Friday, September 18, 2015

Experiencing Cultures Across the Globe While Seated in a Lecture Hall

Exploring Different Cultures on Campus- Student Success Activities


Wednesday, September 16th Fredonia held a Professional Development Day that included all day Student Success Activities. For most students, this meant no class and a day to relax. But, for some this means helpful workshops to help be successful in higher education and in future careers. Jacob Czelusta and guests from the International Student Services hosted fun presentations about South Korea and Japan, presented by students from those countries. This presentation honed in on Fredonia's Baccalaureate goal of "Connected".

Students got a chance to see into the culture of each place, with an emphasis on the differences in population, housing, food, education, and culture in general. The differences between the three countries; United States, South Korea, and Japan, were extremely interesting!

Hello Kitty Bento


Some notable differences between the three countries were in food, education, and population.
Attendees learned that South Korea has a large admiration for side dishes; a typical meal is not made up of one large entree with some sides, but many, many sides and tons of variety! Japan, on the other hand is famous for, of course, sushi and bento, which in recent years has become a decoration contest!




Education systems are dissimilar as well. In South Korea, students begin taking a foreign language in elementary school, which is 6 years, and continue taking the language throughout middle school, 3 years, and high school, 3 years. The students have a lot of pressure put on them about grades, and some cannot sleep due to needing time to study.

Apartments in Seoul, South Korea
As for population, South Korea and Japan are very much urbanized and densely populated. In South Korea, 92% of the population live in 17% of the territory. South Korea is smaller than New York City yet has almost 2.5 times as many people! Needless to say, the city buildings that look like business buildings at first, are actually apartments to house the surplus of people. Parking is all underground to save room for more buildings.
In Japan, there is a population of 127.3 million people, with 13.35 million people just in the city of Tokyo; about 1/10 of the population! The presenter, Yuki, stated the city is small and crowded.

Some  social/cultural aspects that are unique to South Korea include the honor code; respect is shown to elders through communication and it is immensely important. Also, drinking with one's boss is a casual, common custom which is interesting since the workplace is intensely hierarchical.

Yuki, from Japan, took a moment to describe her "culture shock" after coming to the U.S. She explained that Americans love of hugging and saying "I love you" was hard for her to understand and very opposite from the culture she grew up in, in Japan. Also, she was surprised to learn about "tipping" at restaurants; a custom the Japanese do not do.

Test your global cultural knowledge!
Did you know that tae-kwon-do is a martial art form from South Korea?

Did you know Honda, Nissan, Toyota, SONY, and Nintendo are companies from Japan?

Did you know at 4:00 PM every Wednesday in the Global Connections Lounge of the William's Center there is free coffee and social hour with international students?! Stop by and meet some of the awesome students from all over the globe we have studying right here in Fredonia, NY!

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