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Conference on Korea National Brand

I was lucky to visit the conference held by Korea National Brand held in Grand Hilton Hotel in Seoul. It was quite hard to get there, because my university is rather far from that palce, but it was definitely worth that.
The first performer was CEO of Burson-Marsteller Korea, Margaret Key, who was born in the United States, and whose mother is Korean, and she herself considers herself as Korean. She showed how Korea has developed compared to several decades ago period, and that now Korea occupies a very good and strong position in the world market. Margaret Key compared brand slogans that are used to express fundamental elements of different countries, and herself has given a definition of brand as feeling, aspiration, and sentiment. Also, she presented the words of Il SaKong, WSJ: "The G20 members, especially the G7, know we'll be more than willing to lead. Leadership doesn,t mean working alone. It means getting harmony, cooperation and support". Among the conclusions made were the following: "Brand Korea shouldn't be a slogan, should be a story and should resonate both the public and private sector; should be patient, bold, and focused; should be consistent, appealing and powerful. Also it should be based on commitment and a democratic voice of ownerships" and many others.
The next presenter was Dr. Su-Seok Lee, of Institute for National Security Strategy (Korean Association of North Korean Studies). He stated that if the North Korea brings instability on South Korea, it will negatively affect Korean Brand. The following presenters were Professor Seung-Mok Yang from Seoul National University (President of Korean Society for Journalism and Communication Studies), Professor Sang-Pil Han from Hanyang University (President of Korea Advertising Society), Prof 차윤호 (러시아 변호사-경남대학교), Andrew Salmon )Seoul-based journalist for the Washington Times), Tetsuya Hakoda, chief of Asahi Shimbun Seoul Bureau), and Ryan Lee, Korea CEO of the International Business Times.
Even though each presenter had his unique theme, the conclusions were somehow related. According to Ryan Lee, to trasfer from discount to premium Korea has to

• become concensus builder;
• hold discussions between G20 and non-G20 countries;
• create more values;
• exercise more power and influence

Calligraphy nowadays

In the era of globalization there is an increased interest towards korean calligraphy all over the world. Going back to history, Korean language, named Hangul was created in 1446 by Sejong the Great. Now the calligraphy is in fashion again. It can be seen everywhere - posters, advertisements, book covers and even on clothes!

Foreigners when come to Korea usually learn some part of calligraphy too, because it's not just needed as a part of Korean history but also extremely interesting!
The Unified Shilla period created the mastery of Kim Saeng and Choe Chi-won, two of Korea's greatest calligraphers. Great calligraphers like Prince Anpyong, son of King Sejong, invested to the history of Korean style calligraphy. After a bleak period, calligraphy flourished again with new individual styles.
Korea, unlike many countries, has a alphabet day on October 9th, called Hangul Day. Also Korean languages is becoming more and more popular, because of its beauty and relative simpliness in learning.

About Advantages of Red Ginseng

Walking in streets of different Korean cities of the often met shop is the one where you can by ginseng, including red one. All my Korean friends always told me about benefits that this magic plant can give to any person. This is how I also became interested in ginseng, and even bought some for my relatives.
As I found out ginseng has some features for which this plant can be called a magic healer. It helps to improve the brain activity, can help to concentrate, and improves the overall physical and mental state of peron's organism, and many others. In these busy autumn days when our body needs a lot of vitamins, and we are tired because of overwhelming duties - school, homework, exams, sports, work, we become soo tired that when weekends come we don't have time for hanging out with friends, walk somewhere with our beloved, but just one to sleep all day. And even after that we usually feel exhausted.

This is why is such busy country as Korea people eat ginseng. It helps them to fight exhaustion. Moreover, red ginseng has such effect as lowering the cholesterol level, assistance against indigestion, acceleration of learning and hardworking, regulation of heard beating and even much more.
According to those who prepare Red Ginseng, another key advantage of this magical plant is the accelerated metabolism, which is not only helpint to reduce unhealthy fat, but also offers substantial improvements in stamina and endurements. All these qualities make the consumer of the red ginseng feel full of energy, high spirits, and very good immune system. The ginseng can be eaten as vitamins, in tablets, or there are plenty of dishes that contain ginseng. Besides, there are extremely delicious drinks made of ginseng, which are definitely worth to taste!
This is why those who have some illnesses, students, who need to study hard, those who work a lot or have sports activities in their life, and simply those who want to support their immune system should take the red ginseng!

Korean National Food

Living in Korea gives anyone a great oppotrunity of recovering from any illness because of fresh air, healthy way of life and very delicious food which is very useful for human's health. Of course, the first thing any foreigner will taste when come to Korea is Kimchi - fermented cabbage and vegetables prepared in special way, which is spicy but extremely delicious! Actually kimchi comes as panchan - side dishes, and is eated with rice.
Other things that any foreigner tastes are kimpab and pulgogi, mandu, all kindes of rice cakes, bibimpab and many many others!

Life of a graduate student

So now I can reach my blog. In summer I went for thesis defence and exams in my home country - Kazakhstan, and unfortunately, this site did not work there. Now I am back to Korea and can tell everything that had happened to me during all that time. I worked hard to get to the graduate school in Korea. Applied for many universities, including Korea University, Yonsei University, KAIST. And finally entered Ajou University, GSIS, MBA program. Life here is absolutely different from undegraduate student's life. I took only 4 courses, but have to study very much to cope with all requirements! Of course, there are a lot of opportunities for international student. But what I definitely understood - Korea is not a country where someone can get something without working hard on it. Korea encourages hard working students, ambitious people who know what they want to achieve. That makes it a really great country!

First post in my blog=)

The weather here in Korea is getting warmer every day=)As it is the last semester of my Bachelor degree program in both universities, have to study a lot and think about the future...Hope it'll be bright=)
As we all know, our fortune is in our hands, and only we can choose whether to change something in our lives or stay the same=)