Korean Society Essay - Globalization

7/26/2019 Korean Society Essay - Globalization

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GLOBALIZATION AND KOREAN SOCIETY

INTRODUCTION

Korean War has been both a chance and havoc. Korea has experienced economic

turmoil in the past 50 years. The effects of economic volatility after Korean War affect the

Korean society. The effects becoming more powerful with the globalization that shaped the

economic, social, technology, and the culture of outh Korea. !lobalization is a wave of

influences that no countries can be totally immune and multicultural lin"age between

countries become more dominant. !lobalization that affects Korean ociety nowadays is

mainly because of government intervention from the past. #resident Kim $oung am and

Kim %ae &ung have vision to embrace the core concept of globalization. Korea's government

thought that the best way to face globalization is to adapt with current condition. This action

allows diverse aspect of globalization penetrate and give impact to Korean society.

POSITIVE IMPACT TO KOREAN SOCIETY

(t is clear that globalization is a huge trend that brings transformation to every people

around the world in his or her daily life. %ue to the various impact of globalization on Korean

society, many people will experience social changes and this change is regardless where they

live today.

The first positive impact that can be gained from globalization is education. )sglobalization allows the exchange of information and ideas easier, "nowledge for education

becoming borderless and the world has becoming closer than ever. (n order to follow global

mar"et, changes in development of the country, and also to enhance competitiveness in global

mar"et, "nowledge in technology, language, science, and other related factors of education

have been increasing to one of top priority in recent days. (n *++0, #resident Kim $oung am

understands the need of education and pushed an educational reform. (t has an ob ective to

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significantly improve the -uality of wor"force, enhance technology, and productivity in order

to "eep up with high demand of s"ills in companies.

(n addition, !lobalization that has improved education in Korea has continuationimpact, the second impact, which is employment rate. (n today's competitive environment,

higher education can help people to provide opportunities to meet international demand for

employment. )ccording to / %, Korea has shown a significant increase in employment

rate from 123 in 40** to 11.*3 in may 40*5. Korea also has the lowest unemployment rate

at .63 compared to other / % countries. This can bring positive impact to Korean society

since they will have a better income, lifestyle, and also status. )daptation of education has

given opportunities for everybody to gain higher socioeconomic status and chance to live a

better world.

7oreover, Korean cultures also bring positive impact towards Korean society. ne of

the cultures is that K8pop culture and Korean movies that gained international recognition.

Technology enhancement in globalization era enables various cultures to show itself and

easier to access information. !lobal media is li"e tools that can ma"e people around the

world aware and understand of cultures face and identities. ne of the examples is $ouTube

channel that introduce # $, Korean K8pop image to the world. $ouTube channels enables

Korean culture spread across the world and Korea became one of important faces not only in

economy but also in cultures. This creates a new strong image of Korean culture in the eyes

of the world. trong image and well8"nown culture should build strong identity in Korean

people in society. Korean people in society can conserve and promote culture as pride and

also national image because it is originally from Korea.

!lobalization is proven to improve many aspects of Korean ociety. The existence of

(nternet and technology enables Korea to be important part of the world. (t improves

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economic aspect as well as spreading Korean culture across nations. %ue to the globalization,

Korea ac"nowledge by other nations.

NEGATIVE IMPACT TO KOREAN SOCIETY

Korean now is increasingly exposed to other cultures because of borderless barrier.

!lobalization often describe as westernization or )mericanization. !lobalization enables

western culture enters and interact with local cultures. 7oreover, western culture that

characterized with capitalism and commercialism affect local cultures and change people's

characteristics in their daily life.

The problem that needs to be noted is that the characteristic of western culture already

different from Korean traditional culture. Western culture is fre-uently "nown as a bad

characteristic by Korean point of view, such as materialism, hedonism, individualism, and

sensuality. (n terms of sensuality, it is clearly shown the source of influence was coming from

)merican movies that usually shows sensuality scene and it affects young generation.

Traditional Korean culture did not adhere to show any affection to opposite gender in public.

9owever, today many younger generation of Korea shows affection of sensuality in public.

