revising an essay. read doc file first. 3hrs

Differences between the people in the U.S and Korea

Sungjoong Kim

UWP 101 023 FQ 2016

2016/10/10

Differences between the people in the U.S and Korea Comment by Liz Constable: Select one of the contrasts for your title Relaxed Californians meet Anxious Koreans:

Since I came to the United States, specifically in California, as an international student, I have made many new friends some of whom are not students. During my first days in California, one weekend my friends (who are U.S. citizens) and I decided to go for a shopping experience in one of the local supermarkets. Of course, everyone had a plan, or at least as I thought, of the things to buy. Everyone picked a shopping cart, and we started picking items and adding them to the cart. I found myself being the first person in the group to finish picking the items that I had planned to buy, and so, I kept on telling my friends to hurry up as time is running out. Somehow, this but didn’t seem to work. I felt that we are spending more time than we should have spentnecessary . I thought to myself, is it that I had fewer items to pick than my friends? But again, when I looked into their cart they had picked fewer items than mine. Comment by Liz Constable: It seems that this fact is important, but why? What is it about friends who are not students that you want to emphasize? Comment by Liz Constable: Add in some details about these friends so we can VISUALIZE you all on our shopping trip. You can simply add one or two words about each friend: e.g., “Joe, always complaining, Dave, the cheerful one” Comment by Liz Constable: See how I’ve varied the sentence length to help you see that varying sentence length is so very helpful to establish rhythm in your writing.

I am the kind of a person who always tries to find more about a peculiar behavior. I decided to watch my friends do their shopping. It is then that I realized they are more relaxed, and they are not in a hurry as I was during the shopping experience. They would pick an item, add it to the cart. If they find a fascinating type of the same item, they will replace the one they had added earlier which is unlike me as I only picked the items I had planned for. Comment by Liz Constable: Could you rewrite this and name a particular item to bring the scene to life?

The whole experience gave me an impression that people in the United States are much relaxed or slower than the people of Korea. Through my observation and my other experiences while in the country, I have seen and experienced many more things that give a relaxed or slower impression in the country when I compare with people in Korea. I once asked an American friend on how they feel handling a situation that I thought should be dwelt with faster. In my mind, I was asking how they deal with such situations considering they appear to me as slower and relaxed, and my friend had an answer, “these situations will always be there no matter your speed of handling them. Just enjoy the moment, that’s what is all about.” Truly, even his answer is as relaxed as their culture. Perhaps in Korea, we take things more seriously than they deserve. Here, I propose purpose to inform students who have never visited the United States but are planning to visit as international students about on the differences and to explore the reasons for the differences. Comment by Liz Constable: A purpose = a noun; and you are PROPOSING to do something. Comment by Liz Constable: Northern CA Comment by Liz Constable: USAGE: to inform people ABOUT something.

No hurry in the United States

The laxity is clearly evident in many situations. For example, people in Korea always act as if they are in a hurry. They might, yes, be in a hurry to go catch up with something else, but sometimes they are not. It is just their nature. In the United States, it is different; people appear calm and not in a rush. They do their things in a slower manner as if it is the last thing they are to do then call it a day. Comment by Liz Constable: WORD CHOICE? Easy-going approach to life

I observed while shopping at Safeway; shoppers take their time to choose what they believe is the best. The reasons for being in a hurry, or lack of it, are different. I think it is a hereditary culture. When children are born, they get assimilated into that way of living. That explains why they are in a hurry even when they are not up to something else later. The same reason applies to the people of United States; it is a characteristic that is in the genes. Comment by Liz Constable: I think you mean that children learn this easy-going attitude from their parents. Comment by Liz Constable: In this paragraph, you are comparing Korea and CA, but the two places end up confused, so be sure to revise and make a clear comparison. Also, I don’t think we can talk about easy-going or impatient attitudes as part of a genetic legacy. However, for sure, children learn from their environments.

