Comment on Chan Ho Park diarrhea shows cultural divide

Although most Americans will have the initial reaction to laugh to New York Yankees pitcher Chan Ho Park's diarrhea comment,
it truly shows a cultural divide between America and South Korea.
Especially in New York – Sports media in America approaches players
aggressively. If players don’t “play ball” and submit to all of their
questions, they are labeled as “clubhouse cancer” or “malcontent.”
Credit repair is needed after those labels are affixed. Yet South
Korean culture dictates that citizens and athletes in general place
high value on such concepts as che-myun ("saving face") and kongson ("politeness") . When explaining why he had pitched so ineffectively in his appearances previous to the legendary April 7 "Chan Ho Park diarrhea" video,
Park probably wanted to set up common ground with American reporters,
be cooperative, and establish the big picture for his sting of poor
pitching.

Diarrhea and Chan Ho Park is not the normal New York Yankees experience

In 1986, Chan Ho Park announcing diarrhea as an excuse to the
New York Media would have gotten him told to come up with a better
excuse. Yankees pitcher Ed Whitson got gastro-intestinal distress
because of the New York spotlight back then. Chan Ho Park experienced a
human ailment that's easy to address with cheap payday loans
if his salary was tied up in investments at the moment. Yes, diarrhea
may be funny to Americans, but South Koreans don't necessarily share
the exact same sense of humor. And, as stated above, it is culturally
taboo not to cooperate with authority figures (and the media are
treated with less scorn in Asian countries like South Korea than they
are in The US). Chan Ho Park was only being honest, and if you watch
the video, it seems clear that he's confused by how funny the American
reporters find his statement. Either that is true or his poker face is
great.

What Chan Ho Park diarrhea has to do with the Power Distance Index

The Power Distance Index (PDI) deals with how a particular
culture such as South Korea deals with authority and hierarchy,
according to Dutch psychologist Geert Hofstede. According to veteran
military pilot and essayist Albert Southwick, "a culture with a high
PDI is more apt to respect authority even when authority is plainly in
error." This could possibly suggest that America's low PDI score – in
tune with the nation's general lack of respect for authority and
foreign beliefs – indicates why the American sports media is always
pushing for the sensational story. A native of South Korea – a nation
with a high PDI score – would respect the media authority, even if
they're invading his privacy. That is probably why Chan Ho Park
answered questions and gave Americans what they would consider TMI –
too much details.

That doesn’t even compare to flaming plane wrecks

More studying of Southwick’s article will show the Chan Ho Park
diarrhea dynamic on a very much more significant scale. In the 1990s,
Korean Airlines jets got into fatal accidents. It is speculated that
these happened because instead of questioning the clarity of
instructions from the English air traffic control towers, so as to stay
clear of questioning authority, the Korean pilots misunderstood in
silence. "Chan Ho Park diarrhea" is hardly a "Koreagate" when compared
with life lost, right?

Sources

Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geert_Hofstede

clearlycultural.com

http://www.clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions/power-...

thefreelibrary.com

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/

When cultural taboos could be deemed life-and-death matter.(COMMENTARY)-a0191821762