Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Menino80]

Jesus you never stop. The difference is in degree and era.

If you are comparing Korea at 27k per capita GDP in 2011 to the US at 2k per capita GDP in 1911, you have made the opposing point for them.

Both Japan and Korea's political economy is vastly different from anywhere in the West, and therefore societies therefore are as well.

[wishfullthinkng]

So, I come from NYC where jaywalking is like breathing and I was first apt to do it here in Korea but I quickly stopped, although the urge to do so violently courses through my body.


The Story:

One time I was with a Korean friend and we were trying to cross a deserted intersection although we were glaring at a little red man for what seemed like way too long to be anything but a cosmic joke and I told her that we should just cross but she looked shocked and said "but the police will arrest you!"
I looked around slowly for effect and said, "what police?" and she begrudgingly agreed to cross. As soon as we hit the other side, and I swear I do not know where they came from, two police officers stopped us. Lucky for them I played the I-only-speak-english card and they didn't want to attempt to try and tell me how bad of a thing I had just done so they let us go. This is a true tale.

The moral of the story is, don't jaywalk in Korea because police officers reside in trees waiting for the perfect time to strike.

[Steelrails]

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

Maybe the cultures are the same, but you, Steelrails, are most definitely one of a kind.

[Menino80]

[Steelrails]

Basis for "We are all the same"

Personal observation. Yes I notice "differences" as well. But I always ask if there is something back home that compares to that behavior and springs from the same impulse, and almost always there is. It's just how it gets expressed. The other big thing is I don't just focus on differences, which I think someone like Menino does. I also look for the similarities. And guess what? The similarities are far more striking than the differences.

Religion. Dave's is not a religion thread, suffice to say, the religion I follow teaches how similar all humans are in their capacity to succumb to negative impulses and that those who think they have escaped them are almost always lying to themselves.

Thomas PM Barnett. Political author on Military Strategy and Globalization. A big trumpeter of how in this globalizing society expecting people to change overnight is stupid and demanding that they do so immediately is counterproductive. Also big on the idea of how anything that we see as "culturally wrong" in the world we can look back in our past in our own cultures and find the exact same thing taking place, often in the lifetime of people still alive. Therefore, to say its not a part of our culture is hypocritical and false, not to mention the rest of the world knows it and sees it. Sometimes it's hard for us westerners to know how we look through other people's eyes.

[Menino80]

[Steelrails]

I think I misread you on what you were trying to say about the economy. So I'll move on on that. I took it to mean that 2,000 dollars then was a trivial amount. I don't think that was your point after going back and re-reading. The purchasing power of 2,000 dollars then was the equivalent to 44,000 now. I took your post to mean that the purchasing power (the worth) of 2,000 was about 4,000. My mistake.

Anyways, look you may believe that the cultures are miles apart. Fine. If you look for differences, you will see nothing but differences.

Just for a day I would ask that you try and see the similarities. The next time you see some offensive (or even a good one) Korean practice, try and see if that happens in a different form back home or even amongst the expat community here. If it doesn't try and see if it happened in your cultures history. I guarantee within the last 100 years you will find it. You will find strong hierarchical organizations, racism, sexism, jingoism, and the like. You can probably find it today.

Take for example the "foreigner dirty looks" we get. Okay. Now do we ever give Koreans here dirty looks for say, wearing certain kinds of clothes or riding a pink bike? Who cares how they dress? But to give someone a dirty look over that, well I dare say that that springs from exactly the same place in the human soul where that "dirty foreigner" look comes from.

Now let's think. If I were to name some good Korean cultural practices, you would surely say that they exist in some form back home and that it is similar to something we do? Well if that holds true, surely the negative things Koreans engage in also exist back home. You cannot take the bad without the good or the good without the bad.

However if one only focuses on the differences and the negatives and does not attempt to think hard in looking for a comparable practice, then yes, I can see how there would be all these differences. I strongly suggest that just for a day, you try to focus on the positives and the similarities and then see if we really are so different. Especially in the case of the similarities. I find that they are far more significant than the differences to the point where the differences are negligible. The similarities are profound.

[atwood]

[UseAsDirected]

[cybermutiny]

[UseAsDirected]

Ah, okay, right.~~

[atwood]

[Steelrails]

[Menino80]