and flew to Jakarta right after finishing his military service. At that time, the Southeast Asian country was beginning to emerge as a promising destination for investment with its abundant natural resources and labor force. As soon as he arrived in Indonesia, Lee aggressively mingled with locals and mastered survival Indonesian in a couple of months. Then he got himself admitted to a local university and held part-time jobs to pay for tuition. He also made more contacts with locals through his part-time work as an interpreter. Upon graduation from university, he was offered jobs by many Korean companies. But he decided to start his own business of providing market research service to Korean companies that want to open business in Indonesia. His business thrived after experiencing ups and downs. As his business expanded, he went to a local law school at the age of 42 and became a lawyer. “No” is practically absent in his vocabulary. Whatever the client`s request is, his answer is always positive like “We will try anyhow” as long as the job is not illegal. He accepts no advance fee before his client`s business gets on track. He makes it a rule to get paid only when his client is completely satisfied with the result. In a foreign country he stood up on his own two feet with honesty, credit and hard working. While traveling overseas, you sometimes bump into Koreans with unexpected stories at unexpected places. Among those Koreans who are quietly fulfilling their obligations in places I`ve never imagined are a Korean professor who teaches Spanish literature at a university in Chile while writing poems in French, and a Korean doctor who treats the sick in a remote place in Africa. There must be many Koreans like them in the Korean diaspora of seven million people in 176 countries around the world. Even university graduates find it so hard to land jobs these days. This is not a situation unique to Korea. Unemployment is a universal problem and it is expected to grow worse. The rapidly advancing robotics technology and artificial intelligence is eliminating jobs. The story of a Chinese factory where the number of jobs has nosedived to 100 from 20,000 with robots replacing human workers can be ours soon. Even jobs like pizza delivery and parcel service could face a crisis as drones spread.
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