[Korean Culture & Language] Giving up for others

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Being selfless (이타주의) and giving up something for others (양보) have always been regarded as an important virtue in Korea. There are many folktales that are about ‘양보(giving up for someone),’ and one of them is ‘형님 먼저, 아우 먼저 (Older brother first, Little brother first)’. It’s a story about two altruistic brothers.

The brothers who work harder than anyone else in the village was sharing the grain they have raised together. They insisted that the other should take more. “My little brother recently got married, so I’m sure he needs a lot of stuff,’ the older brother thought as he returned home. He brought a bundle of grain stalks and sneaked into his younger brother’s backyard to put them on the heap of rice straws.

The younger brother also thought to himself, ‘My older brother has a large family to feed. Matter of fact, he has to feed our parents as well.’. He sneaked into his older brother’s yard with a bundle of grain stalks and placed it on his brother’s pile of rice straws. 

They woke up in the morning and found that they both had the same amount of grain stalks in their yards even though they have given some away. They did the same the following night and the night after that. One night, they spotted each other in the moonlight. “It was you who brought more rice!” They hugged each other. The moon smiled brightly behind them’.


This is such a heart-warming story. Both brothers wanted that the other take more grain than they did. 

Unfortunately, as a result of the cultural shift, there are now more self-centered(자기중심적) people than altruistic people today.

I’ll cover the characteristics of self-centered(자기중심적인) people in Korea in the upcoming post.

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