What happened to letting the machine get it?

Koreans do not use voicemail.

Maybe the technology in Korea skipped voicemail altogether, but Koreans almost never use it.

When I was in Canada, everybody used voicemail.. or an answering machine.. at home, at work and on your mobile.  One of the first things you do when you start new work is recording your voicemail greeting.

I've never reached a voicemail system or an answering machine whenever I called a landline phone in Korea.

Throughout the four years I've been in Korea, I've had maybe 4 people leave voicemail on my mobile.  Most of the time, people call cell phones and when it's unanswered, they hang up and either assume they'll get return calls thanks to caller IDs and/or they send a text message.

Even though I work for a company that MAKES phone systems, I have no voicemail at work.  I wanted voicemail, they wouldn't give it to me... they disabled the feature on the company phone system.

If I call a co-worker, somebody else answers if the person I'm calling is not there.  I don't want to talk to somebody else... I want to talk to a freakin' machine.  Instead of leaving my mesasge on a reliable recording medium, I have to rely on some stranger who may or may not deliver my message properly.  Likewise, I do not like relying on my co-workers to answer my missed calls.   And I really don't like answering somebody else's phone either.. but people don't hang up even though they know they're not gonna get the machine.  You have to "pull" and answer your co-worker's phone call from your desk.

Back in North America, receiving mobile calls also costs you airtime, so you don't give out your cell numbers that readily for work purposes.  People are also reluctant to call mobiles unless it's absolutely necessary.  In Korea, however, your mobile number has to be available to everyone at work and people call eachother willy-nilly whenever.  So if you don't pick up your phone at your desk, they call your cell phone... or they just don't bother with your landline and call your cell right away.

So it may be that the voicemail had been a victim of the rapid introduction of cell phones and text messages, but why are Koreans afraid of talking to the machine?

Answering machine... how I miss thee...

Cultist ritual

8:55am each morning at work, we do the morning exercise, aka the cultist ritual.  There's a series of beeps that comes out of the building PA system, followed by an all-too-cheery voice and music announcing it's the morning exercise time.  So each morning, the beeps come on.. then you can see over the low cubicle walls the heads of individuals slowly start popping up one-by-one... like zombies coming out of their graves.  The beeps are accompanied by countdowns displayed on TV sets placed along the walls... and on the screens, they have people demonstrating the stretch moves.  After about 8 stretching routines, we go into the high-fives......That's right, we do high-fives every morning.  "To brighten up the mood" they say....  "High-five! High-five!"  I'm slowly, day after day, increasing the amount of force I put into these high-fives... hopefully, one day I can make somebody bleed or break a wrist.  

Many Korean companies and most schools have morning exercise routines.  When I was in elementary school here in Korea, I remember we used to do the morning exercises out on the field before the school day started.  

  

There's even a NATIONAL exercise routine (called "Kook-min-che-jo") with accompanying music.  A lot of Koreans still know the sequence of movements for this 5-minute routine, which ranges from stretches and hops to squats and lunges.

Normally, I prefer to move as little a muscle during mornings so I prefer to sit on my ass while others are doing their stretches.  In general, however, I think this exercise thing is a fairly good national habit in order to start circulating the blood early in the day.

If Yuna Kim was on TV screens at work demonstrating stretch routines, I may actually make it to work on time each morning and stretch.