Hyunjoo-3rd journal

There was one accident when an old man did violence to a teenager couplewho were kissing at a public park. It happened when the old man restrained them from kissing, they talked back, saying “Don’t bother me”, and he got angry. This accident became a hot issue in Korea about whose fault it was, and how much intimate behavior should be allowed in a public place. People mostly thought the young couple should be more polite and consider other people who were at that place. I could see Korean society is still rather conservative, it is becoming more open than before, though. It is no problem holding hands, hugging, however, more than that usually makes people, especially the old people, feel uncomfortable. Meanwhile, young people have more open minds, so it often leads to trouble between different generations like this case. When Aishwarya Rai talked about India, I found there are some common things between Korean and Indian culture such as that excessive intimate behavior is considered rude and living with family before marriage is common, which is different from western culture.
3 years ago, I went to the US for the first time, and I was a little surprised seeing people were kissing and expressing their love without minding other people’s eyes. And unlike when I was in Korea, It looked just so beautiful and natural. It may be because of my perception of this country. I felt differently with the same situation in a different area. We can’t say which culture is better or worse, it has been formed for a long time.

Back to the case that I mentioned before, it might be seen rude naturally from a point of view of the old man as that’s what he had thought and learned for his life. On the other hand, I think, for those young couple, their behavior was just natural. But I think there is one thing where they were wrong. They shouldn’t have retorted against him, or should have talked politely, because that’s the virtue and courtesy to treat older people politely in Korea. Having seen the conversation between Aishwarya and Oprah, I saw cultural differences of each country like those of different ages in Korea. And I think what we only need is a little understanding not to make any problems.