Shim Min Jung (201301860)
Professor Jonny Bahk-Halberg
Intermediate English Writing (2): Thursday, 1-3:00 P.M. class
December 9, 2015
Life in Countryside at 1997
My father was 31 years old when the Asian Financial Crisis happened in 1997. He was a teller at Nonghyup bank in Gimpo town. Today Gimpo is a city but that time it was just a little town. The bank was regional branch so there were few people working there. Otherwise big cities had a lot of dislocated workers because the firms also suffered the economy crisis. They had no choice but to downsize the workforce. "Luckily," he continued to say more. "Gimpo Nonghyup didn't lay off the employees because there were already a small number of people for the work." So he could maintain his job in the crisis.
Whenever my father turned on a television, it always showed him another bad news about the crisis. People got more debts, lost their jobs, and even killed families and themselves being afraid of the poverty. He grieved for that but he could not feel the crisis by himself because there were no victims of the economy crisis around him. He lived in countryside and had two jobs – teller and farmer. Since the rural people fed themselves the crisis didn't strike them as extreme. He earned money and got food from the farm which my grandparents owned.
But my father knew the economy was bad because of the interest rate. Nowadays the interest rate is under 3% but then it was about 18%. Right before the economy crisis, my father bought land to sell it higher for the economic profits. He took out a loan from the bank. No sooner had he purchased the land than the interest rate went up to almost 18%. He barely afforded the interest because it was nearly forty thousand dollars. He had to sell other lands to pay back the debts. It was the tail wagging the dog. He got land for some margins but he rather lost his original land. Moreover the midsize cars slowly disappeared after the economy crisis. He changed his midsize car into smaller one. Not only him, there were countless small cars on the road. The government promoted people to have small cars not midsize cars by giving them some benefits like lowering the taxes.
One day, he got a chance to be a member of 'Gold-Collection Movement'. He invited some jewelry appraisers. Then he went around the five towns one by one and collected gold from the elders. They gave him wedding jewelry or first-birthday gold rings for babies; people give a gold ring for their babies' first birthday in Korea. And he sent the gold to the Nonghyup headquarters, and then it gave the Gimpo branches money for the people who voluntarily provide the gold to the bank. It was quite good deal because the money they received for the gold was higher than the market price. The government gathered the gold and exported them to other countries.
Beginning of 2000, he felt the economy got better by selling the land he bought. It meant the economy started to work again. And the Gimpo town was chosen as a new city in 2003. He was happy about the news. "The town would develop!" he said. The government gave my family some amounts of compensation money for the lands that my grandfather had.
Even though he didn't get much influence about the Asian Financial Crisis, he knew how the society suffered the nightmare. He said he is much happier now compared to 1997. He has a big house, nice car, and warm family. If he had not experienced the economy crisis, he would not know how valuable current situation is.
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