Individualism Vs Collectivism Research

Individualism versus collectivism. Initially, a heuristic answer comes up to mind – Korea is a collectivist country. It is really so – people give a lot of focus to group and team work. They do not behave like the “smarty pants” in the class, though it was sometimes obvious that some students wanted to ask something or knew the answer to the teacher’s question, they still kept silence not to act out of line. They learn “how to do” rather than “how to learn” – that is why they do not question the material they are taught. The relationships in the group prevail over the task – team members spend very much time together, not only for the project reasons, but to have fun.

However, personal achievements also play a role, people are protecting their

Therefore, we can say that Korean culture can be treated as both masculine and feminine. This is supported by the recent studies as well (Rhee, 2002).

Long-term versus short-term time orientation. It is hard to judge about this dimension from the micro-level. It seems like Koreans are mostly long-term oriented because they attribute their failures to their own lack of effort, and they are always trying to adapt to the situation. The fast economic growth of the country after the Japanese war also indicates long-term orientation.

Indulgence versus restraint. People’s faces in the public places in Korea are very similar to the faces of Russian people – they are always very serious and thoughtful, seldom smiling. It can be interpreted as the generally low happiness of people. The sexual norms are strict in Korea – as I have already mentioned above, even the dorms are separated into boys’ and girls’. Despite the good economy, Koreans are very slim. All these are the indicators of a restrained

Korea was almost ruined in the war with Japan about 60 years ago, but by the time I was there, they have built up an entire country with the skyscrapers, high-speed trains, progressive technologies, smartphones, etc. Everything that people need for life is produced in the country. I have noticed that Samsung, which is usually perceived as a smartphones and TVs manufacturers, also produces elevators, shopping malls, hospitals and amusement parks. So, the country is highly industrial and very rapidly developing. The cities are big, there are several metropolitan cities. The societal structure is also complex. There are still eating places where old Koreans cook homemade food for very cheap and mobile shoes repairing cabins where a husband and a wife work together. And there are huge business centers (famous Gangnam district, for example), where white collars spend a big part of their lifetime. In Korea, you can meet people in the streets wearing traditional dresses (not always, but during the holidays there are many such dresses). At the same time, the modern pop-culture is everywhere: they have posters, K-pop stars in the advertisements, pop music playing everywhere, people in the transport watching Korean series on their smartphones. So, the traditional and modern cultures mix and intersect a lot. All those things support the idea of a complexity of the Korean