Historically, in South Korean (from hereafter referred to as Korean) culture people need to work hard. According to Andrew Eungi Kim and Gil-Sung Park, work is “regarded as a social obligation, patriotic duty, and moral duty, replete with the notion that the more each individual works, the better off everyone is, including the company, and more importantly, the country” (41). This view towards work highlights that Koreans view work with the utmost importance. Only by working, will they be able to help the company. Only by helping the company, will they be able to help the country. And only by helping the country, will they be able to help everybody else. This take on work undoubtedly places immense stress on the workers. Stresshack.com writes, …show more content…
As previously mentioned, in Korea the working conditions are like working in an actual company, stress and hierarchy included. However, in other regions, teams are more owned by the players. As Shields explains it, “In the west, the players rule the team. Usually, their value in the team is based on leadership skills or gameplay skills. The team chooses who to kick and who to keep” (Shields). This last part is the most important for the players because it allows them to voice their concerns about the management without the fear of getting kicked out of the team. Cho explains that in Korea, “If the company doesn’t like a player they will kick the player even if his teammates like him” (Shields). This difference between how Western teams and Korean teams operate highlights just how strict the Korean teams manage their players. In an interview with Redbull, Korean player Kim “ReignOver” Ui-jin, who had moved to Europe to play League of Legends said, “western organizations have a way better environment for the job ‘progamer’… Most parts of being a progamer are simply better outside of Korea. Korea is a strong E-sports country, but poor in terms of support” (Gorzel). Kim makes it clear that the work environment in Korea is lacking compared to the work environment abroad. Although Korea has many people who are good at playing video games, the management in Korea isn’t as helpful and supportive as the management in other countries. Without a strong support staff, it’s hard for the professional gamers to perform well in a high stress low reward environment. In Korea, Kim’s team did not find much success, usually placing at the bottom of the standings. However, after moving to Europe and working with a better support staff and coach, Kim and his team were able become the number one team in Europe and claim 4th place at the 2015 World
Power-distance is important because the higher the distance, the less likely a person is to challenge authority. The challenges are critical in piloting because pilots are supposed to depend on their crewmembers to review their decisions to lead to the best choices. Koreans were taught not to command their boss, so a mistake could be allowed to go on and get worse since the co-pilot would not feel comfortable offering a solution. The other cultural legacy that played a large part in the crashes is the social legacy that Koreans rely heavily on subtle speech. Instead of directly stating a suggestion, Korean co pilots would hint at a problem and if the pilot did not pick up on the indirect hint the problem would continue on. This is evident in the chapter when the Korean engineer tells the Captain, “The weather radar has helped us a lot.” This quote is not just a general observation, but instead a specifically subtle way of telling the Captain to look at the radar and rely on it. The Korean cultural legacies of not specifically stating what they mean and the strong power-distance is what caused the Korean Air pilots to handle difficult flight situations in a very poor manner, causing several
Another thing that the cultural rule helped to benefit Hong Ulsu and Kang Pyongju was to provide them jobs that Koreans would never had before under Japan’s rule. The cultural rule not only helped in the expansion of schools which allowed Koreans more opportunities to gain advanced studies and more job options, but appointed more Koreans to civil services and judiciary, created advisory councils of carefully chosen Koreans, and nominally re-adjusted dual pay scale for bureaucrats. Again, Hong Ulsu met a kind Japanese person who became his boss when he work for him as an apprentice in which he was the one who helped him the most when he arrived in Japan, such as he provided meals for him, paid him his wages, and also paid for his schooling.
In regard of labor laws in Korea, Korean employees are paid by their job title and the years they have worked for the company, in comparison to US where people get paid by what they have done. (Law 360, New York, Where the US and Korean Labor Laws Divide, June 3, 2014) Furthermore, despite the fact that Korea also provides freedom of speech and press by the constitutional law, a 1989 Supreme Court decision shown on the case of ‘illustrating a paratrooper killing citizens in Gwangju, 1980’ says the opposite. The painter was sentenced to be imprisoned for 18 months, due to his “intent to defame the soldiers of being murderers of civilians”. (Liberal Law and The Press In South Korea, School of Law University in Maryland, p. 8) This case was absurd in that the Gwangju Uprising in 1980s actually ended up with army’s indiscriminate firing against citizens, resulting hundreds of people dead, injured, and taken to the police labelled as mobs. Most recently, July 18, 2015, an agent of National Intelligence Service (NIS) has committed suicide in his car, with a letter that NIS was not trying to spy on citizens.( K.J. Kwon and Hilary Whiteman, CNN, South Korean intelligence employee commits suicide, leaves note, Mon July 20, 2015) Few days before the incident, some proofs that NIS has bought spying program and implemented it in some free mobile applications were revealed. The worst part was that the program is even
The period from 1905 to 1924 is characterized by quite a different group of Korean Immigrants. One part of this group was made up of Koreans who were running from their government and students who were studying in the US. Syngman Rhee, who would become the leader of South Korea during the Korean War, was earning his Ph.D. at Princeton University during this time. About 500 students and political refugees arrived in America (...
