1. From what I have noticed from my korean-american and korean-canadian friends, they seem to have mostly liberal views. However, due to being mostly exposed to what I would term to be the 'banana culture' of the Americas (I would define this as having yellow skin on the outside, but white on the inside), their views don't seem to directly reflect those of all-korean descent. I would go as far to say that these mostly liberal views could encompass most asian-americans and asian-canadians. When I had visited my cousins who lived in Hong Kong/Macau, they were much more conservative - and often my friends in those regions would tell me "we don't think like the way you white people (as a joke) do." Now my question is, do native koreans and their american/canadian counterparts feel the same way/share the same views as each other, or was I correct on the 'different cultural exposure?'
2. It is understandable that the older population (specifically the ones who have lived through the last century's wars) shared a deep hatred for Japan, and to a lesser extent, the Chinese. But for the younger crowd, are the views shared by your elders often forced on you, or are you relatively free to make up your mind for yourself? My grandparents rather dislike the Japanese because of the WW2 events that had occurred in China when they lived there, but my aunts/uncles/parents and subsequent offspring don't share the same views. For us (the younger crowd), we judge people by what they do (most of the time) rather than where they're from or what nationality they are.
I guess that would depend on what you think the face of a nation is. I would probably say some bad things about the Afghan gvmt and I may even generalize and say, "Afghanistan" instead of pointing out that it is just the gvmt and supporters of Bin Laden I'm mad at, but I certainly wouldn't say anything about Afghans (as a people), if that makes sense.
On March 23 2012 02:00 Pulselol wrote: A couple questions from a chinese-canadian:
1. From what I have noticed from my korean-american and korean-canadian friends, they seem to have mostly liberal views. However, due to being mostly exposed to what I would term to be the 'banana culture' of the Americas (I would define this as having yellow skin on the outside, but white on the inside), their views don't seem to directly reflect those of all-korean descent. I would go as far to say that these mostly liberal views could encompass most asian-americans and asian-canadians. When I had visited my cousins who lived in Hong Kong/Macau, they were much more conservative - and often my friends in those regions would tell me "we don't think like the way you white people (as a joke) do." Now my question is, do native koreans and their american/canadian counterparts feel the same way as each other?
2. It is understandable that the older population (specifically the ones who have lived through the last century's wars) shared a deep hatred for Japan, and to a lesser extent, the Chinese. But for the younger crowd, are the views shared by your elders often forced on you, or are you relatively free to make up your mind for yourself? My grandparents rather dislike the Japanese because of the WW2 events that had occurred in China when they lived there, but my aunts/uncles/parents and subsequent offspring don't share the same views. For us (the younger crowd), we judge people by what they do (most of the time) rather than where they're from or what nationality they are.
1. no
2. you are free to make up your mind, but the hatred runs so deep in our culture you are kind of brainwashed by it to a small extent. For example, when there is a sports game between Korea and Japan, whether it's soccer, baseball, whatever, it's automatically labeled as 한일전 (=Korea vs Japan match), the media focuses on the game moreso than it does on others, you hear the players saying stuff like "If I had to choose one match to blow, this would not be it," and you walk into a bar during the game and hear drunk people yelling shit like "DAMN JAPANESE MONKEYS/쪽바리's, FUCK EM UP!" while everybody cheers on. That's just one example. It's also hard not to hate them when you learn about it in school, as the Japanese occupation left a very big scar on Korea's modern history.
Here's a video of what happens if you cheer for Japan in a 한일전, although the actor was really asking for it lol. He got balls of steel, not many people (nor I) would have the courage to do that.
Something else that I feel is relevant to the Korea-Japanese (and, to a lesser extent, even the Chinese-Japanese) conflict is that unlike many of the western powers, Korea never really got the pleasure or national pride of "winning" in the end. America defeated Japan, not Korea, and America called all the shots in Japan after the war, not Korea. There wasn't the same sort of closure for Koreans as there were for many Europeans with the Numerberg trails, or for Americans with the Japanese occupation.
