Intercultural Blog: South Korean Culture
Hi! My name is Senwei Zheng. I am a student at City College of San Francisco. This blog is for an assignment in the class Intercultural Communication taught by Dr. Jennifer Kienzle. If you have any questions or comments about this project, please contact Dr. Kienzle: jkienzle@ccsf.edu
This blog will introduce some aspects of South Korean Culture such as brief history, intercultural communication challenges and tips. The purpose of this blog is to help outsiders to know more about the culture in order to build efficient intercultural relationship with people from South Korea.
Brief history of South Korea
Republic of Korea (대한민국), is also called South Korea. Located in the south of Korean peninsula in East Asia with a total area of about 100,000 square kilometers (45% of the total Korean peninsula). There are 51,529,338 (2016) people living in South Korea, and Korean is the major ethnic in the society. Seoul is its capital and the official language is Korean. At present, South Korea’s GDP is ranked 11th in the world according to international exchange rates.
Korea under Japanese rule
Korea under Japanese rule began with the end of the short-lived Korean Empire in 1910 and ended at the conclusion of World War II in 1945 (Wikipedia).
The history of South Korea officially begins with its establishment on August 17th 1948. According to the arrangement from Yalta Conference in February 1945, Korean peninsula was co-hosted by the United States, the Soviet Union and China. But because the United States and the Soviet Union were not able to reach a consensus on the co-management, Korean peninsula was divided into two political field by Military Demarcation Line: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) administrated by the Soviet Union; and Republic of Korea (South Korea) under the United States’ sphere of influence.
“Miracle on the Han River”
refers to the rapid development of South Korea’s export-oriented economy, including rapid industrialization, advancement in science and technology, improvement in national education, rapid improvement in the standard of living of the people, urbanization , modernization, democratization, and internationalization.
The rapid development of South Korea’s economy has enabled South Korea to transform itself from the ruins of war into the 11th largest economy in the world, and has created world-renowned multinational corporations such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai. In 2006, Korea’s per capita GDP reached 17,600 in U.S. dollar, became a developed country.
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