We now live in a time when rapid and radical social change is taking place in every nook and cranny of our society. In fact, the changes are so dazzlingly swift and drastic that we cannot possibly catch up with them at the same speed.

Thus, we often end up being lost in this whirlpool of change and as a result are frequently embarrassed when the assumptions we inherited from the past turn out to no longer fit the present reality.  

When I lived in the States about 40 years ago, a Korean-American businessman told me that he was not allowed to deposit more than $2,000 at a time at his bank. “If you want to do it, you need to verify where the money came from. So I just put my money in the safe at home.” His warning was deeply engraved in my mind.

Therefore, a few years ago when I was scheduled to travel to the States, I asked my Korean bank teller to give me $10,000 in traveler’s checks, not cash. Since the small branch bank did not have enough checks, my nice and friendly bank teller had to make a hasty trip to a bigger branch in Gangbuk to fetch the large amount of checks. Upon returning from his trip, the bank teller told me, catching his breath, “These days, people seldom carry traveler’s checks. They just carry cash.” 

After I arrived in the States, I wanted to deposit the traveler’s checks into my U.S. bank account. It was a lot of money to carry anyway. When I pushed in a file of traveler’s checks, my American bank teller sighed, “You should sign and countersign all of them.

These days, people just bring in cash. You can deposit as much as $10,000.” “But I heard you can’t make cash deposits of more than $2,000,” I said. The bank teller chuckled and asked me, “Who told you that?” Suddenly, I realized nearly 40 years had passed since my conversation with the businessman.         

I also noticed that many things have changed in the States during my absence. For example, the title, “secretary” has changed into “assistant.” In fact, a host of new titles has come into use because of political correctness: mail carrier, flight attendant, police officer and so on. These days, Americans tend to use the expression “physically challenged” for the handicapped, “vertically challenged” for the obese and “horizontally challenged” for short people.

Another change is that 40 years ago, Americans used to ask, “May I help you?” These days, I notice many people ask instead, “How may I help you?’ Also, young people no longer seem to use outdated expressions such as “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

The same thing may happen to foreigners who lived in Korea a long time ago and revisit the rapidly changing country many decades later. So many things have changed since the past two or three decades, and yet old timers do not usually realize the sweeping changes Korea has experienced.

It is likely that those foreigners have outdated information and thus make mistakes. For example, if a foreigner, who had lived in Korea 40 years ago, revisited Seoul today and asked, “Where is the ‘duitgan?’” few young people would understand that he or she was asking for the restroom, because nobody uses that expression anymore.

Foreigners who have lived in Korea for a long time may also face similar problems. They might have lived in Korea for a considerable time, yet they may be unaware of how drastically Korean society has changed. In the past, for example, if you met the head of an institution in person and asked for his help, he could probably help you out even if you had issues with division directors or team leaders of the institution.

Well, those good old days are long gone. These days, even the head of an institution cannot interfere with the selection process, which is usually overseen exclusively by outside experts. Thus, arranging a personal meeting with the head will not be of much help because there is nothing much he or she can do.

Unaware of the recent changes, some foreigners or older Koreans naively expect that everything will be taken care of as long as they meet and persuade the head, who in their minds is the big enchilada. They assume the head of the institution can overrule his team leaders’ objections or opinions and do whatever he or she pleases.

However, that kind of approach no longer works in Korean society. Perhaps, foreigners might not know how radically democratized Korean society has become. They may think that if the head of the institution gives an order his staff members will blindly obey him. But that is not how the system works in Korea anymore.

It is imperative that we catch up to the changes as fast as we can. Otherwise, we are likely to embarrass ourselves in a rapidly changing environment. 

By Kim Seong-kon

Kim Seong-kon is a professor emeritus of English at Seoul National University and president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. — Ed.