Learning Journal #2

[Kate Park]

Figuring Foreigners Out and Hofstede Dimensions of Culture broadly categorizes one's native culture and the target culture and explores the differences between them. It includes ideas such as the individualist vs. collectivist, differences in nonverbal communication, monochronic vs. polychronic, internal vs. external, and direct vs. indirect communication. I agree that different cultures could have more emphasis on one over the other but in general, they consist of elements of both sides. For the individualist vs. collectivist category, I think American culture leans more on the importance of the individual, while Korean culture is quite the opposite. In America, you grow up hearing often about how everyone is a special snowflake and how individuals rights are valued. I found it interesting that the reading mentioned this quote, "Koreans believe that to accomplish something while causing unhappiness or discomfort to individuals is to accomplish nothing at all." I think in Korea, the importance of family drives the actions of the individual. Even the hierarchy within the family is a major aspect of Korean family culture. When I looked at Geert Hofstede's collectivism-individualism world map, I noticed how America is a very dark purple, while Korea is a very pale purple on a range of white meaning collectivist and dark purple meaning individualist. It's interesting to see a visualization of how different countries actually are based on these categories of differences.