Instead, Korea jumped out of one war and into another war, and remained a dirt-poor country for years after Japan already started it's own economic miracle. This is all pretty hurtful for national pride.
This doesn't justify a lot of the hate directed towards Japan these days (and the hate, although directly more at the government than its citizens, is fairly universal and deep-rooted. I often have young korean children tell me how much they hate Japan), however it does help explain why there's such a huge difference between attitudes towards Germany and attitudes towards Japan.
On March 22 2012 23:40 Hemula wrote: Hey, that is a very demotivational information for someone who is learning korean. It is not that I did not know that, but not to that extent. A question for koreans visiting this thread. I'd like to know more about the good side of the korean culture (excluding pop culture) i.e. literature, philosophy, classical music, drama plays. Do koreans have those? For example, I could always name a few authors who can be the reason for someone to learn an european language, but I hardly can think of any when it comes to korean. Korean language is awesome by itself, but when you know there are some amazing things awaiting for you to be able to read them, it's much better for learning purposes. Help?
Of course, this is the trashiest part of our culture; due to the length of our history, our culture is ripe with good literature, music and art. What level of Korean can you read? I would be willing to make a few recommendations based on your level. As for the very basic level, you can probably get started with 전래동화's and 전's like 허생전 홍길동전 임꺽정전 흥부전 춘향전 etc which are pretty much common knowledge stories for Koreans as they read them in elementary/middle school.
For traditional Korean music, 국악 is the broad category encompassing most of our classical music, and it divulges into different genres which I am not too familiar with. There are also songs that were sung and passed down by the general public, such as 동요's, which are songs for children. Look it up on youtube; some keywords you can try are: 국악, 풍악, 판소리.
As for art, I would recommend starting with 수묵화 and 서예, as 수묵화's are an easy transition from the western water paint style art. Both use brushes and this ink called 먹, which is this black bar you powderize(word?) and mix with water to create paint. They are drawn on 한지, which is traditional paper, and the difference is 수묵화 is a style of what you would deem traditional 'art' while 서예 is all calligraphy.
Hope this helped! I am feeling terrible right now because so many people are getting the impression that what I wrote in the OP defines all of Korean society, while in reality it's really just one facet (and the most superficial one at that) of our beautiful culture.
Wow, thank you very much, I will definetely check out all the things you mentioned. My korean is on a somewhat basic level, but I am studying it for more than one and a half years already so my grammar knowledge is quite good while my vocabulary is very poor. Of course it is not good enough to read books, though I am trying... But now I feel much better, and I am looking forward to mastering korean. ^^
Man, and I thought the conformity-mentality and the superficiality of society was already bad enough in Europe and the U.S. but this ... is just disturbing and makes me really sad, especially considering that this might very well be one of the ways that society is heading towards worldwide :'( Also makes me kinda wonder why progaming became so much more accepted in Korea and not, say, Europe, as it really is one of the professions that bases on and represents the will for nonconformity.
On March 20 2012 11:45 JunkkaGom wrote: It's like old Korean saying; the food that looks good also tastes good. To hell with western "don't judge the book by its cover" crap.
nice one john. condemning the cultural believes of 90% of your viewers.
On March 20 2012 11:45 JunkkaGom wrote: It's like old Korean saying; the food that looks good also tastes good. To hell with western "don't judge the book by its cover" crap.
nice one john. condemning the cultural believes of 90% of your viewers.
Yeah, that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard.
On March 23 2012 02:00 Pulselol wrote: A couple questions from a chinese-canadian:
1. From what I have noticed from my korean-american and korean-canadian friends, they seem to have mostly liberal views. However, due to being mostly exposed to what I would term to be the 'banana culture' of the Americas (I would define this as having yellow skin on the outside, but white on the inside), their views don't seem to directly reflect those of all-korean descent. I would go as far to say that these mostly liberal views could encompass most asian-americans and asian-canadians. When I had visited my cousins who lived in Hong Kong/Macau, they were much more conservative - and often my friends in those regions would tell me "we don't think like the way you white people (as a joke) do." Now my question is, do native koreans and their american/canadian counterparts feel the same way as each other?
