A lot of the Korean culture is based around Confucian traditions, the basis of which is repect for your elders and respect for men.
Having respect for your elders I have no issue with. Firstly, old people in Korea are amazing, I have no problem giving the ancient old Ajumas a smile and a bow of my head as they wander around with their grandchildren strapped to their back. However, the fact that you must have respect for men regardless of whether they have earnt it does really bother me.
To give an example of what I mean. The owner of my Hagwon once paid a visit to our office. This man obviously gained out respect as he was the one who kept us all in gainful employment. Yet this fact seemed to give him the ability to say whatever he wished to his employees. One of the Korean teachers who was sat opposite me did not happen to be your usual stick thin model of a woman as the Koreans tend to be. Having been asked to open her desk drawer, our boss spied some snacks. This is usual as most of the students descend on the office at some point during the day asking for food. But, this seemed to give our boss permission to make a comment along the lines of "You're fat, so obviously you have snacks in your desk". In the UK this comment would have probably resulted in a hearing and some form of compensation. Yet him being our boss and an older Korean man, she just had to smile and laugh although she was obviously upset by this 'joke'
The Korean mens attitude to women, on the most part, would just not fly in the Western world. I was informed during my telephone interview that there would be 'many looking good men in Korea'. Other girls in my office have been asked on their first or second day what kind of men they found attractive. Whilst my boss constantly wanders around my office making inappropriate jokes and claiming 'I look sexy today'
I understand that the basis of these actions come from the traditions of the culture but maybe in a rapidly changing country men really need to learn that respect is earnt, not a birth right, and the office is no place for innuendo no matter how 'sexy' you think you are.
