How do you communicate with others?

I am mainly lying on phone calls and e-mails. Once in a while I tried to maintain my own mini homepage in cyworld*, but find myself spending too much time and decisively not comfortable with that. However, hereby two young students of 2006 who find their own communication channels on line are introduced. Their personnel background and a brief introduction of their blogs(or homepage) are delivered through articles below. Furthermore, we strongly recommend you to surf their blogs by yourself, and to see how the young colleagues build their own world in cyber space. You might surprise their creative way of doing this and their mature way of thinking and debating over controversial issues.

* Cyworld: one of the most famous personnel homepage providers in Korea. Every one person out of four has his/her mini homepage in cyworld as of 2004.

Pawlowski Laurent (2006 MBA)

I am one year exchange student from ISC, Paris, France. After I graduated from the University of Science and Technologies in Lille majoring in accounting and economy, I have entered ISC, the business school in Paris to deepen and widen my knowledge of the world economy, especially Asia. Since ISC has a wide range of specialized fields, I could choose my concentrations in Marketing, International business and Japan. In fact, I started to study Japanese in 2000 and I finally got the reward of my endeavour for five years when ISC sent me to Osaka prefecture for one semester in Kansai Gaidai University, Hirakata. I spent one semester to study primarily Japanese language and to get some international business courses. I chose to live in a Japanese family of who could neither speak French or English. That really helped me to progress in Japanese language and to thread out one aspect of the Asian culture. However, the time allowed to me was only one semester. It was not something that I could stop just there. As my graduation of Master degree was approaching, ISC proposed MBA programs in Asia to me. I have chosen KDI MBA program with confidence of its future.

That is what finally brought me to Korea. First, I was fascinated by the faculty members of KDI School who took an important role in developing Korean economy and had the remarkable academic background in the world leading institutions. I can remember when I was surprised by Mr Behling’s or Mr You’s profile. Second, the variety of student composition leaded me to make decision without hesitation. In KDI School, my exploration toward Asian culture and economy could ripen faster than ever by sharing experience with Korean and international students from all over the world.

Actually, the school is even better than I expected in every aspects. Some students can speak French very well, it was good to face with the fact that my mother language has been well known in Korea and many high schools has selected French as a second foreign language. The school environment is simply wonderful. If I were talking to Mr. Jung, the professor of Marketing Management, I would define KDI as an augmented product!!

I love Korea! I wish I could express my affection toward Korea in Korean language soon to my dear Korean friends. Everywhere I am, I discover new things. It’s hard for me and maybe for western people to define their feeling when they discover such a beautiful, different place. That’s why my blog has a big potential for me since I have a lot of things to say.

I started my blog http://hankuk.over-blog.com just before coming to Korea. In fact I already made a blog about my experience in Japan: http://lawren00.over-blog.com . My blogs were originally designed to give news to my family and friends in France. As it was not so convenient to send emails with big picture inside and spammed my friends’ mailbox every time, I decided to design a blog which can be consulted whenever they want. Actually the main visitors of my blog are not my family but lots of people I don’t really know who follow me in my adventure since Japan.

The articles in my blog talk about my life, what I’m exploring in Korea, the things that are really different from French / European culture, friends and many others things. I do not restrict myself. As I participated to various KDI’s events, my blog became popular to a part of KDI students who want to get pictures from these events. I try to make as much update as I can but my priorities remain KDI courses.

In school life, my plan will be to make more friends especially among Korean people. I like the warmth of Korean people and in some aspects, they are really like French. As people are really nice to me, they make me discover lots of different aspects of Korean culture. I also want to learn and practice Korean language and culture with them. For my career plan, I will search a job in Korea. I have the marketing oriented profile currently; however I will stay relatively open to every working opportunity I can be aware of.

KIM Musun (MBA, 2006)

Somewhat expected, I happened to be the youngest student in KDI School 2006. I graduated from Yonsei University in 2006, fortunately, by abridging two semesters. Being quite young, I was asked on numerous occasions by many people, perhaps out of curiosity, how I got to know KDI School and why I decided to pursue MBA courses.

Although Political Science, my major field in college, does try to provide a balanced explanation of the interaction between various views and diverse players, through the three years of intensive study, I arrived to the conclusion that the inherent limits of the field – its analytical foundation on nation-states – was quite insufficient to match the puzzles of the entire social framework. Therefore, I decided to further my insight by applying to a business school, where I hoped to understand the mechanisms that move the business circle.

From the outset of my final year in college, I began to search a school that would best help to fulfill my needs. Thanks to recommendations from my professor, I came to know about KDI School and finally made a visit to the school in a sun-drenched day of summer. As soon as I took the first breathe of air on campus, I realized this is the school that I had been looking for. Unlike Sinchon area where I had spent my three years, tranquil, calm, yet seductive atmosphere surrounding the campus seized my full attention. Moreover, since I had almost no opportunity to live abroad, truly global environment of KDI School attracted me even more.

Having opted for KDI School has not necessarily brought good aspects. The most salient inconvenience came from the fact that not many of my folks knew KDI School! A tiny portion of my friends either knowledgeable or majoring in economics knew KDI, to which the school is affiliated, but not KDI School. Particularly last year, when I met my friends or people, I had to explain what kind of school this is all over again every time. That was certainly an exhausting job. Finally, I came up with an idea that I put images and explanations of school on my Internet webpage (http://musun.info). And now I am using my homepage as a place for study group of courses that I am taking. It turned out to be quite conducive.

My ultimate goal is to become a lawyer. Specific specialization is still in search. As of now, my life plan is to go to law school, a system that will be introduced in Korea by the year 2008, after finishing the courses in KDI and mandatory military service. But, unlike most Korean lawyers who lack a broader knowledge of other fields, I want to become a lawyer who understands and perceives the mechanisms that run a government and a corporation, and thereby practices a law that is not backward and separate from the reality but one that keeps pace with the complexities of real life.

By Moon Jung Kim (2006 MBA)