In yesterday's editorial in Helsingin Sanomat the matter of new UN secretary was covered. What stick into my mind was that the name of the new secretary: Ban Ki-moon, foreign minister of republic of Korea. In the editorial he was all the time referred as Mr. Ban. I was thinking that if that was wrong - why is he called by his first name? We dont talk about George Bush just as a George, do we? Well then all came clear to me thanks to my clever live-in girlfriend (what a concept ,eh?) and UN webpages. Names follow different logic in Korea. First name is the name we see in the papers--but how does his family call him? Is it like - "Ki-moon, please take the carbage out". And guys in the bar call him - "Hey mooney, let's have another round"? or What?
I think this is actually good example of how we project our own ideas and thoughts to the other culture when we try to, or we dont try to understand it - and we can go really wrong doing that. Other good example is Iraq - what happened after this kind of projection? - I think "western" culture never did even try to understand Iraqi culture before all the actions taken.
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