Saturday, June 12, 2010

"UNITY IN DIVERSITY"

MaxMom's "UNITY IN DIVERSITY" special posts on the World cup in South Africa has inspired us to post on a country we know little about.  My  human brother is getting ready to depart our homeland for a new and unique view of the world, a job teaching English to Koreans! 
 we found this interesting article explaining the Korean view of affection/love
Enjoy!

About affection :
There are some words which are so central, yet unique to the ways of thinking of a particular society or culture that they are very hard to translate so as Korean culture. In the United States, for instance, history has endowed words such as liberty and equality with special meaning importance. In Korean, perhaps an even more important and difficult word to understand for the foreigner is the word 정 ( affection, warmth, feeling, sentiment, love ). The concept of 정 is an essential part of how Koreans view and express their relationships. Tenderhearted, affectionate people are valued as having a lot of 정. Country people, who will often offer a complete stranger a meal and a place to sleep, have a lot of 정.
Certain gestures indicate 정. When serving rice, for instance, a Korean will always serve at least two scoops of rice per bowl, any less and one is lacking in 정. This gesture of giving and of indulgence emphasizes generosity and feeling over the logic of calculating how much someone might really eat.
As always, the best way to get to understand how Koreans think is to interact with them and get to know some of them. You will probably hear them talk a lot about 정. And hopefully, they’ll say you have a lot of it. Types of 정: 감정 - feeling, 정서 - emotion/sentiment, 애정 - love/affection, 열정 - passion, 인정 - human nature, 동정 - sympathy/compassion, 심정 - heart

21 comments:

NAK and The Residents of The Khottage Now With KhattleDog! said...

Where to start...

AWESOME header!
PAWESOME layout!

INKHREDIBLE post!

Thanks fur sharing!

Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra
PeeEssWoo: Please tell your mom our pakhkage arrived on Friday and it is GREAT!!!

Yas said...

Wow! We luv the new header!
Beautiful pictures too!!
Great post!

Cheers,
Maxx

Bella Roxy & Macdui said...

Interesting post. We'll hear more I'm sure when your human gets there.

We love your new header.

XXXOOO Daisy, Kendra & Bella

George The Lad said...

It looks beautiful, and enjoyed reading about it Thanks
See Yea George xxx

Maxmom said...

What a wonderful, heartening and informative post!...beautifully written! Thank you too for participating in the "UNITY IN DIVERSITY" campaign. Your post was really lovely...and thoughtful!
Lotsaluv to you all!
MAXMOM IN SA

WFT Nobby said...

Fascinating post. Best of luck to brother in this new job.
We too adore the new header picture.
Cheers! Gail and Bertie.

Tama-Chan, Benny, Vidock, Violette, Ollie, Heloise, Momo, Ryu said...

Very interesting! We wish your human brother many wonderful discoveries in Korea! It reminds #1 of her own departure for Japan, many years ago, also to teach English. She ended up staying 20 years!

Scout and Freyja said...

Today we celebrate UNITY in DIVERSITY with you and with Maxmom and with all of the wonderful dog-blogs that have taken the spirit of the World Cup and made it MORE - made it an exercise in understanding, tolerance and community.

Today we cheer for the United States of America on our bloggy and welcome you with open paws to celebrate with us☺

Cheryl, Indiana, Shingo and Molly said...

We love your new layout and picture!!!

How very lucky that your brother gets to go to Korea. We bet he'll have some really neat things to tell and show you!

Happy weekend!

Woofs and Kisses
The Fiesty Three

Martha said...

An inspired post Kira. We love your new blog background and your new Header pic is amazing.
Glad we came over!
love
Martha and Bailey xxx

The Adventures of the LLB Gang said...

What a wonderful post Kira, thank you!!

We also think your new look is so very beautiful!!

Smileys & Snuggles!
Dory, Bilbo and Jacob

Lorenza said...

Hi, Kira!
Yes! Your new header is beautiful!
Your post is pawesome!
Have a great weekend!
Kisses and hugs
Lorenza

BeadedTail said...

We like this post and wish the best of luck to your human brother! We like your new header too!

Tweedles -- that's me said...

What awsomeness in this post is celebrated as we celebrate Diversity at the World Cup.
Your bloggie looks soooo sharp!
I hope the mom is feeling better.
love
tweedles

Unknown said...

Miss Kira
I just scooped 2 rice balls for you... and topped it with a smoochie kiss. Nice way to celebrate diversity and safe travels to your brother. I hope mom's eyesight is improving.
norwood

The Army of Four said...

Good luck to your human brother! Our mom and dad lived in Korea for two years. It's a very different experience!
Tail wags,
Storms

Asta said...

Kiwa,Scampi and Bentley
What a bootiful sign..i hope I can embody that in my life towawds evewyone.
Thank you fow telling us about it and showing those bootiful pictoowes.
I wish youw hooman bwuvvew lots of wondewful times on his new adventoowe
smoochie kisses
ASTA

sprinkles said...

Linked to you from MaxMom's blog. Your blog is absolutely beautiful!

Pat Wahler said...

Beautiful pictures and very interesting article! Sound like some interesting adventures ahead!

Pat
www.critteralley.blogspot.com

Sue said...

Very informative post. This event is fun. I'm learning a lot. Watch for our posts on Portugal.

Steve, Kat, & Wilbur said...

We love all the new stuff about your blog! Great job.

I hope your brother has a great time in Korea. One of mom's college roommate is in Indonesia teaching English and she loves the experience.

Steve