:or example in the public transportation li"e subway, there are often found young Korean

couple are "issing and show affection to each other without concerning their surrounding.

;evertheless, most of young Korean people getting used to see couples "issing and showing

affection. (t is becoming acceptable in younger generation.

(n addition, individualism culture also permeates traditional Korean culture that

characterized with collectivism. )s globalization followed by improving in technology,

gadget and smartphones becoming lifestyles among Korean people. (t ma"es most of Korean

people occupied with their smartphones. :or example, in the subway people can actually

interact with others and ma"e connections with different people. 9owever, most people busy

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with their smartphones instead of interact with other people. 7oreover, hedonism becomes a

new way of people's life. 7any people use their money to buy branded stuff that extremely

expensive, younger generation spend their money to drin" alcohol, and lastly they spend their

time to go to club at night.

)nother vivid example can be seen from (nsa8dong that losing its cultural identity.

;owadays, (nsa8dong that originally "nown as a place for anti-ues and traditional artwor"s

changed into different place. #lace that used to be representative of Korean culture now is

fading. The streets have lost their name and there are many new stores such as cosmetic and

cafes among anti-ue galleries. 7oreover, local people that open business from long time ago

forced to change their business in order to compete and survive.

Traditional characteristic of Korean culture starting to lose their face and affecting the

way people live. Therefore, outh Korea that "nown as safest city already affected by

western culture and brings negative impact towards Korean society. hanging in lifestyles of

younger generation could harm traditional culture and create possibility that culture could not

be passed to next generation. Thus, traditional culture could be gone.

CHALLENGE OF GLOBALIZATION

)s the rapid pace of globalization has spread in outh Korea, globalization are li"ely

evo"ing many protests due to undermine labor and environmental standards, worsen the gap

between rich and poor and blurring the national identity of outh Korea. :irst, due to the need

of being competitive on the mar"et, many employers have run a low labor and environmental

standards. (n 4002, according to Trade


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7oreover, regarding to the environment standard, many factories produced tons of waste that

affected the environment in terms of air pollution and water pollution. (t is due to the force of

globalization, which ma"es the companies forget about the Korean society. (t shows that the

need for fulfilling the globalization has forced companies to conduct a low labor and

environment standard in order to stay competitive in the mar"et and gain more profits.

econd, globalization has only benefited for rich people not poor people. )s outh

Korea has a widespread of chaebol system, many people argued that the globalization would

only ma"e rich people become richer. This argument has emerged due to a strong power of

chaebols to control outh Korea's economic, ma"ing poor people as powerless as slaves.

/ven though poor people get a chance to get a better education, however, they believe that

they will be employees or wor"ers. ) senior research scholar in olumbia


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"eeping an eyes on the globalization and social issues, they need to act regarding to every

movement to globalization.

CONCLUSION

(n conclusion, it is clearly shown that globalization has changed Korean society in both

positive and negative ways. (n positive way, yes modernization is proven to help Korea

survive from crisis since Korean War. Technology development, infrastructure development,

and changing in policies bounce Korea bac" from crisis. This turning point started from

government vision that embrace globalization that brought results in increasing !%# from

negative growth to positive growth and continue improving from year to year. ;onetheless,

there are also negative impact and challenges that lies ahead and need to be considered. ince

globalization is closely related to identity and affect lifestyles of people, it is necessary to

understand the value of own culture. =ecause in the end, if Korea careless in maintaining and

preserving their own traditional culture, next generation will forget their true color of original

culture. There will be need to balance preserving own culture it reality of globalization.

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REFERENCES

>(; (!9T (;T K ?/)@**AB !lobalization helps Korea create new identity. @n.d.A.

?etrieved from httpCDDnews.naver.comDmainDread.nhnE

modeFG %HmidFsecHsid*F00*HoidF022HaidF0000011050I

%ixon, &. @40**A. KoreaJs embrace of globalization.

?etrieved from httpCDDwww."oreatimes.co."rDwwwDnewsDbizD40* D05D 2 L+*265.html

/ducation in outh Korea


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Korean Society Essay - Globalization