The other day in Korean class, my teacher referred to Korea as 드라마 천국， “drama heaven”. If you’re in Korea and flip on your TV, whether it be night or day, but especially at prime time, you are guaranteed to have hundreds of dramas to choose from. And, when I say hundreds, I mean it. There’s office dramas, medical dramas, family dramas, study abroad dramas, high school dramas, entertainment industry based dramas, entertainment industry based high school dramas, spy dramas, and more.
Now, if you’ve ever watched a drama that’s involved a large business, you’ve most likely viewed at least one scene where the boss/CEO/head of the company visits the branch/restaurant/department store/etc. and all of the employees line up to bow and greet him as he passes by.
I don’t know why it never occurred to me that these scenes would be based on real life practices, but I guess I’ll just mark that up to cultural differences, which is my favorite, go-to excuse in Korea.
Yesterday, as I was walking near the Express Bus Terminal in Seoul, I passed by a group of employees in two lines, actually practicing bowing and greeting in unison! They would all bow and shout, “안녕하십니까 ___님”, basically formally greeting corporate.
I was so excited to see this in real life, I had to take a picture and write about it ^^
