This is the first in a new Korea Times series called ``Understanding Korea, Koreans,'' by Jon Huer. The writer is a professor at the University of Maryland College Asia. He will take a critical approach to describing Korean society and culture in a way that will help foreigners better understand Korea and show Koreans how foreigners view Korea and them. What emerges from his articles is a description of a society that is economically modern but sociologically pre-modern, with all the strange and incomprehensible cultural clashes that are natural to such historic mismatches.

By Jon Huer
Korea Times Columnist

Of Korea, Japan and the United States, where I have lived long enough to observe certain things, I notice that there are "good people" in all of them. By good people I mean those who show friendliness and warmth to us when there is no immediate personal benefit. Once defined as such, I can say I have met many good people in Korea, the United States and Japan.

Good Koreans are good in the way Americans or Japanese are good; they're helpful on the road, honest and sweet to strangers. But they are ``good" in different ways as well, from a sociological perspective.

Good Koreans are good as individuals. They are helpful, honest and sweet with you, mainly because they are good in their individual consciences. As individuals, they have a strong sense of what is right and wrong, moral and immoral, virtuous and sinful.

If you search for the structural origins of their goodness in something larger _ such as history or a social system, you'll be disappointed, because there is little evidence of goodness in Korea's history or social system. Colonialism and war completely destroyed any public or institutional basis of morality in Korea. Being helpful, honest or sweet does not help one's career in Korea, yet each good Korean is good in spite of such obstacles. In his or her individual heart of hearts, the good Korean has searched for answers to good and evil and has come to a certain conclusion, individually, personally and alone. This origin of goodness in Korea is all the more memorable in that it is truly a triumph of the individual.

In the United States, the goodness we find as travelers, neighbors and strangers is just as helpful, honest and sweet. But the sociological origin of this goodness among the good Americans is in their social institutions and public instructions.

Perhaps because the United States is a harsh, take-no-prisoners, competitive society, there tends to be a constant institutional emphasis (namely at schools and public announcements) on being good "human beings." Even the worst Wall Street types boast of their humane contributions and helping hands.

As an American, one is taught to have compassion toward the "less fortunate," and most Americans tend to root for the underdogs, Davids against Goliaths. If you meet a "good" American on the road, it's likely that he was taught to be a good human being by some public message.

In spite of the fact that Americans are considered individualists, free and independent, it is quite surprising how much of the American social character, whether in a group or alone, is actually a publicly-processed product.

The good Japanese are different from both of the above. There is no "public" in the American sense of established institutions and organizations, nor is there an "individual" conscience or soul in the sense that good Koreans have in abundance.

The good Japanese are what the Japanese "nation" makes them.

If the Japanese nation is good in its national goal and beliefs, the Japanese people are also good; if the Japanese nation is nasty, individual Japanese are equally nasty as individuals. Very rarely, unlike in Korea, does a Japanese citizen deviate from his collective-national creed and expectations.

Thus, the goodness of the Japanese is wholly tied to what his or her nation stands for or teaches. During the evil time of World War II, virtually all Japanese citizens showed pitiless evil. Today, most Japanese citizens are helpful, honest and sweet to strangers because the nation is no longer bent on conquest.

Reliable Model for Foreigners

If the above descriptions are true, the most true and predictable is that Japanese are good because of their national character formation. The nation of Japan controls every heart and soul in Japan at all times at the conscious, unconscious and subconscious levels. It is often shocking how little remorse ex-Japanese soldiers feel about their atrocities in the last world war. In their view, their nation commanded the people to "be" that way, and that's how they were. Because of this controlling mechanism, most Japanese are predictably reliable most of the time.

The least reliable or predictable group would naturally be Koreans. Quite unlike the Japanese, or even Americans, one is never sure of what a Korean reaction would be when encountered as a stranger. One reaction could be the most wonderful display of hospitality and friendliness; the next reaction could be just the opposite: rude and savage.

The range of receptions from those one meets in Korea is about as unpredictable as the number of individual Koreans one encounters. The ways Koreans treat Europeans and Americans and laborers from Bangladesh are so varied that it's almost unbelievable that they're from the same nation.

Even among the latter, of course, a conscientious Korean factory owner would be equally incredible in his goodness toward the downtrodden.

Between the two types of goodness stands the American variety: somewhat less predictable than Japanese goodness but more reliable than the Korean type.

Unless one runs into a mugger, robber, or other random misanthrope, most Americans and American neighbors are helpful, honest and sweet. Strenuously socialized in the importance of legality couched in humanity and justice all their lives, most Americans and most institutions display a predictable reception to strangers and outsiders that's fair and expected.

It is interesting that different social types create different varieties of goodness in their respective citizens. This idle speculation can lead to many incidental questions and further speculation. Any takers?

Jon Huer teaches sociology at the University of Maryland University College Asia, and can be reached at jonhuer@hotmail.com.