Socio-economic differences between the USA and the South Korea

Business and Marketing
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Business and Marketing
There is a wide diversity of populations occupying the United States and most of them fail to understand the culture of each other. There are many cultural, political as well as socio-economic differences between the United States of America and South Korea. Various differences are present concerning the culture of South Korea and United States. The first cultural difference is that the Korean people show a lot of respect for their elders. In South Korea, the younger populations bow down to their heads slightly to their elders when greeting the elderly. If they are adults of roughly the same age, they both bow. In South Korea they regard calling an elder by his or her name is rude. When referring to an elder in South Korea it is by the name teacher. Meanwhile, in America, younger individuals use terms such as Ma’am, sir, miss, Mr., and Mrs. to show respect to the elderly persons. Another cultural difference concerns the customs of the South Koreans and Americans (Lee, Kim, Nam, & Yun, 2016).
The political difference between the United States and South Korea is that the constitution of the United States is individualistic. The development of the American constitution received motivation from the urge to protect the personal freedom of people such as the freedom of demonstration as well as speech. Meanwhile, this is not the case in South Korea because the perception of the Koreans was to acquire collective freedom. The other political difference is that the concerns of South Korea with regard to politics are inclusive of lack of good leadership, volatile public opinions, lack of consensus on major issues, high levels of corruption and political conflicts. However, the political concerns in the United States of America surround terrorism and racism.
The cultural, political and socio-economic differences between the United States may translate into risks for an American company with the assumption that no one from the company has tacit knowledge or experience of that specific foreign market. The first point I would make about this is that South Korean interactions and relationships are very different as compared to that of the American people. The South Koreans prefer to do business with the individuals that they have a personal relationship with unlike the Americans who may do business with any willing person. In order for the American company to engage well with the South Korean people, they may require introduction by a third party according to their interests (Layous, Lee, Choi, & Lyubomirsky, 2013). This implies that the American company might face major risks as they strive to develop.
The development of a relationship with the people of South Korea is mainly over informal social gatherings that mostly involves a substantial amount of eating as well as drinking. On the other hand, the mode of communication and relations among the people of the United States is very different. The undertaking of a business conversation may be during meals and in most instances, most social conversations occur during the actual mealtime. The arrangement of meetings may be during breakfast, lunch or at dinner depending on the time plans as well as need. In America a dinner, even if it is for business serves as a social meal and a moment to build relationships. South Koreans are the kind of people who establish mutual trust a...