South Korean Culture Research Paper

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When we think of modern mainstream American culture usually things like individualism and self expression, trends, language, and many other topics come to mind. However, arguably the biggest thing is social interaction, and other cultures can have very different interpretations and views on it. This can also be due to the varying values others have amongst a society and which ones they focus on the most. For example,in Korean, more specifically South Korean culture some of their values are similar in a sense, but the way they act on it socially and their perception of it can be quite different. But how different are our values really? And what does this say about our values and theirs? One of the biggest values in Korean culture …show more content…

In a lot of cases family is the most important thing in Korean culture and keeping one 's family happy is the main goal. Most of their free time aside from jobs and education is spent with family and maybe close friends. Even those who aren 't family are sometimes called aunt or uncle by those younger. In fact someone who is younger will also older friends hyung or noona, these translate to older brother and older sister. Before the 1970’s, most Korean marriages were arranged by parents, but now there is no law on arranged marriages and people can now decide for themselves. In fact, in 2016 the amount of marriages in South Korea went down 7% (“Marriage and Divorce”). However, this importance of family can vary by people. In America, we value family just as much, but in some different ways. Family interactions are more casual and there are not certain titles for those close to us, that we must use. Values are the things that define a culture, and in cases also connect them. In Korean culture, they share similar values, but the way they show those values are quite different. However, along with this, Korean culture and American culture have also modernized and these values have significantly changed. They have become more personal and it is up to opinion whether this is a positive or negative. Many would say that these cultures are completely different, and in a sense this is true, but they are very similar in values, it

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