Korea follows the USA style in their transportation system. They drive on their right hand side and therefore their driver's side is on the left. It would be a little weird for those who are used to drive on the left hand side because they are required to change everything in the opposite ways.
Koreans are polite and kind. They respect the elderly very much up to the point that if an old man scold them by the road side, they will stop, listen, apologize and bow to the old guy.
Despite their politeness and kindness, they are very rough while driving. It seems that they are not really care if they smash into another person's car or kiss other car's butt. Near misses is usually what could be seen on the road in Korea. However, when that happens, they don't even regret it and goes on driving recklessly. It seems normal and everybody does that. If you are on the bus, make sure you hang on tightly to the chair or the hanging bar so that you won't fall. The bus driver run over the red light should they think it's safe. If an incoming car sees green light from a distance, they might ram it to maximum to go pass the light and at the same time there might be a driver at the junction think about going ahead though the light is red. Collision could occur at any time.
The reason why this "on the road culture" is happening could caused by the leniency in their law enforcement. The speeding ticket is very very cheap that people wouldn't care paying for it. Mr Park told me that the average ticket for a speed trap could be around USD100 which is very small amount as compared to the average Korean income of USD4000 to USD6000 a month. That is just 0.25 percent of their monthly income! Back in Malaysia, a speeding ticket is around RM200 of RM2500 of average income in Malaysia (I think) which constitute to about 8 to 10 percent of their monthly income! That's why the Korean didn't bother breaking the law on the road.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Healthy lifestyle
The Korean living in a very healthy lifestyle as compared to other countries. They do not really eat fried foods. If they are going to have one, it's not too oily. Their main meal always prepared with several types of vegetables besides meat. They usually have several types of raw fish for dinner together with some sushis and several types of vegetables (up to 7 types of veges).
You know it's hard to find an obese Korean. They are mostly thin people. Their buses seats are very small & narrow which is not a "big guy" friendly. They take quite about the same portion as other asians except that they don't take too much oil but having so much veges instead.
At the office, the koreans always brush their teeth including after having lunch. When I go to the toilet to take ablution for praying, I always bumped with Koreans brushing their teeth. What a healthy lifestyle they are having.
You know it's hard to find an obese Korean. They are mostly thin people. Their buses seats are very small & narrow which is not a "big guy" friendly. They take quite about the same portion as other asians except that they don't take too much oil but having so much veges instead.
At the office, the koreans always brush their teeth including after having lunch. When I go to the toilet to take ablution for praying, I always bumped with Koreans brushing their teeth. What a healthy lifestyle they are having.
Monday, June 16, 2008
What do you do while....
What Koreans do most while traveling on public transport? The following are the list according to priority.
- Read newspaper - lots of free nwsppr distributed at train sttn.
- Read sth else
- Write sth.
- Listen to music /mp4
- Short nap
- Watch people around
- Talking.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Transportation
The public transportation system in Seoul is quite efficient. The main transport which I would prefer is the subway train. Seoul has quite an extensive underground railway network which covers the Seoul huge city and its satellite cities around. The train frequency is very high especially in the morning and in the evening. I would say the train will come around every 10 minutes. The underground network consists of 8 different routes in and out of Seoul. Each route (line) has its own color code. Just plan your way to the next destination using the subway map network. We might have to transfer from one line to another to go to another areas or city. Eventhough the frequency of the train service is high, still it is crowded in the morning because people would rather catch a train than driving into a congested seoul & its satellite city.On our way to the office we take a train to Moran station (about 15 minutes) and then we take the bus no 55 to the office at Bokgipeguan for another 15 minutes. Quite tiring because we have to climb steep staircase down and up the subway. Trust me, you won't be able to catch up your breath after came up the stairs.
Korea is known for its KTX bullet train just like Japan. I'm not so sure why it is so famous to the point that the story came out in Discovery channel on "Man Made Marvels". I did watch some part of the storyline but not the whole thing. It is said that the normal speed of the KTX goes up to 300 km/hr.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
The Brands
A decade ago, Samsung was like Haier these days. The brand wasn't really appealing to anybody and considered a very cheap and low class products. After a while it became very hot due to cheap price but with good quality and durable. The same goes with LG which is now getting very popular in Consumer Electronics Industries. These are the two Korean Brands which contributes the most in Korean economy.
