Category: Articles

Don’t you guys have stereotypes about people from other countries? I’m Korean, so I can only think from a Korean point of view. So, I was curious about the thoughts of foreign friends. So, I interviewed my foreign friends to see what they thought of Korea. Here is the video file of the interview!!

Storyboard and script

1. Ready, One, Two, Three, (counting in Korean) and Korea 지나 (my name in Korean)
2. Transition to the first question: type font on screen “ Have you been to South Korea before?”
3. Transition to Cody and Valerie’s answer
4. Transition to the next question: “ When you think of South Korea, what comes to your mind first?”
5. Transition to Cody, Valerie, and Hasumi’s answer
6. Transition to the next question: “What stereotypes or perceptions do you have of South Korea?”
7. Transition to Cody, Valerie, and Hasumi’s answer
8. Transition to thank you for watching note

B-roll: Computer graphics: Using Canva, Ready, one two three(typing in Korean) Korea Jeana(typing in Korean), questions, and thank you note.
Background music: Modern Attempt – TrackTribe (royalty-free production music from Youtube Studio)

I asked two people who are very interested in Korean culture to interview them. I asked a few questions about the two people’s perceptions of Korean culture. These are the audio files of that interview.

Question1: Could you please introduce yourself?
Question2: Have you been to South Korea before?
Question3: Which Korean culture do you like the best?
Question4: What Korean culture you’d like to see change?

I’m going to tell you about Korean age culture now.
Please listen and talk to me about your thinking.
In Korea, when babies are born they are one year old, not zero. Everybody goes up one year on January first. So, you could be two years older in South Korea. For example, a baby born on December 31st would be one year old and, they would actually be two days old, but two years old.
In other words, if your birthday had passed already, then you are one year older in Korea.
If your birthday has yet to pass this year, you are two years older in Korea.
Question5: I know it is so complicated for you to understand as a foreigner. What do you think about Korean age reckoning?

I can see that you know a lot of things about Korean culture. Thank you so much for meeting with me and answering these questions today!

Let’s take a look at some of the unique parts of Korean culture from a foreigner’s point of view. Some Korean cultures make foreigners come back to Korea, while other Korean cultures give foreigners a culture shock. Even within the same country, there are small cultural differences depending on the environment in which they grew up. In some ways, it is natural that cultures differ from country to country.

These cultural differences sometimes cause conflict, but they can also indirectly experience a wider world. We live in an era of globalization, and we need to understand cultural diversity and develop an attitude that can accommodate the cultural differences that arise from it.

Firstly, In Korea, people who are close in age are called “friends”. But in other Western countries or countries like China, you can be friends of any age or status. It means that when you meet friends, you can make friends regardless of age. That’s why in other countries a three-year-old child and an eighty-year-old grandfather can be friends. Students can also be friends with teachers.

Because of this cultural difference, foreigners living in Korea often experience difficulties. For example, when my Chinese friend asked a 27-year-old Korean friend if he was friends with another 30-year-old Korean, the 27-year-old friend looked offended and asked if he looked that old. At the time, the Chinese friend replied that he did not mean that.

The Korean culture that foreigners are most confused about is probably the language honorifics culture. Unlike English, which does not use language honorifics, few countries use language honorifics, such as Korea and Japan. In Korea, regardless of speaking or written language, when meeting someone new to you, your boss, or an older person, you always use language honorifics. You can find Korea where politeness is very important through this language culture. For example, “Anyeong” is “Hi” in Korean. The honorific is “Anyeonghaseyo” by adding “haseyo”. It is correct to say “Anyeonghaseyo” to someone you are meeting for the first time or someone who is older than you.

One of the things that foreigners find strange about Korean culture is that Koreans leave their bags when they are away for a while. Even if you leave the bag in this way, no one else touches the bag or the bag disappears. But my Chinese friend tells me that in China I always have to carry my bag when I’m away.

As an example, a friend of mine left his cell phone behind in Korea. After three or four hours, I went to look for it, and I found that the phone was still there. Koreans don’t think that other people will take their stuff, or they don’t care at all about other people’s stuff that isn’t theirs. In Canada I don’t expect anyone to take my bag if I leave it, but as a habit I always carry it.

In this blog, I will introduce some parts of Korean culture that foreigners are shocked by. Some of these topics will include language honorifics, how Korean’s age is counted differently, food delivery systems, toilet paper, and special occasion food.

Why should the audience pay attention to my blog? Because it is very important to understand and learn a culture that is different from your own. I am taking a course about culture this semester. In that class, many friends came from around the world. And the professor gives us some time to discuss with my classmates about our own culture and, we share and learn about foreign cultures. Hearing about other cultures is so interesting to me so, I thought it would be great if I can share some parts of interesting Korean culture in this blog project.

Some of the questions that will be addressed in this blog are:
How do you feel after learning about Korean culture?
Among the cultures that I introduced, which one impressed you the most?
Do you have a similar culture in your country?

In an informative text story project, I will write a story that introduces some Korean culture that can be shocking to foreigners. The reason why this project suits this media is that, rather than just writing a story, if I combine it with a picture as a visual element, I can attract attention from the audience.
In the audio interview project, I will hear the reactions and feelings of your foreign friends about Korean culture. Audio media is suitable for this because it is more reliable if you can listen to the interview than to just read the interview in writing.
In the video project, I will film a video of my foreign friends experiencing the Korean culture. The video suits the best for this project because the scene of experiencing the culture has to be captured on video.