I had the opportunity to meet a grad student here at Auburn University. Esther Kim is 26 and originally from Seoul, South Korea. She teaches a public speaking class while simultaneously working on her grad school thesis. Esther was unbelievably kind and friendly. She talked about how she came to the States when she was 14 years old as an exchange student to study English. She told us about her host family and how she stayed with them in rural Georgia. Where she’s from is extremely different; she talked about how seeing this much greenery and nature was a huge difference from the busy city life back home. We talked about the major differences she’s experienced between the two countries in terms of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions.

One of the most interesting dimensions we talked about was context. She told us how in South Korea, a high context culture, it can be seen as disrespectful to look a person of authority in the eye when they’re speaking. She specifically had trouble with this when first coming to live with her host family. She said they would be talking to her, and they assumed her lack of eye contact was because she was extremely shy or wasn’t giving them their full attention.

This is because the culture here in the states is a low context culture, so we view eye contact as a sign of respect and that were listening attentively to whoever is speaking. She also talked about how here, when we greet each other or simply walk by someone, we have a smile on our face. Esther noted this as her favorite thing Americans do differently in terms of greetings. In South Korea, she said that people might think that you are laughing at them or being disrespectful. I loved getting to know Esther; her strength was an inspiration. She misses her family and her home country and hasn’t been to South Korea in 3 years. When she was telling us about her mother, she spoke with such pride and honor. Her mother helps run a ministry back home in South Korea, helping refugees who come from North Korea. Her father, just like mine, is a pastor, which I thought was a really unique connection and something we can talk about in later meetings.

She mentioned her brother and her childhood growing up. I asked her if there was a big difference in terms of gender roles between what her brother was encouraged to do and what she was encouraged to do. Her grandparents and their generation believed in more structured gender roles, and essentially, what they wanted their son and grandson to do, they would do. Esther said that her mother didn’t really have any restrictions on what they should do and encouraged them to do whatever made them happy. Esther said she isn’t very athletic, so she would take lessons in violin and piano after school. Another topic I found very interesting was her childhood in terms of schooling. What blew my mind was learning that in South Korea, children start learning english at as young as 3 years old. She said that English was structured into their curriculum. Here in the States, we have foreign languages that are a part of our curriculum, but we get to decide if we want to take Spanish, French, German, or simplified Chinese, which is what I took in middle school. Esther was lovely, and I can’t wait to learn even more about her culture and her as a person.