Asian Culture vs. Western Culture (1 of 3)

I'm not a big fan of e-mail forwards and thankfully don't receive all that many nowadays.  I did get a good one though the other day.

The e-mail is basically a set of simple images used to contrast Asian thought and culture from Western thought and culture.  As an American who has lived in Korea now for approaching a year and a half, I was amazed at how close these were to what I've experienced.

There are slightly different versions of this e-mail going around, but here's the intro from the one I received:

Understanding of Asian culture vs. Western culture.... really an interesting representation.
These icons were designed by Liu Young who was born in China and educated in Germany .

According to another blogger on Asia, the series of images was created by Liu Young for an exhibition at the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  My lack of German is hindering tracking this down more.  Regardless of its source or author, these images are pretty interesting.

The blue image on the right represents Western Culture while the red one on the right represents Asian culture.

Opinion

Everyone who has asked a Korean a direct yes or no question and heard "maybe," will understand this one:

Way of Life

This really speaks for itself.  Individualism is something that its hard for many Koreans to understand.

 

Punctuality

I haven't had punctuality problems with most Koreans.  Koreans as pretty punctual in my experience.
 

Anger

I've definitely seen Koreans show their anger before, but for the most part, the norm is to hide displeasure--especially with superiors.

Queue when Waiting

For everyone who has been cut in front of in Korea will understand this: