Korea

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View books by Sonia Vegdehl.

Inside information into Korea - Rated
A fantastic book. I will be teaching shortly in Korea for a year and I bought this book on the recommendation of others, I can say I haven't been disappointed.
It gives you short snippets of information regarding work ethic, schooling, best practice, holidays, how to act with Koreans, not to write someone's name in red.
Certainly a great introduction to Korea.

Good guide to Korean life - Rated
I got the book before moving to Seoul (I'm still living there and will be there for another few years). It does what it says on the tin, gives you a basic understanding of the cultural references that you will generally be unaware of, but will facing in each conversation and interaction that you have.

The book does not have a magic formula for overcoming cultural shock, or for navigating cultural barriers. It does have some good, down to earth advice for developing your own methods of working through the inevitable issues. I would recommend this for business travellers to Korea.

A bit out of date for Seoul city - Rated
I bought this book and read through to get an idea of the culture before travelling out to Seoul on business. My impression was of a strictly ordered society, almost backward from some points of view. I've now just come back from business in Seoul and it was very different out there! Seoul is developing and building very rapidly, the people are hospitable, polite and completely modern. I felt that the higher ranked business people were treated with respect but I'd expected a lot of 'face' after reading this book; the reality I met was friendly professional respect but no hiding behind a need to save face for the boss.

I did enjoy reading this book for a sense of history. The culture is moving very rapidly in the city. Maybe the coutryside is closer to the description in the book.

For a business trip to Seoul, I found enough information in the 'teach yourself Korean' book + cd instead.

Well worth it to save embarrassment - Rated
I got the book as I am planning to visit South Korea. I have a good few Korean nationals as friends and while they did explain some things about their culture, it is amazing what is taken for granted.

There was a lot in the book that I had already experienced in dealing with Koreans and at the time were embarrassing or frustrating to me.

A good example of something that was rude but is perfectly normal is when a Korean is walking with you and meets a friend who you do not know. They will both ignore you until the conversation ends. It explains in detail why this is.

There are many more examples like this. Too many to put into a review. I strongly recommend this book if you are planning to go to South Korea.

A very helpful guide! - Rated
I bought this book before I moved to Korea and it helped me a lot during the 12 month I spent there. The Korean culture is very different to any European and without this book life in Seoul would have been much more difficult.