Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,037,872 times
Reputation: 11862
Yeah kind of ironic they're so inconsiderate and self-centered, what with their Confucian history and the Communist emphasis on the good of all over the individual. In some ways Chinese society is not very civilised.
Well koreans are pretty infamous for having bad manners.
In my experience with Koreans as foreign exchange students and as professionals, I have found that hierarchy and social status is important in Korean society. They aren't the most outgoing people, however, I have seen them show great respect and courtesy to visitors, especially in Korea.
I have been around Koreans in Chicago, Pennsylvania, the San Francisco area, and Seoul. I haven't experienced this rudeness that some people think is universal. Maybe what some Americans see as rude behavior is just a Korean reminding you where you fit in the social ladder. I'm not saying that is pleasant or acceptable. It's one possible interpretation.
Plenty of people find Americans rude, BTW but we certainly would argue that most people are not that way.
I must say the same, Koreans have poor manners too. I was once stepped on in a club in the Philippines some years ago...she just looked at me and did not even say sorry.
I'm going to say that you are dead-center wrong, 100% completely and totally wrong, and that experience was an individual thing with some dumb club girl. I used to live in Koreatown and never got pushed out of the way or anything in crowded situations, nor did I see them do it to eachother or anyone else.
Do you just not like Asian people?
For the most part here in the US, you don't see it unless you go to a Chinatown or a Chinese grocery store - I'm sure that the royal tongue-lashing that most people Mainland immigrants would have gotten the first time they did it would have given them PTSD over it in the future, or that they had the sense to look at the situation and figure out that everyone was in line in the first place. When I'm in a Chinese area, it doesn't happen to me much simply because I'm built like a tree and if it does, it's usually some old lady in her 70's who's just "whatever" about it after a whole lifetime of doing it that way. However, I did once grab a dude and give him a good shove because he elbowed my sister pretty hard when we were walking through SF's Chinatown... totally inappropriate and uncalled for, especially since we were walking off the curb and in the street.
In my experience with Koreans as foreign exchange students and as professionals, I have found that hierarchy and social status is important in Korean society. They aren't the most outgoing people, however, I have seen them show great respect and courtesy to visitors, especially in Korea.
I have been around Koreans in Chicago, Pennsylvania, the San Francisco area, and Seoul. I haven't experienced this rudeness that some people think is universal. Maybe what some Americans see as rude behavior is just a Korean reminding you where you fit in the social ladder. I'm not saying that is pleasant or acceptable. It's one possible interpretation.
Plenty of people find Americans rude, BTW but we certainly would argue that most people are not that way.
I lived in South Korea for 7-8 years.
If you are meeting foreign exchange students, you are probably meeting an international-minded subset of 18-year-old(-ish) set of the population.
South Koreans can be extremely aggressive and pushy and loud and obnoxious in public. It is not perceived as abnornal whatsoever.
However, the last 15 years, there have been huge public awareness programs about standing in line, not spitting, waiting for people to get off trains before you push your way onward, and stand to the side for elevators, etc.
So, what I've found is that Koreans under say the age of 40, can be quite respect and obey the rules. But with Confucianism being the way it is, you just have to allow older people to do whatever they want. Older Koreans can basically say and do whatever they want, and that's what they do.
I've had well over 1000 incidents of Koreans cutting in line in front of me, of pushing me from the back, on and on and on. But, I have never once ever had a Korean younger than me ever do that to me. It has always been the older Korean generation, every single time.
In short, the 18-year-old international-minded exchange students from Korea to the US aren't the ones you'll experience pushing and shoving and spitting and cutting in line and such.
I will also say that there is great hospitality in South Korea as well. But there is also the other aspects as well, in full force, as contrary as it sounds.
Why not call these people out for their rude behaviour? A couple of years ago at the DMV, I openly spoke up and said something to the effect of "If I break the rules and pretend to be ignorant, can I cut in line and save several hours of waiting like these other Chinese people?" ...
In my experience with Koreans as foreign exchange students and as professionals, I have found that hierarchy and social status is important in Korean society. They aren't the most outgoing people, however, I have seen them show great respect and courtesy to visitors, especially in Korea.
I have been around Koreans in Chicago, Pennsylvania, the San Francisco area, and Seoul. I haven't experienced this rudeness that some people think is universal. Maybe what some Americans see as rude behavior is just a Korean reminding you where you fit in the social ladder. I'm not saying that is pleasant or acceptable. It's one possible interpretation.
You're certainly right about the social heirarchy, and I've seen Koreans treat other Koreans that are clearly lower on the social ladder in a really appalling fashion - for instance, a rich little lolita/kept-secret with porcelain skin talking to an older, dark-skinned Korean lady running a register with the sort of bileful tone that most people would feel uneasy seeing you use on a drunken homeless person who had just peed himself... but I've never seen this carry over to non-Koreans.
I think that the fairly-few Koreans who do subscribe to an ideal of social heriarchy are generally well-educated enough to realize that no one gives a crap what they are or think they are back home, and treating non-Koreans like that over here is a surefire way to make sure that your day to day life is pockmarked with verbal altercations, horrible service, maybe worse.
Why not call these people out for their rude behaviour? A couple of years ago at the DMV, I openly spoke up and said something to the effect of "If I break the rules and pretend to be ignorant, can I cut in line and save several hours of waiting like these other Chinese people?" ...
Easy to do at a DMV - since it's on U.S. soil, and those are our social rules.
If you are in China or Korea, you're wasting your breath. No one is going to understand you, and even if you know Korean or Chinese, you're fighting a cultural norm.
Usually, I found that I just do the same. Get my elbows up there, get my stance down, and start jostling in.
I'm going to say that you are dead-center wrong, 100% completely and totally wrong, and that experience was an individual thing with some dumb club girl. I used to live in Koreatown and never got pushed out of the way or anything in crowded situations, nor did I see them do it to eachother or anyone else.
.
Believe me ive seen koreans do more then just push people. I lived smack in the middle of Koreatown, los angeles. I went to school with plenty of them here in Canada.
People can try to excuse thier behavior anyway they want, anyone who spends any time around them knows how they really are. They are not pleasent to be around to put it politely.
Believe me ive seen koreans do more then just push people. I lived smack in the middle of Koreatown, los angeles. I went to school with plenty of them here in Canada.
People can try to excuse thier behavior anyway they want, anyone who spends any time around them knows how they really are. They are not pleasent to be around to put it politely.
Well again, I lived smack in the middle of Koreatown as well... hell, I was there earlier today... I never saw any of that. I've worked for Koreans, worked with Koreans, gone to school with Koreans, dated Koreans, had Korean friends growing up, and found them no more confrontational than anyone else - less so, honestly.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
