Understanding cultural differences in a workplace

This post is taken from a summary of an article found here.

One of the first things that stuck out to me in the differences between Korea and the USA is that in Korea you only have friends your own age. In the USA you may only have a few friends if any that are the same age as you. I know for myself personally I have very few friends that are my age. Most of my friends are either older than I am or younger than I am. The next point that stuck out to me majorly are the lack of what we consider politeness in the USA. In Korea you rarely would say thank you for things you have asked for or small gifts. Here in the USA someone who chooses not to say thank you for gifts or things that have been done for you would be considered very rude. Even at young ages when our children start talking we install in them saying please, thank you, and your welcome. There is a huge difference in the way we talk and communicate with each other between the two places. The third thing that stuck out to me was the differences in someone in charge. It is normal for someone who is younger than us to be in a higher position then we hold here in the USA. In Korea you would never see a younger person in a higher position than an older employee. This would create major problems in Korea for communication. It is normal there for a higher position to talk down to someone in a lower position or the same goes to an older person talking down to younger person. Also there people are addressed by their job titles. Here even our managers are referred to as Mrs., Mr., or Ms. Followed by their last names. Sometimes we even refer to these people by their first names, where as in Korea you would never see that done. Knowing how a culture that you may be working in works may help you succeed at your job. I would not want to go work in a culture and not understand how that particular culture works. If you did this you may be considered very rude or may even loose a job because of it. Where I live we do not have many cultures that I would find that I would need to do cultural research. If I was to move somewhere else where there is a more diverse cultural difference then yes I may need to do some cultural research.