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Cultural differences between the US and Korea
Korean traditions and culture
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Recommended: Cultural differences between the US and Korea
Korea is a homogenous country, speaking one language, with a large sense of pride in their nation and ancestors. The Korean culture is very foreign from that of Western society. Korea’s business culture is difficult for Americans to decipher. There are websites such as Korea4expats, koreanzbc, and even studies at universities such as Miami have done studies on these significant differences in business culture. American businesses biggest opportunity with Korea businesses is shifting away from their direct approach and understanding Korea’s underlying tones and nonverbal behaviors (Korea4expats, 2012). International businesses interacting with Korea need to understand the difference in Korea’s culturally defined communication practices. American business practices are a low-context culture, where we put great emphasis on spoken words. Korea is a high-context culture, where they emphasize nonverbal messages. There are three cultural practices of Korea that greatly differ its communication with Americans; Kibun,Nunchi, and Inwha. These cultural aspects rely heavily on non-verbal cues. Generally speaking non-verbal language is understandable across different cultures, but in international businesses these subtle differences can hurt or boost business.
E.T. Hall’s context continuum correlates with a nations' reliance to nonverbal. “Low context cultures, such as those in North America, depend less on the environment of a situation to convey meaning than do high context cultures, such as Korea” (Guffey, 2010). In low context cultures, words are taken literally. It is very important in American business to communicate and fully inform colleagues verbally. However, in Korean high context culture, it is “assumed that the listener is already...
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..., Internation Business: The New Realities, 3rd ed. (pp. 81-107). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc.
Guffey, M. E. (2010). Essentials of Business Communication. Mason: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Kim, Y. (1998, October 21). Doing Business in Korea. Retrieved September 14, 2013, from Angelfire: http://www.angelfire.com/nd/youngkim/adddoingbiz.html
Korea4expats. (2012, August 21). Kibun, Nunchi, Inwa, Harmony. Retrieved September 15, 2013, from Korea4expats: http://www.korea4expats.com/article-nunchi-kibun-values-norms-korea.html
Lee, C. Y. (2012, October). Korean Culture And Its Influence on Business Practice. Retrieved September 15, 2013, from Jims Journal: http://www.jimsjournal.org/21%20Choong%20Y.%20Lee.pdf
U.S. Korea Connect. (2012). U.S. Korea Connect. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from Trade Works: http://www.uskoreaconnect.org/pdfs/trade-works.pdf
-Many Korean immigrants came to America because they wanted to give their children a better future and because of the American Dream. They worked hard to achieve that dream; working hard everyday, and saving up every penny (Sa-I-Gu: From Korean Women's Perspectives, 1993). As immigrants, they were only able to get very low paying jobs and made very little. The only property they could afford to buy was in South Central Los Angeles. The property there was cheap because many people/companies didn't want to run a business there because it was in such a bad neighborhood (Sa-I-Gu: From Korean Women's Perspectives, 1993). The Korean immigrants knew how to run a successful business. They worked long and hard hours, and had family members work instead of employing people from the neighborhood. This way, they were able to cut labor costs and were able to survive and...
"North Korea: Human rights concerns." Amnesty Australia. Amnesty International, 28 Nov. 2006. Web. 2 May 2014. .
...Y-W. (1985). Ethnic Resources and Business Enterprise: A Study of Chinese Business in Toronto. Human Organization, 44(2), 142-154.
Koreans are the third largest and fastest growing minority populations in the United States. They are mainly middle to upper middle class, well-educated individuals who are strongly defined by their native culture. This population is defined by three groups: first generation- which are people born in Korea to Korean parents, who have immigrated and reside in the United States, and are either American citizens or have obtained permanent status. A very small part of this population is made up of college-age young adults who have student visas who may or may not have established family or social support. The second generation is comprised of individuals born in the United States to first generation Korean parents. There is a third group, who are individuals who have been in the United ...
Fukuoka, Yasunori “Koreans in Japan: Past and Present,” Saitama University Review, vol. 31, no.1, 1996.
The book I chose for this book review assignment is titled Korea Old and New: A History by author Carter J. Eckert along with other contributing authors Ki-baik Lee, Young Ick Lew, Michael Robinson and Edward W. Wagner. The book is published at Korea Institute, Harvard University in 1990. The book consists of 418 pages and it is more of a survey of Korean history and reference type of book, rather than selected readings on modern Korean politics. I chose this book because it is a complete survey of Korean history from the ancient Choson period up to the economic boom of the 1990's, a span of over 2000 years. Each chapter covers a different period, but they all share the same organization of describing the social, cultural, political, philosophical and scholarly aspects of the period in respective subsections. This made it easier to later refer to previous chapters and compare different periods in order to learn the comprehensive history of Korea.
