Intercultural Experience

The U.S. is made of diverse cultures, which in turn labeled us the "melting pot". One of the largest minority groups within the United States is the Asian American culture. One out of every five Asian American individuals is positively identified as Korean. I have had the pleasure of attending a Baptist Korean church service, and dining with Korean Americans thereafter. I found an immense number of cultural differences between myself and Korean
Americans.
My hour-long experience, developed into a two and half hour experience at the local Baptist Korean church. I found upon arrival, a Korean female usher formally greeted me. I was then greeted by male Korean members of the church and given a Korean Hymn book and a Korean Bible, with English parallel text. It appeared that the parallel text was an international interpretation of the Bible. As members of the congregation were ushered in, I took special note of the ethnicity of the members. Of approximately 50-70 members, the majority of the congregation appeared to be Korean. I did take note of two interracial couples.
One African American male was married to a Korean woman, and the other couple was a
Hispanic looking male and Korean female. As the members of the church were ushered in and seated, minimal talking took place.
The women rarely made eye contact with other men, and give a slight bow to male members as sign of respect. The men of the family would normally seat himself first, followed by his wife. Children were immediately ushered into separate rooms of the church building. As for the attire of the entire congregation, they were very well dressed. The attire consisted of men dressed in suits, slacks, button up shirt and ties; whereas, the women were all dressed in skirts, blouses , high heels, stocking, and dresses. The pastor of the congregation was an older man, clearly in his 60's. He was dressed in suit, and made minimal eye contact with the congregation. The pastor did not intermingle with members of the congregation, but rather took a seat on the stage/alter and studied his notes. Initially, I expected to see Buddhist symbolism and statues around the church.
The symbolism consisted of many crosses, a picture of Mount Zion, a South Korean flag, an American flag, Jesus crucified on a cross, Korean lettering, and two baptismal fountains. As the sermon initialized, the pastor stood at his podium, never to move for an entire hour and a half. Three hymns were sung vocally, without the use of instruments or hands clapping. All of the hymns were in the Korean language. Everyone remained seated while singing. As the sermon ended, the people of the church began to move in the same direction, which was not the exit. Two women of the church asked me if I would like to join them for lunch. I was then guided through a hallway, and brought into what appeared to be a small dining area. Long tables were set out, with foldable chairs located along the sides. On each table was massive assortment of what appeared to be vegetables. I came to learn that these are sides dishes served with Korean meal, called Kimchee. All the males sat on the designated area, while the women served them heaping bowls of rice with metal chopsticks and well-rounded spoons. Varieties of meats were brought to the table on small burning stove eyelets, again served by the women. After all of the men were served, the women catered to the children. The children were all very well behaved and exemplified perfect mannerisms.
The women sat to eat last. All members, even the children said a Korean prayer of grace before eating their meal. I was offered chopsticks, but had to defer and go with the traditional fork. I spoke very little with people, except for the pastor that tried to communicating with me in limited English, and the African American man who was married to a Korean woman. After an hour of sitting amongst the Korean men and women, I came to learn limitless information about Korean culture. I learned that the Korean pastor had been pastoring his church for a number of years. The church is an area in which the Korean community feels strong ties. The Korean community often seeks counseling from the church and social support from the church members. All of the Korean members speak fluent Korean, and minimal
English. Even the American men that I sat with had knowledge of Hangul, which is the name of the Korean language. It is highly evident after only one hour of visitation, that the patriarchal role of the male is highly respected. Men are revered with a great amount of admiration and respect. The
Korean women seem to be very submissive to their husbands. As the men completed their meals, many continued to sit and socialize, while the women hurriedly moved to clean up the tables and wash dishes in a nearby kitchen area. The women are certainly the caretakers of the men and children, and the men certainly lead of household. My experience was remarkable. I learned that many Korean practices are very different from my own. As a young Caucasian female, I was brought up in a household where both the man and woman were treated equally and fairly. Each parent played an important role in my life, not one, more than other did. I didn't not heavily rely upon church for my social needs, as is evident of the Korean-American community I engaged myself with. I also came to learn that the Korean culture is looked upon with a great amount of respect because of their mannerisms and behaviors. The Korean children are very well mannered and almost seems robotic, compared to the children I am normally surrounded by, which are noisy children. Clearly, one distinct is that of the language. The Korean letters look nothing like the
American alphabet and the language sound extremely difficult to learn, sounding nothing like English. Their flag, just as that of Americans, display the evident display of patriotism to their country. The Korean American culture also has high regard for staying with tradition, as is evident in the women serving all meals, serving themselves last, the bowing of women to men, minimal eye contact. The Korean American culture does not value equally. Men certainly play a more dominant role in the family (Chang & Myers, 1997). They are group that certainly practices collectivism. This is evident by the assembling of the congregation as one large family. The conversation is limited to strangers. Masculinity certainly plays a vast role among the Korean
Americans. The man is highly respected, which is evident in the social interactions that take place among the men, women and children. The Korean American culture can be regarded with the utmost respect. They practice constraint, are well mannered, friendly when appropriate, prideful, and family oriented.

Work Cited
Chang, C. & Myers, J.E. (1997) Understanding and Counseling Korean Americans:
Implications for Training. Counselor Education and Supervision, 37(1), 35-49