Sam Hammington is Korea’s first foreign comedian. He is Australian, but  has lived in Korea since 2002. Recently, Sam’s name has been mentioned a lot among Korean people, and he has become a Korean sensation. What happened to him?  You can find out here.

Click here to read “Australian Comedian, Korean Sensation: A Talk with Sam Hammington (1/2)”

Toonari Post (TP): You have been in Korea for ten years. How have you felt about Korea so far?

Sam Hammington (SH): It’s such a dynamic country. It changes so much. I mean it’s improving. That’s something really exciting. You don’t want to leave, because you don’t know what you’re going to miss out of it. Always something new and something dynamic is happening. Well, like any countries, there is good and bad. Coming from the country that is culturally diverse, it’s great to see the country like Korea where people come together as one, and support the country like World Cup events like that. That’s pretty amazing, but same talking, I think sometimes that can be scary. Particularly being non-Korean.

TP: Any tips for those who want to travel or move to Korea?

SH: What you need to realize, if you want to move to Korea, is you need to have a little bit thick skin. Laws and regulations probably are a little bit different what they are in other countries. The other thing you need to appreciate is Korea is one of the few homogeneous societies in the world. I think that’s something to admire, but it can also be seen as downfall in the way the world became so much smaller these days. Countries are so much closer than they used to be. I think you have to be not too sensitive when coming here. Things are going to be difficult. It’s going to be difficult to communicate with people and it’s going to be difficult to get things to be done. That can be frustrating. But, it’s not fair for you to get frustrated and blame the country or people.

TP: You have achieved lot of amazing things so far. We would love to hear about your future goal.

SH: I just want to continue doing what I do, and just enjoy work. I really like being able to make people laugh and happy and trying to do different things like acting, film, and drama on Television. Also, with my businesses obviously to extend them and develop them, so they can be more successful than they already are. I have an education agency at the moment where students come to us and say, “We want to stay in Australia,” so we can set them up with an agreement with universities, and the internship that we can send students to go abroad. Part of my role is to go around and do guest lectures at universities which is something I really enjoy. I would like to do a lot more of that. Another business is a sweet store. Cupcakes, cakes, and cake decorating. So, hopefully we can sort of branch out, and do more corporate catering. Hoping to also do comedy show next year. It’s kind of adult only. Hopefully that will be successful.

TP: Do you have something to say to your fans and supporters?

SH: My fans, in terms of living their own lives, you need to think outside of box. If you hear something, you don’t necessarily feel it’s true. Look into it, and see what. I guess you have to find your own way of life, and that’s always tough. But, it’s also exciting. Making mistakes is not a bad thing. I guess everything you do is a lesson, a life of lesson. That’s something that the older you get the more you realize. Every day is something new that you learn, there is a mistake that you learn from. Life wasn’t meant to be easy. If it was, it would be boring. You have to live your own life and be yourself. I mean people have so many expectations. Your parents, family and friends, but if it doesn’t feel right, I don’t know if it’s the thing to do. Cause it’s you. You are the person has to live your life.

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Park Geun-hye has been elected as South Korea’s 18th President on December 19. Park is the first-ever female president in the nation.

Park garnered roughly 15.77 million votes, or 51.6 percent of ballots cast. She triumphed by a margin of 1.1 million votes over the main opposition Democratic United Party candidate Moon Jae-in, who finished the race with 14.69 million votes, or 48 percent of ballots cast. Vote counting was completed around 5:20 a.m. Thursday.

People were expected that if over 70 percent of the population took part in the election, it would give an advantage to Moon. However, though 75.8 percent of people participated, Park still won. Wednesday’s election was the first in which the successful candidate won at least 50 percent of the vote, since 1987 when a direct presidential election system was introduced.

Experts said the main factor that brought triumph to Park was people’s concern about Korea’s unstable economy and defense situation. The former president Roh Moo-hyun’s administration was viewed by many in Korea as weakening Korea’s economy and national defense, and since candidate Moon had worked and shared most of views with Roh, lots of people were doubting Moon’s ability to lead the nation, making conservative people inclined to vote for Park.

Park beat Moon in 13 out of 17 metropolitan cities and provinces, excluding Seoul, Gwangju and the two Jeolla provinces.

After hearing the news of her victory, Park said at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul that she will lead a happy era for Korean people.

As the first female president, a lot of Korean people expect Park to bring positive changes to their country- in which women are notoriously invisible at the top echelons of public and private sectors alike.

In South Korea, which is Asia’s fourth-biggest economy, women account for only 15 percent of the country’s parliament seats and secure two seats at the 11-member cabinet. They are equally less visible at the top of private sectors, and that is mostly because of the country’s Confucious and male-dominated culture.

Mirroring this, Park’s party has promoted her as “the prepared female president,” and this slogan was punctuated in every single of her campaign posters and speeches.

Park, who was born in 1952, majored in electronic engineering at Sogang University in Seoul. She started her political career when she was 22-years-old, when she lost her mother to assassins, acting as the first lady of the house and helping her father, the late military strongman Park Chung-Hee. After her father was also assassinated when she was 27, she left the Blue House, the South Korean equivalent of the White House. However, in 1997, she announced that she would come back as a politician to contribute to Korea, which has been suffering from the impact of the Asian economic crisis. Since then, she has been worshiped by conservative voters.

Her first run for the presidency was in 2007. However, current president Lee Myung-bak was able to defeat her.

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