Young suh Lim
November 17th,
2014
Professor
Michal Eskayo
Lim Family Revival
On
December third 1997, Korea had a serious economic crisis. Many Korean people
got fired and a lot of corporations went bankrupt because the Korean government
owed a lot of foreign debts that they had borrowed from other countries to
develop the Korean economy. However, the Korean government did
not know how to handle the foreign debts. Thus, many people
were negatively affected. This crisis is called the I.M.F crisis. Of course,
my family was influenced by the I.M.F crisis. My father got fired from his
company. Furthermore, half of my relatives got fired as well. Unbeknownst to us
at that time, the I.M.F crisis became an opportunity to improve the Lim family’s.
The
first way that the I.M.F influenced my family was that my father lost his job
and stability. My father used to work at a Medical Corporation as a sales team
leader and he earned a reasonable salary from his work. However, the company that my father worked for was suddenly
affected by the I.M.F crisis, so my father got fired. At the same time, my father got
conned by one of his best friends. He convinced my father to invest in his
company, but After my father invested, my father’s best friend ran away with
the investment. After my father was swindled, we sold our house and we
moved to Incheon from Seoul Korea with a lot of debt. Incheon was a poor town
in Korea back in those days. All I could see around my house was farmland and
animals, such as cows, pigs and chickens. At that time, I did not realize why
we moved to Incheon, and I kept complaining to my parents to go back to Seoul.
At
the same time, my father had tried to find a job, but nobody hired him due to
the I.M.F crisis. All the big companies avoided hiring people. My mother,
however, worked for a government officer. Government officers were never fired
in Korea as long as they did not do illegal things. Therefore, My father tried
to take the public officer test, but the government stopped hiring people at
that time as well. As a result, my dad was very frustrated. I recently asked
him how he felt at that time and he answered that he thought that he was going to commit suicide.
Fortunately, one of my mother’s relatives worked at Honeywell Korea, which is
an international business corporation. One of our relatives thankfully offered a
job to my father selling heating and cooling machinery. He luckily got the job.
From the moment, my father started working at Honeywell, and my family became
stable.
Finally,
the most unexpected effect was that my father planned to open his own business,
which was a partnership with Honeywell. Even though Korea was still going through economic
circumstances, he kept preparing his business. My mother and sister were really
concerned about opening the new business, but he ignored their concerns. My
father called his brothers who got fired from their workplace to offer them jobs
at my father’s company. Many of my relatives joined my father’s company. Unexpectedly,
my father’s company started grown rapidly. He started by repairing Honeywell
products. Moreover, my father knew how to do commerce. Therefore, he traded
Korean products to Indonesia, China and India. Furthermore, he even attempted
to make the company’s own gas burner. Since my father stated gas burner
business, the business has been doing well.
The I.M.F crisis has remained a negative memory
for all Koreans who went through that crisis. However, the story I heard from
my father makes me think the I.M.F crisis was a chance to change and improve
our family’s standard of living. Even though my family had challenges and betrayal,
it was the significant step for my father and rest of my family. Furthermore,
one thing impressed me about this crisis. When I was talking to him, my father
said, “I had to do my best. Even If I was hungry, I did not want my family to
feel hungry and poor”. Due to his perseverance, the Lim family now has an enjoyable
life because of my father.
No comments:
Post a Comment