First Contact

About two decades ago, on the recommendation of a friend, I nervously swallowed a little blue pill and washed it down with a double Courvoisier. The pill turned out to be a dubious 1960’s tranquiliser of unknown chemistry, strength and purpose which promptly made me pass out while speaking complete gibberish to a stunning, attentive stewardess. I chalked this up as the latest in a long lifetime of classic communication failures.

On this occasion I was on the long haul back from Seoul to London at the end of a months-long business trip which had taken me, one Kiwi, two Brits and three Ozzies on a whistle-stop tour of Republic of Korea. The last thing I remember before I blacked out entirely, was that although our experience had not been short, it had been rather superficial. We had spent months in a plush hotel, (barely) survived the unrelenting Korean hospitality and worked in a team of foreigners which was spared the hierarchical formalities and corporate protocols which dictated the working lives of our hosts. We needed translators and interpreters for everything since the English language was virtually unknown outside the newly blossoming world of Information Technology. That said, if you could improvise a few hand gestures, the city offered everything from ancient imperial palaces to the latest cutting edge technology; eg; 286 computers !

South Korea had already positioned itself to ride the global technology wave with a clear national mission statement to beat everyone, especially the Japanese, in the process. As the effects of the little blue pill wore off, my plane touched down at Heathrow and I mused that one day, given half the chance, Seoul would be well worth Second Contact ………….