Post by Bozur on Jan 13, 2006 1:17:36 GMT -5
South Korea's New Economic Plan Starts With a Laugh
By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: December 30, 2005
SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 29 - At 7 p.m. in a packed fourth-floor auditorium overlooking a street clogged with people heading home, hundreds of South Korean workers, many still in uniform, take their seats for an after-work class.
Within minutes, they are screaming and guffawing.
"Laughter makes you feel good," the instructor, Joseph Lee, tells the students - 300 postal workers in the Kwangjin district of Seoul. "If you feel good, it helps you make your customers feel good. So laugh until your back breaks, until your stomach muscles cramp and until your belly button pops out."
In South Korea, where looking cool has often meant looking serious, people are learning the value of a good laugh. In a country where smiling has traditionally been frowned upon, some people now consider laughter a business skill that is increasingly necessary as customers demand better service.
"Our people have difficulty laughing," Mr. Lee said, noting that centuries of Confucianism had taught Koreans to value the solemn more than the funny. Traditionally, the men considered most attractive were humorless and stern, women were taught not to laugh at matchmaking sessions or they would risk never giving birth to a boy and children were told that laughing too much "drives away good luck."
In modern times, South Koreans have had to cope with a grim social mood set by war, decades of dictatorial rule and a headlong rush toward industrialization.
But that mood is changing now, in part because of the popularity of laugh therapy.
In recreational classes offered by local governments and hospitals, instructors preach the healthful effects of hearty laughter. They cite studies that claim that laughter can stimulate the respiratory system and blood circulation, ease the pain of arthritis and prevent everything from the common cold to cancer.
But there are also business incentives. The national postal service is among the public corporations that are realizing the value of laughter. Although the postal service was once a monopoly, it now faces competitors in the parcel delivery service. In the Kwangjin Post Office, a brochure tells the office's 500 employees to smile at least once an hour, whether there is a reason to or not.
The interest in laughing classes is partly a response to the economic slump, said Han Kwang Il, director of the Korea Laughter Center, who gives 15 lectures a week. "People want to blow away their economic gloom with gut-busting laughter," he said. "But they don't know how to laugh and where to laugh."
Park Dong Sun, director of a laughter therapy center, Hahaha Korea, said that smiling faces would go a long way toward making South Koreans more likable overseas.
"To people who don't know our manners, South Koreans' rigid look could be taken as an insult," Mr. Park said. "The next big jump in our economic growth will come when our people start laughing more."
Many postal workers said they found their company's laughing campaign inspiring. "In my photo album, I could see that the older I become, the less smiling I was," said Ko Ae Ran, looking flushed after a session. "This laughing therapy really is changing my outlook on life. I feel a new energy flowing through my body."
Mr. Lee said that as South Koreans aged, laughter declined. Surveys show that an average Korean spends the equivalent of 88 days laughing during a lifetime, and that about 70 to 80 percent of the laughter occurs before age 20.
But Mr. Lee believes South Koreans have great potential.
"Once they begin laughing, they are uncontrollable," he said. "They really roll on the floor. They just don't know how to begin."
By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: December 30, 2005
SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 29 - At 7 p.m. in a packed fourth-floor auditorium overlooking a street clogged with people heading home, hundreds of South Korean workers, many still in uniform, take their seats for an after-work class.
Within minutes, they are screaming and guffawing.
"Laughter makes you feel good," the instructor, Joseph Lee, tells the students - 300 postal workers in the Kwangjin district of Seoul. "If you feel good, it helps you make your customers feel good. So laugh until your back breaks, until your stomach muscles cramp and until your belly button pops out."
In South Korea, where looking cool has often meant looking serious, people are learning the value of a good laugh. In a country where smiling has traditionally been frowned upon, some people now consider laughter a business skill that is increasingly necessary as customers demand better service.
"Our people have difficulty laughing," Mr. Lee said, noting that centuries of Confucianism had taught Koreans to value the solemn more than the funny. Traditionally, the men considered most attractive were humorless and stern, women were taught not to laugh at matchmaking sessions or they would risk never giving birth to a boy and children were told that laughing too much "drives away good luck."
In modern times, South Koreans have had to cope with a grim social mood set by war, decades of dictatorial rule and a headlong rush toward industrialization.
But that mood is changing now, in part because of the popularity of laugh therapy.
In recreational classes offered by local governments and hospitals, instructors preach the healthful effects of hearty laughter. They cite studies that claim that laughter can stimulate the respiratory system and blood circulation, ease the pain of arthritis and prevent everything from the common cold to cancer.
But there are also business incentives. The national postal service is among the public corporations that are realizing the value of laughter. Although the postal service was once a monopoly, it now faces competitors in the parcel delivery service. In the Kwangjin Post Office, a brochure tells the office's 500 employees to smile at least once an hour, whether there is a reason to or not.
The interest in laughing classes is partly a response to the economic slump, said Han Kwang Il, director of the Korea Laughter Center, who gives 15 lectures a week. "People want to blow away their economic gloom with gut-busting laughter," he said. "But they don't know how to laugh and where to laugh."
Park Dong Sun, director of a laughter therapy center, Hahaha Korea, said that smiling faces would go a long way toward making South Koreans more likable overseas.
"To people who don't know our manners, South Koreans' rigid look could be taken as an insult," Mr. Park said. "The next big jump in our economic growth will come when our people start laughing more."
Many postal workers said they found their company's laughing campaign inspiring. "In my photo album, I could see that the older I become, the less smiling I was," said Ko Ae Ran, looking flushed after a session. "This laughing therapy really is changing my outlook on life. I feel a new energy flowing through my body."
Mr. Lee said that as South Koreans aged, laughter declined. Surveys show that an average Korean spends the equivalent of 88 days laughing during a lifetime, and that about 70 to 80 percent of the laughter occurs before age 20.
But Mr. Lee believes South Koreans have great potential.
"Once they begin laughing, they are uncontrollable," he said. "They really roll on the floor. They just don't know how to begin."