Culture Snippets: South Korea

‘Culture snippets’ is our way of sharing snippets of insights into different countries. If you want to chat about how you can use these insights to inform your product and business decisions, feel free to get in touch.

The #Ppalli-ppalli culture, 빨리빨리 (fast-fast, hurry up or quickly) embeds deeply into South Koreans’ daily & working life. The practice of this culture is why this nation was able to achieve tremendous economic progress in a very short period after the 3-year Korean War. The focus on speed not only led to its world-leading Internet speeds & high-tech gadgets but also influences the high-efficiency of their public transport and other services.

As a traditionally #Confucian society, South Koreans think highly of a group, not an individual. Koreans expressions such as ‘our (Woo-ri, 우리)’ country, family, company, even ‘our wife’ comes very naturally. The sense of ‘If others are doing it, I too have to do it’ is strong. 

However, the #Confucion tradition of caring for parents & the elders is slowly fading in South Korea. Family structures become smaller. Fewer old people live with their adult children than in, say, Japan. Harder for children to support their parents financially. Young generations believe that the state can/should support senior citizens, not the family. Elderly citizens search for flattened cardboard in all weather & at all hours becomes a common scene on the street, 2hours effort to gather 6,000 won (>£3,98/$4.95) worth of used boxes.

More snippets to come for South Korea.

Photos: Taken when we were on the ground helping our clients to understand more about their customers and markets in this country.