Exploring Nunchi Through the Concepts of Grounding Being able to read and act based on social cues is important in many cultures, but in South Korea, “nunchi” is especially valued. There is no exact translation of this word in English, but in his research paper, Jae Hong Heo interprets nunchi as a method of understanding the situation or feelings of others around you and acting accordingly. My paper will discuss why nunchi is unique to South Korea and how the awareness of nunchi affects social relations on professional and casual levels. My research’s purpose is to identify how nunchi serves as a type of grounding in interpersonal relations and why it plays such a larger role in Korean culture than in other cultures. As a result, my main research question is how nunchi affects and reflects the way people in Korean society relate to each other, especially from different positions of power. Through analyzing my sources, I found that nunchi is not …show more content…
For example, when going to a cafe for coffee with friends, nunchi is used to decide which cafe all of your friends agree on going to, and is also used by the employee working there to please the customers. This is exemplified by a comedic skit from “Alba Heaven” where this is parodied and roles are switched. The employee is the one the customers have to please in this video, and we can see how nunchi is grounding as the customers pick up on cues that indicate how the employee feels. This is seen through body language when the camera zooms into the employee’s fist banging down on the table when asked to make a more complex drink, which the customer interprets as annoyance and changes her order to something easier to make by reading that as nunchi. This is an example of nunchi in back channel information and grounding as the customers understand what is said “between the lines” and react
The main focus of this research proposal is to address the study of social psychology and the role it plays in helping one understand human social behavior. In this proposal, one will attempt to explain how the field of social psychology will evolve within the next 10 years. Allport, (1985) maintains that social psychology is the scientific study that seeks to understand the nature of individual’s behavior and how they think, feel, and are influenced by others. To understand the framework of this proposal, one will focus on human social behavior as it relates to research in social psychology.
She clearly and logically illustrates her point of view. She writes, “cultural differences are assumed and expected. But when the cultures of individuals are under scrutiny, it becomes clear that cultural borders do not hold their dividing power.” (98) Combined with her ability to logically expound on her view of cultural borders, she uses several anecdotes to further her point. She identifies four individuals who exemplify multiculturalism. Each of these examples share a Korean heritage but have adopted many other cultural markers from additional sources including non-Korean parents, U.S. society, immigration, and through adoption. Chang poses the question, “Would it be possible for one to become culturally more Korean in the morning, German for lunch, ‘American’ in the afternoon, and back to Korean in the evening? In her conclusion and in answer to that question she states, “Once different standards are embraced by individuals, the differences are incorporated into their individual cultures…the cultural differences are reframed into multiculturalism.”
North Korea is notorious as the “Hermit Kingdom”. Defensive and secretive to the point of paranoia, its history as well as its present conditions remains shrouded in mystery. What little we do know can be murky at best. The central govern...
The Mbuti people are known as foragers because their main source of survival lies on hunting and gathering as they move from one place to another. They originated from a region in Africa called Congo. The Mbuti people even with their fairly decent population prefer to be grouped into smaller groups or bands which are mostly made up of close relatives. They live in the rainforests of central Africa, where they have lived popularly for more than 6000 years now.
This book outlines the various ways in which people conduct their lives in reflection to one another and social institutions.
Soh, C. S. (2001). South Korea. In C. R. Ember & M. Ember (Eds.), Countries and Their Cultures (
It is often shown that all the Koreans say something indirectly. It seems as if Korean has different way of thinking with the native English speakers. It has been reported that in contrast to English students, Korean students tend to express themselves in general, even when asked to communicate their ideas. This is because they have been trained to think inclusively and it is emphasized that moderation is considered the supreme virtue in the civilization of Korea. (Byung-Eun Cho, 2004) Also, all the Korean students are thought that patience is the most important virtue. Therefore, they are not get used to express what and how they think. On the other hand, in contrast to Korean students, English students feel comfortable to express their opinion. This is the biggest different aspect between Korean and
This theory has been subject to many articles and studies in the communication and social departments. Indeed, studying this theory can help us understanding human relations in interpersonal communication. Each of us has been one day confronted to uncertainty, whereas in initial encounters, or moving to a new a new place, or beginning a new work.
“Brainwashing, surveillance, fear: daily fare in North Korea”. Channel NewsAsia. (18 Feb. 2014) .Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
In my country, South Korea, when two people communicate each other, active listeners are more valued as we believe that appropriate response and attentive behaviour is coming from the essence of the listening skill. For foreigners who are not from an Asian country, they could misunderstand the intention of senders, if I don’t actively respond to the receiver in the course of conversation as they are not aware of our customs and values. Therefore, it is imperative to place ourselves to someone else’s shoe so we could comprehend how the misunderstanding of intention can be
In interpersonal communication there are many theories that are similar yet different in many ways. The theories can be combined to describe people and how those people interact and communicate with each other. Many of these theories help explain how people in society form impressions of others, how they maintain these impressions, why people interact with certain people in society, and how people will use these impressions that they have formed later on in life. These theories also help people to better understand themselves, to better understand interpersonal communication, and to better understand people in general. There are two theories in interpersonal communication that, despite their differences, can go hand in hand. The first is interaction adaptation theory and the second is emotional contagion theory. These two theories’ similarities and differences and their relevance to my everyday life will be discussed in this paper. These two theories are very important in understanding how people interact with others and why people do the things they do sometimes.
Almost every person has a role and a status in everything they do in their daily lives. These help define how we as humans have social roles and how we perceive not only our social status and roles but the roles of others too. Every person’s situation in a social unit is influenced by the position they occupy. These situations help create the social unit which is on the smaller size and a meso social unit, includes a medium size. Each person has a status, or a position in a social unit. Each social unit consists of a status network or status system. The status network or system is structural and there are always things changing and processes that are in place in order to have it run successfully.
...t functions in our everyday life and relationships. Our culture is a good determinant of how we may act and show our feelings around people. The social conventions in our culture also serves as a guide as to what is supposed to be proper behavior when we are playing our social roles in the society we live in. There are times when people would choose to present artificial emotions because of the anxious situations that they are dealing with, hence refusing to disclose their feelings to others. A person’s personality also has huge influence on how they understand and convey expressions; just as our personality shapes our emotions, in turn our emotions also affect our personality. The people that we often socialize with can influence our feelings as we do the same with them. As has been noted, these are all the factors that influence the expression of our emotions.
Culture has always been a driving force in understanding nonverbal communication as nonverbal communication is highly influenced by the cultural differences as the context of the culture defines how the communication/message is interpreted in certain cultures. “Communication occurs within a context but the context is particularly important in relation to non-verbal communication” (Tyler, Kossen & Ryan, 2005, p.185). Culture defines the messages perceived by the non-verbal communication. For instance, proxemics. “Proxemics refers to the spatial relationship or how we use space.” (Tyler, Kossen & Ryan, 2005, p.190) Culture plays an important role in defining the use of one’s personal space in the nonverbal communication process. For example, in North America people usually remain at a distance from one another when talking while Latin American people stay very close when talking. (Wood, 2009). This defines the use of the privacy or personal space in two different cultures. H...
In this interview Ben Bagley asks Theresa Han about the difference between Korean and American culture. Theresa is a teenager who recently moved to the United States so she has an excellent perspective for understanding the differences and similarities between these countries.