About 15 impressive Rotarians congregated in the hallowed Dorsey conference room and gazed out on a bleak and foggy view of the Mississippi River. The Wednesday Fellowship meeting was chaired by Beth Grosen, who reminded us of the Holiday Party on December 6, and who asked us to introduce ourselves by sharing what book we are reading. Surprisingly, there were no duplicates.
A member of the University Rotary Club introduced Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar Youngbok Ryu, who gave us a talk and power point presentation on his home country of Korea. He is from Bussem and got his undergrad degree in engineering from the University of Korea. Then, he spent two years in the military, worked two years at a patent office and went back to school to get a degree in economics. He is now at the U of M (Go Gophers!) Humphrey Institute working on his masters degree in science technology and environmental policy. Youngbok has a three-year-old child with him.
He then showed a visual presentation about Korea and the following points: (1) An overview of Korea, which is a peninsula lying between Japan and China. It has a population of 49 million with about one third living in Seoul. (2) The economy is the fourth largest economy in Asia and tenth in the world in GDP, a substantial increase from the 1970s. In the world, it is the sixth biggest auto producer, fifth largest steel producer and has a 44% market share in ship building. Forty-one percent of the workers in Korea have higher education degrees. In patent filings, Japan is number 1 in the world, the USA is number two and Korea, number three. (3) Korea is totally reliant on imports for energy consumption. (4) In an overview of culture, Youngbok stated many of the traditional dishes are fermented. Houses are going from oriental traditional to apartment style buildings. In the 2008 Olympics, Korea was seventh in overall medal awards.
