Don't look at strangers in Korea

Article: [The Psychology of the Gaze] A twisted society... rage inside the eyes

Article that talks about how police have been dealing with an increasing number of cases every day where fights have broken out on the streets between random people just because one party 'looked at them' while passing by.

Korean psychologists reasoned, "Koreans normally turn away or avoid the eyes when their gaze meets with someone they don't know for longer than a second. The people who don't turn away end up resorting to violence because they feel an invasion of privacy." They also chalked it up to difference in cultures... in other foreign cultures, meeting someone's gaze is seen as a positive thing while in Korea, it's viewed as negative.

 1. [+719, -17] It's really weird... Whenever my gaze meets with foreigners, they smile at me. I don't know how Korea's gotten like this... We need a change in culture.

2. [+594, -34] Koreans seriously are a special country of people ㅋㅋ I remember when a foreign friend visited and he kept staring at people, I had to tell him not to do that because it's basically asking for a fight with Koreans. He totally didn't understand why... Koreans are so good at wasting time and energy with stupid things.

3. [+485, -32] We should run a national campaign promoting smiling at strangers when your gaze meets theirs.

4. [+335, -8] I lived in America for a long time before moving back to Korea so it's become a habit for me to do 'eye greetings' with strangers... I brought that habit over to Korea and Koreans look at me strangely when I do it...

5. [+328, -5] Twisted doesn't even begin to describe Korean society... more like psychos.

6. [+287, -4] Finally a respectable article from a journalist pointing out things that are important and worth discussing

7. [+284, -5] It's because people don't have a sense of self that they feel so defensive with people even just looking at them.

8. [+185, -3] Do Koreans think they're Pokemon trainers or something? Pull out a battle the minute you run into someone...

9. [+162, -7] Foreigners are more independent than Koreans are and yet they still smile to strangers... why is it that Koreans get so nasty about it? Should we all just walk around with our eyes pasted to the floor?

10. [+55, -0] It's because Koreans have a twisted idea of happiness. Koreans are always seeking happiness... which means that nobody is CURRENTLY happy, they're only seeking it. Happiness to Koreans means being at a higher status or position than the person next to them. They need to be able to show something off to someone else in order to call themselves happy. Obviously not everyone reaches that point in their lives so Koreans are forever in a state of distress.

That's why when Koreans see a stranger smiling at them on the streets, they feel like they're being sarcastic, like that person is better and happier than they are, at a higher status and position in their lives... They feel jealous and behind... It's the smile of a winner and they're not that winner. Korean society is all about speed... who can reach this faster, who can achieve that faster.

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