Cultural Post #2

Korean Confucianism - Wikipedia

The roots of Korean social culture can be attributed to its history of Buddhism and Confucianism principles. These Confucian principles can be seen manifested in the form of filial piety and age hierarchy with an emphasis on respect towards parents and elders and high importance in seniority. This is called “gong-gyeong” (공경) in korean and can be seen within families as younger generations are expected to speak in formal language and follow orders from elders. This concept was much more prominent in the past where children were expected to avoid eye contact, bow very deeply, and had a much more formal language towards elders. However, gong-gyeong is still seen today in daily settings. When greeting someone older, the younger person must bow and say hello formally (안녕하세요) without direct eye contact. At the dining table, you must let elders and seniors eat first, eat at the same speed as seniors, finish all food given, and leave only after the senior has left the table. If there is alcohol at the meal, younger people are expected to pour for elders and must turn their head away before drinking. Another common etiquette rule is to hand objects to seniors with either two hands or with the left hand supporting the right arm to show respect. 

Formal speech in itself takes place in the form of an inflectional morpheme where the formal morpheme “” is often attached to the end of verbs. However, there are many different levels of formal speech in Korean including Hasoseo-che (하소서체) which is very formal and was often used in religious texts and towards royalty. The next level is Hasipsio-che (하십시오체) which is formally polite and is used between strangers or to customers. Haeyo-che (해요체) is casually polite and used between acquaintances and colleagues. The following levels Hao-che, Hage-che, Haera-che, and Hae-che go from casually polite to casually impolite with the lowest form being spoken to close friends. 

In schools, a high level of respect is also expected from students to their senior classmates and to teachers/professors. Gong-gyeong is also very prominent in the workplace with younger employees often taking on responsibilities belonging to senior employees. 

Aside from seniority hierarchies, Confucian principles also manifest in the form of collectivism and social harmony. In Korean workplaces and schools, there is a strong emphasis on teamwork, teambuilding activities, and social events. There is also a strong emphasis on family and adults tend to live with their parents or extended relatives even after graduation or marriage in order to care for them. Holidays are also typically spent with family as family takes priority. Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory actually ranked Korean very highly in the collectivism spectrum. This is thought to be from Confucianism as well as Korea’s difficult history resulting in a strong sense of nationalism and ability to band together in times of need.

Although concepts like collectivism and gong-gyeong were far more prominent in the past, much of Korea’s implicit social and etiquette culture is built upon these principles and continues to manifest in modern Korean culture.

https://geriatrics.stanford.edu/ethnomed/korean/assessment.html

https://www.britannica.com/place/South-Korea/Daily-life-and-social-customs

https://www.asianlanguageschool.com/korean-traditional-value-of-gong-gyeong/#:~:text=Gong%2Dgyeong%20is%20often%20expressed,them%20at%20an%20early%20age.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_speech_levels

https://sites.gatech.edu/koreanmedia/digital-library-of-korean-culture-media/single-culture/#:~:text=Korea's%20Collectivist%20Mindset,world's%20most%20extreme%20collectivist%20cultures.

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Comments

  • Thank you very much for sharing this. I was not familiar with any of the information, or concepts that you mentioned in your post. However, it was extremely interesting to learn new about Buddhism and Confucianism principles. For example, I find it is very fascinating that there are various levels of formal speech. 

  • Coming from a Western upbringing this has always been one of the most fascinating parts of Korean culture to me. I was surprised to read in your post that a high level of respect is still expected from younger students to their older peers. It is also interesting to read that gong-gyeong has seen a slight decline. I wonder if Korean society will continue to 'deformalize' in the future.

  • It's interesting to see that the Confucianism values are still very present in modern day Korea, despite the belief system not being "practiced" like it was back in the day. Your mention of formality between students and their senior classmates is also very interesting when looked at from an American standpoint. I wonder what Buddhist values are present in Korea today.

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