Lifestyle - The Korea Times

Korea Times, HUFS to hold essay contest

Korea Times President-Publisher Lee Chang-sup, right, shakes hands with Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) President Kim In-chul after signing a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in English education at the daily’s newsroom in central Seoul, Tuesday. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-sukBy Chung Hyun-chaeThe Korea Times and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) will hold an annual English essay contest for elementary, middle and high school students in November.“Our contest will be different from other essay contests as English professors at HUFS will correct all contestants’ essays and will send evaluation grade reports to each student,” said Korea Times President-Publisher Lee Chang-sup.The university and the English newspaper company will work together to select topics for the essay contest and English professors at HUFS will evaluate and score the essays.The university’s Foreign Language Examination Center will be in charge of promoting the event.“We will also work on developing learning materials related to the contest,&r

Jan 19, 2016

Scholar's funeral

A funeral procession with a picture of the late Sungkonghoe University professor Shin Young-bok, heads for a crematorium after his funeral service at the school in Seoul, Monday. The scholar, who was famous for his book, “Meditation from Prison,” died of cancer, Friday, at the age of 75. / Yonhap

Jan 18, 2016

Merck Korea CEO stresses 'shared value'

Merck Korea CEO Michael Grund talks about his philosophy of corporate social responsibility activities in Korea and how the firm uses CSR to create common value with its Korean partner companies during a recent meeting in this file photo. / Korea Times fileBy Kim Yoo-chulKorea is home to two technology powerhouses ― Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics ― and the country has long been regarded as the place for next business opportunities by foreign firms especially those who have specialty in industrial materials.As both Samsung and LG identified OLED, which stands for organic light-emitting diode, as their next revenue streams beyond conventional LCD displays, Merck emerged as one of the companies to benefit most by a strategy shift by the Korean tech giants.Given its firm position to manage advanced materials as all of which will be OLED applications ― OLEDs are used in TVs and smartphones; however, they will be used in vehicles and flexible devices because they don’t need to have backlight ― Merck believes Korea is a huge market.But Merck

Jan 18, 2016

Beauty content creators eye China

Multi Channel Network (MCN) Leferi Beauty Entertainment CEO Choi In-seok, left, and managing directorLee Dong-hoo look at a computer monitor in their office, southern Seoul, Wednesday.Courtesy of Leferi Beauty EntertainmentBy Jhoo Dong-chanChoi In-seok, 28, CEO of Multi Channel Network (MCN) Leferi Beauty Entertainment, has expanded its business to China, alongside managing director ― and his friend ― Lee Dong-hoo.MCN Leferi Beauty Entertainment is an agency that has contracts with 70 Youtube content creators in Korea to investigate women’s beauty needs. Like other entertainment management agencies in Korea, the company provides a set of training programs for those who want to be media creators in the beauty field.Leferi offers exclusive contracts with beauty content creators who complete its training program and helps them make their debut on Internet media. The company’s most popular creator Daddoa has also completed the company’s training program and now has more than 400,000 subscribers on Youtube, 250,000 in China. Due to Leferi’s beauty co

Jan 15, 2016

Korea, Japan vie for Vietnam's infrastructure projects

By Choi Sung-jinKorea and Japan are fiercely competing to carve out a larger share of the rapidly enlarging construction market in Vietnam, business sources said Friday. The Vietnamese government plans to build up the country’s poor social infrastructure with airports, railways and subways, and it is estimated to spend more than 30 trillion won ($24.8 billion) doing it. The Japanese builders’ main advantages are abundant funds and accumulated know-how while their Korean competitors’ strengths are their experience of rising from a developing to a developed country and superior information technology, sources said. The central and provincial administrations in the Southeast Asian country are going all out to build roads and expressways, thinking that the lack of social infrastructure is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to brisk economic development, they said. In 2014, motorcycles accounted for 81.4 percent of all means of transport in Ho Chi Minh City, remaining almost unchanged from the 81.8 percent of 2004. Bus transportation and other means

