Presenting virtues in Asian contexts

Tho, Naykham, Seung Hu Jung and Jongsoo Kim
Group discussion

We think that these tasks should be started from family and community.

In Korean culture, these tasks start from family. However, parents have a difficulty to communicate with the young since young people do not like the one way communication. Also, young people do not want to reveal their own secret to their parents. So we think that communication between parents and the young is difficult due to our culture.

It can be approached by providing counselor to help young people. Also, Sunday school is a good opportunity for teachers and pastors to sit and listen to the young stories. Adults need to build up the relationship with the young by sharing and spending time with them in order to understand their interest and talk to them about virtue and holiness.

Living and experiencing between the two cultures American and Asian, we, as educators, need to build a bridge for young people to understand and help them to adjust between the two cultures. We should listen to young people in order to know them better so that we are able to understand their background and where they are from. This is a way that we can help them to discover their virtue and holiness.

India is patriarchal system. It is also a problem that this system support authority that is only one way communication such as when parents talk, children listen. Parents and teachers or adults have never educated the young about sex. They always keep secrets from the young. However, they learn from Western culture that parents and teachers should educate the young regarding sex. But it is difficult because other religious culture (Hindu, Muslim, etc.) do not allow them to do so.