Reflections of a Man's Heart

Today I received a copy of "Home was the land of morning calm: a saga of a Korean-American Family".

Since my girlfriend happened to be from such a distant place, I was concerned with the very different cultures and environments to which we belong.

So, first thing I did was to buy some books highlighting cultural differences.

This biographical book is written by a korean woman that happened to move to the USA when she was 20 or so, and since then has been living and working both in Korea and USA.

I bought it because I thought that a book written from the perspective of a korean inmigrant in a western country would highlight lots of cultural differences in everyday life, that other more academic books would just ignore.

The book is not only entertaining, but the writer happens to be a very interesting woman whose heart is divided between the US and Korea, half and half.

She does not spare any criticism, while at the same time having an affection for both countries: she happens to talk about most subjects, from mating, to the transition to democracy, feminism, the differences at the workplace, etc.

The book rings true all the time.

Other really interesting book is "The koreans: Who They Are, What They Want, Where Their Future Lies". I think this might describe current Korea better. Really thought provoking. *Really*.

"Learning to Think Korean" is a good complement, as it might describe Korea as it was 20 years ago better, helping understand what is there now.

These are not the classical for tourist book, but they touch very delicate subjects, especially the first one. Corruption, how business is *really* done, man-woman relationship, transition to democracy... Whatever.

Illuminating, to say the least. I have to confess that I learnt a lot.

I found that we westerners don't know a damn about countries with a confucianist cultural background - or any other, at that.

Yes, I knew about that before...in my mind.