You can't go through a week without coming across a Korean newspaper headline touting where the country stands in international rankings of some sort. I have mixed thoughts about this.
The country's competitive zeal that fuels this national obsession over rankings probably had a lot to do with its rapid economic development. On the other hand, I can't help but think that it reflects its decades-old insecurity over where it stands in the eyes of the world - and that, very often, rankings themselves reveal very little about the true conditions behind them.
Take this headline/story by the Korea Herald: Korea ranks world's 11th largest exporter. Is that really news? Are Koreans still obsessing over this when it has been ranked somewhere between 11th and 13th since 1990! Should the country move past this and begin to wonder why - given Samsung, Hyundai and all the other chaebols - it hasn't moved up any higher? That it still lags Belgium or is about on par with tiny city-state, Hong Kong?
- Roger in DC
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I believe ranking is part of Korean Life. They rank you by height in Pre-school. You line up and do stuff by rank. You go to school and they test you and give you your rank.
You have "Sun-Bae" and "Hoo-Bae" and all sorts of ranking. I once heard that it is to identify your "place" in the society.
I was once(in US, in 8th grade)confronted by a guy who was like a month older than me. He wanted to be called "Hyung" or older brother. I just laughed at him.
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