Just how bad are pure socialist economies? North Korea is the most well known socialist nation. The government came to control all economic decisions in the country. Most of the country’s resources were sent to the military. The country also used its resources on developing a nuclear program. The military growth used up all of the country’s necessary resources. In the late 90s and early 2000s, the majority of the country was suffering from hunger and malnutrition because food was scarce. Millions ended up dead, and those who survived only did because of the aid from other countries (like South Korea and other capitalist countries). The failure to provide food foe the country was due to their flawed economy. North Korea began to produce less
This response will focus on the key issue of fragmentation. In his book Korea’s Twentieth-Century Odyssey, Michael E. Robinson wrote “Multiple interest groups resided within the bureaucracy and even divided the royal house” (p. 16). Arguably, Korea’s sovereignty was lost in large part, due to the lack of unity among different groups and faction. It was clear from the readings that some Korean individuals and groups prioritized their self-interests above their own country’s benefit. Nowhere was this most evident then the issue of national security.
By the time 1915 – 1920, Korean immigrants made enough money to start small business like laundry, barber, restaurant, shoe repair services, and so on. This meant that they were able to donate more to political activities. Korean immigrants built school for their children and churches. Korean immigrants were getting settled in America. They even had Korean newspapers to tell people what was going on with Korea.
“Countries where people feel more threatened with uncertainty are more likely to be afraid of change and countries where people are less threatened with uncertainty are more accepting of a departure from the norm.” (Adler, Rosenfeld, Proctor, &Winder, 2012, p.100). I grew up in Korea until grade 11 and came to Canada. Even though I spent seven years in Canada, I am still strongly influenced by norms in Korean society. I realized that I came from one of the countries that feel more threatened with uncertainty and not comfortable with not fitting the norms in the society. In Korean society, females who are 24 years old usually finish their four-years of degree and look for the job. Moreover, majority people expect to finish degree in four years. When my parents kept reminding me the norm in Korean society, I felt discouraged because I did not want to be behind the rest of same age people in Korea. I realized that I felt helpless not because my parents were not supportive with my decision, but because of the uncomfortable feeling that comes from not fitting the norm. I should have understood my perception that closely related to Korean society and the difference of culture between Korea and
Soh, C. S. (2001). South Korea. In C. R. Ember & M. Ember (Eds.), Countries and Their Cultures (
South Korea has a strong $1-trillion economy; it is the third largest market in Asia, behind Japan and China. It also has the 13th largest economy in the world. It is expected that the economy’s current upward trajectory will continue for some time to come. This makes South Korea an attractive market for foreign investment, especially as the world economy, as a whole, continues to improve.
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.
Despite the fact that the film tries to illuminate the American culture and presence in the online gaming world, it seem widely inadequate that the issue of South Korea is not addressed. South Korea is a country where the online gaming world is a great part of the country’s culture. It is very disconcerting that this part of the gaming world is not mentioned at all in the film. The film is so based on moving from one issue to the other, that it’s very shocking that there is no mention of South Korea.
There are three main branches of service in South Korea. These branches are the Air Force, the Navy (Marine Corps), and the Republic of Korea Army. Within these branches, everyone must serve at least 21 months in the Army or Marines, 23 months in the Navy, or 24 months in the Air Force. Anyone who voluntarily joins to any of these branches must be 18-26 years old. Any conscript service soldier or pilot must be somewhere from 20-30 years old. Everyone who is being forced to fight by law must have a middle school education. In the wars listed below, South Korea had many allies. These countries were Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, the Kingdom of Laos, the Khmer Republic, the United States of America, South Vietnam, Luxembourg, the Netherlands,
South Korea, once a broken country filled with broken families, has transformed itself into a fine example of perseverance in a tough situation. South Korea and its neighbor to the north have developed past where they were before the Korean War, but in different ways. The two countries, while certainly dependent on each other, are vastly different. Their conflicting styles of government and their differing cultures speak for themselves in this case. South Korea has, over the years, changed dramatically from the crippled country of the Korean War into a blossoming beacon of Asian cultural and economic changes. The combination of its recent economic importance, its heavy cultural influence, and its constant danger of participating in a war makes South Korea one of the most influential countries in the world.
Another factor is that Korea’s heavy investment in human capital has led its education to rely heavily on rote learning and curricula cramming for the national university entrance exam. This leaves little room for creative thinking and an exploratory spirit . The government’s remedies include investments (over the past decade) to improve the education system, as well as work with industry to create more specialized curricula to smoothen the transition from university to industry.