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How Choosing the Wrong Visual Aid Can Ruin Your Presentation to Koreans
By Heejeong Haas | July 24, 2007
Now we know about the truth about telling jokes. Similar to this story, there was a fairly big mistake made by this same speaker. All too innocent on his end, but the damage was quite big. When it was done, it was too late to correct the course of the action, and he personally offended the Korean official at the conference.
During his speech, the speaker started talking about the wrong idea of punishing people. To add a little fun and spice, he prepared very good visual aids with his speech. However when he came to this “the wrong ideas of punishing people”, he showed a picture of the ancient Korean punishment system as an example. The Korean official was very uncomfortable and embarrassed. I was also a little bit surprised to see that although I have been in many awkward moments. And the picture was up there for a long time. The Korean official said, “Why are they keeping that picture up there? It feels like they are trying to point out that Korea is not doing well.”
To Americans, it was a very innocent and harmless gesture. On the receiving end, especially to a person from the Korean culture, it can be a huge insult. I still would like to say that depends on a Korean individual, but generally, it will be taken as a bit of an insult. It is simple. Using some of the historical and cultural stuff to prove or aid your point why something is wrong can be taken as an insult. Koreans take their cultural and historical matters very personally and seriously to their heart. One can say that you can see the essence of nationalism living in every single individual Korean up to this date. When you live in a collective society with a nationalistic view, a joke as simple as this can be taken as an insult.
Petty? Yes, it may seem that way. However, cultural nuance and the cultural aspect of a country are not there for the rest of the world to judge it as petty or wrong or bad. Every single cultural aspect is there through out their millions of years of own living experience cumulated and interactions with the rest of the world. You may come across a funny and exotic picture from other culture, and you are completely entitled to feel whether it is funny or not. However, when you use this to present your ideas, you should take a caution such as if that won’t insult anyone’s culture, if you can display it in public in a way that you want to, or if you are using the material in the right context. And I don’t mean the right context from an American’s point of view. So to be safe, do not display pictures or image symbolizing cultural aspects of Korea along in a negative context to just laugh or to show the example. No matter what your intention is, it won’t be taken kindly.
Heejeong Haas
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Topics: Korean Business Etiquette | 3 Comments »
July 24th, 2007 at 9:29 am
This post brings to mind the profound difference between “treat others the way I want to be treated” and “treat others the way they want to be treated.”
November 23rd, 2008 at 10:54 pm
I will suggest the people, no matter what country, should be broad minded. They should understand the cultural difference and treat the people with sympathy and forgiveness.
Regards,
ThomasEcafe.co.kr
April 6th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
I am a Canadian who has been living and teaching in South Korea for 6 months. Something I have observed (and also encountered in research about the culture) is that many Koreans have much difficulty being open-minded and forgiving. If someone makes an honest mistake (such as a joke) with no intention to hurt anyone else, what’s the point of holding a grudge or throwing away a business deal? Are Koreans not also human? Do they not also slip up from time to time? Misunderstandings are inevitable when you’re dealing interculturally, and Koreans would greatly benefit from accepting that fact, getting over their “pride,” and realizing that nobody’s perfect- not even them.
Please note, I am not claiming that all Korean people behave in this way. I am saying that I have observed this behaviour on many occasions in business as well as personal relationships with Koreans.