Studying in South Korea and living in the campus dormitory with both Korean and international students has given me numerous chances to experience many different perspectives from people who are from all around the world. As an American coming from a culturally-diverse community, I have always thought that understanding and recognizing different perspectives was a natural thing for me. Here in Korea, it is a different story because the points of view of the Koreans I meet is much different than ours. For example, I encounter many situations where it is often difficult to communicate my point of view to others during informal conversations. To cope with this, I try to adapt my English to make it easier for non-native speakers to understand, which means my sentences need to be simplified and straight to the main point. It is hard to tell stories to people since they often get lost and misunderstand. My native-English speaker friends and I often joke that our Korean skills are much better than our English now.
The Korean language often uses honorifics (formal titles, like "Mr." and "Dr.") and the emphasis is placed on respecting age and gender.
