and it dont stop ^^

wow, this week was one of the most interesting in the world of finance since… since the new economy crash in 2000. the financial system is collapsing, one huge bank after another is going bankrupt and nobody knows where and when all this will stop. just for you to get an idea of how it looks these days, in case you do not read the finance part of the newspaper:

one of the reasons why i didnt like to work in the bank was the fact, that even the employees didnt know a lot of facts about their own bank since the management was hiding a lot. in many cases, even us, the employees got more information through the newspaper then trogh the company’s intranet, which was a shame. i remember especially the time when my ex-bank the „hypovereinsabank“ started fusion talks with the italian unicredito group, sometimes the customers who were intensively reading all kind of financial newspapers knew more about it then us…. and sometimes it was not only that we didnt knew, sometimes we just got false information which in my opinion can also be called like this: we’ve been lied. so my natural trust to banks is on a low level and i just couldnt work with such a company, for this i have too many ideals.

now, the situation is even worse. i am pretty sure that the banks didnt reveal even 30% of the information they should reveal in order to be able to handle the financial crisis which is spreading around the world. of course the reason is the shareholder value. in case they would reveal all the facts, i guess most banks would almost collapse within few hours which cant be good for our economy system – but the truth will come out, step by step and the trust is already lost. take a look at the german stocks:

collapsing banks is a desaster. banks are the source for loans, without loans, no investments, without investment no growth. so not only banks will have to change their way of operating, also other industries will have to think about other possibilities of financing their needs. perhaps not that bad thing at all? there is one rule i learned practicing judo: the bigger the person is, the easier he falls. same thing about huge companies and investment products, electronical stuff. the more complex, huge a system is, the more sensitive it is to errors and mistakes.

especially the technological system is very sensitive since a lot of companies there work on less or completely without profits and are therefore in need of loans in order to finance their investments:

i was glad to read today that the US government was not able to finish the so called „rescue plan“. i guess most of the money would be used in a wrong way anyway, for example paying huge „compensations“ to all the managers who will have to leave the companies for failed their job. well, interesting that you get paid for failing and in many cases the payment is even high enough to do not need to work for the rest of your life. so rewarding them for putting us in this mess? i dont think so… interesting the most voters of my opinion are the republicans.

while during the last years especially the banks were shouting for less government, now they are almost crying for protection. very ironical. i just hope they will stop constructing all this complex investment products that in most cases are not even fully understood by the employees themselves and realise that trust that is one of the most basic necessary foundations of every bank, is something one has to deserve – and not a thing that is granted.

hope

i just got an offer to prolongue my internship until the last possible day of my current visa, but i refused, got to finish studies right? anyway, my boss continued checking all the legal issues, articles and more and there is hope!

diploma + working experience of aproxamitely 2 years is enough. and guess what? my vocational education (ausbildung) counts as working experience, so right after the BA i will be able to work in accounting related positions.

if i want to work in a hotel in korea, after 22 more months of working in any hotel i can also get a working visa for the hospitality industry… so, i need to find a job in a hotel in berlin for my last semester, this way i can shorten this time further… finally, there is hope.

another nice thing worth consideration: if i can get a combined MA/MBA studies position like work/study at the same time, it also counts as working experience. sooooo, if i can find something like this, right after the MA or MBA i will be able to get a working visa in korea.

nice. – the only important thing is to get certificates for everything since the korean government is really pricky about this. the bureaucracy stuff that has to be done by the company in order to employ a foreigner is highly complicated and time intensive, so it is not only about having this qualifications – you also need a boss who is willing to do all the paperwork and fight with the immigration office.

after the MA/MBA and 2 years of working experience, i can get right on into an assistant managing position. my aim would be to try to work on any guest relations position since this is what i really like…

fine, right now, somehow, i feel really good. hotel management… i am not sure if this will be my future, but right now, from all the possible „doors“ to open, it looks like the right one.

time for some sleep and medicine i catched a cold.

missing berlin – a little bit

seoul is a very interesting city with a lof of aspects, different districts, its very own special flair etc…. but the more i see of seoul, the more areas i visit and the more i talk with people from the different areas, the more i realize that even though this city here has almost everything you need for a good quality standard of living – it just can not match with berlin. 

one of the most important points i like about berlin is its international character which in seoul is almost zero. even though there is a „china town“ (incheon), a „mongol town“ (dongdaemun), american district (itaewon) and much much more… you can not compare it with berlin. the reason for this is simply, that foreigners have a very hard stand here and koreans are really not that open minded when it comes to interracial-relations of any kind, while in berlin it simply so common to see foreigners, to have friends of foreign origin etc., that it simply doesnt matter. there is almost no question about nationality, usually there is only the question whether you are from berlin or not.

