About saving face

In Korea, image is very important. That definitely includes personal image. What is interesting is learning about "saving face" which I've heard a lot about.

I've observed a very real, yet somewhat insignificant in the big scheme of things, example of this.

On a recent car trip with some Korean folks who may or may not be my in-laws, the person driving made a bit of a driving error because he wasn't paying attention. The driver of another car who was not impressed with this, gave a big ol' honk and surprised us all into realizing that perhaps we should have stopped for that red light!

Anyhow, a minute after, the female companion of the driver started talking about something and anything in order to distract us from the fact that a mistake had been made.

I noticed this on a couple of other similar occassions, and now I realize that it was just to "save face" and avoid the embarrassment of the situation. To be honest, I find the obvious and sudden change of subject to be more embarrassing than the initial offence.

I would not say that Westerners are immune to this type of thing, but it seemed a bit more glaring once I noticed it.

Just a good example of what is a priority for Koreans, and how we may differ, and yet are much the same.