Korean Habit No.2> Giving away your seat.

This is a quite common habit in Korea. Younger people giving away their seat in subways, bus to older people. I am not sure if China or Japan does this, but its a common scene in Korea. Well, at least I follow it like the bible. Its a habit that originated from "respect your elders" and Korean text books. Its kind of funny how Korea has a textbook called morals. This textbook tells you what is wrong and right. But, unfortunately not a lot of Korean students follow -.- So, that's a reason a lot of Koreans have lack of moral in life. i.e. Koreans throw garbage anywhere. Its common in other countries as well, but for Koreans they were taught not to throw garbage anywhere and yet they still fail to follow. Anyways back to the topic of giving away seats to elders. We were also taught to give away our seats to elders in this textbook. I have followed this rule every since I was in elementary school. I think I disobeyed this "law" once, because I was sick. And I do see a lot of people give their seats away as well.

Personally I really like it. It makes complete sense for me to provide elder people with the comfort because people get weak when they are old. Moreover, to balance oneself in the subway it is quite hard for older people (It kind of scares me that they will fall and hurt themselves). This is one of the proud Korean habits.

However, this Korean habit is deteriorating. The main reason I brought this up was because I was reading a post on how the elders are taking it for granted and think it is mandatory for younger generations to relinquish their seats to the elders. A lot of people with their comments to the post said that relinquishing their seats is an "option" and are angered by the "stubbornness" of elders. From personal experiences, I do seldom see elders yelling at the younger people to get out of their seats and hand it over. This is quite embarrassing. But the younger generations have disappointed me a bit as well. Its quite sad to watch a elder person struggling through their ride in the subway and buses, and the younger person on the seat just ignores the elder.

I think both sides should find a resolution, through some method. Or this tension would get bigger in the future. Hopefully, this habit is preserved until I get old -.- Can't wait until I get seats from the younger people!