nunchi
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unchi is known as the Korean
superpower. Some people even
go so far as to say it’s how
Korean people can read minds- though there’s nothing
supernatural about it! Nunchi is the art of
instantly understanding what people are
thinking and feeling, in order to improve your
relationships in life. Having great nunchi
means continuously recalibrating your
assumptions based on any new word,
gesture or facial expression, so that you
are always present and aware. Speed is
paramount to nunchi; in fact, if someone
is highly skilled at nunchi, Koreans don’t
say they have ‘good’ nunchi, they say they
have ‘quick’ nunchi.
In the short term, nunchi will save you
from social embarrassment – you can’t make
a faux pas if you’ve read the room correctly.
In the long term, nunchi will make the
waters part for you.
The guiding principal of South
Korean life, improving your nunchi
will help you develop deeper
and more fruitful connections,
explains Euny HongNunchi is woven throughout all aspects of
Korean society. Korean parents teach their
children about the importance of nunchi from
a very young age and it is a daily part of life.
This is because Korean culture is what is
known as ‘high context’, which is to say that
a great deal of communication is based not
on words, but on countless other factors:
body language, facial expressions, tradition,
and even silence.
In Korea, what is not being said is every
bit as important as the words that are
spoken, and a person who pays attention
merely to the words is only getting half the
story. But this in no way means that you
need nunchi only in Korea. Even in the West,
life is full of high context scenarios.
And why should you care about what
vibes you are transmitting? It is best
expressed in a saying often attributed to
Maya Angelou: “I’ve learned that people
will forget what you said, people will forget
what you did, but people will never forget
how you made them feel.”