Overtime

I have also noted the difference in the way of doing work. In the United States, employees value working in normal hours and are not keen on overtime. Employers too got accustomed to the way of working. As a matter of fact, it is the employers who in some instances discourage overtime work. In an engagement with an employer I asked him, “don’t you think the normal hours are too little for an organization with ambitions?” but he told me they try to maximize the productivity on normal hours after which an employee can relax or do other things that interest them. It is much different in Korea where employers want to employees to work overtime. Employers believe that it better to pay more for the overtime hours than to ‘waste’ that extra time of production realized in overtime hours. Comment by Liz Constable: Add more detail about the employment insecurities that lead people to work overtime. If they’re working longer hours, they have less time for grocery shopping, and so you can connect this to your first point.

Waiting time

Another thing has been able to observe in my United States stay is that people here are more willing to wait for something to be done than the Koreans. I have realized that at DMV people can wait for motor vehicle registration process to be complete, even if it takes a little bit of time. A little bit of time that an ordinary Korean would show a lot of impatience. The same is evident when applying for driving licenses or renewing. Waiting for the completion of the processing can be frustrating at times, at least to me, but it is amazing how Americans show patience in such incidences. Comment by Liz Constable: But let’s not forget that Koreans have fewer hours for such tasks, and so it’s inevitable that they feel impatience.

I associate it with perception in quality. In the U.S., there is a perception that, for instance, a quality service might take some time and hence their willingness to wait. But in Korea, the speed of offering a service is a show of quality.

Visiting parks

It is also notable that in Korea there a few parks while in the United States there are several parks. It is very common to see families visiting these parks just to relax as they enjoy the adventure. I have, in a number of times, mostly from the influence of my colleagues, visited a local park and most times the part is always packed with families. It is a complete contrast to how people in Korea live. Very few people visit the parks, and as a result, there are very few parks in Korea. People in the U.S. value family time while in Korea, perhaps due to too much work, family time is secondary in prioritization.

Other differences Comment by Liz Constable: How can we account for these differences?

Some of the other things that are a complete contrast between Korea and United States regarding laid-back attitudes laxity and slowness includes; Korea being a small country but with a huge population. Also, in Korea, streets and other places are crowded during the holidays and weekends maybe due to the work patterns whereby people often work overtime than in the U.S. The environment in Korea appears more competitive especially in the job market and therefore value education. Definitely, the United States has more resources than Korea and hence more opportunities even for people who maybe less educated.

Also, people tend to compare their achievements to other people. It is a situation that lowers the level of happiness among the citizens. However, in the U.S., people tend to concentrate on themselves than comparing themselves with others. They set personal goals they aim to achieve.

Conclusion

The process of writing the essay involved reflecting on a story that happened during my first days in the United States as an international student. It is one of the highlight moments when I discovered the disparity between the people of the United States, who appeared to be more relaxed and slower, and the people of Korea. I have highlighted some of the other incidents that prove the disparity is highlighted in the essay.

I discovered the topic from the observations I have made and the experience I have gone through as a student here in the United States. People here come different countries around the globe and therefore subscribe to different beliefs and cultural orientations. Since most of the students and the residents are citizens of the United States, it is easy to observe and experience some things that appear different to what I am used to. Comment by Liz Constable: Northern CA

Particularly, the experience at DMV, Safeway, and a local park played a big role. It is from such observations and experiences that I discovered that people in the U.S. are more relaxed or slower than people in Korea.

The topic changed in the process of writing about it because the audience expanded to even other people who are planning to come into the United States, not students only. I have learned to appreciate that there are different ways of doing things which still have justifications. Also, certain cultures may work in certain areas and fail in others. For example, it might be difficult to relax less in the U.S. The decisions I made on how to present the story included giving a personal story that happened to me to give the audience a clearer picture of what am writing about. The other decision is highlighting an incident of the differences and providing a reason as to why it happens.