Korea’s Can-Do Determination Reigns

 

Korean female alpinist Oh Eun-sun was too exhausted to walk those remaining steps to the top of Annapurna. Instead, she crawled on her hands and knees to reach the 8,091-meter peak and became the first woman to scale all 14 of the world's highest mountains in the Himalayas.

 

Commentators point out that Oh's accomplished, which was achieved earlier this week in a tough rivalry with a Spanish competitor, shows how the Koreans' can-do determination leads to an uncanny capability to realize their goals.

 

"Out of 20 climbers who have successfully scaled all of the 14 Himalayan peaks over 8,000 meters, four are Koreans including Oh," said a local climber who asked not to be named.

 

"It's amazing that the country of which the highest mountain is shy of 2,000 meters has the most members in the exclusive 14-peak fraternity. In my view, they seem to do their utmost once a specific goal is set. Oh is not the only case."

 

Other examples of those with a strong can-do mentality are figure skating magnate Kim Yu-na, hard-throwing pitcher Park Chan-ho and golfers Pak Se-ri and Yang Yong-eun.

 

Despite the many challenges on her tiny shoulders, Kim Yu-na gave record-breaking performances in the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games to stand atop of the podium, her ultimate goal.

 

Driven by great confidence and an eager, hard working spirit, the 19-year-old shattered the lingering jinx that world champions cannot win the gold in the Olympics, thus becoming Korea's first medalist of any color in figure skating.

 

Park Chan-ho is the first Korean-born player in U.S. major league history. Although he suffered some start-up glitches in the mid-1990s, the right-handed hurler, now at the New York Yankees, eventually proved himself with more than 120 wins.

 

Professional golfers Pak Se-ri and Yang Yong-eun are lauded for their calmness and their ability to perform in highly competitive major tournaments.

 

Pak moved to the United States in 1997 as a 20-year-old. Braving all the difficulties from the language barrier to lack of financial support, she has had 24 victories on the LPGA tour as well as five major championships. She was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in late 2007.

 

Yang Yong-eun rose to stardom last year by besting the almost unbeatable Tiger Woods to clinch the 2009 PGA Championship and become the first Asian player to win a major on the PGA tour.

 

However, such proactive enthusiasm shown by Koreans is not always a bed of roses. Their overly strong can-do determinism has generated some headaches as amply demonstrated by disgraced embryologist Hwang Woo-suk.

 

Hwang claimed to have cloned patient-specific stem cells midway through 2005. The announcement put him in the global spotlight because he may have unleashed the potential of therapeutic cloning to deal with many hard-to-cure diseases such as diabetes or Alzheimer's.

 

But the stem cells proved to be shams, which were created by one of his researchers via transplanting ordinary stem cells to cloned embryos made of cells extracted from patients. As a result, Hwang became an international scientific pariah even though he is still working to regain his fame.

 

 

Source: The Korea Times