South Korea and USA Culture

¶ … South Korea and USA

Culture is defined as the shared pattern of behavior, cognitive systems and effective understanding that is learnt through a process of socialization (Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA), 2009). Therefore culture can be used to differentiate between members of one community from the members of the other.

Differences

There are various differences that exist between the American culture and the South Korean culture. Here are the major differences that exist between American and South Korean cultures as outlined in various sources as will be noted below.

The Americans consider self-reliance and self-promotion more acceptable because they value freedom from external interferences, while among the South Koreans there is a preference to group perspective and they value self modesty as well (Kwintessential, 2011). They have an ardent belief in Confucius practices that puts the father as the head of the family and the son having a significant part to play in the family, which is not the case with Americans.

In social relationships, the Americans are more comfortable with peers and there is less social ranking yet this is the opposite of the South Korean culture who would like to know who is in charge and they are highly formal and respect authority and ranks. Indeed it is common to see a younger person, a junior or person of lower rank bowing before greeting a person of higher caliber or age.

The South Korean are also known to value doing the good thing to the person who did it to you and they feel people should be responsible for each other, i.e. they value and instill the harmonious and communal co-existence, yet among the Americans there is an open avoidance of dependence on each other and any situations that will bring up long-term commitment and responsibility for the other is highly avoided.

There is more respect to personal relationships than the written laws and procedures for the South Korean. They will consider first what effect the action will have on the social web and the individual's well being before they take any action rather than looking at the law. Americans on the other hand will give preference to the law and the written rules. They assume that it is the rules that produce fair and good results and fair results for everyone and take it that it also leads to reasonable procedures and decisions favorable to all.

There are however some similarities that come up every other often that sets the two countries on a same path, these are as below;

In both cultures, there is an urge for development and prosperity. Both Americans and South Koreans have a very strong technological development and prosperity agenda in everything that they do. They always put maximum concentration and energy in all they do, this is the reason why they are competing economically and have very close trade and political ties.

The Americans and South Koreans also have high technological knowhow than the rest of the world. They manufacture very complex technological equipments that are used all over the world ranging from vehicles to smaller home use electronics.

In both cultures there are many immigrants that live with them. Americans have been having the immigrants for years and now the South Korean are also following the same path by allowing many people from all over the world to go to South Korea and settle there to provide labor and technical assistance to the industrialization that is taking place there.