티스토리 뷰
Photo Cred: Korean Educational Association
Recently, I found an interesting column in a Korean newspaper. The content of that column was regarding plastic surgery.
Photo Cred: The Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons
According to Tim Alper, columnist living in South Korea, many Americans and Korean have gotten plastic surgeries in a couple of years, especially plastic surgeries of nose. The interesting point was Americans tend to make their noses smaller, but Koreans want to have bigger noses. Actually, South Korea has the world's highest rate of cosmetic plastic surgery per person. The situation that many Americans and Korean had a lot of plastic surgeries shows the different point of view about a standard of beauty between two countries.
According to Nisbett (2003), East Asians (Korean, Chinese, and Japanese) and Westerners think in very different ways. In detail, Westerners try to see in view of a focal object, but East Asians are more likely to attend to a abroad perceptual and conceptual field. Therefore, East Asians live in a complex social network with prescribed role relations.
Photo Cred: Korean Educational Association
I strongly agree with Nisbett’s thought. In the case of South Korea, Koreans likes to have high social positions, so it leads people to have a competitive mind. For example, the enthusiasm for education in South Korea is really high. Koreans want to live as high class though education because they believe higher education can lead to a higher social position. Therefore, Koreans show high results of education: South Korea is also one of the highest educated nations in the world: in 2011, 64% of its 25-34 years old population had university degrees, the most in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and well above the average of 39% among OECD states.
This educational fever has a decisive effect on second-generation immigrant’s job selection. According to an anonymous source, many Korean parents living in the U.S. try to get their children to have an expert job such as in the medical, juridical, or accounting field. The trend led to Korean immigrants having higher incomes than the overall foreign and native-born populations. In 2013, the median household income among Korean immigrants was $55,800, compared to $48,100 and $53,000 for the immigrant and native-born populations, respectively.