“Today, I was given five minutes notice to be outside, as my wife was already with them. I got picked up and taken to yet another unknown destination. They didn’t tell us what we were in for until we pulled into the restaurant and could read the sign.”

From another post:

“Every time I asked if we had any plan about our descent, or how much farther we were going, I got a rather stock response of “Five more minutes to the top.’”

I work in an office where I am the only foreigner. My co-workers are nice, thoughtful people, yet I experience frustration like this often enough. I would like to have things explained. I’d like the courtesy of knowing the who, what, where, when, and why of a situation, rather than getting an awkward silence or an embarrassed response when I ask for an explanation.

Michael Breen, one of my favorite writers, wrote about it like this recently: “Too much in this country is obscure, demanding explanation that comes with the difficulty of teeth being pulled.”

I don’t really have a clear idea about why Koreans don’t explain as much as they could, but here are some attempts to understand it:

1. Koreans think: “Rather than tell whitey something that will upset him, better to not tell him at all.”

2. Koreans are more in the habit of just following the leader and not questioning what’s going on. Therefore, whitey’s questioning comes off as a bit pushy.

3. Koreans don’t explain decisions to each other, either, and we just aren’t aware of it. If things aren’t explained to us, we take it as a personal slight, whereas a Korean would just take it.

These ideas are all a little too black-and-white, but I think there’s some truth in them.

What do you think? Or what does your wife say about it?