The Korea Herald: Regina Walton's Expat interviews: Dorothy Nam: radio host, teacher, CEO

Okay, it's officially on.

My first interview for the Korea Herald's new Expat Living section was printed this past Thursday. I've got two more in the pipeline that I need to write and, hopefully, one more interview to do before I take off for vacation in a week.

I had a chance to interview, Dorothy Nam. I've known her for years. I figured it would be a good way to ease into the process. Plus, she's a media personality and could give me some tips as she wrote a similar column for the Korea Times a couple of years ago.

The article will only be on the Korea Herald site for a limited amount of time, but I can repost my articles on my blog. However, check the section out. It's got tons of interesting folks writing for it including my friends, Joe McPherson of ZenKimchi and Michael Hurt, the Metropolitician, who was accidentally outed as FeetManSeoul a few weeks ago by the AP feature he was in. There are also other K-Bloggers like Robert Koheler who runs The Marmot's Hole, which I think is probably the most popular K-blog out there. There are other K-Bloggers like EFL Geek and the Gypsy Scholar. I can't remember everyone writing for the section and I've only met some of them once. However, I think it's got something to offer for anyone interested in Korea from a foreign perspective whether you live here or abroad.

Anyway, here is my first article for them.

Regina Walton`s Expat interviews Dorothy Nam: radio host, teacher, CEO

"One thing you notice when you speak to Dorothy Nam is her outgoing personality. Her character is further emphasized by a cheerful disposition and broad smile, which makes her a pleasure to have a conversation with. Dorothy has been in the Korean broadcasting scene for years. Moving to Korea in 1996, she has spent a substantial amount of time finding her place in Korean society. As someone who was raised in the United States since she was 3-years-old, she has managed to integrate back into Korean society and do it with a lot of success.

Her most recent project is the "Evening Groove," which airs on Arirang Radio daily from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. The show deals with what`s hot in general, touching on what`s happening in food, culture, customs and various trendy spots in Korea. She has quite a few interesting co-hosts on the show, too. Her co-hosts range from a Berklee School of Music graduate to a popular comedian from the "Gag Concert" TV show.

Dorothy is a hard working celebrity and has many projects on the go. Her newest is a radio show set to begin on Jan. 14 called "Seoul of Asia." It will air on the Traffic Broadcasting System, Monday through Friday from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. The show`s focus will be on entertaining and informing the foreign population. It will have music and information about events in Korea. Listeners will be able to tune in to the show using digital radio.

When she first arrived in Korea she taught in Daejeon at Woo Song University. It was while working there that she was encouraged to audition for a television show on the Educational Broadcasting System. Years later, when I met her, she was working at EBS while simultaneously teaching English courses at Hongik University in Seoul. As the years have passed, her activities have gotten more impressive. She is now affiliated with Paik Studios, the group that manages media relations for Korean artist Paik Nam-june`s works. She is also CEO of her own media company, Dorothy Inc.

Both her length of time here and success make Dorothy a great source of information on how to hit the ground running when you move to Korea as an expatriate. Because of her professional success, she can offer up some great advice to foreigners living in Korea and Kyopos. She smiled and immediately outlined her advice. "There are three things, basically."

First, master cultural niceties: Learn the greetings and how to say goodbye, when to stand or bow, and how to say "thank you" in Korean. Also, she said "learn to like the food because a lot of the social things happen with food here."

Most importantly, show respect to people older than you or to people who have been in your profession longer than you. The senior-junior social hierarchy is everywhere in Korean society. It`s essential to recognize that social balance is important, even if you might not agree with it. Therefore, show the respect due to someone who would be considered your "senior."

"The faster you do that, the faster you`ll blend in. The longer you hold out, the longer you`ll be kept away from your goal.""

The Adobe Acrobat file of the page (the link is long gone, but this is better anyway):

kh01172008 - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: kh01172008

Yes, that's my name up there, but Joe McPherson, ZenKimchi, outed me in this post months ago. (Yeah, that's right, I didn't mention that interview on my blog.)

Oh!!! Living up to his nickname, the EFL Geek has a work around for direct linking Korea Herald articles.. I'm not using Firefox however but I will be getting a speedier computer when I get back from vacation. I'll master it then and update these Korea Herald posts then.

Thanks Geek ;)

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