When laughter is probably the initial reaction of Americans to New York Yankees pitcher Chan Ho Park’s diarrhea comment, the incident, in reality, reflects a cultural divide between The United States and South Korea. Sports media in The United States – particularly New York – approach players aggressively. Players who don't "play ball" and submit to all questioning are considered to be "malcontent" or "clubhouse cancer." Credit repair is needed after those labels are affixed. Yet South Korean culture requires that all of the athletes and citizens place a high value on such concepts as che- myun (“saving face”) and kongson (“politeness”). When explaining why he'd pitched ineffectively in his appearances previous to the legendary April 7 “Chan Ho Park diarrhea” video, Park wanted to set up some common ground with the American reports and a! lso wanted to establish the bigger picture for his stint of bad pitching.
Chan Ho Park and diarrhea – not a unique 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. Back then, the New York spotlight caused Yankee pitcher Ed Whitson to literally get gastro-intestinal distress. Chan Ho Park experienced a human ailment that’s easy to address with payday installment loans if his salary was tied up in investments at the moment. Although in America diarrhea might be funny, South Koreans don't typically share that very 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 United States). Chan Ho Park was being honest and was confused by how funny the American reporters find his statement if you watch the vi! deo. Either that is true or his poker face is great.
Power Distance Index and Chan Ho Park diarrhea
According to Dutch psychologist Geert Hofstede, the Power Distance Index (PDI) measures how a particular culture deals with hierarchy and authority. 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.” The media seems to always push for a sensational story because of the low American PDI score also as the general lack of respect for foreign beliefs and authority. 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 the reason behind Chan Ho Park having such compliance in answering questions and giving the American individuals exactly what they would call TMI – too much information.
That doesn't compare to the flaming plane wrecks
Further study of Southwick’s article illustrates the Chan Ho Park diarrhea dynamic, but on a much more significant scale. Korean Airline jets got into many fatal accidents within the 1990s. The speculated reason behind this is that the Korean pilots stayed silent rather than questioning the authority of misunderstood English from the air traffic control towers. ”Chan Ho Park diarrhea” is hardly a “Koreagate” when in contrast to life lost, right?
Sources
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geert_Hofstede
clearlycultural.com
http://www.clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions/power-distance-index/
thefreelibrary.com
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/When cultural taboos can be deemed life-and-death matter.(COMMENTARY)-a0191821762
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