From Korean Pop stars to dramas, South Korea has it going on. It seems that there is not one Asian country that has not had the Korean Wave, a Chinese term given to South Korea referring to the exportation of their culture, completely wash over it. What started as an Asian sensation, the Korean Wave is now beginning to spread globally, ranking South Korea as one of the top countries known for its exportation of culture. Between music, television, and video games, South Korea’s economy is rapidly increasing as the world continues to fall in love with its entertainment industry.
Culture has always been a driving force in understanding nonverbal communication as nonverbal communication is highly influenced by the cultural differences as the context of the culture defines how the communication/message is interpreted in certain cultures. “Communication occurs within a context but the context is particularly important in relation to non-verbal communication” (Tyler, Kossen & Ryan, 2005, p.185). Culture defines the messages perceived by the non-verbal communication. For instance, proxemics. “Proxemics refers to the spatial relationship or how we use space.” (Tyler, Kossen & Ryan, 2005, p.190) Culture plays an important role in defining the use of one’s personal space in the nonverbal communication process. For example, in North America people usually remain at a distance from one another when talking while Latin American people stay very close when talking. (Wood, 2009). This defines the use of the privacy or personal space in two different cultures. H...
In international management, culture is acquired knowledge that peoples use to interpret experiences and generate social behavior. This knowledge forms values, creates attitudes and influences behavior. Because different cultures exist in the world an understanding of the impact of culture on behavior is critical in the international management. There are many way of examining culture differences and their impact on international management. Culture can affect technology transfer, managerial attitude, managerial ideology and even business-government relations. Cultural affects a host of business-related activities, even the including the common handshake. For example, in the United States, the standard greeting is a smile, often accompanied by a nod, wave and it may sometimes include verbal greeting. In business situations, a firm handshake is used. Feeble handshakes are viewed as negatively as weakness. Men usually wait for women to offer their hand before shaking. As in the Czech Republic, shake hands, firmly but briefly, with everyone (including children) when introduced. It is also customary to shake hands once again upon departure. Men should wait to see if women extend their hands in inter-gender meetings. Also, avoid keeping the left hand in one's pocket while shaking hands with the right. In the Czech Republic, politics and other complicated ...
Robinson, J. H. (2000) 'Communication in Korea: Playing Things bye Eye'. Intercultural Communication Journal: A Reader. Vol.9, pp. 74-81.
It is often shown that all the Koreans say something indirectly. It seems as if Korean has different way of thinking with the native English speakers. It has been reported that in contrast to English students, Korean students tend to express themselves in general, even when asked to communicate their ideas. This is because they have been trained to think inclusively and it is emphasized that moderation is considered the supreme virtue in the civilization of Korea. (Byung-Eun Cho, 2004) Also, all the Korean students are thought that patience is the most important virtue. Therefore, they are not get used to express what and how they think. On the other hand, in contrast to Korean students, English students feel comfortable to express their opinion. This is the biggest different aspect between Korean and
In this interview Ben Bagley asks Theresa Han about the difference between Korean and American culture. Theresa is a teenager who recently moved to the United States so she has an excellent perspective for understanding the differences and similarities between these countries.
The Republic of Korea, also known as South Korea, is a country occupying the southern part of the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. Korea’s history can date back to 2333 BC, when Gojoseon was founded by Dangun. Based on linguistic evidence, it seems that the people of Korea largely immigrated there from the Altai Mountains and were initially from Manchuria, Mongolia, and China (“History before Division” 2014). In 1945, northern and southern parts of Korea were occupied by Soviet Union and United States troops, respectively, which made the country become one of the only divided countries in the world (“History after Division” 2014).
North Korea is a peninsula made up of mountainous terrain with narrow valleys and has bodies of water on both its eastern and western sides. The western sides are the lowland plains of the country while the eastern side has a narrow coastal region with steep mountains (Korean Cultural Orientation, 2009, p. 5). The country only covers 47,250 square miles and is only about 20 percent bigger than South Korea. The bulk of the population resides on only one-fourth of the land due to the terrain and living conditions (Operational Cultural Awareness Training – North Korea, 2008, p
The South Korean culture is very tied into the markets; it is one of the largest countries that is deeply involved in local markets (Gen, 2006) hence South Koreans prefer to see and buy localized items. South Koreans are visually-oriented customers, appreciating aesthetically pleasing displays and shopping environment and are not very receptive to the typical Western-like box discounter. This inhibited house wife from shopping in Wal-Mart (Olsen, 2006).