When we ask
people who have different nationalities about custom they want to inform
others, everyone will have more than one answer. I also have a great deal of
ideas but now I will focus on one Korean traditional custom, being polite to
others. Recently, even though people can meet each other faster and easier than
ever before, thanks to the Internet, they are feeling left out. This is largely
because after capitalism became the main stream, we are forced to compete with other
participants of society and win. These nonstop competitions caused a human
alienation phenomenon, which means people think they cannot believe anyone in
the society which they are included. By adopting our custom, however, the world
would be a much better place to live in. Now, I am going to support my idea by
presenting two reasons.
First, Koreans
have the tendency to respect the elder, only because he or she is older than we
are. Korea was once called as 'the country of courteous people in the East’ by
the Chinese. We acquired this fame because the Chinese were surprised to see our
forefathers being very kind to their grandparents. As this information tells
you, our forefathers stressed the importance of being polite to others
especially to the elder. For example, even today it is normal in Korea to give up
the seat, which you were sitting on, for the elders regardless of your tiredness
in the subway. If you respect people who are older than you, the next
generation will do the same to you. This I believe is an important factor to overcome
alienation because feeling that you are respected makes you to be more
enthusiastic in building a close relationship with the next generation.
Second, Koreans
emphasizes relationships between neighbors. In ancient times, Koreans relied on
agriculture and the success or failure of the year’s farming had a critical
impact on people's survivals. In order to maximize the quantity of crops Koreans
helped each other. As time passed, this tradition changed into trust and cooperation
between neighbors which is very helpful to feel that you are being welcomed to a
society. Let me explain with my personal experience. A few years ago I had a
hard time adjusting to a new school. I felt lonely and left out. However a boy
who lived next door approached me only because I was his neighbor. We became
close friends then, and I did not feel lonely anymore. The keystone for people
not to feel left out is having a friend, but it is quiet hard to build friendship
because of alienation. However, if other countries adopted our Korean custom,
they would solve human alienation phenomenon.
No one can deny that
even in Korea, more and more people are feeling isolated. Nevertheless, this
tradition keeps our society from falling apart. Therefore for all countries which
suffer from human alienation, I suggest to those countries to take Korea as a
model and adopt our tradition of being polite to others, and break through the
problem.
They are terrible but didactic
They are terrible but didactic
