[Kim Seong-kon] A World Cup lesson: Aim before you shoot

Foreigners often point out that Koreans tend to be hasty and impatient.

Watching recent World Cup games, for example, one joked that Korean soccer players seemed to follow a strange rule: “Ready, shoot, and aim,” instead of the standard procedure, “Ready, aim, and shoot.” In foreigners’ eyes, Korean athletes were so preoccupied with scoring a goal that they impetuously kicked the ball toward the net before even aiming.

Such a unique phenomenon may be closely related to a characteristic of Korean ...