Korean Culture Vs Australian Culture

A Comparison & Contrast of Cultural difference between Eastern and Western
< Korean Culture vs. Australian Culture >

Korean and Australian culture seem to have only a few similarities, as Australia is a western country and Korea is an Asian country, and because of the different history, characters of people, and differences in surroundings. However, I am sure that there are a lot of similar features that people in both countries might have overlooked. In this paper, I will focus on finding the similarities and differences between Korean and Australian cultures especially in sports, food and humor.

First, sport is an example in the side of similarities of the two cultures between Korea and Australia. People in both countries are also extremely enthusiastic sports fans. When they have the Grand Final of the Australian Football competition, thousands of people gather together in the stadium and at public places to watch the game and support their own team. On the other hand, Koreans did not used to watch the games in public spaces or in restaurants before the 2002 World Cup. However, since then, the culture of watching the sports has totally changed. There were huge crowds of people everywhere,
including the public and the street, and they supported the Korean team together. It has become a new trend to get together to support the games of Korean national teams, like in Australia.

Second, food, however, falls into the category of cultural difference of two countries.
Koreans and Australians have a difference in terms of food. Australian present-day styles of eating are based on their multi-cultural society. Since the post-war immigrants came to Australia, the Australian food has become rich because the immigrants from various European countries brought a wide variety of food - from Italy, Greece and Poland and so on. On the other hand, Korea is very famous, all over the world, for its unique spicy food. Korea has had success in keeping many kinds of traditional foods alive until today. Many tourists come to Korea because they want to try the food. Normally, Korean foods are also very hot and salty due to lots of different spicy
ingredients.

Finally, humor is also in the category of cultural difference between Korea and Australia. The reason is that Australian Humor is very dry. Australians often express their subtle and sarcastic mind through humor. Their humor is also often droll and sometimes black which means they make jokes that are dark or horrible. Australians often keep a 'straight face' when they tell a joke. Besides, Australians like to laugh at themselves including their character and culture. In contrast to Australians, Koreans normally make jokes by teasing each other because other people have different points of view and do not belong to their group. And Korean like 'slap stick' comedies, which are also called a 'sight gag', and 'physical humor' that was very famous before and is still quite popular, such as, hitting each other or falling over a banana skin , and so on.

It is true that Australia and Korea still have a lot more differences in terms of culture than similarities. Australia and Korea are not close and most people are not acquainted with the other's culture. But, if we keep an eye on each other's cultural features, we could have a good opportunity to not only develop our life and culture but also to help develop good relationships between the two countries.