Culture is Fascinating! Did you know that U.S. Americans are considered one of the world’s most friendly cultures? We smile and greet and get on a first name basis with strangers or new acquaintances right away. We send hundreds of greeting cards to our friends at the holidays and have college friends, bowling friends, work friends and church friends. People who come from other cultures find that this kind of “friendship” is confusing and rather superficial. Some say that Americans treat their friends like strangers and strangers like friends! Robert Kohls, a Korean expert notes that, “Koreans define a friend as a person you can call at three o’clock in the morning with a request for money and the friend will come, bringing the money, without even asking why you are calling at this unusual hour or what you need the money for. A friend is a person to whom you feel a total and unreserved obligation; therefore, Koreans identify very few people as friends.” Koreans make their friends very early in life and keep them for life. Some of this is due to the lack of mobility that people in countries like Korea once had, although this fact is changing. Nevertheless, the concept of friendship is different in many cultures, and influences business networks and relationships. Something as basic as friendship can be misunderstood in the workplace. Global LT's Cultural Training Programs - Friendship: Korea