Cultural Gift Exchange

Date: 10/24/2010
Ponderings about giving gifts.

Okay, so I have a background in Japanese culture, with some "East Asian Studies" courses thrown in the mix.  But one thing that I have always been told about Japanese culture was to BRING A GIFT!  It is considered extremely rude if you don't--that you're not grateful for everything your host has done, etc, etc, etc...

So when I was coming to Korea, I kept thinking that, "Well, Korea and Japan are not the same culture, but they do have some similarities."  One in particular is the Confucian background--which is where the Japanese gift-giving tradition originates from.  So I figured I might as well bring gifts for a couple of people who have helped me out --or will help me out.

I spent basically the whole summer keeping an eye out for something that I could get 5 or 6 of, that were small enough to fit in a stuffed/crammed full suitcase, durable to last a trip, and not extremely tacky.  Lots of websites suggest T-shirts or Hats--but those can be $10-$15--on the cheap side.  So I kept looking.

Then my family went to Nashville and I found my answer.  I got Dream Catchers.  For some reason, there is a strong Native American presence in Nashville, TN.  The Dream Catchers were fun, culturally relavent, not expensive ($4 a pop), but looked good with some feathers, beads, synthetic 'leather' material  and they were small enough.

I gave two of them to John this morning (one for him and one for Cindy--my amazing fabulous Recruitor).  I plan on giving one to my English Coordinator tomorrow morning and one to my co-teacher.  (I also brought some stickers, fun gel pens, and small gifts for prizes for the co-teacher and her classroom).

I figured, even if the tradition of giving gifts isn't as strong as it is in Japan, the thought is what matters.  The fact that I am showing the effort to be apart of their culture, say thank you, and just show some respect.  I know some people have a harder time fitting into the Korean culture, and I just want it to go over as smooth as possible.

Anyway, 2 things:

1.  My concern is that these Dream Catchers are not wrapped.  This might be a huge fo-pah because they are gifts and should be wrapped.  I really hope the people understand that if I had tried to wrap them it would have just looked horrible--all crinkled and ripped from the flight.

2.  I need to apologize to the Native Americans.  I sort of up-dated the Dream Catcher story.  When I explained to John what these were, he went on about how his "girls" (he is the boss to 7 female recruitors, so he refers to them as "his girls") get gifts from their recruitees, they become the envy of the office.   (this tells me that people have brought gifts over before--good sign. Points in my direction, please!)  Anyway, so I said Dream Catchers were for home, but then John said that the girls display their gifts in the office.  So I kinda said, "Oh, they catch bad emails, too."  So dream catchers have been modernized--they now can inspect digital information--not just the mental ones.  Sorry, Native Americans.