TODAY'S CULTURE QUIZ: KOREA!
Doing Business in the Land of the Morning Calm? Better Ace these Five Questions First!
Korea may traditionally be known as the Land of the Morning Calm, but it is also the most digitally connected country on the planet, and as anyone who’s been to Seoul recently will tell you, that city is anything but calm, morning or night. Did you know that recently Korea officially updated its unique birthday numbering system? You didn’t know about the three different ways Koreans count their birthdays? Read on, and see if you can answer these five questions about the very unique Korean culture. (Don’t worry: the answers are at the end of the quiz! To see all the answers, if you haven’t yet, simply subscribe below!)
After many meetings and several weeks of negotiations, the date for signing the papers of Agreement has arrived. This is a very exciting moment for both your company and the Korean company with whom you will now be partnering on a major project. As the representatives from both teams look on, you and your Korean counterpart sit down at the table, as the final documents are presented for your respective signatures. Excitedly, you take out a special pen that you were saving for the occasion, and knowing that red is an especially important color in Asia, sign your name in bright red ink. A collective gasp emerges from the Korean team, and your counterpart looks decidedly aghast. What went wrong?
2. An international assignment in your company is a route to a leadership position, and you were especially honored to be offered this assignment in Korea, given your relatively young age. However, things have not been going as well as you’d hoped for since you began your assignment in Pusan 6 weeks ago. To justify the company’s faith in you, you have been trying at every turn to advance what you believe to be your company’s agenda, only to feel isolated and thwarted most of the time by members of the existing Korean team. Worse, the harder you work at it, the less “welcome” and accessible your Korean boss, Mr Kim, a significantly older gentleman, appears to be. In a rush one day, for example, to make a project deadline, you sped through the office corridor, rushing past him as he walked to his office. Later that day, a Korean colleague mentioned that Mr Kim was worried about your ability to succeed in Korea. What are you doing wrong?
3. Every time you ask the Korean team a question, they break out into a huddle and speak amongst themselves in Korean. Sometimes this takes a really long time, and each time this occurs you become more and more uncomfortable, convinced that they are really talking about you in Korean because they knew you do not understand. This makes for a very suspicious environment in which to continue the negotiations. Why does the Korean team keep behaving so impolitely to you?
4. Your wife was traveling with you on this business trip to Korea, and you were eager to have her join you for the traditional Korean meal that the Korean team had earlier invited you to attend, scheduled for that evening. How surprising it was, therefore, when you and your wife showed up at the restaurant, that there was a strange and awkward silence when you introduced her to the leader of the Korean team. Did you do something wrong?
5. When Mr Pak asked you to talk a little bit about your work, and your company’s plans, you didn’t expect to also answer questions about your personal background. But the questions were posed very politely, and Mr Pak seemed genuinely interested in finding out all he could about this person he might be working with, so you eagerly began providing him with as much background information on yourself, your company and your work, as possible. It was a pleasure to do so, actually, until at the end of one of your answers, instead of responding, Mr Pak smiled, leaned forward in his seat, and silently peered deeply into your eyes. You found this extremely uncomfortable, and after several seconds, started chatting again, albeit nervously. What was that about, you wondered to yourself?
YOUR KOREAN CULTURE QUIZ ANSWERS:
1. While the color red is definitely a very popular color all throughout East Asia, it is not viewed as positively in Korea in all contexts, especially when it involves…
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