Barbara TS#4

Our conversation started out with Dojun telling me that he was planning to take his mother to Osaka, Japan soon.  Part of the reason is to eat Kobe beef at some of the local restaurants.  She will enjoy the trip because she hasn’t been to Osaka in around 8 years.  He then asked me if I had heard of the company, CISCO.  He always has some humorous comment to make and in this case, it was that his company did not realize there was a S. Korean branch of CISCO and so asked the reps a lot of questions.  When the reps said they were in S. Korea, it was funny because his company realized how large CISCO is. We then talked about how his company had contracted with CISCO to make sure that all of their computers, documents, ipads, and so forth are secure. Going back to our previous discussion about hard copies of the manuals, CISCO will also ensure that everything is done electronically which will put the temporary worked mentioned in the previous post out of a job.  Dojun thought that this result was too bad and hoped that the employee could remain in another job. Our conversation around cyber security led to a discussion about hacking and the problems with it worldwide.  Dojun’s example was about how the largest bank in S. Korea was hacked and that credit cards were also affected.  When I stated that recently one of my cards was used improperly, Dojun related a story about how his card was hacked and his interaction with his credit card company was less than satisfactory.  The customer service rep was rude and unsympathetic which led Dojun to respond in less than a friendly manner and ask for another rep.  Dojun then said that his credit card rep was a bit older which segued the conversation to age and the traditional culture in S. Korea which is still prevalent in that younger people are required to treat older people with respect. Dojun seemed to think that this level of respect creates a generation gap.  The new president, Mr. Moon, was elected by the younger votes because he promised to help create jobs for this age group. Dojun basically thinks that the governmental employment system needs to change and open up to more people from different economic backgrounds. Our conversation then switched back to the credit card situation where he found another rep who was courteous and able to help him.  We laughed because these circumstances are found in all countries and are very irritating to have to deal with.  He asked the same question that I did which was “how did this happen in the first place?  Where was the security?”  We also had a conversation about reading English. I asked him if he read at all since he listens to the English radio and watches movies.  He said that he didn’t because of his job and time commitments.  I told him that we had a reading lesson in class and I was wondering if he was doing any now.