Korean exports their technologies be it a consumer electronics or automotive industries. The Koreans are very loyal to their own brands. Just like Malaysian and the Proton car. I have never seen any Nokia brand sold in any mobile phone shop in Seoul area. The most popular are Samsung and LG phones. They even have a special adapter for the phone charger. They don't pack the charger together with the mobile phone because they have the same charger for any model from those two brands. At home, people can have different phone model but using the same charger. It is very convenient for consumers. In Malaysia, a Nokia brand itself will have more than one type of charger plug and a sony ericsson phone will have to use their own charger. That is not convenient.For those who would like to come to Korea and hoping for International Roaming service, make sure that your mobile phone are 3G phones. You need to select the CDMA mode while you are in Korea. If you don't, then you won't get any service. If you are interested to buy phones in Korea, make sure that the phone has both CDMA and GSM mode. Else your phone won't work at home.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Outstanding Internet Speed
Korea is leading country in the world in terms of internet speed. Check out the image on the left. The average speed for Korea is 26 Mbps. I did several test and found out that the maximum speed is 44 Mbps and the minimum is 29 Mbps. The test is done in the morning on Korean National Day (public holiday). This is expected because not many people uses the internet in the morning especially on public holiday.
This is very superb performance as compared to Malaysia which is not in the list. A 2 Mbps speed (on best effort) is for business and cost too much in Malaysia. while here in Korea, a speed of 26Mbps on average actual throughput cost just about USD20. My friend did the same test in Melbourne and the maximum speed is 8Mbps. This is way much slower than in Korea. What a suprise.Want to test your internet speed? click here.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Hospitality
Mr Park, the Managing Director of HI System is a very kind and humble person. It's not easy to find such kind of people in the world. If we were in Malaysia, rarely people treat foreigner or stranger in such ways.
The first 3 days we had free meal (lunch & dinner). We wanted to pay but he insisted. He picked us up at our minitel to the office himself eventhough he could have asked his staff to do it at anytime. The journey from his house to our minitel will take about 1 and a half hours instead of only 1 hour journey straight to his office. He paid the bill at the department store for our consumables and household items. He drove us to Itaewon which takes about an hour to buy halal meats as well as having some halal dinner meal there. He teach us how to use the subway himself which he hardly use since 10 years ago. He prepared a room for us in his office. He prepared the training schedule, equipment and etc for our training needs like he really love to see us there. He treated us like we are his new boss in his office. He prepared all the needs in the office including coffee mug and 3 in 1 coffee sachet. He made our stay here a very pleasant experience to live in Korea.
The first 3 days we had free meal (lunch & dinner). We wanted to pay but he insisted. He picked us up at our minitel to the office himself eventhough he could have asked his staff to do it at anytime. The journey from his house to our minitel will take about 1 and a half hours instead of only 1 hour journey straight to his office. He paid the bill at the department store for our consumables and household items. He drove us to Itaewon which takes about an hour to buy halal meats as well as having some halal dinner meal there. He teach us how to use the subway himself which he hardly use since 10 years ago. He prepared a room for us in his office. He prepared the training schedule, equipment and etc for our training needs like he really love to see us there. He treated us like we are his new boss in his office. He prepared all the needs in the office including coffee mug and 3 in 1 coffee sachet. He made our stay here a very pleasant experience to live in Korea.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
At the office
The first day we we introduced to the facilities which HI system have, the administration office and their Lab. All the components on the shelf and on the component drawers are accessible and free for us to pick at anytime. It feels like you were in the department store and you are allowed to take anything there for free at anytime. It felt so good. We will be trained to build robots starting from designing the circuit board and finally to the programming & testing stage. To me, the most interesting part is that we are going to build the circuit using surface mount device (SMD) with manual soldering. Can't wait to do it!!The Mail box
Take a good look at the mails!! People do not worry about loosing their letters & mailings here. Why? because honesty resides in every Korean. Malaysian? not really.... coz we might find that our letter have been opened when receiving it (if you are lucky to receive it).
This is the area where we had our lunch. again, we had sushi... woahh... so tired of having the same meal again.
The Minitel
Mr park took us to see our accommodation. Checked in and the rental is about USD500 per month per person. Quite a small room but the facilities are quite good. Our rooms are equipped with refrigerator, air-cond, bathroom, cupboard, cabinets, TV and also the internet (the most important ones). We had to share the kitchen, washing machines, etc. Other than that are not provided. There are cheaper rooms with shared bathroom (communal bathroom) but we don't think that would be a good idea. They called it Minitel. The Minitel are very closed to the subway railway station.
