by Dr. Horace H. Underwood
Professor Emeritus, Yonsei University

The problem of "in and out" is only a small part of a larger pattern: Korea is fundamentally not an egalitarian culture, not one that values equality of treatment, but one that makes distinctions between people, one that is hierarchical.

Well, you knew that Korean culture was hierarchical. But do you know what that really implies? I mean, it's arranged vertically!

Just as one clue, there is no word in Korean for "brother." There is no such word. There is a Korean word for "elder brother" ("hyong") and a Korean word for "younger brother" ("tongsaeng") but no word for brother. American brothers are generally equal to each other, but Korean brothers are not equal; the elder brother has what we would call the responsibility of a father toward his younger brothers. The relationship is different, so the word is different. My Korean friends always consider me slightly immoral in that I do not tell my younger brother what to do.

Koreans have separate words for elder sister and younger sister, too. In fact, they have different words for a man to use for his elder sister and for a woman to use for her elder sister. The words are different because the roles are different and the relationships are different and the responsibilities are different and not equal.

Korea is a Confucian society. Everyone is Confucian, including the Christians. Confucianism is primarily a system of ethics, not religion, and within ethics, even more a system of social relationships. The very center of Confucianism is the "Five Relationships" of "king to subject, father to son, elder brother to younger brother, husband to wife, and friend to friend." Note that four out of five of these are hierarchical. That's about right; Korea is at least 80% hierarchical. (And even "friends" only applies if the two were born the same year, and are thus the same age and capable of being roughly equal. And even then not quite, because the one born a month or a day or an hour ahead is senior. Even twins: like Esau and Jacob, the twin born first is the elder brother. Koreans are very confused when Americans claim that someone clearly not their own age is their "friend.")

Language reinforces inequality not only in things like the words for "brother" but in every sentence. The "levels" of spoken Korean are controlled by and also define the relationship of the two speakers. Even if you know no Korean you will notice that younger people use a lot of long sentences ending with "-imnida," while older people talking to younger people end their sentences with short cutoff endings. Two people can't even talk to each other until they have defined their mutual relationship, hierarchically, by position or age.

Teachers, particularly senior teachers, maintain a certain dignity. Americans may think such teachers are putting it on, but in their minds they are simply being senior, acting as a teacher ought to act. Granted that Koreans treat Americans as somewhat outside the Korean hierarchical system (my "honorary" age for a long time has been about 10 years greater than my real age, though the gap has now disappeared), and granted that Koreans take things from foreigners that they would never take from other Koreans, still, hierarchy is the whole world, and being aware of one's relative place in the world is a way of making life easier in dealing with Koreans anywhere.

About the author:

Horace H. Underwood is the fourth generation of his family to live in Korea. His great-grandfather was one of the first Protestant missionaries to arrive in Korea in 1885, and later founded Yonsei University, where his family has continued to teach. Dr. Underwood first went to Korea in 1946 at the age of three; after earning a doctorate at SUNY Buffalo he served for 30 years as a professor in Yonsei's English Department. During that time he also had various other posts in international education, including Director of the Division of International Education and Dean of the Graduate School of International Studies, and Executive Director of the Korean American Educational Commission (the Fulbright Commission.) In 2004 he retired and moved to a home in South Carolina near his granddaughter, but still returns to Korea regularly as a member of the Board of Directors of Yonsei University and as a friend of Korea. Dr. Underwood can be contacted at: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it