I have been an expat woman for many years and during all my missions abroad, I never had any problem living in a new country or adapting myself to new cultures. That was until I left my mother country and my job in October 2005 to become a trailing spouse. Initially I was excited about this new and challenging adventure. Once in Seoul, I realized I was not prepared to assume my new position. By default, my husband became my new boss and I his staff. But this new venture did not offer opportunity for advancement and I was too busy and driven to get concerned at that early stage.
My first month in Korea was mainly dedicated to acquiring some vital necessities and setting up my home things like finding a house, buying furniture, locating the closest supermarket, opening a bank account, getting a mobile phone and a connection to the Internet, etc. When I restored some normalcy to my life, I had an epiphany; I was becoming a desperate housewife. Having neither children nor pets, I had too much free time and upon reflecting on my new life, I realized there was a lack of interesting things happening in my routine, there was no purpose and I was loosing motivation. I decided I needed to focus on a new task: to get a real job.
In order to make my job searching more efficient, I decided to use my marketing background. My new clients would have to view me as a company offering services for potential. Before designing my action plan, it was first necessary to study the opportunities and threats of the labor market. To do so, I studied the Internet meticulously and the business directories. My local network was so limited so I needed to search the widest range possible. At the same time, I had to identify my strengths and weaknesses. After many worthwhile yet fruitless interviews, I realized that despite, my experience, willingness and flexibility, there was always something wrong with my profile. I was either too young or too old, too specialized or to generalist, too French, too woman, etc. I could speak four languages but they were not the right ones: my Korean was non-existent and fortunately or not, I was not a native English-speaker. Moreover, most people did not understand my motivations: Why do you want to work while you are not obligated to do so? Why do you want to lose your diplomatic status? Thankfully, nobody advised me to have some babies instead of wasting my time.
The fact is that I had forgotten myself to identify my real motivations. Due to my situation, the money did not motivate me first, although it would have given me more independence. Being active and useful was not a real motivation either since I could have dedicated my time to help many associations in need of volunteers. And preventing a 4-year gap in my CV was more a fear than a motivation. Feeling quite lost and borderline, I eventually remembered my former boss’ motto: “the Chinese character for “crisis” has both meanings: “danger” and “opportunity”. Just choose the right interpretation”. I then realized that I should change my perception of the situation and think in a positive way.
Obsessed by the urgency to get a job, I had forgotten two important things: passion and faith. My intentions and my motivation had not been clear. I did not really want to work but to create something. I could not interest any employer if I had nothing special to offer, no added value. The answer to all my questions was therefore to create my own job. The first step of my personal business plan was therefore to identify the different projects I wanted to implement and then to assess their feasibility, according to the needs and opportunities of the market.
Before leaving France, I had developed a real passion for wine and I always wanted to work in the wine business in my retirement. Having worked in the field of international cooperation and sustainable development, my idea was to develop a special initiative to promote the wines made by women as well as small wine makers and regions. I recognized that this context was perfect in Korea, where the evolution of the Korean society is leading to a growing interest for wine, especially among women. Moreover, I had also noticed the progressive feminization of the wine business, at an international level. Being a French woman was in this context, my biggest asset and despite my lack of experience in the wine industry, I had legitimacy to promote my cultural heritage.
My first idea was actually to organize a special wine event on the 8th of March, which corresponds to the International Women’s day.
When I scheduled a meeting with the general Secretary of the Europe Chamber of Commerce in Europe and President of EKF, my purpose was not to talk about my wine obsession. I don’t know if this is because we were both French, open-minded and passionate but he seemed really interested by the idea and told me it would surely interest the then director of EKF, Ms. Nicole Risse. And he was right: we both wanted to share our passion for wine with other women living in Seoul, approaching wine as a lifestyle and from a feminine perspective.
Due to our respective experience and commitments, we also wanted to consider our initiative as a sustainable development project, addressing some key issues:
- Social, cultural and gender concerns, promoting the role of women in the society;
- Wine as an economic option for local development, promoting small and rural areas, developing countries, wine tourism, wine routes, small or isolated wine makers ;
- Environment and biodiversity conservation, since wine is a natural product.
This is also the reason why we decided that all profits generated by the club should be used to support the charity projects of EKF, mainly dedicated to women.
That’s how Wine & Women Korea came to life. Nicole and I – both co-presidents of the club - had to fight a lot to make our dream come true. We still have a lot to do to convince our members, partners and sponsors but we have enough passion and energy to make the story go on.
Every month, WWK organizes its Wine Focus meetings in the evening, open to everybody, members and non-members, women and men. During these events, a guest speaker – generally wine sommeliers and experts – presents the topic of the evening: the basics of wine tasting, wine and food pairing, wine and health, wine and tourism, etc. In order to make the vent more interesting and informative, WWK tries to create interactive games, quizzes, etc. to involve the audience directly in the presentation. Each Wine Focus is combined with a wine tasting of 5 to 6 different wines followed by light buffet snacks and a lucky draw.
The club will celebrate its first anniversary on March 8th 2006, organizing a “Wine around Europe” event. This time, we are expecting to gather even more participants and guests than for the first event, now that we have gained some popularity in Seoul. We are still relying on the support of the wine makers, importers and retailers, as well as the diplomatic community, the foreign and Korean institutions and most important, so many wine lovers living in Korea. Many of them are friends and this is probably the most important.
Professionally speaking, my situation is still the same: I do not have a contract since I am a volunteer, I have no salary and I usually work at home. But I know I have gained a lot experience and prepared a future in the wine business, in France or in Korea. After all, Wine & Women Korea is also a real business platform, offering many opportunities to develop networks, to create synergies and to promote cross-marketing. The wine industry is still small in Korea but I wish I could actively participate in its growth during all my stay in Seoul.
I am not a guru neither a coach, but I hope my contribution will encourage all of you to fulfill your dreams and achieve your personal goals, whatever the difficulties and obstacles.
Wine & Women Korea:
Interview KBS Catherine :
Interview KBS French women winemakers:
CGH, Février 2006
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