Kim, Jusung / p135 Ch5 Pt5 A-1 / 2017 Summer Session Prose & Paragraphs

A Universal Courtesy?

             Culture is an interesting thing because it changes all the time. Cultures are often considered an old thoughts or customs, but some of them are surprisingly new when we search the origin of it. For example, a traditional kimchi used to be a salted white cabbage, not the red kimchi we know today. Likewise, tradition and culture is not an old, fixed rule but something fluent and changing. A biblical saying, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," is widely accepted today in the world. Western and Confucius society had been separated for a long time and believed in different norms. In Korea, we have golden rules similar and different from western countries as well. However, as culture and tradition change, golden rules change as well to be more similar to one another.

             Jesus' teaching in Luke chapter six verse thirty-one tells us to treat other people as you want to be treated. In Korea, there is a similar saying, "Nice words for Nice words." Also, there also is a Chinese Confucius four character idiom, "역지사지(易地思之)," which means "Think in the other's shoes," widely used in Korea. It is surprising to find similar ideas from different cultures. These ideas differ in small parts, but have a same way because they all tell people to consider others for the sake of them and themselves.

             In Korea, age is something big when it comes to treating each other. We use honorifics to each other when we meet a stranger or order person. Even though someone is just a year older than you, you will have to use a respect form of speech. Because of Korean's way of counting age, you sometimes have to use honorific even though the counterpart is only a month older. However, culture always changes as mentioned before, so this norm is loosening nowadays. If someone gets any closer to another, they tend to use informal speech soon.

             Although the golden rule faded, it is still widely accepted to respect the stranger. For example, people will be offended if a stranger just starts speaking without using respective form. The degree of change differs from regions also. People in country towns will be much more conservative and slow to change than people in major cities. For instance, people are different in Seoul from my hometown which is a small town near the west coast. I tend to say hello to all the elders I meet in the street back in my town, but I never do so in Seoul unless I know the person.

             The way people treat each other is changing especially in the cities where people are more changeable and progressive than people in the country. Seoul citizen's way of life is becoming more individualized recently which means they are more westernized. Korea's culture or thoughts used to be a collectivism. They used to value the society more than themselves. For example, Koreans gathered gold when the economic crisis broke out in 1997 to help the country rise again. Therefore, the culture or golden rules are different in Korea from western countries where Christian beliefs are mostly taken as a golden rule, but it is now changing and resembling each other as it is twenty-first century right now.