Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Summer Wine]

I have a question as to whether people from the Northern hemisphere take their arguments more personal than people from the Southern hemisphere.

I ask this because I have met people from the Northern hemisphere who really seem to hold on to an argument of theirs even if it could be proven incomplete or wrong. They seem to also take other peoples arguments as being a personal attack even if they are able to be changed.

I have met people from the Southern hemisphere who seem to take their arguments with a shrug. They will throw out an idea or theory and if it is knocked down or ridiculed, shrug their shoulders and walk away. The argument isn't characterised as the personal reflections of a person, but rather a theory that can be sidelined without it being personal.

Am I correct in this or not. I am not saying in all cases as I have met some people who hold thier arguments like a dog holds its bone. Though I curious and therefore am trying to carry out a poll to find out whether generally the Northern hemisphere take its arguments more personally than the Southern hemisphere.

[ajgeddes]

Yeah, I met this guy from Sumatra, he would never let anything go. But then I met this guy from Lombok, and he just didn't really seem to care. I guess you are right.

[darkhorse_NZ]

it seems to me that talking with North Americans are a lot more passionate and involved in debates where as Southerners seem a bit more relaxed on the whole, generally speaking of course.

[Gopher]

This may be the crudest, most sweeping, and grandiose form of stereotyping I have ever seen. Are you referring to the western hemisphere only, SummerWine -- or the entire globe?

[kimchi story]

[Gopher]

[deleted]

[billybrobby]

I think people are rudest the closer they live to the Prime Meridian, with the nicest people living by the International Date Line. Have you ever meet somebody from Kiribati? They'd give you the shirt off their backs, if they wore them.

[milkweedma]

Yeah Kiwis and Aussies and South Africans are the most relaxed people ive ever met here in Korea and in Taiwan too. Poms talk too god damn much as do North Americans of any description. North Americans are also highly individualised people especially the 20 something crowd.

[SPINOZA]

Do you know what? I can't believe I've been to the southern hemisphere (Australia/New Zealand) and forgot to test the plug-hole thing (water goes down the plug clockwise in the north and anti-clockwise in the south - or maybe the other way around). It completely slipped my mind. Anyone ever tested it at the equator? Does it go down straight?

I agree with Ajggedes here. I had a big argument with a couple last summer (one a woman from NZ and one a guy a guy from Ireland). Take a wild guess who's still being a *beep* about it. I think OP has a point.

[Summer Wine]

[Gopher]

Nonsense.

[jackooboy]

Being a recent college grad who loves the philosophical undertones of deep conversation rather than the arrogance of arguments which for the most part prove one's ignorance and non understanding, it seems to me that many Westerners in Korea are too stubborn and/or shallow to explore various issues and topics which make life meaningful and interesting to a depth where progress is made. There is the greater than thou attitude and/or superficiality of one's argument, but it is very difficult to find those who are content living in their space time with the mystery of consciousness/"that which is." In the end, one's thoughts come down to some sort of nihilism or religious/philosophical basis for life to which many people seem to posit one correct "answer"/"way" with no self skepticism... Our fallibility leads to error and error leads to being WRONG. We are all wrong at times. There is no one correctness which we as humans have unfettered access to. This, however, is not to say that some are not more correct than others. Perhaps the obsession with Enlightenment thinking is a cover for the mass insecurity of humanity in the post religious world.

[darkhorse_NZ]

[Tiger Beer]