According to the Hofstede Index, South Korea is a slightly hierarchical society, meaning people tend to have their place in society and accept it. It is also pretty far on the collectivist side, as opposed to individualistic. This means loyalty is very important and people take responsibility for other members of their in-group, whether that be family, co-workers, etc. As for the masculinity dimension, a highly masculine country being one that values competition and being the best, South Korea is more on the feminine side. Feminine countries tend to focus on "working to live" rather than "living to work." Also, managers value equality, consensus, and quality work life. Status is not as important as well-being. Another dimension is uncertainty avoidance in which South Korea is one of the highest scoring countries, meaning it maintains strict values and behavior, and are intolerant of unconventional ideas and actions. Rules, security, and precision are highly valued to attend to these codes. Despite this adherence to strict values, it is one of the most long-term oriented societies, meaning it values efforts in modern education to prepare for the future over upholding time-honored traditions. South Koreans are guided by virtues and good examples rather than an almighty God as a guidance. The last dimension is indulgence, in which South Korea scores pretty low on, meaning it is more one of restraint. It doesn't place as much emphasis on leisure, but rather has some restraint by social norms on their actions.
Most of these dimensions are in line with the little that I know about Korean culture. Some of them are slightly contradictory, such as it being a feminine society, but not being indulgent. Another thing that stands out to me is the high uncertainty avoidance score along with the high long-term orientation score, which say that Korean society values rigid rules, but doesn't pay much attention to time-honored values, respectively, which seem to be slightly contradictory. From what I know about Korean culture, I would have guessed it to be a more masculine society, because I know they value hard work and success in school and career very much. As for body language, like we talked about in class, I know certain body language signals are very important. For example, I've heard that it's impolite to stare right at an elder or superior when they are speaking to you, but better to look slightly down. This is very different from American culture, in which it's rude to not make eye contact with someone. As for time, I would guess that Korean value punctuality because of their hard work ethic and value of time as money. Overall, Korean culture highly values family, strict moral behavior, hard work, and a social hierarchy.
I wouldn't really say I've experienced culture shock. The majority of places I've traveled have been pretty Westernized, or on the trips that weren't, I was in a very touristy area. Obviously I noticed things in these places, such as Morocco or Jamaica, that were extremely different from the U.S. or Western Europe, but since I wasn't fully immersed in with locals, I didn't feel culture shock to the extreme that I know is possible.
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