As you may have guessed, we are four Korean sisters. We live in different countries and regions (one in Seoul, two in California, and one in Virginia). We have different professional backgrounds (retired owner and executive of a business, working on retiring attorney, conference interpreter and retired university professor, computer scientist and current blogger of Kimchimari.com).
We’re in different stages of winding down our busy lives, retiring from challenging careers, sending children off to live their own lives…
Suddenly, we now seem to have time and the mental capacity to consider doing something different. So we got to talking…. Wouldn’t it be great if the four of us could do a project together? Wouldn’t it be cool if we could pool our collective abilities and energy into an exciting business?
Wouldn’t it be so fun to do something totally different from what we each have been doing for decades? Something that we all found interesting, something that we all could contribute to, and yet nothing that would take over our lives….
It made sense to see what our common interests were. And, surprisingly, we discovered that all four of us liked to cook and manage our respective homes. We appreciate quality, be it cookware, artisan ware or cooking ingredients.
Then we realized that our collective knowledge, experiences, connections, and, yes, tastes might be of value in finding and introducing quality Korean artisan ware, kitchenware and cooking ingredients to people who find it difficult to access such things, sometimes because they live in places remote from Korea and sometimes because they just don’t have the necessary information.
In truth, I think we have been doing this among the four of us for decades. We’ve been sharing information about where to find the best cooking ingredients, recommending artisans and so forth.
Many of you probably have similar experiences and relationships with your own family and friends. As for us, I think this was particularly important as the three of us have been living in the US for decades, since before the times of big Korean markets.
So we’ve really relied on my sister in Korea (and on our mother, too, to a lesser degree) to supply the three of us living in the states with good Korean cooking ingredients and wares. Again, this is probably a common experience of many Koreans living abroad.
Even now, though all three of us living in the states are lucky enough to live within miles of multiple Korean markets (what a difference 30 years make!) we still rely on our sister in Korea to send us quality products that are just not available in the Korean markets here.
And whenever one of us visits Korea going to JY’s (sister #3 who lives in Korea) many haunts and hidden gems of a place to get beautiful handmade Korean ceramics, handsewn window hanging and sometimes the most recent “innovative gadget” found in Korean kitchens is always something we all look forward to.
In essence, this is what we are aiming to do through this website – be your guide and resource for the best of the best of Korean goods and wares. We hope that you will come to see us as your “Korean sister” to go to for information and recommendations.
As luck would have it (or fate perhaps?? 😊) it turns out we make up the perfect team to execute this endeavor!
SJ used to run a national distribution company for tech-related equipment, which, of course, means she knows the ins and out of logistics and distribution, not to mention other business experiences she brings. Now that she is retired she can bring all her experience and know-how to our new company.
JY, though professionally a conference interpreter is, at heart, an artist. You’ll see from her profile that she is in essence an artist that happened to go down the career path of a simultaneous interpreter. Regardless of her professional career, JY is the one that has artistic taste and is in tune with the current trends in Korea. We’ll be relying on her mostly to curate the selection of wares offered on our website.
Then, of course, there’s Jinjoo, a well-known food blogger of Kimchimari.com. Jinjoo, a computer software engineer turned food blogger is a double asset to Four Sisters in that she not only has the necessary technological background but understands what her followers want and need. In fact, she had been planning on opening a store on her website. Now, along with Four Korean Sisters, we will be able to bring even more selections to people through the two sites!
As for me, I’m not sure my legal background brings much to the table, but, hey, you can always use an attorney, right? Maybe not, but that’s my line and I’m sticking to it!.
Wish the Four Korean Sisters luck! And happy hunting to you!
SY (sister #2)