Conformity in Seoul and South Korea - (Intro- Page 10)
Conformity in Korea
From the beginning, as a teacher, it also soon became apparent that conformity is a very big part of Korean culture. As a teacher of teenagers and adults, rather than small children, one was able to exchange views and gather a lot of information about the mindset of the students. Before going any further, let us be clear. Korea in 1985 was still under military dictatorship, thus democracy is still relatively new and people are still shaping their own 
ideas away from the heavy propaganda that previously existed. Korea has also grown over that time, into an Asian economy of far greater stature. Overall it seems that -
‘Koreans have achieved a great deal in such a short time’.
Many of the views I would hear in the classroom, were very often similar. A good example of this over the last three years in Korea has been the increase in suicides. Failed businessmen, depressed mothers, people in debt etc are some of the people who have been taking their own life. The old Chinese philosophy that it is better to take ones own life rather than face shame, still dictates the way some Koreans see themselves in modern day Korea. On asking over twenty students, over the course of a week, “What do you think of suicide”, I was taken aback by the answer that suicide was considered to be “stupid”. On holding a conversation class with ‘Suicide’ as the main topic, the general thought was the same. On asking why people thought it was stupid the general idea was that it just was. The idea of stress related illnesses, such as clinical depression and also in some cases mental problems, was not really considered.