Jan 15, 2016

Startup seeks O2O leadership in food delivery

Lim Eun-seon, CEO of food delivery startup Fly & Company, speaks about the company’s online-to-offline (O2O) delivery platform FoodFly, in an interview at its headquarters in southern Seoul, Wednesday. / Courtesy of Fly & CompanyBy Lee Min-hyungLim Eun-seon, 33, CEO of food delivery startup Fly & Company, sought to start something “on his own” before quitting his consulting career.“A consultant helps other’s business prosper, and there was no chance to take actions for myself,” Lim said in an interview, Wednesday. “That is why I shifted my career into running a startup.”FoodFly, the company’s online-to-offline (O2O) food delivery platform, is gaining traction here, with more than 1,000 restaurants and cafes forming alliances across Seoul. The company has attracted investments of some 6.5 billion won ($5.36 million) since opening for business in 2012.“The invested capital is used to expand our services across the nation,” he said. “Currently, we are operating in some 12 districts of the natio

Jan 14, 2016

Startup seeks O2O leadership in food delivery

Psy awarded highest honor at CICI Korea 2016

Psy, left, speaks after receiving the Stepping Stone Award at a Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI) ceremony at the Coex Hotel InterContinental, southern Seoul, Tuesday. Next to Psy is Choi Jung-hwa, head of CICI./ Korea Times photo by Kim Jae-heunBy Kim Jae-heunThe Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI), headed by Prof. Choi Jung-hwa, held its annual award ceremony “CICI Korea 2016” yesterday at the Coex Hotel InterContinental, southern Seoul, to recognize people who contributed to promoting Korea’s culture abroad over the last year.The ceremony invited some 700 international and local opinion leaders, including former Prime Minister Han Seung-soo, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Kim Jong-deok and Na Kyung-won, chairwoman of the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee.U.S. Ambassador to Korea Mark W. Lippert gave welcoming remarks on behalf of fifty ambassadors at the event to congratulate the awardees of the day.K-pop idol Psy won the highest honor, the Stepping Stone Award, for promoting the “creativity of hallyu.&rdqu

Jan 12, 2016

Russian sports manager strives for PyeongChang success

Nikolay Belokrinkin, the sports manager in charge of Alpine Skiing for the PyeongChang Olympics organizing committee, is seen in this photo taken during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games./ Courtesy of PyeongChang Olympics organizing committeeBy Nam Hyun-wooNikolay Belokrinkin, 32, is a Russian sports manager in charge of alpine skiing for the 2018 PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG) and one of the most ardent supporters working for the success of the upcoming Winter Games.Since March last year, Belokrinkin has been in Pyeongchang and Jeongseon in Gangwon Province ― isolated counties he would probably never have visited if it weren’t for the Olympics ― to provide his knowledge and expertise in holding and operating alpine competitions for Korean officials, who have less experience in holding international-level skiing events.Among the sports managers for the POCOG, Belokrinkin is arguably the busiest, in preparation for the International Ski Federation (FIS) men’s downhill and super-G events which will take place

Jan 12, 2016

Russian sports manager strives for PyeongChang success

KTO to bolster MICE industry

Shim Hay-ryun, director of KTO Singapore OfficeBy Kim Jae-kyoungSINGAPORE ― Korea should shift the focus of growth in tourism to “quality” from “quantity” to develop it into a more value-added industry, according to a senior official of the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO).To that end, she said that the KTO plans to put more efforts on developing the country into a major destination of MICE (meetings, incentive travel, conventions and exhibitions) in Asia.“Korea has enjoyed substantial growth in terms of the number of inbound tourists. Now is the time to focus on quality growth by fostering the MICE industry,” Shim Hay-ryun, director of the KTO Singapore Office, said in a recent interview in Singapore.“Business event travelers spend twice as much as general tourists. This means that MICE events will not only offer quality tours for foreigners but also bring more economic benefits to the country.”The Singapore office recently succeeded in securing a large-scale incentive tour event from Herbalife International.With a sales network i

Jan 11, 2016

Korean male nurse hired in Saudi Arabia

Park Byung-woo, second from left, visits two officials at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with Jun Lee, left, CEO of KOSAnet, a job agency working with the Human Resources Development Service of Korea, on Dec. 30. /  Courtesy of Park Byung-wooBy Kim Se-jeongPark Byung-woo, 27, has become the first Korean male nurse at King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC), a government-funded general hospital in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.He is also one of the first-ever male nurses in the country, which previously did not allow male nurses in hospitals for religious reasons. But it recently opened its doors to men in the intensive care units, and KAMC is the first hospital to do so.Arriving at the medical center on Christmas Day, Park is currently attending an orientation session at the hospital.“People here are nice to Koreans and want more Korean medical staff,” Park said in an e-mail interview with The Korea Times. He will be working in the intensive care unit once the orientation is completed.Park joins male colleagues from all over the world. &ld

Jan 8, 2016

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