Case Study: Exploring Nunchi

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Exploring Nunchi Through the Concepts of Grounding Being able to read and act based on social cues is important in many cultures, but in South Korea, “nunchi” is especially valued. There is no exact translation of this word in English, but in his research paper, Jae Hong Heo interprets nunchi as a method of understanding the situation or feelings of others around you and acting accordingly. My paper will discuss why nunchi is unique to South Korea and how the awareness of nunchi affects social relations on professional and casual levels. My research’s purpose is to identify how nunchi serves as a type of grounding in interpersonal relations and why it plays such a larger role in Korean culture than in other cultures. As a result, my main research question is how nunchi affects and reflects the way people in Korean society relate to each other, especially from different positions of power. Through analyzing my sources, I found that nunchi is not …show more content…

For example, when going to a cafe for coffee with friends, nunchi is used to decide which cafe all of your friends agree on going to, and is also used by the employee working there to please the customers. This is exemplified by a comedic skit from “Alba Heaven” where this is parodied and roles are switched. The employee is the one the customers have to please in this video, and we can see how nunchi is grounding as the customers pick up on cues that indicate how the employee feels. This is seen through body language when the camera zooms into the employee’s fist banging down on the table when asked to make a more complex drink, which the customer interprets as annoyance and changes her order to something easier to make by reading that as nunchi. This is an example of nunchi in back channel information and grounding as the customers understand what is said “between the lines” and react

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