The one big difference.
I may be oversimplifying things here, but I think I’ve finally got my finger on what makes Japan and Korea so different.
Japan doesn’t care much about the outside world.
Korea thinks the outside world cares about it (Korea) a lot.
Japan’s okay in this regard, as they’re just expressing how they feel. Korea’s screwing up in that they’re projecting their own (wrong) self-important ideas about themselves onto other nations. I think this may have something to do with why so many Koreans come off as arrogant and uptight.
Sure, Japanese get tarred with the “arrogant” brush for all their “this is Japan” stuff, but I’ve never had a Japanese person harangue me about what a wonderful place Japan is and how lucky I am to have the opportunity to live and work here.
Maybe it’s because they’re aware that I already know this. ^.^
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