for a person like me, there is also one more important point: in berlin there are a lot of areas where you can simply relax your mind, take a break and… escape from the stress of work or university just by crossing the street and entering a park, or a small coffee shop… cause there is almost no district without a park, so many lakes, and nowadays there are so many small private coffe shops serving such delicious products that everytime i have to taste coffee here i feel like destroying all my senses and even paying for it a horrible price…

but you know, all the mentioned stuff can also be something negative for a person with a different point of view. perhaps its a little bit of feeling homesick? i dont know, but right now, i miss berlin – a little bit…

nanu?

da check ich meine studienplanung grad einmal durch und was seh ich da? ich muss ja nächstes semester nur noch einen einzigen kurs belegen… dann wars das… und noch nichtmal ne hausarbeit drin schreiben…

habe jetzt nun auch endlich den arbeitsnachweis für die arbeit letztes jahr erhalten, so dass ich mir nun die arbeit im hotel und die arbeit für den prof. der kookmin university mit insgesamt lockeren 25 LP als auslandspraktikum anrechnen lassen kann…

das studium neigt sich unweigerlich dem ende. herr brochlos hat mir nun auch meine grobe struktur für die BA arbeit abgesegnet so dass ich nun intensiver dran arbeiten kann. bald ists geschafft…

… und wieso schreib ich auf einmal deutsch????

last 4 weeks

tomorrow is another day off and then i have only 2,5 weeks left in the hotel… a lot of things happened during the last days. i am doing now 90% of the work of a regular employee and therefore suffer a lot ^^ once more i noticed that i am simply not the person for morning shifts. getting up at 5 am, starting at 6.20… its killing me. also, during the morning shift i almost dont get tips at all which will force me tomorrow for the first time to use money from my account here.

i was thinking about starting to complain a little bit and try to force my boss somehow to make it possible for me to visit more departments of the hotel before leaving, but i dropped the plan because this would put a lot of pressure on my colleagues and since the relationship is really good, i would feel kind of uncomfortable doing this. furthermore i want to get a good letter of recommendation so…

another point is also, that especially in the hotel where all departments have to work very close with each other to achieve their assessments, i can also learn a lot even without being in the department. for me, main point of this internship is to get a deeper understanding of all the functions of a hotel and what is necessary to manage them in the most appropriate way – for this i do not need the procedures of using certain files or where which documents have to be filled out. so every free minutes i spend with questioning my co-workers from the other departments about this and that.

hm, there is so much stuff to write about, but somehow i am not in the mood today…

by the way: yesterday i had a phone call for about 45 minutes with mr. ruediger frank. we have been talking mainly about…me. he gave me a lot of advices about future plans and things to consider or think about. after the phonecall i knew why i like him that much and why i was so disappointed that he didnt become our professor: his attitude towards korean studies is simply almost the same like mine! when he started to explain what is useful and what can be dropped, i was so astonished cause actually it was like hearing myself explaining my attitude to my co-students. among the korean studies, most people have the impression of me being ignorant (and arrogant) cause i reduce my interest in korea to 3 fields:

1. economy (history, development, recent subjects)
2. modern language
3. north korea issue

all the other fields… well, sure it is usefull and it will help to get a deeper understanding, partly depending on the purpose i know it is even necessary… but all this does not mean that I need to be an expert in it. so i reduce my work in everything except those 3 fields to an absolut minimum, while most of my co-students are mainly interested in cultural issues or things like middle korean which is for me simply a waste of time and energy, but with this attitude i was usually kind of alone. i am happy to see now, that one the world-best-scholars on korea has a similar attitude.

he also proved the opinion i already heard from the businessman in my hotel: a masters degree in korea is not recommendable. especially if i would consider an MBA or any kind of international studies (international relations/management/etc.), he strongly adviced me not to do this in korea. only exception could be something like „korean studies“ or „asian studies“ with a focus on korea, but mastering in korean studies would just mean to learn more of the above mentioned stuff that i do not want to learn… so korean studies as an MA have left my „things to study as an MA“ list.

but anyway, lets see what the international department of the yonsei will say. i send them my CV yesterday night, tomorrow or next week i will have a meeting with the department chief and we are going to talk about this. i keep you up to date.. especially for my family this is kind of important i guess, cause you know what kind of consequences a job here would have…

by the way: is there anybody who can explain to me, why a sony 8 gb usb-stick costs here 56.000 won (35 eur) while in germany i pay only 10 eur for this??