Korean Culture Bits

Coming to Korea can be a culture shock for anyone coming over for the first time. Most can’t read or understand the language, and the people – though very helpful for the most part – often stare at foreigners like an unfamiliar curiosity. Coming from a country like Canada, the United States, or Britain where there are so many people of different races with different faces, rarely is a second glance given to someone due to their skin color being different. This is one of the first things you come to understand coming from another country, Korea is for the most part a mono-culture, inhabited by a single race with close ties to the surrounding countries, such as China and Japan. In larger cities such as Seoul and Busan, where there is a much larger foreign population, most Koreans are used to seeing foreigners. In smaller communities, however, foreigners are more of an oddity – though this is changing gradually. Some call this "the celebrity effect".

Koreans are generally very curious about foreign people and places, and will often be very inquisitive about where you are from. Depending on the area of Korea you are in, people will note your passing with either great attention or none at all. People in Seoul, for example, are quite used to seeing foreigners on a regular basis, but some smaller or more rural areas are not quite as casual about foreigners being in the area.

It can sometimes be annoying to have people staring at you when you are trying to have a meal or just go shopping, and sometimes they are pretty bold faced about watching you and what you are doing. One woman had an older lady come right up to her while she was grocery shopping. The older lady then proceeded to examine the contents of the shopping cart, shaking her head with seeming disapproval as she gave everything a once over.

Koreans are very interested in knowing about you and where you are from, as well as wanting to introduce their own country and culture to you however they can. They are often quite surprised when you show your own knowledge of the country and its customs, and especially delighted when you show them some of the language you have acquired.

When you start meeting Koreans there are some common questions that you will encounter on a regular basis. These being: Are you married? How old are you? What’s your job? These are important questions for Koreans because in their language there is a system of honorifics that is directly affected by the answers to these questions. Even though they will be speaking to you in English these are the questions that they are used to asking in their own language and it helps to put you into their social order system.

The National Identity

Due to their Confucian background, Koreans are extremely aware of a very organized hierarchy with respect to social position. This hierarchical organization applies to all areas of a Korean person’s social and work life. It directly guides the way they act and speak in all situations, and they are not generally allowed to speak freely unless allowed to by their superiors, or unless they are with people younger or lower than themselves in this social organizational scheme.

l Teachers are highly respected here, and students generally accept the criticisms and advice of their teachers without much complaint.

l Respect is shown to a Korean’s elders, as it is to those of a higher social status.

l Around friends, Koreans will speak quite freely and enjoy the time with their friends even more because many of the social constraints they deal with on a regular basis are released in these situations.

The confucian honorific system is shown through the way Koreans act and speak. It directly affects the way an expression is finished, or the types of expressions that can and cannot be used. It is an integral part of all facets of social interaction. Among these being:

Korean culture is very deeply rooted in its traditions and history. Some say that Korea has over 5000 years of traditions to draw from and they take them very seriously. The most important factor that influences Korean culture is Confucianism. It is a part of almost everything that happens in this country, and you can see it in all things. The clearest examples of this come in the way Koreans think about family, jobs, and the importance of social hierarchies.

l During holidays most Koreans go to their parents’ homes to be with family, and there are certain duties that each is expected to perform during these times.

l Mothers and fathers are in great control of their children’s lives and exert an incredible amount of influence over their decisions. Acceptance of these decisions is a must, in most cases.

l All family members share in the fortunes and failures of one member in a manner of degrees, and thus it is that families are consulted on all major decisions.

Koreans’ commitment to their families is very closely mimicked in their work ethic.

l At work, most people put in long hours and are often asked to perform many tasks for their employer outside of the regular job requirements. These requests are generally accepted without much complaint, even if they are nowhere within the realm of the job description.

l Koreans feel a strong sense of duty to their employer and are quite willing to go miles out of their way to accomplish the tasks laid out for them. It is astounding to see some of the things that people are expected to do as a part of their job that have no direct bearing on that job. This is due to the workers sense of duty to the employer and managers.

l Korean workers are more than willing to go beyond their job description to help out in any way possible.

Important Dates and Festivals

Holidays in Korea are spent with family, especially during the 3-day national ones. What follows is a list of important holidays during the year that will help you plan for any special trips you may wish to take.

SeolNal (like Chinese New Year's) – late Jan early Feb, this is a 3 day holiday.

Buddha’s Birthday – this holiday moves depending on the lunar calender, but usually falls at the beginning of May.

Conservatively Speaking

Koreans generally view the world through a conservative lens. This conservatism is applied to social relationships and etiquette. It affects the way they view the world and most importantly it has a direct influence on how foreigners are viewed. In some cases foreigners are viewed as extremely liberal in many ways that Koreans find shocking. As mentioned earlier, due to the constraints placed on Koreans through their social organization and the ways it influences their interaction with others, North Americans seem to act in a more casual and free manner. This is both appealing and disconcerting to Koreans, depending on which age group you ask. Generally speaking, older Koreans have a stronger sense of traditional ethics or etiquette that usually views foreign behaviour as either charming or rude. Younger people find interest in things they view as crazy or strange behaviour, as well as a sense of frankness or directness when it comes to speaking and dealing with certain issues that are usually kept personal.

