Book review ‘The Power of Nunchi’

This time, I’ll explain a little bit what’s in Euny Hong’s book The Power of Nunchi.

Nunchi is an emotional intelligence that can be learned by everyone. This ability will help you in reading situations and trying to understand what others think and feel.

Nunchi has been used by Koreans for 5000 years

1. What is Nunchi?

Some sources say that South Korea has been attacked 800 times in history. The countries that often attack are Japan and China because of its strategic location. More than 70 years ago after the Korean war, South Korea was among the poorest countries in the world even poorer than most countries on the African continent. Worse, South Korea has no natural resources at all. But now, South Korea ranks among the richest countries in the world and belongs to a country with highly advanced technology. South Korea is the country that produces the world’s largest semi-conductor and smartphone machines. It’s all because of Nunchi.

Nunchi is how South Koreans read other people’s minds. Nunchi is also a soft skill that aims to measure the thoughts, feelings and needs of others. Children learn Nunchi since they were young. In fact, when he was 3 years old. Usually they learn in a negative context. For example, if everyone is standing on the right when in the escalator and the child is standing on the left, his parents immediately scold the child, “why don’t you have a nunchi?”. This can mean two things, first, the thing of learning to be polite and on the other hand learning to mingle in the surrounding environment.

Having a strong Nunchi means you are always conscious in paying attention to words, situations, gestures, facial expressions and so on. This is very important in South Korea which is a society with a high context. Many communications are not based on words, but, in an overall context of many factors. Starting from body language, facial expressions, traditions, who attends and even who is silent. In South Korea what is not said is as important as the words spoken. And people who pay attention to just words get half of the messages they want to convey. This doesn’t mean you only need Nunchi in South Korea. Even many at meetings are important. More and more important information is not disclosed plainly and honestly. So, your Nunchi sensibility will be of great help in that situation.

2. Why is Nunchi important?

Why do your friends have the skills to hang out and be able to dilute the atmosphere? Or why your coworkers, judging by their actual performance, are no better than you. But, why do these coworkers get promotions more often?. It turns out that the common thread of the person is a soft skill called Nunchi. This is one of the skills that can help you in life in the community. Interestingly, South Koreans don’t say, “if you have a good Nunchi”, but, “you have a fast Nunchi”. This means that you are a responsive person in processing dynamic social information changes. The advantage is that they will easily blend in and connect with others. besides, they won’t seem to know anything or look incompetent. If you have a fast Nunchi, you’ll know when you’re going to talk, when to shut up, and so on. The point is, you’re going to try not to offend anyone else.

Nunchi can be learned. But this skill can’t be learned overnight. This is an exercise that must be run continuously.

There’s something interesting about the education system here in South Korea. Eun tells me that when she used to go to school, students were not given the opportunity to ask questions in class. The teacher deliberately gave the students less clear information about the equipment to be taken to the school and where the exam would be conducted. All these mysteries aim to train nunchi as part of education. Through Nunchi’s training, students are forced to be sensitive to their surroundings. Surely it will help them in the future. One example is reading the situation. For example, you just got in a new workplace. Then you’re invited to an office party. When you’re there, you see some people getting together and chatting. In the middle of the conversation, they all laugh at jokes that aren’t actually funny, but they’re made by an older woman and you’ve never seen her before. So, what are you going to do? If you have a fast Nunchi, then you’ll be in that group of people and laugh. After that you will find time to introduce yourself in front of the woman.

Until here book review from me, hopefully this information is useful.