Friday, April 8, 2016

South Korea Culture

According to dictionary.com the definition of culture is: “the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group”. I am an “Army Brat” and I am proud to be a part of this culture group. Home for an Army Brat is where the Army decides to relocate the military parent or parents. Our family of four traveled around the Contiguous United States (CONUS) and Outside the Continental United States (OCONUS) for over twenty-eight years. As an Army Brat we resided in many different places state side and overseas. Every place has different culture beliefs; including CONUS and OCONUS.

  As an Army Brat I lived in South Korea for two years and I respect their culture. South Korean culture and American culture is different. We both celebrate New Year’s Day; however, we celebrate this special day differently. On New Year’s Eve the majority of American’s host parties or attend special events to bring in the New Year. For example, New Year’s Eve celebrations consist of peach drop in Atlanta, Georgia, ball drop in Times Square in Manhattan, New York City, and acorn drop in Raleigh, North Carolina then shout Happy New Year.

   In South Korea, on New Year’s Day children bow down to elders and relatives and say Happy New Year. The bowing is different than the normal bow. Girls bow down on one knee and boys bow down on both knees to say Happy New Year. South Korean relatives give advice to the children and give them money. Both South Korean and Americans show respect to elders. South Korean’s show respect by greeting elders with a bow and Americans show respect to elders by recognizing them as Mr., Mrs., Miss, and etc.

Another culture difference between American and South Korea is how we celebrate Valentine’s Day on February 14. In South Korea Valentine’s Day is all about the men and in American it’s all the women. Korean women shower the men with chocolates and American men shower their woman with chocolates, jewelry, flowers, cards, and etc. On March 14, South Koreans celebrate White Day and on this day men shower women with candy. Also on April 14, South Koreans celebrate Black Day for the single individuals and on this special day they eat noodles with their friends at local restaurants. They have a special day it is on April 14. There day is called Black Day. On this special day is where they eat noodles with their friends.

For school system they have six years’ primary, three years of middle and high school and lastly four years of college. Education is very important to the parents and they try to get their kids into the best schools. Bottom line there are some inherent cultural differences.

3 comments:

  1. You have a lot of interesting content, but it's jammed into one huge paragraph. This isn't chunking information for ease of access, and I've actually list my place twice in the reading. How about breaking this up structurally into segments to create a frame that allows the text to flow. Then fold in reliable research to support your anecdotal claims from your travels?

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  2. I really like all the information you have here. My father is in the Marine Corps and my family and I spent 3 years on Okinawa, Japan so we had an experience similar to yours in terms of the differences in cultures. Okinawa has 3 different cultures constantly influencing it. It has its proud original culture that is resistant to both the Japanese and American cultures. The blending of all three made it an amazing place to live. One if the coolest events we took part in was the annual Naha Tug of War. Over a quarter million people participate in the tug of war and festivities and during the year we went, our side won the contest. It is always interesting and beneficial to learn about the differences in other cultures.

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  3. This post informed me of a few things of the army life. I liked how you explained a bit of the cultural difference of America and South Korea. The only thing that could be worked on a bit is the use of repetition. I noticed the term "Army Brat" about 3 times within the first two paragraphs. Other than that good job it was interesting to learn a bit about the Military culture.

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