Hyudais, Handshakes, and Chaebols

I have recently volunteered at Thunderbird to provide english tutoring to visiting executives from South Korea. I figured that it would be a good experience to interact with a culture that I don't know much about, get in some free golf, and stay involved in the Thunderbird community. While a student I tutored several Koreans but I didn't pay close attention to some of their cultural nuances and subleties, I will attempt to remedy that through the use of my blog. Here are a few observations from my first meeting with my pupil, Sil Keun Hwang.

- Things were very formal. After a greeting and handshake we exchanged business cards. He gave his to me with his right hand with his left hand resting on his right arm. I followed suit and replicated his action. Kind of cool, it made sharing business cards a little more fun.
- We spent most of the time creating an agenda and structuring our schedules. He seemed to be driven by rule and order, I wonder if that is a generally accepted observation about Korean males.
- We talked about families, he is away from his wife and two daughters until November. I wouldn't be able to handle that.
- He seemed very anxious in getting a "crash course" on the U.S. culture. We have several activities planned. Ball games, dinners, hikes, golf, etc...
- It is safe to say that golf is a very important part of the Korean business lifestyle. Every Korean that I know, whether through school or otherwise, is determined to golf atleast a few times a month. Part of the reason, as it was explained, is that golf land is very limited and extremely expensive over there.

I will make more comments as the tutoring adventure continues.