Think of traditional family values and the way that the young usually try to break from those trends. In many ways it is the same as America 20 or 30 years ago, or maybe a little more. The area in which this conservatism shows itself most clearly is in gender roles in Korea.

l women generally work until they get married and then become homemakers, taking care of the home and raising the children.

l Men have a pretty free reign as far as their public behaviour goes, whereas women are frowned upon for doing some of the same things. An example would be smoking: men can smoke when and where they want, while women sometimes get hassled for smoking in public.

There are some definite double standards present, but there are changes in these areas as well.

Koreans in Class

The education system in Korea is similar in many ways to western education systems, though as noted earlier the level of competition is much higher. There is one telling difference that you will notice right away -- Korean students in primary school attend classes 6 days a week, Monday to Saturday. At the elementary school level, the students start school around 9 a.m., and finish around 1 p.m. for Grades 1-2 and a little later for the higher grades. In sixth grade the students start at 8 a.m. and finish their school day at around 4:00 PM.

At the middle school level Korean students enter a very regimented and organized system of education. They have school uniforms and severe dress codes in place that dictate all aspects of the student’s appearance. Strange hairstyles are definitely not allowed. About the only way they have to express themselves is their shoes, and these can’t be bright colors.

There is still a strong belief in corporal punishment in the schools in Korea. Though the students have experienced it to some degree in elementary school, they get a full taste of it in middle school. The biggest difference between middle and elementary school is that middle school students have very little time for outside activities. Most of their time is spent studying for tests, which they take almost every day. These students are constantly being pushed for their next test.

Due to the drastically increased workload these children are dealing with, they have less time for extracurricular study in private academies. They generally only go to study hakwons where the focus is the study and practice of all subjects in middle school. (These academies are called Ip She Hakwons and deal with all subjects rather than just specializing in one area.)

Grade 9 students are generally working so hard that they have absolutely no time for anything but study, as they have high school entrance exams to take. Their scores on these tests will dictate the schools available to them, and will probably be with them until they finish high school.

When a student reaches high school, their social life shrinks to the size of a small pea. These students generally do nothing but study for about 16-20 hours a day, every day, including weekends. They have little or no free time and the level of competition is ridiculous. High school students spend their entire secondary scholastic experience studying for their all-important university entrance exams. Also there is an extreme emphasis placed on gaining a high score on their TOEIC tests, which gauge their English ability and are the measure by which Korean companies evaluate who they will employ after they finish university.

School + Hakwon = Total Education

The study of English has been promoted as the key to successful and continued growth in Korea, as it is the language of choice for businesses around the world. As Korea seeks to be the economic go-between for Asia, Korean business and government place an extreme emphasis on the development of the country’s English ability. The goal of the public and business sectors is to one day have a Korea that is bilingual, with two official languages.

Due to this, students are almost forced to receive instruction outside of the school in order to compete effectively in their classes. Students go to Hakwons, private academies, to increase their ability in various areas of study – one of the most important being English.

English Invasion!

Students may begin studying English as early as kindergarten, but most don’t start until they reach elementary. Once in elementary, students begin their introduction to the English language, though they have probably been exposed to it in a number of forms already. One thing you will notice is words that sound a little like Korean and a little like English. Koreans have adopted many words from English and “Koreanized” them, calling these words “Konglish.”

During middle school students begin to seriously study English and begin their introduction to learning English grammar. This is in preparation for their upcoming TOEIC exams at the end of high school. In high school the students work extremely hard on their English ability. The problem being that though they spend many years developing an understanding of English, they have very few opportunities to actually use what they have learned. Sending students to an English speaking country for overseas study is big business in Korea, and many of the more advanced students you will teach – as well as many of your Korean teacher partners – will have been to a foreign country at some point to study.

Due to the emphasis on English in so many areas of Korea’s development, the people of this country have been bombarded by the language in all forms of media. Most signs have some English content, and many areas of study have some English requirement. In advertisements, Television programs, movies, and especially on the internet English is becoming a regular part of Korean society.

Koreans @ Home

Depending on where you come from, the type of living arrangements that Koreans are used to and the style you are familiar with may be worlds apart. For the most part Koreans live with their families until the time they are married. This means it is not uncommon to find someone in their late twenties or early thirties still living at home and obeying the rules that their parents lay down for them. Koreans are very close to their families, partly because they live with them for so long. Men live with their parents because during their academic career they have to take a break and go to military service, the length of which is 2 years and 2 months. After this period they then go back to university to finish their degrees and get a job. Women, on the other hand, are expected to live with their parents until such time as they have married, then they move in with their husband. This is just a general statement, and there are exceptions to the rule.

Even though there are some who live away from their parents, it is not too likely that you will find a person living in an apartment with someone of the opposite gender. The traditional Korean viewpoint on this is that a man and woman who live together should be married. This viewpoint assumes that this kind of living situation is inappropriate for single unmarried people.