Korean Culture Remains Difficult To Understand

February 13th, 2009

South Korea has embraced Westernization and adapted to Western culture, but Korea itself still remains the “Hermit Kingdom” for a number of odd reasons according to an article in The Korea Times.  Foreigners have always had a hard time comprehending the thought patterns of the Korean people and found them to be the most difficult to understand.  Korea’s gloomy past seems to have taken a grasp of the country’s social structure creating somewhat of an eeriness in the spirit of the Korean people.  Even the language is frustrating to learn because there can be so much meaning and emotion tied to a single word or phrase which only the natives can identify.  For the most part, Koreans are very private people; yet they tend to be very observant of others.  This strangeness has kept the country safe in the past, but it has also kept Korea alien to the rest of the world.  It’s not a bad thing for Koreans, though.  Koreans take pride in it.

Read the full story, “Why Is Korea So Strange?” at Korea Times online.

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