Intercultural Differences Between Koreans and North Americans Regarding Conversation Topics of Privacy

Intercultural Differences Between Koreans and North Americans Regarding Conversation Topics of Privacy

This study investigated whether personal question asking of strangers or close acquaintances is cultural behavior that differentiates Koreans from North Americans as conjectured in Yoo (1997). The investigation entailed two research questions answered in surveys collected from 49 North Americans. One was whether North Americans ask the same personal questions among themselves that Koreans ask of them. The other was to find how North Americans would feel if they were asked such questions by acquaintances. The results and findings show that North Americans do ask personal questions among themselves, though the range of topics does not coincide with those among Koreans.