Korean Job Discussion Forums

[War Eagle]

[augustine]

This guy is stubborn. He keeps not making any points, no one quite understands exactly what he's trying to say, every single poster in the last four or five pages has disagreed with him, yet he keeps trucking on.

[War Eagle]

[hiamnotcool]

[War Eagle]

[atwood]

[Scorpion]

[War Eagle]

EDIT: I deleted this post answering atwoods comments because I now choose to disregard what he writes until he starts attempting to add something constructive and non-critical to the conversation. Also, his comments have already been addressed.

[atwood]

[PatrickGHBusan]

[Newbie]

[atwood]

[World Traveler]

[Unposter]

+1 for Patrick on this one.

All cultures have aspects of individualism and communalism. You will find both in Korea both historically and currently and you will find both in our home cultures as well.

Family units (whether nuclear or extended), churches, businesses, clubs and organizations, public (as in outside the family unit) schooling, fraternities and sororities, even going to night clubs and discos are all examples of communal behavior.

I think we should be careful of black/white dualism in any discussion of culture.

What we are really talking about is degrees of individualism.

I think we can find many aspects of heard behavior in Korea, as well as in our home countries. I also think we can find many examples of in-group loyalty in Korea but I certainly think we can find that in our home countries, such as preferences for people who share the same political party, religion, church, disco, musical artist as us.

There is nothing unique about in-group/out-group relations.

On the other hand, I do think there is a stronger tendency to criticize these relationships in most Western countries than it is in Korea. It has much to do with Western history and Western education as much of the ("subtle") differences of culture between our home countries and Korea.

It is easy to understand that we need to understand where a person has been (walk in his shoes) before we can understand him or her. The same can be true about (the admittedly abstract notion) of a group of people or culture.

When people (individually and collectively in culture) understand that we understand where they have come from, there is a tendency to be more accepting of any discussion of his/her/collective behavior/culture.

There is also more of a chance that visitors to that culture will be more accepting and more relaxed around different behaviors of their own.

I would also like to add that while language is a part of culture, language is not culture itself. Understanding a language may help someone understand a culture but learning a language is not the same as understanding a culture and can be mutually exclusive.

I personally think there are advantages to learning Korean culture, seperate from the advantages of learning the Korean language if one wants to live and work in Korea.

I would also like to add, despite TJ's protests, that from my experience and perspective, there is considerably less oversight of the English-language education industry than the rules on the book suggest. And, while I do think this lack of oversight both helps and hinders FTs in Korea, usually when FTs complain about the English-language education industry, it is because of this lack of over-sight.

Now, I find this interesting because my home country, the U.S., seems to be moving more and more in this direction. And, I find it amusing that in some ways the U.S. is copying Korea (and other developing countries which generally have less over-sight and regulation than developed countries). I guess this is really a two-way street.

[cabeza]