I’m sure everyone enjoys watching movies and television shows. Whether it be a horror movie, a romance movie, or a comedy. One thing I have noticed however, movies/television shows around the world are all different and they each highlight their country’s culture.
Recently, I’ve watched this Korean television show called, “She Was Pretty.” This is a show that tells about two characters that were destined to be together from the beginning. The girl being beautiful when she was little and growing up and being considered ugly by the Korean beauty standard. The boy, however, was the opposite. He was considered ugly when he was little and growing up to become a handsome man. This TV show highlights a lot of cultural differences that South Korea has compared to the U.S. With those differences, there are also a lot of similarities that both of our countries share.
This show has many different cultural aspects. One thing I’ve noticed through this show is the Korean Beauty Standard. Through this show, the female lead character is treated worse than other people because she is considered “ugly.” While working at the magazine editing company, all of her co-workers always dress nice and always have makeup on everyday for work. One of the main points of why her co-workers deem her ugly are her curly and frizzy hair, her freckles, the clothes that she wears, and the fact that she wore glasses. Seeing her like this, her co-workers always made her do the heavy work and often belittled her. Once she started dressing nicely, applying makeup, and styling her hair, they all of a sudden became nice to her.
Another thing I noticed that was different from American culture is when they go out to a restaurant and eat/drink. As displayed in this show, in Korea, it is considered disrespectful if you do not pour drinks for elders. If you’re the younger person or you are a less experienced worker to the person who wants to pour you a drink (alcohol), then you must hold your cup or glass with two hands. It is considered respectful and polite towards the elder person when you do that.
I’ve watched many Korean dramas and most of them showed the same dinner etiquette. In the show, there is a scene where Hye-Jin (the female lead) and the department she worked in held a business dinner. At the restaurant, the chief editor makes a toast to wish their department a successful future.
Compared to my culture, there isn’t much difference with what we do. In Korea, there are many people to own cars, however there are some people who own motorbikes. In Vietnam, more than half of the country’s population ride motorbikes because it is cheaper and more convenient. Both countries have rice as their main staple food. It seems that in Korea, they have all four seasons like we do in America. In Vietnam however (where I lived at least), we mostly saw either rainy weather, or hot and humid weather. Both cultures mostly go out to restaurants to talk with friends, or to amusement parks. We also like to go by the ocean and just enjoy the view. Both in my culture and the television show, the one thing that we both value is respect towards our elder. We were raised to respect our elders growing up and to always greet them.
Recently in Vietnam, everything has seemed to be influenced by Korea. Korea has influenced so many things in Vietnam like foods, beauty, fashion, and even Vietnamese shows. Korean culture has blown up so much in the last couple of years and is slowly spreading through all across Asia