Korean car culture

I was talking to my students today about cars, air pollution, traffic conjestion, and social responsibility, and I was surprised (although I really don't know why) at how much of their behavior is controlled by concern for their social standing.

The general concensus in the class was that there were too many cars on the road and that the engines were far larger than needed for Seoul or Korea driving; however, one student said that his father was the head of a company and he had no choice but to buy a large fully-loaded Hyundai Grandeur (with black windows and leather seats of course), spending far more money than he wanted to for a car he didn't really need or want. The reason - his employees would want to buy nicer cars than their neighbors (thus showing how much better their jobs were), but none of the employees would have dared to buy a nicer car than the boss. So, he cleared the way for them to buy expensive cars by buying a really expensive car himself. The rest of the class acknowledged that this was pretty standard.

As a Canadian guy, I admit that, if I were living anywhere but Seoul, I would want the coolest car I could get and that it would probably be far bigger than I needed, but my biggest concern would have been whether I could afford it, not whether my car was nicer than the boss's or my neighbors'.

I'm sometimes surprised at the power of the junior/senior relationship here.