‘Global Forum’ held in Global lounge On March 25, there was a debate forum at the global lounge for cultural differences between the East and the West. Three students gave presentations on topics such as “High-Context vs. Low-Context,” “Collective vs. Independent Mentality” and “Relationships (Asia vs. the West).” According to the first presentation, Asian culture requires high context, which means that people focus more on situational factors and age differences than the individual while the westerners are individually oriented in approaching matters. For example, Asians do not raise objections when elderly people cut in line. They are willing to sacrifice their self-interests for the sake of sustaining the group. Meanwhile, the Westerners state their assertions, accusations and refusals clearly based on their individual preferences. For instance, they often make statements such as "I don’t like something about you." Asians do not express their thoughts or feelings as directly. In order to find out what others really think, people sometimes need to see facial expressions rather than verbal ones. The second presentation attributed these differences to cultural backgrounds. Asians have more collective mentality grounded on Confucianism, while Westerners have independent mentality originating from their Christian backgrounds and partly from consumerism. Asian’s collective mentality, on the other hand, gives little regard to the personal space of each individual. For example, Asians never apologize when bumping into each other. The collective mentality also exerts influences on dating relationships. Meeting the partner’s parents is seen as a definite step towards a serious relationship. The last presentation on "Relationship" did not seem to necessarily tune in with the dichotomy offered in the previous ones. The presenter mentioned interesting dating habits and styles of Koreans (not Asians): why girls make whining sounds and act cute when dating, why men pay everything, why people dress up, and so forth. During the presentations, audiences placed various refutations and comments over these presenters. One student argued that these presenters did not consider language factors. According to him, when Koreans say, "I can’t do this because I am busy," this carries more serious implications than when Americans say so. Americans have a habit of saying "I am busy" too easily. Also another student pointed out that people need to see facial expressions when a Japanese person uses expressions such as "Chotto (i.e. Well)……," which gains full meaning only when we add to it the facial expressions and intonations of the speaker. Likewise, people in different age groups cannot be friends in Asia since people have different word usages matching age difference. The English language allows people to become friends easily with someone in a different age group due to its grammar. Thus, different languages bring about different communication styles and affect relationships. Regarding personal spaces, someone argued that "it is not always true that all Asians do not say sorry when bumping into others. Japanese people say sorry every time they block others." Another person ventured a sociological analysis: "Seoul is a very crowded city where people do not have enough time to care about other pedestrians on a busy street. This goes same for the city like New York." Aside from this, someone made a rather surprising claim about the influence of American media: "American sitcoms made Korean girls more dependent on men by making them whine like Rachel in Friends. This habit basically does not come from Asian’s high-context setting. It is a bad influence from the West, I say." The presentations and discussions were exchanged in a most friendly and open atmosphere. The presenters and other participants said that it was a very helpful session to dissolve cultural prejudices and promote mutual understandings with one another.