A social meeting for serious expats
Published: 30 Nov. 2009, 21:22
Hwang Ju-myung, managing partner of the law firm Hwang Mok Park, P.C., founded the HMP dinner four years ago as a social gathering for expats working in Korea. Here, he talks with a group of guests at an event at The Taj in Myeongdong, central Seoul, last Thursday. By Choi Seung-shik
It was Thanksgiving Day and it appeared to be just another gathering in celebration of the holiday, but the credentials of those assembled revealed that this was no ordinary bunch.
There were a slew of foreign businesspeople from multinational companies in Korea, people from foreign embassies and people who work with Korean government agencies. A number of foreign journalists based in Seoul were also present, including Andrew Salmon, correspondent for The Washington Times, Kurt Achin, correspondent for Voice of America, and Evan Ramstad, correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.
It sounds like a serious meeting, but in fact it was quite the opposite. Affectionately known as the “HMP dinner,” the event is part of a series of regular social get-togethers for this influential group of expats in Korea.
The gathering gets its name from Hwang Mok Park, P.C., a Korean law firm here. It was started about four years ago by Hwang Ju-myung, a managing partner at the law firm. One day, Hwang invited several of his expat acquaintances to join him for dinner, and the event grew from there. The group of people at the initial gathering started bringing friends to subsequent dinners, and the event became a regular affair with meetings on the last Friday of every month. It has since developed into a social club with 70-80 members, who call themselves the “Friends of Hwang Mok Park.”
These days, the monthly gathering is akin to a seasonal get-together with just three or four events a year, but the “everyone knows everybody” atmosphere often found at alumni reunions was pervasive at the most recent meeting last Thursday night.
“It is not a meeting with a specific purpose, theme or guest speakers. It’s a casual, social get-together where people can chat and catch up with each other,” said Hwang.
That cordial atmosphere seems to be the main draw for the expats who attend the event, many of whom may not have opportunities to socialize with other expats outside of work, Hwang observed.
“The HMP dinner was the first social gathering I attended just a few days after I arrived in Korea in 2006,” recalled Ramstad, the Wall Street Journal correspondent. “There are not actually many occasions for people like me in Korea to meet and mingle with others and I thank Mr. Hwang for the [HMP dinner].”
In keeping with the spirit of the evening, Ramstad had invited a friend who had just arrived in Seoul.
Although Hwang characterizes the dinner as a social gathering - and many attendees agreed with him, saying that they had come to the event to talk with old friends and meet new ones - the dinner also seems to be a venue for people working in various fields to exchange information about their work and do a little networking.
Stephen Revere, who came to Korea from Michigan in 1995 as an English teacher and is currently involved in publishing 10 Magazine, said that through the gathering he had received some advice on starting his own business from Nowak Joachim, a German attorney-at-law who is currently a legal consultant for HMP.
Like Revere, many of the expats who attend the event have lived here for years and have a vested interest in the country’s future. For many of them, the gathering also provides a forum for them to discuss the major political and social issues affecting Korea and their professional lives.
Jacco Zwetsloot is one of the expats who has had a long-term relationship with Korea. An Australian-Dutch citizen, Zwetsloot first came to Korea in 1996 as an English teacher and currently works as director of the Korean branch of R Global Net, an international training company headquartered in Singapore.
He shared his views on education and the inter-Korean relationship.
“I think the focus on education in Korea that says that everybody must go to university is understandable considering the country’s aspiration to develop, but it is unfortunate,” Zwetsloot said.
“In many countries around the world, like Europe, America and Australia, people who don’t go to university can still have a good job and make good money. But in Korea, it’s like everybody must spend years and a lot of money on some university just to get a very simple job. I think it’s unnecessary and unfortunate,” he said.
Zwetsloot, who gave himself the Korean name Nam Jae-gu, left Korea for a while to go home to Australia, but came back again five years ago with a very clear reason for his return.
“I came back because I wanted to be here for the future Korean unification. I think that one day Kim Jong-il will die and North Korea will change .?.?. I think that no real change can happen in North Korea until he is gone,” he said. “I’d like to be here when that day happens - it will be like the Berlin Wall opening 20 years ago, a very big, historic moment.”
By Park Sun-young [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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