Korean Vs American Culture - Assignment Example

Korean Vs American Culture Koreans are different from the American people in relation to culture and other aspects. Koreans are more traditional than Americans whose culture is modern. First, there is a difference in how Koreans relate to their elders compared to Americans. Koreans show much respect to their elders. While greeting their elders, younger Koreans bow their heads to show respect. If the people are the same age, they both bow their heads slightly. On New Year, the Korean younger generation tells their aunts, uncles and other relatives happy new year with a special kind of bow. On this holiday, the boys bow on both knees and girls kneel on one knee. In return, their relatives offer advice and give them money. According to Korean tradition, it is rude to address an elderly person by name. Thus, they call them teacher (Sang-Hun 1). On the other hand, Americans greet their elders with either a handshake or a hug. It is also the same greeting between people of the same age since elderly base more on handshakes while the youths give many hugs. There is no particular tradition in America concerning greetings during New Year celebrations though most spend it together as a family. In America, the young address elders by their names and not considered offensive (Kim and Hong 63). The second difference of culture is that Korean students in elementary school go to school from 8 am to 3 pm. This is also the same for students in middle school. It changes when a student joins high school where school starts at 6 am and ends at 6 pm. The students take a one-hour lunch break with 20 -30 minute break between one-hour classes. It is because one has to work extra hard to make it to college in Korea. There is much competition from people who want to join college. In America, school is strictly from 8 am to 4 pm. Americans have shorter breaks between classes compared to Koreans. Americans have greater opportunities to choose from so there is no pressure studying in order to go to college (Ford et al. 730). Food and type of meal are another cultural difference between Koreans and Americans. The Korean’s main dish is rice with a couple of side dishes. However, the most popular is Kimchi. This is a dish comprising of a mixture of cabbage, fish, onions and much pepper. Koreans eat a lot of pepper in their food. There is another popular side dish Chopchae made of spinach, sweet potato, carrots, beef and different kind of spices. They also eat meat and pork covered with a lot of onions as a side dish. Americans, however, rarely have home cooked meals due to their busy schedules. It is easier for them to just eat out from fast food restaurants. Most Americans eat from McDonalds, Burger King and Domino. The main kinds of food served in these places are burgers, chips and pizza (Ford et al. 730). Korean students go to academy classes. These are classes offered after the regular school classes. Most of the students learn Maths and English up to sometimes midnight to improve their grades. There are few sports activities that happen in Korea. This is different in America where after school activities are optional. Most of the students who participate in co-curricular activities engage in sports. Sports are a major thing in America (Ford et al. 731). The popular sports include baseball, American football and soccer. Music is different in these two countries. American music is more popular than Korean music around the world. The American pop culture is very popular and adopted by different countries around the world (Ford et al. 733). This cannot be said about Korean music that is only popular in Japan and China. The Korean musicians have started getting more recognition in the west, but not popular. This is because the Koreans rarely speak in English, which is more acceptable and understandable around the world. Music is a major form of entertainment in America as the youths usually go out on weekends for music entertainment. Clubbing is very popular in America compared to Korea. Korean youth’s form of entertainment during the weekend is usually watching movies, sharing meals with each other and playing computer games. They also use the internet a lot as they have one of the fastest internet connections in the world (Cowen, Ball and Delin 2). Religion is a major cultural difference between the Koreans and Americans. In Korea, most of the population (46%) has no form of the region. The rest is either Buddhists or Christians with a very small population having other religions. This is, however, different from the Americans. Most Americans (80%) of them are Christians with 4% of the population being either Jewish, Buddhists or Muslims. The rest of the population has no religion (Ford et al. 735). The building designs in Korea and America are also different. Korean buildings are very close to each other and are usually very high compared to American buildings. American buildings are relatively high but not very high and the buildings are not very much close to each other. Towns like Georgia have buildings that are not very high, but occupy a large ground space which is different from Korea (Cowen, Ball, and Delin 1). In conclusion, Korean culture is different from American culture in all the ways shown above. Koreans are more traditional and follow their ancient culture, whereas America’s culture is modern. They live in modern ways and do not believe in a woman’s place to be the kitchen. Koreans on the other hand, believe women should be able to cook and provide home cooked meals for their families. Americans are also seen to have more ‘freedom’ and are able to choose life they want to live. Koreans do not have that freedom of choice and follow instructions from their elders more on how to live. Works Cited Kim E. and Hong S. First generation Korean American parents’ perceptions on discipline. Journal of Professional Nursing.23.1(2007):60–68. Cowen, L., Ball, L. J., and Delin, J. An eye-movement analysis of web-page usability. People and Computers XVI—Memorable yet Invisible. London: Springer, 2002 Ford, N., et al. Information seeking and mediated searching: Part 4—cognitive styles in information seeking. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53.9(2002): 728-735. Sang-Hun, C. As families change, Korea’s elderly are turning to suicide. 2013. New York Times. 2014 < http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/world/asia/in-korea-changes-in-society-and-family-dynamics-drive-rise-in-elderly-suicides> Read More