A Conversation with Korea via Skype

By most accounts, Korea, along with the rest of East Asia, is considered a generation or so ahead of the U.S. in its technology. Everyone is connected. When you spot a friend across the street, the best way to get his attention is not to shout out, but rather to call him on his mobile. So, when I was asked to prepare for a web cam interview with Handong's Academic Affairs Committee, I anticipated that any technological deficiencies would be on my end of the Internet; not the other way around.

As I sat in front of my newly installed web cam at 11pm last night, though, it soon became evident that the versions of MSN Messenger, which my soon-to-be colleagues at Handong and I were attempting to use for the video call, were not communicating with one another. We could see each other with remarkable clarity, but alas, we had no audio connection. I suggested, by way of an instant text message, that we each download Skype and re-attempt our video call. To my surprise, my Korean colleague was not familiar with Skype, but in a mere matter of minutes, he had downloaded and installed the service.

Soon thereafter, my live video interview with three professors comprising the Academic Affairs Committee, commenced, and we enjoyed a delightful "face-to-face" conversation. I recounted my first meeting with Associate Dean Hee Eun Lee of Handong International Law School (HILS) along with Prof. Kuyper Lee at a conference in Washington, DC, in the fall of 2003. That meeting, in turn, led to my visiting professorship at HILS in the summer of 2004. The Committee members were also pleased to hear of my work with Prof. Sang Ki Lee and Handong students in Cambodia during my missions their in January of 2005 and again in 2008.

In addition to recounting my previous cross-cultural experiences abroad, I also shared briefly about my participating in the International MBA program at Fontbonne University where I've had the opportunity to teach students from Taiwan, Thailand, China, and Cambodia, as well as Korea, over the past four years. In ways that I would never have imagined no less than ten years ago, the Lord has been forming and preparing me for further service to the people of East Asia -- including, even now, introducing at least a few to the technological benefits of Skype.

The photo above was taken in the July of 2008 at the graduation ceremony for the International MBA students at Fontbonne.