Barbara TS#3

Dojun and I talked about a number of different topics to include the fact that his company has hired a temporary worker to handle getting hard copy aviation related manuals to offices.   This person will also make electronic copies. This job is important because it helps the other company employees maintain updated information.  We also talked about government in Korea and how he believes that the economy is not that good at the present time. One of the major issues is salary, particularly for younger people who are interested in finding ways to get salary increases.  He mentioned the news and I asked him how he got his news and what news agencies are prevalent in S. Korea.  He said that he gets his news on his smart phone and that it is primarily TV news.  There are 3 major broadcast companies in S. Korea. I asked if there are still hard copy newspapers and he replied that while there are the trend is away from this format.  Dojun did say that his parents use the paper format.  We talked about how this method is very similar to the US and that hard copy newspapers contain some news and a lot of ads. Our discussion turned to movies and he told me that August 15 was Independence Day in S. Korea and there is a movie called “The Spy.”  In this film, the spy is a secret agent who helped secure Korea’s independence from Japan 70 years ago in 1945.  Interestingly enough, our conversation then turned to some of the aftereffects of war.  According to Dojun there is a statue in Seoul (I think) that honors some women who were taken as sex slaves by the Japanese army.  Some of these women still survive and there is controversy because they want to the Japanese government to apologize.  The Japanese government, on the other hand, maintains that these events never happened and want the statue removed.  The new president, Mr. Moon, has agreed to leave the statue as a testimony to the women.  We discussed the impact of war and how this type of sexual slavery is frequently a byproduct of invasion.  I believe that I am doing better at listening to Dojun and giving him time to think and speak rather than interrupting him.  Following the frequency over accuracy approach works here because he does know a lot of English and expresses himself well.