2. It is understandable that the older population (specifically the ones who have lived through the last century's wars) shared a deep hatred for Japan, and to a lesser extent, the Chinese. But for the younger crowd, are the views shared by your elders often forced on you, or are you relatively free to make up your mind for yourself? My grandparents rather dislike the Japanese because of the WW2 events that had occurred in China when they lived there, but my aunts/uncles/parents and subsequent offspring don't share the same views. For us (the younger crowd), we judge people by what they do (most of the time) rather than where they're from or what nationality they are.
1. no
2. you are free to make up your mind, but the hatred runs so deep in our culture you are kind of brainwashed by it to a small extent. For example, when there is a sports game between Korea and Japan, whether it's soccer, baseball, whatever, it's automatically labeled as 한일전 (=Korea vs Japan match), the media focuses on the game moreso than it does on others, you hear the players saying stuff like "If I had to choose one match to blow, this would not be it," and you walk into a bar during the game and hear drunk people yelling shit like "DAMN JAPANESE MONKEYS/쪽바리's, FUCK EM UP!" while everybody cheers on. That's just one example. It's also hard not to hate them when you learn about it in school, as the Japanese occupation left a very big scar on Korea's modern history.
Here's a video of what happens if you cheer for Japan in a 한일전, although the actor was really asking for it lol. He got balls of steel, not many people (nor I) would have the courage to do that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6Pu79id3Jc
To be honest, the sports hatred thing seems pretty standard..
That actually made me kinda sad to read. There are plenty of superficial people in denmark, but wow... korea sounds like one cruel society...
Kinda makes me wounder if that doesn't effect the level of creative thinking or how many entrepreneurs korea spawns. With that much mob-mentality it's gotte be hard to not "fit in" or to try something different.
God, feel like people would hate my guts in korea ^^
The response to this wondrous post has been mostly pathetic, and disheartening.
All the replies are either "hey how would I fit in with these standards lolol gonna get me some Korean girlz" or "Wow Korea is fucked up".
All the OP has done is distill a subset of the idiosyncracies of a country's culture into an easily digested package. That's an awesome thing, but you could do it for any country. There's probably the same thing written in Korean somewhere with a whole lot of Koreans getting all shocked about certain facts of America, or wherever. And "lolol how do I get a white girl" too I'm sure.
OP, well done. Greatest majority of the rest of TL, have a good hard look at yourselves.
On March 20 2012 11:45 JunkkaGom wrote: It's like old Korean saying; the food that looks good also tastes good. To hell with western "don't judge the book by its cover" crap.
nice one john. condemning the cultural believes of 90% of your viewers.
Yeah, that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard.
On March 23 2012 02:00 Pulselol wrote: A couple questions from a chinese-canadian:
1. From what I have noticed from my korean-american and korean-canadian friends, they seem to have mostly liberal views. However, due to being mostly exposed to what I would term to be the 'banana culture' of the Americas (I would define this as having yellow skin on the outside, but white on the inside), their views don't seem to directly reflect those of all-korean descent. I would go as far to say that these mostly liberal views could encompass most asian-americans and asian-canadians. When I had visited my cousins who lived in Hong Kong/Macau, they were much more conservative - and often my friends in those regions would tell me "we don't think like the way you white people (as a joke) do." Now my question is, do native koreans and their american/canadian counterparts feel the same way as each other?
2. It is understandable that the older population (specifically the ones who have lived through the last century's wars) shared a deep hatred for Japan, and to a lesser extent, the Chinese. But for the younger crowd, are the views shared by your elders often forced on you, or are you relatively free to make up your mind for yourself? My grandparents rather dislike the Japanese because of the WW2 events that had occurred in China when they lived there, but my aunts/uncles/parents and subsequent offspring don't share the same views. For us (the younger crowd), we judge people by what they do (most of the time) rather than where they're from or what nationality they are.
