Cultural Reporter Blog Summary

In this assignment we were asked to study other cultures and pick one that we would like to further analyze. Before we could go any further however, our first step was to turn the spotlight on ourselves and to ask ourselves about OUR own culture. This part was tricky. It is easy to ask others about their life, but to have to explain our own took some thinking because many of us living in our own culture do not notice it as others with different backgrounds might see it. For me personally, this helped me to identify where I stood culturally in a way that I could better understand other cultures. With that part of the assignment being done, we began to look at another culture of interest. Growing up in a larger city in Arizona I knew people of many of different cultures. One that I had more interaction with was Korean culture because I had a close friend, Jeein Yoon, who is Korean. I had always been interested in the differences between our cultures so I decided to learn more about the Korean lifestyle both in America and in South Korea.

            The next step in this process was to find away to go about studying this culture. I admit initially I did not know how I was going to go about interviewing another person about their culture. What was I to ask? I wanted to know not only the quantitative data but more than that I was interested in the qualitative information that would allow me to grasp the more in depth unaddressed aspects of her culture. This is where our second assignment helped out with pinpointing a mechanism of study. We were assigned to pick out a concept from our book that would apply to our culture of interest.  The concepts I choose was how culture affects communication but more importantly were the areas of Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck Value orientations and Hofstede orientations. Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck Value orientations ask five questions: “What is human nature, what is the relationship between humans and nature, what is the relationship between humans, what is the preferred personality and what is the orientation toward time?” Hofstede orientations analyzes “power distance, femininity versus masculinity, ways of dealing with uncertainty, and long term versus short-term orientation to life” (Martin & Nakayama, 2012, p.106-108).

            Three themes that were very noticeable during this interview were code switching, the emphasis on competitiveness in South Korea, and differences in power distances. Code switching is known as changing languages in conversation to adapt to those of different primary languages. For example, when children bring friends over they will talk to the friend in English and change to their native tongue when talking to a family member. At times the child is essentially acting as an interpreter. This is very prominent in Korean American culture seeing as many Koreans keep their primary language in use in the home. With Jeein, my friend I interviewed, she often did this when her parents entered the room when other English speakers were around because her parents spoke little English. With code switching I noticed not only a change in language but also a change in tone. When English is spoken between Americans most pronunciation is almost monotone. It is very easy therefore to tell when an American is angry or sad because there is a significant change in tone. When Jeein and her mother would converse I usually thought they were fighting or having a discrepancy because their tone was very harsh and seemed rather fierce to me. For Americans tone was usually only used in irritation or anger. However, for them it was just normal conversation. Tone is another aspect of code switching.

            Another topic widely talked about was the competitiveness for education and jobs in South Korea. Many South Koreans works long hours that in the United States would be looked at as ridiculous and unfair. While it is still unfair in Korea, it is considered the norm for working hours to be much longer. South Korea is known to be one of the world's most hard working countries according to forbes.com.

One man the forbes.com article focuses on is 39-year-old Lee, who works as a civil servant at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Lee works 12 hours days, six days a week, and makes a two hours commute to his job (Olson, 2008). The level of importance of work there is very prominent. Work is not the only area that Koreans have to get ahead in just to get by. In the interview Jeein explained that in order to stay at or above the level of education norms students had to spend many hours outside of school at tutoring sessions. Students would have to take at least three tutoring sessions, which of course was very expensive. Because of this, students that did not have families rich enough to pay for tutoring fell behind. This only exemplified the gap between rich and poor, which just so addresses the third theme and also one of the key topics of my research: ‘power distance’. In Korea the government is a democracy and does not infringe on rights or create a huge difference between government and citizens. However, there is a power distance between the rich and the poor. The power distance is a catch 22. In order to stay ahead in school one must be able to pay the tutoring fees. Without tutoring they can very likely fall behind. In Korea there are few colleges. The demand for college degrees is high and so is competition to attend college. With out the highest grades many students cannot hope to obtain a degree. It is very hard to prosper and gain status in society without one.

            This assignment and interview allowed me to gain knowledge of another culture that on the surface seemed similar to my own but yet was very different. By being close to someone of a different culture I was able to diversify my life and have a better understanding and appreciation of different values and ideals. I think a wonderful take away from this assignment is that better understanding of others cultures can greatly benefit ones life by becoming a better person by looking at life through another person’s culture and lifestyle. To communicate with someone that you don’t yet understand you must not be judgmental but address them and their culture with an open heart. You must be willing to learn more and understand life and choices from their perspective. It just comes down to one moral we’ve learned since childhood;

 “Don’t judge a book by its cover”

References:

Jeein Yoon, personal communication, April 12, 2013

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2012). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th ed). Boston,   MA: McGraw Hill.

Olson, P. (2008, May 21). The world's hardest-working countries. Retrieved April 10, 2013,

from Forbes.com website: http://www.forbes.com/2008/05/21/labor-market-workforce-lead-citizen-cx_po_0521countries.html