By Kim See-bong

Westernization is synonymous with modernization in Korea. Korea’s modernization has become possible by introducing Western civilization and its culture. The only difference is that Westernization refers mainly to the cultural side and modernization to the industrial development. Westernization implies the changes that have ever taken place in Korean culture.

Westernization can be defined as the introduction of Western culture and civilization. In this sense, there's nothing wrong with the Westernization of Korea. Development of culture and civilization should be based upon adoption and adjustment of varied foreign cultures and civilizations. However, it shouldn't be the replacement of what is ours with things Western. We should make them ours, not lose ours to them.

The Westernization of Korea so far has been regrettably carried out lopsidedly in favor of Western culture and civilization. It's not the adjustment or adoption but the appropriation of one by the other. Much of Korea’s culture and civilization has been lost amid Westernization.

We are neither Koreans nor Westerners.

We can't walk a few steps in the center of cities without looking at brilliant signboards in English. The names of the apartments are all codified in English. All the goods in show windows make us confused as if we were in a foreign country. The scene is not of Korea we used to know but of Manhattan or the like to which we were accustomed only in foreign films.

So outrageous was the pace and the degree of Korea’s Westernization that Western influence is pervasive in language and in all aspects of life.

What is development ― to replace what is ours by things foreign? No way. Someone may attribute all these phenomena to the traits of the times.

In history, Koreans have never been as prosperous as today though the nation was one of the poorest in the world until half a century ago.

Despite such poverty, honest poverty was the most valued virtue in life. Koreans were proud of themselves as people who respected the order of nature and feared heaven and God. Morals, ethics, respect for the old, obedience to parents, faithfulness to the country and respect for life were the norm. So Korea was called the land of manners in the Orient.

However, all these valuable traits show signs of disappearing in society amid material prosperity. This is the loss which can never be atoned for by any amount of material prosperity.

Parents have been deprived of a place to stand and turned into old and helpless beings. Teachers are rid of respect from their students. Now has come the time when such beautifully humane words as faith, loyalty, obedience, morals and ethics sound obsolete and anachronistic.

What matters is how much material profit is guaranteed in whatever we do. This is where Korea finds itself at present. We are living amid unsettled and borrowed civilization without proper culture.

However, civilization without a firm cultural foundation is like a baby born out of wedlock who pines for legitimacy throughout its life.

Today, Korea can be compared to a luxurious yacht at the mercy of rough waves in an expanse of ocean. It's time we recover our valuable cultural assets and turn the current material prosperity to the best account that can deserve the pride of our half-a-million-year history. Otherwise, we have to live in a society of inanimate machines without humane neighbors.

The writer is the principal of the Polyglot Day School in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province. His email address is glsacademy@dreamwiz.com.