1. no
2. you are free to make up your mind, but the hatred runs so deep in our culture you are kind of brainwashed by it to a small extent. For example, when there is a sports game between Korea and Japan, whether it's soccer, baseball, whatever, it's automatically labeled as 한일전 (=Korea vs Japan match), the media focuses on the game moreso than it does on others, you hear the players saying stuff like "If I had to choose one match to blow, this would not be it," and you walk into a bar during the game and hear drunk people yelling shit like "DAMN JAPANESE MONKEYS/쪽바리's, FUCK EM UP!" while everybody cheers on. That's just one example. It's also hard not to hate them when you learn about it in school, as the Japanese occupation left a very big scar on Korea's modern history.
Here's a video of what happens if you cheer for Japan in a 한일전, although the actor was really asking for it lol. He got balls of steel, not many people (nor I) would have the courage to do that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6Pu79id3Jc
Sorry for being on your back all the time but playing the devil's advocate here.
This way the readers will get to see both sides of the story and get a better picture of S.Korea as a whole and not the one-sided biased view. Don't get me wrong I like you and you make some good points but the Korean society is far more complicated than the black and white picture you often portray us.
Start from the 2:57 mark and you see two Japanese girls marching down the street in the center of Seoul while flashing the WWII rising sun flag and you'll notice how they aren't getting much attention from the crowd. And this is far worse than what that Korean guy did in your video. This to me is how average Koreans would likely react to such situation than the hyperbole you posted above.
My grudge with the left wing spectrum in our country is that not only they are the loudest but despite being the absolute minority they think they own this place and they talk as if they are the true representative of our country. (this isn't directed to you but the korean liberals in general ) Conservatives who make the majority in S.Korea are pragmatist. If they get beat by a bully they don't go begging the bully for an apology or tell on the teacher. They hit the gym, work out, and try to become stronger than the bully. It's what transformed our country from one of the poorest country in Asia to one of the richest in a span of 50 years. I won't make the same mistake and say this is all there is to it but we are very diverse when it comes to opinions. I along with many Koreans have moved on and you won't find that much of the deep hatred you keep insisting we have toward the Japanese.
Edit: I was going way off-topic. Trimmed it a little bit
On March 23 2012 00:29 HejaBVB wrote: Koreans are CRAZY FREAKS!
Thanks, o Aryan child.
jk
I still cannot understand why Koreans obsess over face size. People disliked being next to me in class photos because my face was "small." What trivialities. . .
That being said, too many people are misunderstanding the extent of this cultural generalization. It's true that such idiosyncrasies pervade much of contemporary Korean society, but it is by no means a full definition. You can draw a parallels between each hemisphere's ways of viewing the other. Just as non-Asians see Asiatic countries as pedagogic and immutably strict, other nationalities see Americans as sluts and whores. While this is certainly true for certain demographics, etc., it would be hysterical to deem every American as prostitutes.
That explains when I was watching a Korean drama with my girlfriend why the main character (hot male) says to his lover (average looking), "You are not very pretty, but I love you anyway." And the girl responds with, "OMG you love me?!" In more or less words, needless to say if a similar conversation occurred in the US, well...
On March 23 2012 13:39 justinpal wrote: That explains when I was watching a Korean drama with my girlfriend why the main character (hot male) says to his lover (average looking), "You are not very pretty, but I love you anyway." And the girl responds with, "OMG you love me?!" In more or less words, needless to say if a similar conversation occurred in the US, well...
EPT
) Conservatives who make the majority in S.Korea are pragmatist. If they get beat by a bully they don't go begging the bully for an apology or tell on the teacher. They hit the gym, work out, and try to become stronger than the bully. It's what transformed our country from one of the poorest country in Asia to one of the richest in a span of 50 years. I won't make the same mistake and say this is all there is to it but we are very diverse when it comes to opinions. I along with many Koreans have moved on and you won't find that much of the deep hatred you keep insisting we have toward the Japanese. 