Korea is one of the highly ranked as the expensive country to live. To rent a house, you need to rent it for 2 years minimum with USD200,000 deposit to be paid. This deposit will be used by the landlord for investment. This is typical for a 2 bedrooms apartment.After the 2 years tenant period, the deposit can be claimed back minus some other expenses & damages. The electricity, water and other bills are expected to cost around USD500.00 per month. Another option for the same house is that we pay the deposit of only USD 100,000, plus with USD1000 monthly rental. So the cost of accommodation + bills per month would be USD1500.00 per month. So all in all, if a family to come over here to pursue their studies would require at least USD 3000 per month of expenses (not including the rental deposit). Can you imagine that?
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
First day
hamsa hamida - Terima kasih
chumma deyyo - sama2.
Itulah 2 patah perkataan yang kami pelajari dari Mr Lee (HI sys consultant).
Tempat yang kami pergi pada hari pertama di Korea ialah di sebuah syarikat (kami namakan syarikat B) lawan kepada Hi System (syarikat A) . Syarikat B ini adalah lebih besar dan telah lama bertapak di Korea. Founder syarikat A pun sebenarnya berasal dari sykt B tapi telah berpecah dan buka sykt sendiri iaitu sykt A dimana tempat kami training sekarang nie.
Sykt B adalah salah satu daripada player utama dalam pasaran peralatan training untuk pendidikan. Sykt B ni adalah no 1 di Korea dan yg Ke 2 terbesar di dunia dalam arena mereka. Sykt B ini dimiliki sebhgnnya oleh kerajaan Korea dan mereka adalah sangat stabil dari segi ekonomi.
Selepas melawat Sykt B, manager sykt tersebut bawak kami pergi lunch kat restoran jepun. Kami makan sushi dan beberapa masakan terkenal di Korea. Antara yang popular ialah sup yg nampak mcm asam pedas melaka tapi rasa dia memang berlainan la. Walaupun kekadang ragu dengan kebersihan dan kehalalan peralatan memasak serta sudu/garfu/chopstik, kami takde pilihan selain memakan apa yg ada asalkan takde daging.
Kitorang pun tak bagi tau yg kami melawat sykt B memandangkan mereka adalah seteru. jadi kami simpan perkara nie sebagai rahsia besar.
Selepas balik semula ke hotel, Mr Park sampai & dia bawa kami ke tempat penginapan menggunakan van syarikat.
chumma deyyo - sama2.
Itulah 2 patah perkataan yang kami pelajari dari Mr Lee (HI sys consultant).
Tempat yang kami pergi pada hari pertama di Korea ialah di sebuah syarikat (kami namakan syarikat B) lawan kepada Hi System (syarikat A) . Syarikat B ini adalah lebih besar dan telah lama bertapak di Korea. Founder syarikat A pun sebenarnya berasal dari sykt B tapi telah berpecah dan buka sykt sendiri iaitu sykt A dimana tempat kami training sekarang nie.
Sykt B adalah salah satu daripada player utama dalam pasaran peralatan training untuk pendidikan. Sykt B ni adalah no 1 di Korea dan yg Ke 2 terbesar di dunia dalam arena mereka. Sykt B ini dimiliki sebhgnnya oleh kerajaan Korea dan mereka adalah sangat stabil dari segi ekonomi.
Selepas melawat Sykt B, manager sykt tersebut bawak kami pergi lunch kat restoran jepun. Kami makan sushi dan beberapa masakan terkenal di Korea. Antara yang popular ialah sup yg nampak mcm asam pedas melaka tapi rasa dia memang berlainan la. Walaupun kekadang ragu dengan kebersihan dan kehalalan peralatan memasak serta sudu/garfu/chopstik, kami takde pilihan selain memakan apa yg ada asalkan takde daging.
Kitorang pun tak bagi tau yg kami melawat sykt B memandangkan mereka adalah seteru. jadi kami simpan perkara nie sebagai rahsia besar.
Selepas balik semula ke hotel, Mr Park sampai & dia bawa kami ke tempat penginapan menggunakan van syarikat.
Arrival at Incheon Airport, Seoul, Korea.
There will be 3 of us who are going to have the training at HI System. Myself, Amat and Safzuan Abdullah (son of Mejar Suhaimi). Going along with us are Mejar Suhaimi & Wife, Mr Rahim (siranco Malaysia) and wife. So altogether there are 7 people in our group.
Flight to Korea will take about 10 hours altogether including 1 hour transit at Kota Kinabalu. At KK, I walk around the hallway looking for a cup of coffee but frustratingly all the shops were closed. So I went back to the waiting room to get back into the aircraft.
Arriving at the Incheon airport, we had troubles with our luggage. 3 luggage were lost due to mishandling to a different flight (the bag took direct flight from KLIA to Incheon later time). Meanwhile I had problem myself because the bag's wheel is broken. So I file a complaint & they said that they will repay the damage for USD 60. The airport personnel promised us that the luggage will be delivered to our hotel & they actually did.
