Many people have a lot to say about how foreigners act around them. Today I’m going to talk about the Korean culture differences since hearing people criticize them. Koreans and asians in general are very reserved and are not very used to a lot of the things that we are used to. I want to touch every subject around every asian culture but today I will start with Koreans.
To start things off, communication. In America it is quite normal to begin a conversation whether it be with acquaintances or even strangers. It can be a long conversation or just small talk and it is not strange whatsoever. But when it comes to Korea, a lot of foreigners complain about Koreans staring rudely or not answer to them if they attempt to make small talk. This is because small talk is not a thing in Korea. It is very rare for strangers to initiate conversations, and find it rather uncomfortable when strangers begin small talk. It’s not meant to be rude, they are just not used to it at all. In this area also comes in the different dialects. Americans usually speak the same way to everyone, maybe change their tones depending on the person or age, specifically superiority. In Korea there is different dialects for everything. There is a dialect that needs to be used by elders to the youth, kids and teens to adults, etc. Apart from the dialects there is also two ways of speaking, the formal and informal. The formal is used for again, elders, parents, or superior people. Whereas the informal is more with friends or family. It is crucial to follow the dialects and this is to respect elders, adults and superiority.
Moving onto the appearance. Americans tend to be more open to these types of things, they can wear anything that they like, transform theirselves and they are not strict on showing skin. Koreans tend to focus a lot on beauty and appearance, it is very important to them, therefore they focus a lot on that. They tend to wear very modest clothing. showing little skin and if they do decide to wear shorts per say, they wear protective longer shorts under so they don’t show too much. As for makeup, Koreans typically are very light handed with it, they want to look naturally beautiful. But crazy colorful makeup and exotic hair colors is not a bad thing over there, you see many heads of hairs that are every color of the rainbow, they love changing up their hair a lot I’ve noticed.
Lastly, health. In America it is known for there to be any type of food, from healthy to the greasiest. There are plenty of jun foods in America where as in Korea there’s not much of their own. Of Course they get imported food from America but what’s their own is usually very healthy. Koreans tend to have very low fat foods, even if the food looks fattening and greasy it’s really not bad for you. Most of their foods come in very large quantities, because even if their weight and appearance are key, it is very important for them to eat well. Elders typically serve younger people plenty of food so they eat a lot and well. There is also ways of being respectful while drinking. For example, if there is an adult or elder driving with a younger person, the younger one has to cover the shot glass and turn to the side when taking it. There are so much more information out there on Korean culture and manners but this is just very briefly informed.
I hope that this helps understand to those who don’t know much, and are taken aback by their actions but it’s just their culture. They have a different way of manners and living whereas we have a very different way as well!
Escape The Ordinary 