Culture (Jessica)

Culture is a big system of signs, meanings, and worldviews of particular groups of human beings. Every country has their own culture and share, combine, communicate with another culture. There are many similarities and differences between American and Korean cultures. This essay will explore those aspects, found between American and Korean emphasizing the privacy, informality and directness factors.

Firstly, both cultures have a different perspective about privacy. Of course, most people think that they need some time and space to themselves. However, unlike American, Korean often want to be with another person, so sometimes people from another country can have a difficulty to understand Korean. Because occasionally some girls even want to go to a restroom with their friends. Also, some people are not used to respect others privacy so they often cross the boundaries of privacy, for example, if they think they are close enough with somebody they just think they can use any possessions of them and they visit their house without any noticing. Korean frequently thinks that they cannot be a real friend if they do not share any secrets or private things together.

Secondly, the other factor is the notions of equality. Americans think that all people are the same and valuable evenly so they act in a casual or friendly manner no matter what occupations the people have. Koreans also think that they are all equal and valuable but Korean used to have classes of status in the past so the wreckage of that class society still remains. So, even though they say they are all equal, the people who think they have a social status want their staffs show a big respect towards them and even might think they can drive them hard. Additionally, to show their social status, which they think is important, they always dress, act and speak formally, and are constantly on the alert so as not to be taken by any situations.
Lastly, there are several different notions about directness between American and Korean. People can say that Americans are more direct than Koreans but generally most people in the world do not want to hurt others' feeling so sometimes they tell a white lie. However, compared to Americans, Koreans have a stronger desire not to hurt others' feeling so they cannot say 'No' easily when others ask a favor even in the situation they can face the trouble. Furthermore, when people have a guest in their house, they have to ask for drink at least three times. Koreans always say 'No' at the first time since they think that is the way to show some respects to hosts. Additionally, Korean people can get in trouble for not saying what they want directly, since there can be a huge possibility of misunderstanding the purpose.

To conclude, this essay has described the similarities and differences between American and Korean culture, focusing on privacy, informality and directness aspects. Each culture has many different notions of these factors but they are all on the same base and just express differently. So get to know each other’s culture and background of it is crucial to understand better.