Chris will be interested in this, I had mention earlier about how formal the culture is. An example of this that I have noticed is how proper professional the staff is around people. In the states I feel that around the off hours “early morning and late at night” that people often get very informal, but here people are just as formal and polite at 7AM as they are at mid day. Another example is with greetings. I asked a hostess how to say good morning she told me, but her mistake was to continue in telling me more about the different versions for different people and times of day, so it all fell out me ear. Information overload!! But I held the first saying long enough to say it the next three people. The last person was a kid that works in internet café, he is probably a few years younger then me. When I said it to him he corrected me in that what I had said was a formal greeting you say to a older person. Then he told me what I could say informally. Again I lost all of it. I’m like a dog that is being taught a new trick. Told over and over again.
Another interesting thing that I noticed, is how people walk. I know that is sounds strange but the way that people walk is a little different. While I was at breakfast I watched as people showed up to work. I know how I walk. I have been told that I look like I’m mad and going to beat someone up. I walk with direction and the purpose of going from point A to point B no matter what the speed. Here watched as women walked towards the lobby but in a wondering sunder, very casual. I have enough trouble slowing down while eating let alone walk like that. When I was growing up, with three siblings and then in school with short lunches, not to waste time with things like eating. But today I don’t really have anything to do and I wanted to watch people so I forced myself to slow down it was hard. I again noticed as we were walking back from Moshi, I was so focused on putting one foot in front of the other I could have missed our turn; to my defense I was getting tired from the “cool” weather; I really am acclimated to Oregon weather.
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Sounds like Korea has some cultural similarities with what you are experiencing.
Korea is super conservative. Very homogenous, very. Their education system is all based around life-course-determining-tests and the teacher still hit students with sticks.
Manners are lacking from this conservative stance. People cut in line while getting on and off busses and subway trains. They also spit everywhere, including right in front of you.
Also, there are at least 4 levels of speech that are used depending on how much respect you want to give someone. What we use with tone of voice and word selection, they have different verb forms. It's an extremely hierarchical society. I'm still mixing the levels and brutalizing the language, but Koreans seem to really appreciate the effort. I bet it's similar to your neck of the woods.
I'm really happy you are there and hope you continue to have interesting experiences. Wish I could visit!
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