ronster |
10-18-2011 04:52 PM |
I taught English conversation in South Korea for a year and their culture is heavily influenced by the Chinese and the Japanese. Occasionally a student would take me out for drinks and karaoke and when we met up with a friend of theirs I noticed that sometimes they would introduce us and sometimes they wouldn't. One day I asked my advanced class why introductions sometimes and sometimes not. They explained that they have a custom, inherited from the Chinese, called the "non person." If you are with someone they will always ask a friend they encounter if they want to meet you, if they are introduced then they are responsible for you but if they decline you are a non person and they can walk right by your dying body and not lift a finger to help you. It is hard to understand some customs from other countries especially the Orient but keep in mind a young woman was stabbed to death, I believe in NY City, some years ago and no one responded to her pleas for help even after the assailant came back a second time to finish her off.
|