After reading these articles on Taiwanese prestigious business magazine-天下, I found that these kind of professional journalists do not know Korea more than I expect. Further, in these reports they evidently focus on the negative sides of Korean society, such as: competitiveness, overpressure, rocket soared living cost, seeking to be number one, social conflict, realism,... That is right, there is no doubt that these are real problems current Korean society faces. However, this is not all about Korea. The journalists would rather to observe and depict those they want. In my view, this is only compensation for their mind, or for Taiwanese as Korea has defeated us in many fields. To the reporters, working hard in Taiwan is deemed "diligent", while in Korea is "stressful". Don't they know Taiwan is also ranked one of the most stressful country in the world? If it is put this way: "There is a country in Asia, competitive, overworked, living cost has been risen, social conflict exacerbated, people becoming realistic..." Is this Taiwan or Korea?
From 2012, the basic salary in Taiwan has been raised to $18,780 NTD with merely $900 NTD increase. A good news seemingly. But it turns out that this is just the fourth time rise since 15 years ago. The government claimed that this is the highest increased amount compared with previous time. How pathetic! In that case, that means it takes every 3 years that Taiwanese labors can earn hundreds of Taiwanese dollars more than before. Nowadays the basic salary for Korean labor is around $23,500 NTD.(台灣基本工資低韓國2成) With this speed, then it would probably need another 15 years that Taiwan can catch up Korea, and Korea must cannot raise their salary within this period. Not to mention the wider gap of average salary...
In terms of Korean culture, the Korea government has put a lot of efforts on promoting to the world. Personally I am not a fan of Korean food and K-pop. To me, the balls on the hat tie of Korean oldtime soldier look funny; Korean palace is small and boring, way below than Chinese palace and Japanese castle. I know none of Korean stars. But Korean does have the confidence to be proud of themselves, and show the world, which is why their culture can prosper and enchant everyone.
In brief, you can choose not to like Korea, but cannot neglect it.
看完天下雜誌的這系列四小龍文章報導後，我發現這些所謂專業記者報導的韓國並不如我預期深入。在這些文章裡，他們很明顯的聚焦在關於韓國負面的報導上，例如：競爭、壓力過大、高漲的生活成本、好勝心、社會衝突、現實...。沒錯，這些毫無疑問是韓國社會目前所面臨的問題。然而，這並不是全部的韓國。這些記者寧願記錄他們想看到的部份，在我看來，這只是對於他們心理的補償，或者應該說是對台灣人，畢竟韓國在許多方面都擊敗了我們。對於這些記者來說，努力工作在台灣叫「勤奮」；在韓國就變成「壓力過大」。他們難道不知道台灣同時也是世界上壓力最大的國家之一嗎？如果把報導換成：「在亞洲有一個國家，社會競爭激烈、每人工時過長、物價指數上漲、社會貧富衝突日益擴大、人心趨於現實...」請問這是指台灣還是韓國？
從2012年開始，台灣的基本薪資調漲至18,780台幣，只漲了九百元。表面上看起來是個好消息，但這只是自15年前以來的第四次調漲，政府還表示這已是調漲以來最高的幅度。多麼悲哀啊！這麼說的話，代表每三年，台灣勞工才能賺比以前多幾百塊。目前韓國的基本薪資是23,500台幣。照這種速度的話，也就表示台灣的基本薪資或許需要再15年才可以趕上韓國，而且期間韓國必須不可以調漲才行。更別提差異更大的平均薪資了。
至於韓國文化，韓國政府花了很多心思來推廣到全世界。但個人並不是韓國飲食或流行的愛好者。對我來說，韓國古代士兵帽帶上的珠珠看起來很滑稽；韓國宮殿又小又沒可看性，遠不如中國皇宮跟日本城堡。韓國明星我一個也不認識。但韓國人就是有這個自信，以他們的文化為榮，展示給全世界看。這也是為什麼他們的文化在今日得以流行並吸引大家。
最後，韓國在今日已是一個競爭激烈的社會，不僅學生被數以千計的考試所折磨；員工也想盡辦法要找更好的工作。父母花了大把金錢跟時間關心小孩；勞工們總是早出晚歸，台灣不也是如此嗎？差異只在於韓國人可以得到更富裕的生活；而台灣人卻只能為區區五斗米折腰。除此之外，也有越來越多的人在工作之餘，開始學習第二技能如外語。他們如此努力要成功。然而在社會發展的過程中，自殺率年年升高，同時也有許多衍生問題在韓國社會中產生。而三星、樂金、現代...等巨大怪獸也成為韓國的致命炸彈。這些大公司是如此強大，甚至可以在瞬時間控制整個國家。但如果有一天他們倒了，那麼韓國將會變成怎麼樣？儘管如此，韓國今日的成功也是因為這些擁有政府全力支持的大公司，或許，韓國人還沒準備好那一天的來臨吧。
總之，你可以不喜歡韓國，但不可以忽視它。
P.S. 看到天下雜誌稱韓國中年婦女為「歐巴桑」就覺得實在很沒有sense，歐巴桑這詞乃是日本傳過來的，而韓語本身就已經有特定的名稱來稱呼韓國中年婦女－「阿珠抹哩」或「阿珠媽」，她們可說是撐起韓國半邊天的偉大族群。在台灣用日語稱韓國的中年婦女；那還倒不如用韓語直接稱呼。
when I searched one of the reported person in the articles, I found this:
每天早起一小時，未來贏人一大步
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