[KS] respect and understanding

Rüdiger Frank ruediger.frank at rz.hu-berlin.de
Sat Jul 22 07:05:00 EDT 2000


Dear all:

Concerning the tendency to be overly proud of own achievements and
sometimes falling to the temptation of exaggerating them a bit, I would
recommend to take a brief look at Germany around the Reichsgruendung in the
latter third of the 19th century. Very revealing. My ancestors tried very
hard to prove to the rest of the world - but primarily to themselves - that
virtually everything of importance in world history has been invented or at
least influenced by Germans. Such strange outbursts of nationalism
obviously have to do with a kind of unstable feeling and a lack of
self-confidence, mostly produced by the very existence or the real threat
of culturally, economically etc. much stronger neighbours (by the way,
where the heck comes the strong us-american nationalism from?). In such an
environment, every verbal attack or even what just looks like being one is
met with maximum resistance. The other side of the same coin is nihilism,
pessimism and extreme self-criticism. 

Such behaviour is natural, I think, and looking at our own past we should
not dare to criticize it per se. But, of course, Koreans should also allow
others to pinpoint the not so rosy aspects of Korea and to comment them,
just as they are vice versa free to do so with foreign countries. And
Koreans have by no way to accept every blow silently - although it is
always good to remember that 'the sound makes the music'.

The real 'problem' of Korea is, that this society is going through the
mentioned development NOW, while we have done so some time ago and can now
pretend to possess the moral authority for objective judgement. That's why
the degree of emotional concern  in dealing with seemingly the same issues
is rather different between us 'Westerners' and them 'Koreans' (as false
such a generalization might be). Again, let us accept and respect it,
knowing that we are not that much different.

But some things just need their time. I think the romanization issue and
even that dog-meat-thing can be interpreted the above way. My own rather
limited ten years of Korea-experience tell me that things are getting
better - sometimes slowly, but constantly.

Best,

Ruediger Frank

***********************
Ruediger FRANK
Humboldt-University Berlin
Korea Institute
Fon: +49-30-55 99 878
Fax: +49-30-2093-6666
e-mail: ruediger.frank at rz.hu-berlin.de
Web: http://www2.hu-berlin.de/korea
***********************


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