Peter Liptak and campers at Camp Induhapi, Minnesota, the United States, last year. / Courtesy of Steps Camp


By Bradley MacDonald

Peter Liptak, a native of Minnesota, the U.S., said teaching English was much more difficult 12 years ago due to fewer rights for foreign teachers and an even wider cultural gap than exists now.

However, he stuck it out and made it work. He eventually hosted ``Explore Korea'' on Arirang TV and became interested in Korean history, leading to an MA in Korean studies from Yonsei University and learning the Korean language at Ewha Womans and Seoul National Universities.

Peter claims that whereas it's difficult to start a business in the U.S., Korea is full of opportunities to bridge the gap with the U.S.

According to Peter, Minnesota has the highest concentration of Korean adoptees in the world. He has been in Korea for 12 and a half years.

After years of teaching English, learning Korean, modeling, appearing on television and writing prose and poetry, Peter founded the Writer's Ink, which provides copywriting, editing, advertising, speech writing, translating and publishing services to clients as diverse as Samsung, Hyundai, LG and the Seoul and Korean governments. Peter also writes Children's books and ESL books for the American market, which are likely to be available in Korea soon.

``If you boil it all down, what I do is in essence to help bring the best of Korea to the world, be it people, poetry or products, ideas or innovations. At the same time, as outsiders looking in during this age of globalization, I believe that we foreign consultants, employees and business owners have much to offer the Korean people in terms of what they may learn through other's eyes," he said.

Some of Peter's works, such as ``Idioms Alive and Exploring Nonfiction (from Time for Kids)" are available in bookstores all over Korea. Peter also intends to publish a collection of North Korean poetry.

``As Much as a Rat's Tail,'' a book of Korean slang, will be available this year and ``Baek Seok's Deer and Other Poems,'' centered around the classic Korean book, will be available next year.

A poetry collection, titled ``Letters,'' will go to print shortly, as will Teddy's Day, a children's book for sale in the U.S. For more information about the Writer's Ink, go to thewritersink.com.

Peter is also program director of Steps, a non-ESL camp in the U.S. in which 20 Korean children can serve as ambassadors for their country every summer. Information on Steps is available at index.

blmacdo@hotmail.com

Peter is also program director of Steps, a non-ESL camp in the U.S. in which 20 Korean children can serve as ambassadors for their country every summer. Information on Steps is available at index.