Korean Job Discussion Forums

[legalquestions]

My Korean peers look down on me for driving a fairly old car, for living in gritty Dongdaemun (near work), for having gotten married on the beach (for an affordable price, and to a Filipina, egads!). I am not rich nor do I pretend to be. I come from a long line of hard working dirt farmers and coal miners, and I am quite content doing what I do here in Korea.

Why do most Koreans have an obsessive and overwhelming need to appear to be high class? To do only things that get them face/status/prestige? After all, most are only one generation removed from the rice paddy! What does this say about their self image/ego/mental make up? Is it because of some sort of inferiority complex or what? It just stupefies me................

[Ya-ta Boy]

Blame Confucius. Korea is a hierarchical society and always has been. Even a twin born first gets privileges over the sibling.

I'm not sure you are perceiving everything correctly when you say your peers look down on you. When I've told my friends/students that I got married in a park for $25, all are surprised and a fair number express a wish that things here could be cheaper, less status-conscious. Another point: many Koreans leave because they want to avoid the competition. I remember a couple of my students who'd lived/studied/worked abroad saying what a relief it was to not have to deal with the status thing all the time. Finally, it isn't like lots of Westerners aren't also status conscious. We do have the expression 'keeping up with the Joneses', after all.

[rgv]

A huge part of it has to be the competition/saving face thing.

Jane Adams had a really interesting way of answering that question though. Her reason was that people who come from poor backgrounds need to present the appearance of wealth/security because that's an easy simple way to do so. No one will know your apartment is crap, but if they see you wearing a nice dress they'll think highly of you. Now that may have been for early working women at the turn of the century, but the same kind of principle can apply here.

Remember Korea JUST industrialized within the last 50 years. The parents of our students grew up in a culture where if you had wealth, you showed it anyway you could (nice car, a suit, etc). Those values will persist to today. I live really far in the country and believe me.. I know which kids of mine have money. They're the ones who wear north face jackets, always have new clothes on from day to day, and I never see wandering the streets after school (their parents can afford the hagwons).

[Joe666]

I'm not sure confucianism has much to do with it. Koreans have come a long way economically in a short period of time. I believe this causes a strong fascination with the materialistic aspects of life. They still have a way to go in realizing that the material road is a dead end. A lot of westerns also fit this mold. I am not excusing the west by any means, but I don't think it's near the level of Korea.

It took me a long time to realize that material things in this world are not nearly as important as other cerebral aspects.

[Underwaterbob]

Why is anybody obsessed with prestige or status? Money, power, fame... It's pretty self-explanatory.

[jkelly80]

[Zantetsuken]

[Goku]

[poet13]

Even doormats need to feel powerful.

[Jane]

Everything can be boiled down to economics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspicuous_consumption

Incidentally, I had a professor last year who was very well-read on behavioural economics in general, and he claims every society goes through what Korea is going through (yes, even the West did).

If you compare various countries through their early years of economic development, conspicuous consumption is always present. Why? When people start accumulating money --without history of ever having money nor how to deal with it-- they will spend, spend, spend, and try to look as rich as they can; apparent richness means power, an essential ingredient to get ahead.

[madoka]

[jkelly80]

[marlow]

Most people in the world are.

Anyway, it's hard to spend a lot of money on crap and be rich at the same time.

[Robot_Teacher]

But in the end, all that mentality means nothing if it's not backed up by a big fat bank account, speaking for individuals that is. Of course, this small country is an economic powerhouse of a lean mean business machine for export hardware products like cars, bot chips, and visual spectrum imaging equipment. I can dress like a CEO, act like one, and fool everyone who're strangers, but why do that unless I've really achieved it at the bank? You're asking to be over charged on every thing if looking too shiny and affluent while traveling.

[madoka]