Top five things we must learn from Koreans

I am on my first trip out of India. Before I stepped out of my country, I had heard a lot about civilisations outside India. We always see beautiful landscapes, swanky terminals, posh roads and mesmerising skyscrapers. However, I am fortunate that I get to stay here for a period of three months. Because this period is long enough to see things that are much more important.

I have now spent a little over one month in South Korea. It is a natural tendency to observe, analyse, appreciate and criticize; though sometimes we decide not to express these feelings. I don’t want to make that mistake. In this little experience of one month, I have shortlisted some important things that we must learn from Koreans –

Humility

The word speaks for itself. I have met many Koreans in this short period spent here. This is one quality that I observed in almost all of them. It is something that is imbibed in their culture. People are treated as people, nothing less or more than that. Everybody is humble. In Korea, respect is not a product of position, wealth or power.

Respect comes naturally. People sit, eat and talk together. I have seen the head of the businesses sitting for a lunch at the same table with people who sweep the floors. I have seen senior people wash their own cups and serve their own dishes, I have seen people going out of their way to make the other person comfortable, and I have seen the manager of my hotel deliver water bottle to me in the room himself. People never boast off about anything – no show offs in marriages, or about educational degrees or the vehicles you own etc.!

You cannot help but notice it. And you have to admire it!

  

Education

And when I say education, I mean education. I am not talking about literacy. People are educated in the truest sense of the word. Education is meaningful only when it results into wisdom. It is sad to recall that in India, this is one of the problems we need to work upon. We also send our children to school, we also teach them mathematics and science.

But the difference lies in being a better human being who can think something sensible and civilised. In Korea, I have heard of all children going to schools. More than that, the thoughts of all the people are quite mature and open-minded. They are happy to have a girl child, they are happy to let their children decide for themselves, they are open to talk about stuff that is otherwise tabooed in many other places, they are happy to accept all religions and beliefs. I could never see such clarity of thought anywhere.

Sometimes it makes me think that we only need to make life worth living. We only need to be happy and satisfied, why then do we behave like uneducated people in so many things? Why do we feel so insecure at times? Why do we behave like beasts when it comes to basic issues such as women safety, social and economic security?

And the only way I can sum it up is – education. We need education.

Use of technology

Now this is where we have a lot to learn. Technology, here, is not the rich man’s privilege. Technology is useful because it is accessible to everyone. From high quality super serviced transport systems, state-of-the-art gadgets, and well equipped government offices serving as a one-stop-solution for people, to high speed internet which is accessible to everyone – Korea has it all, even in smaller cities of the country.

I went with my manager once to collect tax payment certificates. And I was surprised that almost all the government work can happen in a single office. You do not have a separate institution for every little work, you do not have to keep rummaging between offices to find out which one is applicable to you! It is just there. Every person has a national identity number and many of the accounts are linked with it (they’re trying to bring it in India too now).

The whole lesson is – technology makes life easy and simple. We need to invest more in technology. In some cities in India, I recall that people don’t have facility of payment through cards. Here, cash is a rare sight! It is about time that we start investing in technology and making it much more accessible.

  

Traffic Sense

Now I’d give a five on five for this one!

There is absolutely no comparison. And I can’t even give an excuse that it’s too much traffic in our cities. The place where I live is a small city of around 3 lakhs people living. My hometown Indore is about ten times this size. Yet, the number of cars I see on roads here will be almost equal to those in Indore! And with such a high proportion of people owning cars, you cannot say that there is no traffic.

There is a lot of it, but there also is a traffic sense. Believe me I have never seen a single “traffic policeman” in my entire stay across three different cities in the country. And yet, I have never seen even one traffic rule being violated. I just could not find a flaw!

It was almost 11.30 PM in the night when I was returning from a walk across some streets. There was a red signal for the cars and there were four cars waiting. There wasn’t a single bird in sight anywhere in the vicinity, and yet the cars did not budge until the signals turned green! Five minutes later, there was a red signal for the pedestrians, still I crossed the road as I was convinced there is going to be no vehicle around.

But then I felt that embarrassment when I saw there were two Koreans already standing on the other side of the road, waiting for the signal..! It is not about being sensible. It is about abiding by the rules. There is a self-imposed discipline that beats all definitions that we normally adopt.

I make it a very important point – the second most important thing we need to learn from these people is – Follow traffic rules. Believe me it works!

  

Helpfulness

After I came here, many people asked me about Korea and everybody expected to have an idea of the people here. Believe me, the first adjective that always came in my mind, and I always used it, is – people are helpful. I cannot over emphasize this fact. But for me, the most important impression that all Koreans have left in my mind is – they are so damn helpful.

I was on top of the Namsan Mountain in Seoul, and there was a distance of 4 kilometres that I had to walk down. From there I had to catch a bus to the nearest metro station. It is not easy even to ask as people are not very good with English. Fortunately, I met a person who was good with English. He told me about the bus number that I should board. Unluckily, he informed me the wrong bus number.

When I came down, I saw him waiting for me there. After travelling 4 kilometres, I was surprised to see him down before me. “I just know the shortcuts,” he said; and then said, “I came to tell you that please board bus number 22 and not 24! I thought you might not find anyone else who knows English so well, so I came down myself…”

I was mesmerised.

It is just one account of how these people go out of their way to offer help. I can recall countless such incidents. It could be anything – offering to help me plan my travel to places, or just offering to show you the nearby attractions, or a free translation from English to Korean… everywhere they beat you by offering one penny more than you ask.

I do not say that Indians are not helpful, or humble or educated. My purpose of writing this blog is only to appreciate the people of Korea for their commendable behaviour. And I must admit that I have only pointed out these things. Even I have to learn them first. But indeed, since I am going to be here for almost a couple of months more, there are certain virtues I would like to take with me for a lifetime!

Yours forever,

Palkesh Asawa