Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Goku]

Before this get's into a Korea bash fest, let me make clear it's not. Merely a question poised to entertain my curiosity.

Has anyone thought that Korea is a more expressive emotional culture than the West?

I mean, both negative and positive (mostly negative like complaining). I've seen students publicly display their dissatisifaction and I've seen it in college students too. Adults... not so much.

Generally, the type of behavior I'm talking about is the "Ahhh... Shiii...." kind of things that I hear. I've seen students display to me and other teachers a complete disregard for hiding the very least their emotions, or at least holding it back.

In the west generally we consider hidiing our feelings a necessary part of human interaction. In Korea I feel it's much more expressive and no fear of reprecussions from other people. I don't know why some of the students I've seen think that they can give a "this blows" kind of face to their teacher and that's ok.

I've also seen some of my Korean college aged friends do similar behavior.

To say the least this was a culture shock to me. Is it just the people I'm encountering? Or is this truly a cultural difference?

[Yu_Bum_suk]

For a culture that makes so much ado about holding back one's feelings there seem to be a lot of people who are prone to emotional outbursts at the drop of a hat. Very childish antics by kids in late adolescence also appears to be much more culturally acceptable here, too.

[afsjesse]

I notice it a lot also. Especially in Korean girls who don't get their way. They seem to do the "wayyyyyyyy" while stomping their feet. But it's the students that really get annoying, especially with the "hurghhhhh"

[eamo]

I've noticed that Koreans have a need to have their dissatisfaction about even minor things be heard by someone.

So, for example, if they're in a rush but somebody else is slow getting on or off the elevator, you'll hear some grumbling under the breath after the offending person has left the scene. But who's that grumble for? The person who annoyed them has gone! Is it just talking to oneself? Or is it for the benefit of those people left within hearing distance?

This old guy in my building always does this. He apparently hates dogs. Or he hates that I have a dog. I dunno. Anyway, after, only after, I leave the elevator or pass him at the building entrance does he give out a low aiissshh, and grumbles something. He's too wussy to complain straight to my face, but he has a need to vocalize something.....

[halfmanhalfbiscuit]

"Loudest Voice Wins" in whatever form.

[Joe666]

Yu_Bum_suk wrote:

[Geckoman]

[Seoul'n'Corea]

Look up parliamentary democracy, it is a democracy but in order to call a federal election we need the Queen or the Queens representative (Governor General) to close the house.

It is still a democratic process.

[VanIslander]

Korean men use the emotion of anger to bully others into getting their way; no way would that work back in Canada

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[fermentation]

[Unposter]

Without going into individual differences and contrasting, complex examples which sometimes are antagonistic to each other, I have heard Koreans talk about themselves as being emotional. You can take that for whatever it is worth.

I personally think that in some ways Koreans care more about justice and they personally get upset when they feel injusticed than people from Anglo-American backgrounds.

Many Anglo-Americans take on a more individualized sense of injustice. They see acts of injustice as a sense of personal responsibility. Such people think that so and so is actually their own fault or I should just find an alternative solution. So, there is little concern if government or companies do something wrong; I should just be concerned about me and not others.

Koreans, in general, see things as more group oriented. When things go wrong, it is not individual, it is because someone or something in the group did/went wrong, thus the grou