The Ladder of Being

[dreamer_easy]

The other day I remarked (and take anything I saw with a grain of salt, as I'm hardly an expert) that strict hierarchy is a major difference between Korean and Western society. On the other hand, of course, the West has plenty of social hierarchy of its own. English doesn't have formal and informal speech levels or an elaborate system of honorifics, but relative status can be indicated in lots of subtle ways. Working at the library, I noticed that when I speak to someone I (consciously or not) considered higher status, such as one of the academics, not only would I speak in a more formal manner but my Australian accent would actually shift to become more "cultured".

Reviewing a study of post-war Britain, Jenny Diski writes:

"Social class told you everything. You learned, well before you got the alphabet by heart, to recognize microdistinctions of class and precisely where everybody belonged on the ladder of being. A single spoken word, a vowel, a look in the eye, the way a scarf or tie was worn and knotted, practically the quality of the air around an individual were, and are even today, instant giveaways of social, economics, and educational status. I do it without thinking about it, without wanting to."

Diski notes that as a third-generation Jew, she could never be quite sure how she fitted into the structure (she, too, adjusted her accent as needed). Perhaps this parallels in some ways the outsider status of Americans in Korea after the war.