Mr. Kim came to Canada; he had dreams; did he realize them?

 Joseph H Chung (정희수), Ph.D.

Professor of economics Quebec State University in Montreal (UQAM)

(지난 호에 이어)

The tenant should ask about the annual rent increase. By the law, the landlord should not increase the rent above what is suggested by the rental board. The tenant has the right to ask the rent paid by the previous tenant. This question is designed to prevent the landlord from charging unreasonably high rent to the new tenant.

In the lease, the tenant should make it sure that any defects of the apartment including plumbing and ventilation facilities, painting be repaid or improved before the tenant moves in.

Mr. Yu told that the rental law is designed to protect the tenants. Therefore, the tenant should know fully the law and the function of the rental board which manages the law.

The manager puts a lease document in front of Kim and Yu and asked Kim to read over it carefully and sign it. It was written in English in very small letters. Kim did not want to read it; he could not read it; his English was not good enough. Besides, in Korea he had never seen such a long and complicated lease. He said to himself in mind:

“In Korea, the rental law is a two-page document and the lease is often conducted verbally. In Korea, what is important in commercial transaction is the mutual trust, not a written contract. That is why I have never seen such a long lease”, commented Kim.

Finally, Kim signed the lease document and Yu signed as a witness. So, Kim got now an apartment of his own.

Mr. Lee found, for Kim, a small moving company run by a Chinese who moved Kim’s things to the new apartment. They went to the custom warehouse with the mover and retrieved the stuff and moved to the new apartment.

 Kim had unexpected experience. Kim brought mobile closet (Jang-nong) of great value given by Sookja’s mother when she married Kim. Kim did not know that apartment in Canada has fixed closet in each room.

The Jang-nong created a small crisis. The Jang-nong took up a good part of the living room. This was a mistake; Kim should have had more information on the way of living in Canada.

Apart from this incidence, the move was a success. In the evening of the moving day, Kim invited Yu’s family and Lee’s family to a Chinese restaurants and offered rich dinner.

It was indeed a pleasant evening. Kim found that Chinese foods in Montreal were different from the ones he used to taste in Seoul, but good.

“Appa, I want Tzazangmyun!”, asked Nancy.

Tzazangmyun is Chinese noodle with soya bean pastes mixed with meat and vegetables. For kids, in Korea, it is something like hamburger for Canadian kids.

“I am sorry, my princess, the cook did not know your coming!”

Everybody laughed. Kim was happy, so was Sookjza. On the other hand Paul did not seem joyful.

“Anything wrong, my son?” asked his mother with concerned voice.

“Mother, I am not happy! Everything is so different. I miss Korea; I like to go back!” shouted Paul.

Kim understood Paul’s psychological turmoil; he was twelve years old and it was the age where one tries find one’s identity through peers. But, he knew that Paul’s frustration would pass, once his makes new friends.

Much of the conversation was about Korea. Kim explained how bad the housing problem was. He talked about the threat from the North; he spoke about the poor quality of education and Chon-ji. Chon-ji is the transaction of bribes given to teachers for special treatment for the children of the briber.

This was generalized corruption practiced in the whole school system in Korea. Sookja talked about the unstable, insecure and worrisome daily life because of the ever present threat of layoffs of the bread earner.

“My goodness, nothing has changed since we left Korea. You know, I am glad that we have come to Montreal. We work hard, we are nobody. But we do not have to do “noon-chi-bogi” (concern with how other people's perception of oneself); we do what we want to do, nobody cares. It is a privilege to have immigrated to Canada”, said firmly Mrs. Yu as if she was trying to convince herself.

They all agreed that immigration to Canada was a good thing. This conviction made easier for them to forget what they have left in Korea, especially, the sweet memories of childhood era.

Mr. Kim Bought a Depanneur

The conversation moved on to the search of a business. Mr. Lee started to talk.

“As you know, it is just impossible to find a job as employee. This means we have to find a business. Most of us have no business experience. So what we need is a business which requires little managerial knowhow, relatively small capital, low level of language proficiency. That is the corner grocery, the depanneur”, slowly said Lee.

Mr. Lee was a civil servant in Korea and had no business experience. Fortunately, Mr. Kang, a member of the same church had already running a depanneur and he gave Lee a chance to work as helper and learn the business.

Lee worked as helper for four months after which he decided to buy the depanneur. He did not know how to buy a depanneur.

One day, there was a seminar organized by the Korean Business Association on the depanneur business. There were about thirty people some of whom had been running depanneur for several years. The speaker was a French Canadian accountant and he covered the principal aspects of the depanneur business. Professor Hong translated.

Mr. Lee summarized what he learned at the seminar.

1. Preliminary Information

1. Find the right location:

• middle-income or low-income residential area: high-income people do not use much depanneur,
• avoid French-speaking area to avoid the language stress
• parking facilities,
• do not pick the vicinity of pre-college schools to avoid kids’ vandalism,
• Avoid certain ethnic areas to minimize shop lifting. (다음 호에 계속)

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