Throughout the semester I have looked at religions in South Korea, folk village, ettiquette schools and slangs words in korean. In the process of my research I had been able to draw several overarching lines connecting the the topics. Although Christianity is has the largest number of followers in korea, the ideals of Confucianism is still deeply rooted in the society and is the root of most of the social norms and ideals valued by the people. This is partly because Christianity came to korea after Confucianism. Therefore, traditions like respecting the ancestors, social hierarchy, age hierarchy and formality are strictly followed by the koreans. They are very inflexible when it comes to showing proper respect. I have also seen it in korean TV shows where foreigners would talk about properly greeting people being the most difficult getting used to when they first came to korea. The importance parents put in teaching their children proper etiquette is also due to their beliefs. In addition to respecting elders and proper greetings, the children are also taught proper table manners and overall behavior.
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