Is South Korea the Most Tech Savy Country in the World?

firsthand: 직접
He’s been witnessing firsthand the rapid changes happening here in Seoul.

turn things around: 상황을 호전시키다, 역전시키다
pump money into: ~에 돈을 퍼붓다
future-proof: 미래에도 사용할 수 있게 만들다
broadband: 고속 데이터 통신망
To turn things around in the 80s and 90s, the government pumped a lot of money into the future-proofing, spending billions of dollars building a fiber backbone to bring broadband to every school, office, and home.

flourish: 번성하다
Conditions were perfect to create a small ecosystem for tech to flourish.