Accounting & E-commerce: Chung Culture in the Eye of a Bangladeshi

Soumitra Kumar Kundu

PhD

Business Administration

Chonnam National University

Chung Culture in the Eye of a Bangladeshi

From the time of my arrival in Gwangju, to today; how I struggled in the beginning, how smoothly things run today. This process of achieving a "home away from home" feeling had many steps. So, this talk will discuss these steps. What kinds of problems did I face, and how did I overcome them? How people of various areas helped solve my problems in different ways, and how every incident and problem I have faced has given me opportunities to think deeply about the Korean attitude of helping people. I wondered if there is any historical or traditional background in Korea that brings this kind of support to foreigners who are trying to live here. I observed that the culture of Korean tradition and history has its link to the overall development. In Korea seniors generally pay the money for juniors when they go out together for dinner and go to the bar to hang out. Koreans are warmhearted and so generous. These characteristics originated from collective society, in which people prefer to say woori (us/our). For example, Korean men don’t say “my wife”; they say “woori wife”. “Woori” doesn’t mean I have many wives; “woori” means “wife of our community”. Many small things like that give us a clear understanding that the Korean community has always been concerned for the entire community. It has that deep concern with the Chung culture, which can be found deep into their ancient traditional religions, like Samanijam. Samanijam is a culture where if someone is sick, or has lost a family member, the whole village comes together for support. They pass on their sorrow and happiness together with the Samon. These things give us a clear idea that Korean society, from ancient times, was concerned about each other’s problems. They thought collectively, cried collectively, and loved collectively.

So, it’s clear that community living was very developed through this Chang culture. In my view, we have a very similar culture in Bangladesh. The Bengalis are always concerned with helping others and trying to make people feel by saying the words “Dada” or “Didi”, which mean that anyone we feel close to we call “elder brother” (“hyeong” in Korea). Thus, I have found similarities between Korean and my cultures. It also surprised me that Koreans are more polite and respectful to the seniors in terms of age not for money or status. I also wonder about the changes that Korean society will in the future. It’s common to see younger people give their seats to seniors on the bus, however now a days, it’s becoming more common place to see the younger people keep their seats and ignore the seniors. As the society grows and changes, people are becoming more individualistic, and from now on, we can be more conscientious and thoughtful about this matter, about this matter, so we can overcome this situation together.