Korean respect
...nds. Although it seems very simple, I have only mentioned a few of the things which the Korean people must do. It feels a lot different when it is required to be done always, and it also gets to a point where listening to elders gets very tiring. I just mentioned the hard part of respecting your elders but one wonderful custom in Korea is that if you go out for a meal with someone who is older than you, then it is customary for the older person to pay for everything. The younger person can just `enjoy'. The older person also feels obligated to look after the younger person. The older person will try to teach the younger person everything they know without really expecting anything in return. They will also look out for them to make sure that they are making all the right choices. Respect within the University Now let me talk about what the life in the university is like for the students here in Korea. What I want to emphasize is that the relationship between seniors and juniors in Korea is most probably very different from the relationships of students in other countries. This is because, as I mentioned earlier, the influence of the Confucius teachings. When in university, because the age range is quite large, showing respect to students older than you is no exception. At times you may find that the age difference is not as important compared to whether one is a senior to someone or not. Which is why it is a common occurence to state the year which you had entered university. Also, because most of the male students serve 2 and a half years in the army, the year which you are in is not important. They will look at the year which you entered university. So when one introduces themselves, they always state the year which they had entered as this will tell whether they are the senior or not. If one greets a senior, they must bow to them and when one speaks to a senior, one must use the language form to show proper respect. If you are not used to this custom of showing respect it is very difficult to keep up. Sometimes it may cause problems as with some people, they want proper respect shown but the other student may not think that it is necessary to show too much respect. This could cause friction in the relationship between the students. Conversely, some seniors may not require much respect to be shown. It will just depend on the person. Although there are many difficulties constantly having to be `respectful', in return the juniors receive a lot from their seniors. For example seniors will always buy their juniors lunch or dinner. It doesn't stop there, when it comes to school work, seniors will pass on the work they did t...