It still amazes me how much things have grown from what I thought this site would be.  I’m still less than a year into writing and only thought that people in the United States, the Republic of Korea and maybe Canada would ever read what I wrote.  But as the map shows, people all over the world read what I have to write about.  This really shows how much people want to know more about Korean and Korean culture from a non Korean perspective.  It also shows that the world’s eye is truly on South Korea.  With that being said, there are some things that Korean people may not understand that will make a person or a business look really bad or to lose money in the global economy.

Take for example a document I was recently shown.  It was telling businesses about the customers they want and the ones they want to avoid.  The customers that they want to avoid were referred to as “Black Customers.”  While some would look at that as saying that black means negative, hence why negative customers are referred to this way, others would take this to mean that Black people are bad customers who do not deserve good treatment.  Another example is one of a burger chain in Korea that wanted to celebrate what was describe as a National Burger Week.  They wanted to come up with a name to call the cheapest burger they were going to sell, so they called it “the projects.”  If you grew up in the United States, you may find this title for a burger to be offensive and racist.

In both cases, the owners of each company may not have meant to be seen as racist by other people.  After all, the point of business is to make money and to drive in customers, not to drive them away.  But clearly, these items were not checked and it wasn’t explained to people how horrible these items sound to other people.  In international business, things like this can cost a company a lot of money.  In a worse case scenario, it could make a company go out of business.  It’s also clear that some Koreans have been taught that it’s okay to be racist towards others.  To avoid these pitfalls of misinformation, someone has to teach people the truth about why they should avoid certain words and actions.

That is why I am starting my own consulting company to help reach out to Korean people who want to do things on a international level, or who want to cater their business to international customers who visit or live in Korea.  Or if you want more information about Korean or Korean American customers than what I provide on this website, than I may be able to help you as well.  How much will I charge to help people?  Each case is different, so you cannot set a fixed price on how much consulting a person needs.  Everything will be based on the needs of the customer.  And payments will only be done via PayPal.  If you have need for a consultant for a current or future business project, you can email me at contact@waygookinway.com for more details.  I hope to be able to help you with your business goals so that you can be successful in the future.