While I tried to get an overview over different countries, Christof earned smart points by telling me about Korea. Having studied half a year in Seoul I considered him to be quite an expert. Nevertheless I had asked him about his impressions thus the following should be granted the benefits of subjectivity.
Just like China he sees Korea to be much influenced by the ideas of
confucianism. This is not all too surprising considering the geographical neighborhood and the fact that Korea was quite frequently occupied by China.
Most obvious confucianism becomes in terms of education. Universities select their students by a centrally-organized entrance examination. For this occasion even air planes are taken off schedule so that the students are not disturbed. Depending on the score you are qualified to enter different schools. To really enter into a career it is indispensable to visit one of the big universities. There, networks and life-long friendships are being established. If entrance to these universities is refused, students might actually take a whole year off just to study for the qualifying examination.
For parents it is very important that their children obtain an excellent education. This includes learning English at an extremely young age and the expectation to only come home with the best marks.
The Korean society appears to be very hierarchical.
When first meeting somebody new the first question will be which occupation the other one holds? About the marital status and at which university the other one studied. This ceremony is often accompanied by handing over visit cards. In that case it is very important to take the card with both hands and look at it for quite some while. This shows interest and respect. This also helps to figure out how to address the other person. Depending on the status of the other person different forms of address are applicable, in which case verbs are formed differently (
honorifics).
In general the younger one owes respect to the older one (which came in quite handy for Christof who never needed to tidy up the volleyball court) while on the other hand the older one is responsible for the younger one.
Traditionally, it is the one holding the higher status who is paying the expenses when going out. Nowadays this is not necessarily true among young people anymore and hardly ever when there are Western people in the group (so Christof was not lucky in this point :-(
In public it is very important to never lose 'face'. Nobody is showing emotions in public and hardly ever is critic articulated openly. Tasks seem to be performed obediently. Christof suggests that that might lead to quite some frustration which is then tackled in evening activities.
A usual Korean evening would start off in a restaurant, then move to a bar and later end with karaoke in a singing-room (noraebang). Drinking is a big part of this happening and usually it is not allowed to turn down drinks offered by some older person.
Back to business: the Korean economy is traditionally run by conglomerates (such as Samsung, Hyundai,....) so-called
chaebols, family-controlled corporate groups, which are deeply interlinked with the state.
Professional life is characterized by extremely long working hours. It sometimes seems as if employees are competing in after-hours to demonstrate their loyalty and solidarity with the organization. Meeting in study groups with Koreans it was important to first socialize: eat together and talk. Only when you knew who the other person was, the working process was initialized and then often interrupted by further socializing. While the work still needed to be done, the Koreans effortlessly cut down on sleep. Work is often understood as working out tasks rather than working independently on own projects.
So far.... merci Christof.
