The Korean Internet

Oh, the Korean internet... Sometimes I feel like I can use it pretty well, and sometimes I'm certain that it is out to get me. I (generally) don't have any trouble with the internet. I use a wide variety of online resources in my teaching, as well as all of the other social networking, blogging, and emailing that is part of my life. 

Generally, the internet in Korea is quite nice. It's quite fast (unless you're trying to load a YouTube movie, for some reason), it is readily available at any number of the ubiquitous coffee shops that are scattered around the city. I can use data on my phone even when I'm underground on the subway. These things are all quite lovely. But they aren't really the Korean internet. 

You see, the Korean internet (aside from being in Korean) requires the use of Internet Explorer. Most websites simply refuse to load in any other browser. Internet Explorer is not my friend. We haven't been friends for at least 6 years. I'm a pretty devoted user of Chrome, although I sometimes dabble with Opera. So I often get irrationally angry with Internet Explorer when I have to use the Korean internet. 

Then there is the security. Don't get me wrong, the security is good. For my online banking, I have the usual user name and password, but there is also a digital certificate that I have to download so I can only do banking on certain computers that are registered with my bank. I can check my account balance using just the username, password and digital certificate. But if I want to transfer money, it is a completely different issue. In addition to those three things, I have to go through a three step confirmation process, and I have to enter specific numbers off of this little plastic card they gave me. This basically means that I have to have my wallet with me at all times when I transfer money. And I have several extra cards making said wallet very bulky.

I'm taking over the internet contract for the apartment that I moved into. Supposedly, you can go to the internet provider's website and transfer the account online. The Korean man who previously lived here tried to get everything ready. He called customer service, and was told that it was no problem to transfer to a foreigner. The Korean internet has a lot to do with the national ID numbers that everyone has here. Some Korean websites won't let me even register because my ID number marks me as a foreigner. Some websites let you register, but there are problems with your name.

You see, Korean names are three syllables long. All of them. And in Korean, each syllable represents one "character" made up of different letters. Western names can have a lot of syllables. My name has eight syllables. It has 21 letters, which is each counted as a "character" in the web registration systems. I can't shorten my name, or leave out my middle name, or even use my initials, because my name and ID number must exactly match what the government has on file. So even though I could use my ID number on this website, my name was too long, but one letter. I've always liked the fact that my first name was spelled with an h. But it would have made life much simpler in Korea if I were Sara instead of Sarah ;) We tried for almost three hours to figure out how to transfer the internet contract to my name. Eventually, the Korean internet even defeated the Korean man, and we gave up. I have to go to an internet store later this week to try to sort it out. 

Last night, I was trying to schedule the appointment to extend my visa for another year. I had to register with two different websites, both of which caused problems. I was eventually able to figure everything out, and schedule my appointment, but it took me far longer than it should have. When I finished, I had a headache and went straight to bed. 

Granted, at least some of these problems are my own fault, because I'm not anywhere near fluent in Korean. I also don't entirely understand the concept of the Korean internet, which seems to be more filled with homepages (think geo cities) and blogs that are really paid advertisements... Perhaps if I did, I'd have less trouble with the Korean internet. 

Given all of this history, perhaps you will understand how scared I was when I was told that SSWU does a great deal of things through their online portal. That I'd be expected to upload student assignments to their special education portal, do all of my attendance and grade keeping online, assign and monitor online homework, upload and download documents from a central drive for all the English teachers, and use the professor's portal to communicate with my students. Especially since all of these websites are in Korean. 

I went into the office today, even though I don't actually have to be there until Friday, to try to figure out how all of this worked, and see if I could succeed at my job without losing my sanity. I am happy to report that things went very well. Not only was I able to create class profiles, print attendance sheets and student lists, upload my syllabus, send textbook information to students, and print my syllabi for the first day of classes, I was even able to help some of the other new teachers figure it out too! This was a most unexpected blessing of the day, because I really did expect to be frustrated and leave the office with a headache. 

I still don't understand the Korean internet. I still chafe under the forced Internet Explorer usage. But at least I can upload a syllabus!