South Korean people struggle to live with taste of Indonesia
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Though many foreigners find spicy Indonesian food tough to swallow, it is a different story for 28 year-old Korean woman Lisa Kang, who is a big fan of hot Padang and Manado cooking.
Lisa, who works as a store manager of the Orly Nail Art, a manicurist and fingernail-decorating franchise, in Plaza Indonesia's Entertainment Exchange building, said that her love of spicy food was one thing that made staying in Jakarta enjoyable.
"Koreans eat spicy food and I like Indonesian food because it is also spicy," she said.
The expatriate, who moved from Seoul to Jakarta a year ago, said that traffic jams in the city were nothing to complain about. "I am used to it, as we also have heavy traffic in South Korea too," she said.
Lisa says she finds it hard to socialize because of language difficulties but finds Indonesian easier to learn than English.
"I did not go to any language courses, I learned it from the Indonesian staff here and customers. You can talk about nails in Indonesian and I'll get almost everything. But, if you put me out in the crowd and expect me to talk to Indonesians, it will be much harder because of my vocabulary and the Indonesian slang," Lisa said as her cousin, William, nodded in agreement.
William Park, 33, who moved to Indonesia with Lisa, said that being the general manager of the business he had more responsibilities here, and his lack of knowledge about the business culture in Indonesia had caused him some problems.
"I have worked for Orly for nine years in Korea and since I grew up there, I know which people to avoid, how they work and how they think," he said.
In Indonesia, Orly cooperated with Pt Golden Mitratama who acts as the distributor for Orly product lines that are sold commercially in Indonesia.
He said that he had a few encounters with "bad" people, although he refused to detail specific incidents.
"I can only trust what my friends tell me about those people and learn from scratch," William said.
Unlike Jenny, William does not plan to spend many years in the city. Once he has established his goal of opening a nail art academy and a few Orly franchises he says he will probably return to Korea.
"Maybe what puts me off is the business culture and things might be different once I have handled these problems. On the other hand, I quite enjoy my lifestyle here. I can go to karaoke bars, play golf, go to restaurants and enjoy a few drinks with my friends," he said
William said it was wealthy Indonesians who spent the most money taking care of their fingernails.
According to their market research, the rich in Indonesia consumed a large amount of Orly products; the main reason why the Korean Orly franchise chose Indonesia to expand into.
"In Korea, our biggest market is the middle class, but here, it seems the upper class group is our target market," he said. (005)