I heard an interesting story of a Korean pop star in an entertainment show a few weeks ago. He was sent to support Korean football team during the World Cup this year. After a victory of their national team, he went to a night club to celebrate. An old lady asked him whether he had a lighter or not because she wanted to smoke. However, he didn’t have one but he felt that it may be impolite to say no, so he asked a hot guy next to him to lend him a lighter. Luckily, the guy had one so he borrowed it, lent it to the lady and then returned it to the man.
For me, it is a very normal scene and it is also very natural for the Korean star to feel embarrassed to say no to that lady. Asian people are often reserved and try to behave politely.
However, actions can be interpreted very differently in different cultures. In America, if you ask to borrow a lighter, this means you are interested in him/her. So he accidentally conveyed a wrong message to the American guy and he said that the American guy was looking at him in a very flirting way when he handed the lighter to him. I think the people around him may be very confused about the Korean star’s sexual interest, for he was interested in people of different genders and at different ages!
Hi Cosine!
ReplyDeleteWow! I didn't know that borrowing a lighter in American means that you are interested in that person! Haha! Thanks for pointing that out!
I guess different country have different cultures. Some actions that seem normal might mean other things elsewhere.
See you around!
Like Edmund, I didn't know about it too.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I realized from reading a couple of the posts that our classmates had made, was that I got to learn more about cultural traits that I didn't know existed in our world.
Thanks Cosine, for sharing the post.
yeap, i agree with Yong Feng that our classmates' blogs broaden our eyes. i believe this is a good thing,because we can learn from it and try not to make the same mistakes.
ReplyDeleteone way to avoid intercultural conflict is to know the differences in advance and behave in a proper way.
Hi Cosine!
ReplyDeletehaha. this is an interesting one. I'm sure the Korean actor would be very embarrassed.
Thank you for sharing this one. This is something i'm totally unaware of. This reminds me to research more about habits in Finland before i go there. Just to avoid this kind of misunderstandings. =)
Thanks for this post, Cosine. It's interesting, and fairly clear and concise. However, it may be a bit misleading. I don't think that every American will feel that a request from someone in a bar to borrow a lighter will always be a "come on," an act of flirtation, so you have to be careful about interpreting every single act in the same fashion. Remember context is important, as well as eye contact, voice tone, and other nonverbals. The main point is that you have to be very careful about overgeneralizing.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few language issues here as well:
1) he didn’t one >>>
2) thing can be very different in different cultures >>> actions can be interpreted very differently in different cultures
3) if you ask somebody to borrow a lighter to you, >>> if you ask to borrow a lighter,
In any case, I appreciate your effort!
Hi Brad,
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing out the shortages of my post. I think you are right, maybe my conclusion is a bit overgeneralizing. Actually, the Korean pop star told a very short story and he didn't mention very clearly the scenario. I think maybe he wore in tight clothes that day or maybe he was a little drunk so his eye contact was flirting to that American guy.
Thanks, Cosine!
ReplyDelete