Koreas High Context Culture Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Koreas High Context Culture - Assignment Example The paper tells about countries that present with high context cultures particularly about Korea, wherein individuals connote extensive networks among groups, peers and family members. Studies concerning intercultural communication indicated that mostly Eastern countries, particularly Asian cultures, pose heavy direction in accordance with high-context data, an example would be the languages used in Asian countries that profuse subtlety. Apart from the language, another notable factor is the non-verbal communication prevalent among Asian cultures that are deemed indirect as opposed to those in Western cultures. Another factor that contributes to the high context nature of Korea is their predilection towards Confucianism, which promotes egalitarianism. In this regard, Koreans are more inclined to preserve harmony than defend a stance, in order to preserve the credibility of the other party. A study made by Korea UNESCO presented that in spite of the global exposure of Koreans, they ar e still dominated with a high context culture. Korean traditions are continuously upheld and the Confucian principles of harmony, preserving other's credibility and not sticking out are still widely employed within Korean Society. With that in mind, there are several critical considerations to take before an individual from a low-context culture goes to Korea and communicates with local Koreans. This is very important because culture differences are at large and communication misinterpreted due to the variance in practice. (Kramsch 2001; Korea UNESCO 2002). Korea’s High Context Culture High context cultures can be challenging to penetrate, especially external parties due to the fact that no cultural context information is internally available and it is not possible to immediately build close connections among individuals as their bonds are formed over a long period Korea UNESCO (2002) High Context implies that the bulk of information can either be present in physical context or the message, while some are present in the explicit part of the message that has been conveyed (Mead 1998). In essence, it is of utmost importance to identify the cultural origin of the person you are speaking with to avoid misunderstanding (Kent 2002). One important factor in communicating and understanding Koreans is to place value on "how" the message was delivered. The manner in which the message has been stated does not solely attribute to the voice tone and the non-verbal messages, but also on the spatial and