Nguyen Nguyen
Honor World History Period: 4
South Korea
Mr. Peters

South Korea locates in East Asia, and it has four different seasons. During winter, it is very cold, dry, and the season lasts long compare to summer which lasts shorter with humid and hot condition. There are the pleasant spring and fall. Nevertheless, they also don’t last very long. The dominant religions in South Korea are Buddhism and Christianity which consists of Protestants and Catholics. Due to the United Nation arrangement, Korea was split at the 38th parallel North. The south would be governed by the United State and the North would be governed by the Soviet Union. Despite of being the poorest country in Asia, it developed into one of the world richest countries. It is also known as one of the “Four Tigers” of developing Asian countries. Without a doubt, globalization played an important role in the advancement of South Korea. We’ll take a look at how globalization has impacted South Korea politically, economically, culturally, and technologically.
Culturally:
With the decision to join WTO, South Korea had put itself out there in the competitive scene, and it has to constantly adapt to the global changes and needs. Now, to produce greater products that meet or surpass the global standards, companies have to promote competitiveness among the workers. Thus, the framework at work place starts to change. One obvious change is the salary system which goes from an annual increased pay, (payment is made by number of years worked), to a pay system that is rated based on the worker’s ability and accomplishment. This leads to a more isolated working environment since everyone wants to impress the superiors with their ideas which can help them to keep their jobs and even get pay raise possibly. This is completely opposite to the working place before where workers have after-work gatherings, and drinking sessions which builds strong relationships among the workers. Korean companies also presented the new promotional system where a more talented person would be promoted to a higher position regardless of their age. This change introduced a great disrupt in the traditional working place where the youngers are supposed to respect and follow the elders who have more experiences in the field. It causes tension between the older subordinates and the younger superiors because the ones who worked longer feel that they should get more respects instead of being ordered around the young. Like the Samsung slogan said “Change everything except for your wife”, more workers developed to have less loyalty to their companies because they don’t expect to work for the same company during the lifetime. Co-workers start to steal each other’s idea which leads to more suspicion in workplace and even less corporation. Entering the world arena, Korean companies are going against foreign enterprises. Thus, companies in Korea emphasizes the importance of English. Most workers attend private English institutes, and listen to English radio or cassettes daily. Some big companies like Hyundai and Samsung also push for studies in specific foreign areas’ culture. For example, Samsung sends several workers to different countries to explore the area for one year. The workers can do anything they want and the expenses will be covered by Samsung. Lastly, in this advanced technological age, instead of relying on the secretaries or their subordinates, executives are expected to be able to use information technology to communicate their national and international partners. “The Workplace”
Economically:
Globalization allows Korean companies to enter a larger market to sell their products. Thus, if their products are successfully sold, they can make so much more profit compare to selling only domestically. One example would be the Samsung Electronics Group. It has a 190 billion dollars sale last year which is equal to the sales of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and