▶ Your Answer :
Korea, where I grew up, had
traditionally been ruled and run based on the Confucianism until it became a
modern republican state. Therefore, people value things that are considered
high in Confucianism. Among them is a spirit of “Hyo”, which is a spirit of
loving one’s parents dearly. Even now, the spirit of “Hyo” is highly regarded
and it determines what the important qualities of a good son are. One is to study
hard and achieve success in our society and the other is to take charge of one’s
parents until they die.
To start with, you have to study hard and be
successful in order to be a good son. By studying hard and putting a lot of effort,
you have to achieve a high social and economic standing, which will make your
parents proud and fulfilling. In Korean society, people judge the parents by
their child. Therefore, when one doesn’t accomplish a high prestige, his
parents will be blamed poorly. For instance, a friend of mine didn’t manage to
go to a university due to bad scores. Instead of going to a university, she got
a job right away. Then, her parents were blamed for not navigating her in the
right way and judged poorly in the community. Hence, it is important to be
successful to make your parents appraised.
Next, you have to take charge of your parents when
you grow up. Until you become 20, your parents must have been taking care of
you with all their efforts. Therefore, it is essential for you to attend to
them after you become an adult. While raising their child, parents age and may
even get sick. Also, as they get old, most of them retire from their job, making
their economic capacity poor. Therefore, it is a taboo in our society for their
son/daughter to not take care of the parents. It is considered a taboo that it
may even show up in the News. For instance, in the yesterday newspaper, there
was a section that covered a woman who was abandoned by her daughter. The News was
apparently blaming her daughter for being so irresponsible and merciless. As
such, it is considered a must to take care of your parents when you grow up.
To sum up, in order to be
a good son/daughter, you have to achieve success in your area and you have to
take responsibility of caring your parents until they die. That has been the
vital values that are deemed high in our society since Josun dynasty.
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