Math Theory Meets Social Theory

This may be a long blog...got a lot of thoughts going through my head this last couple of days, not least because of my reading A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market--a very cool book and one that I wish I read before embarking on the CFA designation exams (wrote 2 of the 3 required exams already).

Anyhoo, went out for some drinks last night (yes, Thursday night, a school night, but I really wanted to break this jetlag and I find that going out is one of the most effective, and most fun, ways to do so) at a little place called Han's Sausages near Hong-Ik University (usually referred to as HongDae). So upon ordering the bratwurst and beer I noticed something interesting, the beer came in a special pitcher that has dry ice in a compartment in the bottom of it and passages that allow the vapor to flow to the top and escape. Pretty cool idea, and I had seen it before in another bar in Sinchon (another teen/bar district near HongDae).

While out on the town I started to think, "What are the odds that I know someone here in this bar or meet them on the street?" Likely pretty low, but then I remembered the last night I came here and got a call from an old co-worker who was basically 2 blocks from me and had just had 산낙지 (san-nak-ji, living octopus) in a little place that we almost went to (now that was interesting). Then I remembered that a friend of mine's former girlfriend is in Korea--not Seoul, in Pusan. But her sister-in-law's friend is engaged to a Korean girl in Daegu who often comes to Seoul (HongDae/Sinchon specifically) to see friends. So, what if one of the thousands of people I saw were one of those friends? How many degrees of separation is that? Two to the Pusan friend (or one, if you count that I know her now), plus three to the groom-to-be (or two as the Pusan friend already knows her sister-in-law) and two more to the friend(s) in Seoul. So that's 4 to 7 degrees, not bad. I could also suppose that the people on the street know my wife or one of her friends (as she went to school there) but we are older than these kids and it's not quite as interesting a story as going to Vancouver then Daegu then back to Seoul.

Another area: yesterday I met some guys from an asset management firm here (for business). One spoke quite good English, and when he found out I was from Vancouver he noted that his brother-in-law is living here. As well, the owner of the 삼계탕 (samgyetang, ginseng chicken soup) place across from my apartment has a home in a suburb of Vancouver. What are the odds of that?

Now let's deconstruct this a bit, and take a bit from my current reading (and suspend for a bit the idea that I have incredible selective memory and am merely drawing connections from random events).

On the beer: both restaurants were in the same relative are (more or less) and it makes sense that a seller of those dry-ice pitchers would service both of them.

For the people on the street: the university district is full of school kids, school kids are not (usually, especially in Korea) destitute poor and they are (by definition) educated (or nearso) and it is the well-to-do and educated that end up going to foreign countries and meet/marry foreigners (there are exceptions, just humor me for a bit). Thus, it makes some sense that I (who knows many educated people in Korea and Canada, as I am one myself) would have an ok chance to have some connection with similar people in another country, no matter the whereabouts. (This reminds me of when I spent a month in the Philippines with my bud Carlo who met a friend there who ended up being his distant relative. Especially in places where the economic/social strata is well-defined the 'top 1%' seem to flock together.)

Concerning the people who have ties in Vancouver. Proximity is one factor, and wealth is another. Vancouver is the closest airport to Seoul (one hour longer to go to San Francisco) and it also has an inviting climate and seems to attract the wealthy from many countries (including the U.S.). So it makes sense that these, again, well-to-do and educated people would have some connection to my other home.

What's my point and how does it lead to a better understanding of Korean culture? It's this: When you meet a Korean (or when they are on their first dates) they will always ask questions to figure out if they have some connection such as age and ethnicity or school ties or anysuch thing that could prove a connection. For foreigners this kind of questioning is sometimes seen as rude, but this is just a part of Korea: you get used to it. This is one reason that Koreans study their butts off to go to the best/largest schools such as Seoul National University, Korea University, Ewha Women's University and Yonsei University and then put themselves through incredible stress to get into major companies such as Samsung Group. It's because after all that study and hard work one will have instant camaraderie with fellow alumni and, thus, be able to move to Vancouver when they retire and not have to work selling dry-ice beer pitchers to every bar in Korea.