I was told that Korean people are very honest. They have a very low crime rate as compared to Malaysia. There's no need to worry about leaving your laptop inside your car eventhough it is visible through the window. They are very civilized. Throwing a cigarette's but everywhere is not their culture.
Flight to Korea will take about 10 hours altogether including 1 hour transit at Kota Kinabalu. At KK, I walk around the hallway looking for a cup of coffee but frustratingly all the shops were closed. So I went back to the waiting room to get back into the aircraft.
Arriving at the Incheon airport, we had troubles with our luggage. 3 luggage were lost due to mishandling to a different flight (the bag took direct flight from KLIA to Incheon later time). Meanwhile I had problem myself because the bag's wheel is broken. So I file a complaint & they said that they will repay the damage for USD 60. The airport personnel promised us that the luggage will be delivered to our hotel & they actually did.
I was told that Korean people are very honest. They have a very low crime rate as compared to Malaysia. There's no need to worry about leaving your laptop inside your car eventhough it is visible through the window. They are very civilized. Throwing a cigarette's but everywhere is not their culture.
Industrial Attachment - the beginning
Hi there,
This blog is intended to be used as my "logbook" to ease the final report submission for the industrial attachment at HI-System in Sungnam City, Korea. I thought that when the time comes, then I just have to copy from this blog & paste it on my report.
A day before going to Korea, I went back to my parents house in Rawang. On saturday morning, i went to the town to change my ringgit into KRW. So all in all I purchased 1.5 million Korean Won which cost me around RM5070. Then I went around the town area looking for some cloths and consumables to bring to Korea. Suddenly I saw another money changer which offered a lot cheaper rate, and to my frustration, I lost about RM 270 because of the price difference. So I went back to the previous changer and managed to change back my 1/3 of the overall value. That means i lost RM 180 instead of RM 270. What a waste.
The flight from Kuala Lumpur is scheduled at 9.15 pm. We (me, my wife and my parents) arrived 3 hours earlier to check in. We thought that we could have a bit of spicy & tasty rice for the last time before leaving but unluckily we don't have that opportunity. My Passport & Visa is with another friend who's going along with us(Amat & myself). Abdullah's dad collected the passport for us at the Korean Embassy. Thanks for that coz we don't have to go all the way to KL from Melaka just for that.
The sacrifice to make is to leave my 5 months pregnant wife alone in Malaysia. Nevertheless her sister will come to stay with her at home in Melaka. Hope that she will be doing fine.
A special thank you to those who had contributed in the process of making this a reality. Thanks to PM Rani, Dato' Prof. Dr Mohd Nor (our dean), our NC & TNC of UTeM, Pn Azizah Saban (pendaftar) & her team, Haidhir RS Multinetwork, Mejar Sahimi and the last but the most is HI-System Korea for their willingness to accept us and their hospitality.
This blog is intended to be used as my "logbook" to ease the final report submission for the industrial attachment at HI-System in Sungnam City, Korea. I thought that when the time comes, then I just have to copy from this blog & paste it on my report.
A day before going to Korea, I went back to my parents house in Rawang. On saturday morning, i went to the town to change my ringgit into KRW. So all in all I purchased 1.5 million Korean Won which cost me around RM5070. Then I went around the town area looking for some cloths and consumables to bring to Korea. Suddenly I saw another money changer which offered a lot cheaper rate, and to my frustration, I lost about RM 270 because of the price difference. So I went back to the previous changer and managed to change back my 1/3 of the overall value. That means i lost RM 180 instead of RM 270. What a waste.
The flight from Kuala Lumpur is scheduled at 9.15 pm. We (me, my wife and my parents) arrived 3 hours earlier to check in. We thought that we could have a bit of spicy & tasty rice for the last time before leaving but unluckily we don't have that opportunity. My Passport & Visa is with another friend who's going along with us(Amat & myself). Abdullah's dad collected the passport for us at the Korean Embassy. Thanks for that coz we don't have to go all the way to KL from Melaka just for that.
The sacrifice to make is to leave my 5 months pregnant wife alone in Malaysia. Nevertheless her sister will come to stay with her at home in Melaka. Hope that she will be doing fine.
A special thank you to those who had contributed in the process of making this a reality. Thanks to PM Rani, Dato' Prof. Dr Mohd Nor (our dean), our NC & TNC of UTeM, Pn Azizah Saban (pendaftar) & her team, Haidhir RS Multinetwork, Mejar Sahimi and the last but the most is HI-System Korea for their willingness to accept us and their hospitality.
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