Culture

.Matt Thompson

Professor Supplee

Comm 3280

18 March 2012

Cultural Interview

Throughout my life I have been sheltered to one kind of cultural identity. Having interviewed Mr. Kim, I have a whole new understanding of cultures and their influences and understandings. Mr. Kim is the local liquor store owner near my house. I met Mr. Kim while I was in his store. He is from South Korea. Since he is the only operator of the store, he agreed to participate in the interview in his store on a day that was the least busy. We sat down in the middle of his store on a couple cases of beer. We conducted the interview on Sunday the 18 of March at around one o’clock. Throughout the interview, customers came in stopping the interview process. We stopped to allow Mr. Kim to take care of his customers. Overall the interview took about an hour and a half to complete. I chose to interview Mr. Kim because I knew little about South Korea and was interested in a country that has been a largely technology driven country. I also believed he is a nice person and just wanted to get to know his story. He agreed to the interview without hesitation. The main focus of the interview was on the major cultural identities and information about South Korea itself. Most of my questions were focused on the main factors of everyday life, such as the education system and the business society’s norms and values. Having done the interview, other information came about. Mr. Kim showed biases towards the American lifestyle versus the South Korea way. Mr. Kim also had nonverbal motions that were apparent throughout the interview. These made for a very interesting conversation.

One identity of the culture in South Korea is the business world. Business in South Korea is conducted in a different way than in the US. In South Korea they do not schedule a business day around time. They arrive at a certain time but they do not finish their day until the job or task has been completed. They may stay at the...