Traditions

Traditional Clothing

Hanbok is the traditional clothing of Korea. It is commonly seen in Korean Dramas nowadays and currently it is worn during special occasions such as festive occasions and special anniversaries. Examples of festive occasion and special anniversaries would be children’s first birthday, 60^th birthday, funeral or religious related services. However in certain places of Korea, such as Chunghak-dong on Mount Jirisan where traditional way of living is still being practiced, people still wear Hanbok as their casual clothing.

There are many types of Hanbok and they are worn by different type of people or for different type of purposes. Depending on the type of Hanbok worn, one may be able to determine the social status, gender and age group of the person wearing the particular type of Hanbok. Hanbok is worn with different headgears and accessories.

Traditional Cuisine

Traditional cuisine of Korea or Korean food is known as Hansik. With the Korean wave affecting places all around the world, more and more people are able to find Korean restaurants around different places of the world. As such, more and more people are being exposed to how Hansik are and how they taste like. However, there is still much room more improvement on making Hansik more popular when you compare food travel of Korea with other countries like China and Japan where many people can immediately give you the names of their local food if you were to ask them.

Korean cuisine is made up of two main components which is fermentation and vegetable. Fermentation is the breakdown of food into more digestible component through natural bacteria found in the natural environment around.

Fermentation is the process whereby the nature of the food changes into other form which is useful and beneficial and not the process whereby food gets spoilt. An example of such fermented cuisine in Korea would be their Kimchi or fermented spicy cabbage. The process of fermentation gives Kimchi its rich taste and Koreans would say that the Kimchi have ripe if the Kimchi are well-aged and ready for consumption. The term ripe is used for fruits but the Koreans use them to express the stage of their fermented cuisine. Other form of fermented food would be sauces that are used in much Korean food and is known to be the basic of Korean food. “Jang” is what Korean calls their sauces. Some of such sauces are soybean sauces, red pepper paste, and soybean paste. It is said that these fermented food and sauces are high in nutritional value and they are what you taste in Korean cuisine.

A typical Korean meal is made up of steamed rice, a soup and a variety of side dishes to go along with the meal. The side dishes are made primarily with vegetable in the past in a commoner’s family. It is rare and uncommon to find a side dish with meat in it. The side dishes could be boiled, fried or simply seasoned with salt.

Traditional Music

Traditional music of Korea is separated into two different categories. The first type of traditional music is called the Jeongak, which is traditional music or classical music that are played to the royals and upper class in the past while the second type is called the Minsogak or the Sogak, which is traditional music or folk music, which is the music of the commoners.

The Jeongak are sang by skilled vocalist during ceremonies or ritual services for the royalties and upper class people while Minsogak can be sang by anyone and it is common for people to sing while they work on their fields. Therefore, the Korean folk music Minsogak are more commonly sang by Koreans as compared to the classical music, Jeongak.

Traditional Houses

Traditional houses that Korean used to live in are called Hanok. The term includes are sort of traditional Korean architecture which includes thatched-roof, shingle-roof and tiled-roof houses. Most of the thatched-roof and shingle-roof houses have disappeared but the tiled-roof can still be found in Korea right now and some of the structure were considered to be heritage site and is being maintained by the government. Up till today, there are still people living in such houses as their home.

Houses are made to be cool in the summer and warm in the winter season because of the houses being built without the floor touching the ground. The unique temperature control system of the houses are called the “Ondol” and using it in different ways will bring about different effects, being warming the house or keeping the house cool.

Culture

Hospitality of Koreans

South Korea, also known as the Eastern Land of Courtesy because of its location at the Eastern Asia, is known for their friendliness and hospitality towards other people. It is sometimes considered to be lucky for one to have a Korean friend because of how hospitable they are and how attentive they are towards their friends.

Leppert (1996) stated that they do not forge friendships instantly upon first meeting. Koreans take friendship seriously and they feel obligated towards their friends (p.71). As such, once a friendship is forged, it will be a long-lasting one. When you become a friend of theirs and start to be recognised as a person that will be “in” their life, which is when a Korean will be really kind towards a person.

Reciprocity in Korea

In South Korea, people practices reciprocity, especially the businessmen. Reciprocity means reciprocation or mutual exchange. It can be in form of presents, treats or favour. For example, when people do a favour for them, the Koreans will feel that they are in debt of you and they would reciprocate by giving you a form of advantage or privilege as a corresponding response to your favour. This is related to Confucianism and the ethics of reciprocity in Korea.

No men are equal & Confucianism

In South Korea, there is a form of “hierarchy system” in which people behaves and act towards each other. For example, the word brother is not found in the Korean language. Only elder brother (“hyeong”) or younger brother (“dongsaeng”) can be found. They address each other with initials that depend on the working position of the person or age of the person. A subordinate will address his or her manager as Manager Lee instead of Mr Lee because of his position in the hierarchy of the working environment. A younger male would address an elder male along with his status, “hyeong” instead of his name itself. This is considered as a form of respect.

The origination of such behaviour is due to the fact that South Korea is a Confucian society. This means that they practice the ethics of Confucianism. Teachings of Confucianism are actually ethics and philosophies that originated from a Chinese called Confucius. From the Teachings of Confucius, a system of ethics was practiced, which stress the obligations of human relationship between one another.

Confucianism stresses several elements for example like integrity, filial piety, respect for age and seniority, and sincerity.

Background Information of South Korea

Introduction

South Korea, one of the countries with the fastest economic growth over the past few decades is currently one of the many countries that are highly noticeable by many foreigners because of their success over a variety of things: e.g. technology, agricultural, pop culture, e-sports and many more.

Facts

South Korea is located at Eastern Asia, southern half of the Korean Peninsula bordering the East Sea and the Yellow Sea.

The capital of South Korea is Seoul.

Ethnic Make-up: homogeneous (except for about 20,000 Chinese)

Religions: no affiliation 46%, Christian 26%, Buddhist 26%, Confucianist 1%, other 1%