call and decided first to write things from my personal experience to ease my pain and to just be myself. There are many pundits and experts who write about theoretical aspect of problems in cross-cultural and intercultural communications and negotiations. Since I don’t only offer consulting service but also I participate in a real negotiations and meeting processes as a communication facilitator, I thought that my real-world experience will help my blog readers in a way different than those experts. Please ask me any questions or make any comments you have in your mind. I would love to meet you all and think about and provide solutions for your concerns.

So, now, it is mid July, and I am taking a new vow to write a blog post periodically. At least, I should never let it go without posting anything for 3 months like this.

So, let’s explore all different aspects of Korean culture, Korean business culture, and other things that may occur when we do business with Korean business partners.

Are you ready? I am.

Heejeong Haas

www.queenofseoul.com

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Related Articles at Korean Business Blog:

Practical Advice for Doing Business with Korea
Major Korean Holiday Alert: Chuseok
The Pitfalls of Telling Jokes to Non-native English Speakers Part 1
Saved Time and Money by Establishing Good Rapport with Your Korean Business Partners
Travel Tip: How a Deadbolt Nearly Killed Me

Here are some general topics you will see in this blog:

• Doing business with Koreans
• Language of Korean and English
• Cultural differences between America and Korea
• Business culture
• How to have effective communication with your Korean business partner
• Localization, Translation, and Interpretation
• And a lot more fun, serious, and exciting stuff….

And here is a list of things I want from my readers:

• Please do not leave an offensive message, if you have to vent out, please email me personally.
• This blog is for everybody to read and reap benefit from it. Please drop me a note that you were here, and somehow my blog helped you. Your feedback will lighten up my day.
• I am here to help American companies and others who are in a difficult situation due to a cultural difference—Ask me any questions regarding Korea. I will see what I can do for you. Also, if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

I look forward to meeting with all of you through my blog.

Best,
Heejeong Haas

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