[Baladas]

Yeah, I don’t think there will be any backlash against Koreans because of this one psycho.

Come to think of it, I don’t know why South Korea really had to apologize - the whole country can’t be blamed for this, the shooter wasn’t a spokesman for South Korea by any means.

[ME-262]

He may have been Korean, but he was also a product of our public schools.

[AmericanInTokyo]

To apologize as a nation is, in its very essence, an Asian thing.

These things take a little time to understand.

I would have expected this out of Korea as a group, as a government statement, within at least one day, and sure enough, it came.

Generally, on a personal level, many Americans will not even apologize for something when they are clearly wrong...it is usually followed by a stammering, "but, but, but" as an added on excuse. That translates to a national level. In Asia, on the other hand, people apologize all over the place even if they are remotely connected. Gone to extremes, self remorse over one's actions can end up as suicide.

My, a whole book could be written on the contrasts of Occidental vs. Oriental "apologies".

[AmericanInTokyo]

To apologize as a nation is, in its very essence, an Asian thing.

These things take a little time to understand.

I would have expected this out of Korea as a group, as a government statement, within at least one day, and sure enough, it came.

Generally, on a personal level, many Americans will not even apologize for something when they are clearly wrong...it is usually followed by a stammering, "but, but, but" as an added on excuse. That translates to a national level. In Asia, on the other hand, people apologize all over the place even if they are remotely connected. Gone to extremes, self remorse over one's actions can end up as suicide.

My, a whole book could be written on the contrasts of Occidental vs. Oriental "apologies".

[AmericanInTokyo]

It is called, in Japanese, "menzu wo ushinau", or, as we have come to know in the West, "LOSS OF FACE".

Nearly all Koreans in the entire nation are "shamed" and have lost "national face".

This is something clearly culturally impossible in our US society, steeped in individualism, where just about every man and woman, in a sense, is an island, disconnected from the larger.

[stocksthatgoup]

Isn’t amazing how the most racist people worry about racism?

[CJ Wolf]

“Come to think of it, I don’t know why South Korea really had to apologize - the whole country can’t be blamed for this, the shooter wasn’t a spokesman for South Korea by any means.”

It has to do with the culture of shame, Cho shamed S. Korea as a whole, in their eyes.

In any rate: It was a nice gesture. I don’t remember Saudi Arabia apologizing.