Thursday, February 21, 2013

Know what I'm Saying, Korea

Now I've never been one of those innovative people who invent or reinvent things and stuff in the material world. I like playing with words a lot more. I merely take new things and apply them to my life to make them easier or more enjoyable. Now living in Korea, where coin rollers don't exist, I could make a little bit of dough on the side, which is illegal according to my contract. I love this job too much to risk this, especially because this idea will take off like rocket. So for the motivated get rich quick guy or girl, here's a way to spend your time off of Craig's List.

First I'll give you a little story about how I thought of my idea.

Every month or so all the specialist teachers go out for dinner or coffee. This month we went out to a modern Korean restaurant. It's modern because there were chairs. The food is the exact same, side dishes galore, some soup, rice, veggies, seafood and possibly some red meat. Really tasty, pretty inexpensive, overall its good food. My meal comes with some side dishes: some are good, like fried fish in a sweet sauce, some are weird, like uncooked beans in a sauce, and some are overdone, kim chi. Typically there are about 8-12 dishes and sometimes more depending on the locale. It doesn't work like a Western meal where everybody passes each dish around and you take what you want onto a plate. This is because usually your "plate" is a pair of chopsticks. It makes life really difficult when you're favourite side dish is on the other side of the table next to a person who's also hungry. Reaching over is a little bit of a stretch and I'd feel like a jerk if I jabbed someone with an elbow, and feel completely embarrassed if I dropped food in another side dish. And when you're sitting down on the floor its even harder to reach for stuff. This is why I propose that Korea should get a lazy Susan for every home.

This seems like a real no brainer but at the same time, I can see why they would oppose such a revelation.
a) It's not a Korean invention. There's a lot of pride in Samsung, Hyundai and LG products here, nothing made in Korea is considered a joke, unlike the American Car.
b) I have yet to see a circular or rounded table apart from fancy buffet tables I saw in my first week. The circular centerpiece on a square table probably doesn't appeal to the eye. Its' basic shape Fung Shui.

For these two anticipated complaints I offer one solution.
Make some square lazy Susans. It's almost like reinventing the wheel, but going backwards too. Either way, Korean pride is maintained as is the square table, avoiding probably the biggest furniture fire ever. So start spinning those squares Koreans.

No comments:

Post a Comment