So You Tell Your Korean Mom You Got a Job in Silicon Valley

HatTip to D. Lee.

Does Language Influence Culture?

Insightful piece by Lera Boroditsky in The Wall Street Journal,

"Lost in Translation
New cognitive research suggests that language profoundly influences the way people see the world; a different sense of blame in Japanese and Spanish"

Emphasizes things my mom discussed with me growing up...

"Dear, you have to realize Korean language is indirect and not descriptive, so this affects the culture and people. Which is why Koreans are vague and indirect at times."

Also when my cousin was an officer and translator for the South Korean army, he told me that it was frustrating translating from Korean to English because there were multiple ways to translate various sentences. If he didn't know the writer's intent then it was 4 or 5 ways. Of course, there are certain words and descriptions not in English that are in Korean, but he was referring to the general structural differences between Korean and English.


UPDATE: There was a pretty interesting thread on my Facebook page, so I asked some of the people if it was cool to repost their comments here. Good comments and insights from various sides of this topic.

Mike Lanza: A Japanese friend used to work at Microsoft in Tokyo. The working language among employees in the office was Japanese, but whenever a disagreement emerged, they would spontaneously switch to English. Apparently, they felt the Japanese language was a hindrance to resolving disputes efficiently...

Bernard Moon: Reminds me of Malcom Gladwell's "Outliers", which I didn't read but Christine told me about. She discussed with me the chapter on Korean Airlines pilots and how they use to have the highest crash rates in the industry. A study found that it was a combination of Confucian hierarchy and language that led to grave mistakes in the cockpit. A junior pilot wouldn't want to challenge the authority of the senior pilot and would make vague, non-challenging statements, such as "hmm, it seems a bit foggy... it might be difficult to land...". So the resolution was that Korean Air pilots speak English in the cockpit and the result was a dramatic decrease in crashes.

.....

Bernard Moon: Han, Korean has more adjectives and more descriptive words in certain categories, but the structural differences create the indirectness.

I know when my cousin was an officer and translator for the South Korean army (liaison between the Korean and U.S. senior staff), he told me that it was frustrating translating from Korean to English because there were multiple ways to translate various sentences. If he didn't know the writer's intent then it was 4 or 5 ways.

Mike Lanza: When I studied Japanese, I found at least 15 or 20 different words that translated to English as "feeling." My first reation was to think the Japanese can articulate far more nuances of feeling than we English-speakers. This is akin to the discussion about Eskimos having over 500 words for our word, "snow."

After reflecting on the feeling question more, I'd say that Japanese gives many more options than English for obfuscating or lightening a strong feeling. So, I'd venture to guess (I haven't researched this) that they have more subtle "feeling" words, while we have more strong feeling words like "fabulous" or "shitty" or "stupendous" or "horrific".

.....

Paul Y. Ahn: we'll be qualified to make statements like some of the ones made in this thread's comment section once we've attained a native to near-native proficiency in Korean.
as of now, none of the people that have shared their opinions in this thread, including the TS and me, have that level of proficiency, thus, the opinions are inherently (and unbeknown to the communicator) heavily ethnocentric ("englishcentric" or "englishlanguagecentric" may be a better words but i doubt they exist).

for example, the story about Bernard's translator cousin: for every one story about a person's frustration stemming from translating Korean to English, there is another about a person's frustration stemming from translating English to Korean

Bernard Moon: paul, actually it was a common frustration discuss among my cousin's fellow translators in the army. and i don't think you get more concrete proof than crashes decreasing when the language was changed. i believe this was a similar issue among japanese airlines too.

and my wife is a native speaker :)

Paul Y. Ahn: I'd bet on two things:
A. your cousin and his fellow translators are predominantly more comfortable speaking English than Korean and/or have been educated in the States even for a limited period (as are almost all people that play that role in the Korean army). thus, the opinions of their social group also showcase one side of the equation.
B. changing the language spoken in the cockpit from Korean to English was merely one of many significant changes that were made after the results of the study were published. probably one of the more significant changes that were made which decreased crashes and has nothing to do with the language spoken was that now first officers fly the plane and the captains run through their inspection process checklists which is the other way around.

tangentially, I think Malcom Gladwell, the pop sociologist, sucks

Twitteleh, Twitter for Your Jewish Mother

HatTip to Net J. Love this. Someone should make one for Korean mothers called "Twittuh-ah." Their main questions would be:

1. Have you eaten yet?
2. Are you married yet?
3. Did you know Mrs. Kim's son... (e.g. got a 4.0, going to Hopkins Med)?

Generalizations of East Asians... Chinese, Japanese, Koreans

Parable of the Dragon and Ten Pigs... Are Japanese The Model?

A few weeks ago I read a column by an attorney in a Korean newspaper on his recent travels to Shanghai. I tried to find the article online but could not obtain it so the details will not be accurate. He was a Korean working at an international law firm in Hong Kong whose work had taken him often this year to the mainland. His article focused on the parable of the dragon and ten pigs that he learned from his friends in the mainland. The lesson in this Chinese parable was comparing the skills and characteristics of the Chinese with the Japanese. The Chinese are like a dragon, which they described as strong and skillful individually, but within a group they become like ten pigs squealing and running aimlessly in the pen. The Japanese are like ten pigs, who are weaker individually, but come together to become a dragon. The lesson is the work and sweat needed to get things done is in groups not by individuals, and a self-criticism by the Chinese.

I found this interesting because Koreans recognize and sometimes discuss the strength of the Japanese in their teamwork skills and ability to support each other, but it isn't often they are reflective on their weaknesses as much as I hear from the Chinese. I remember listening to various criticisms and comments from Japanese and others about Koreans when the topic of reunification of North and South first came into the forefront about a decade ago. The great potential of reunification would be discussed, but soon dismissed after noting that Koreans would eventually backstab each other and its maximum potential would never be attained.

Though disappointing to hear as a person of Korean descent, I see some of these characteristics. One example is when I first moved to Korea four years ago for work, I learned about a phrase in Korean that people state when good fortune happens for their friend or colleague: "my stomach hurts." This phrase means that you feel a sense of envy for your friend or colleague that receives a promotion at work, windfall of money, etc. It is also disheartening when you see and hear stories of backstabbing and jealousy in Korean corporate environments. I hope this generalized characteristic fades from Korean and Korean American culture.

It's interesting though to hear in the U.S. how Koreans were considered the "Asian Jews." Primarily in a positive spin, this comparison stems from the perception that Koreans are hard-working, intelligent, and very driven to succeed. Also there is a more tangible fact in that many businesses Koreans obtained when they immigrated during the 1960s and 1970s were from Jewish Americans, such as dry cleaners and various retail operations in Chicago and New York.

I grew up in a suburb with a large percentage of Jewish Americans, and some of my friends' parents acknowledged this perceived similarity. A few of them would say that they would allow their daughters "to marry either a Jewish or Korean boy" because they believed Koreans to have "similar values." I would state that one difference I recognize is the formal and informal support system that Jews have which Koreans do not in the U.S. This might originate from all those hurt stomachs in Korea.

It's interesting to hear while living in Asia that the Chinese are considered the "Asian Jews." Not always in these words, but Chinese are considered by most Asians to be the best "money makers" or the smartest with money. Even my native Korean friends and family state or agree on this stereotype of the Chinese. So I assume many of the Chinese in the U.S., being in there several generations longer than Koreans, are diluted too much by American culture. :) Anyway, my mother is one of those Koreans that believes once China has the infrastructure and economic and cultural maturity that they will dominate Asia and much of the world.