The REAL Difference Between Chinese, Korean & Japanese People

It's not about like coupons. It's about respect. Japanese system, it kind of looks like a lot of the characters could be written with a sword. Oh, yeah, let's deconstruct the word and let's come up with a poetic meaning. Koreans are considered the hottest. Can you tell the difference between a Japanese, Korean and a Chinese person by just looking at their face? Well, maybe you will after this video. Welcome everybody to the hot pot boys, David and Andrew here. We're going to be reacting to different YouTube videos that are attempting to break down the language, the facial feature and the cultural differences between the main East Asian groups that often get confused for each other. Yeah, I mean, I think this is a funny topic that a lot of people have this, you know, this discussion amongst their friends, but they are not having it on an analytical level. I think, you know, sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's offensive, but I think we can all agree that it's always interesting and fun. So make sure you like, subscribe, turn on your notifications and let's get into the first clip. Hello everyone, this is Kaiba. When I travel abroad, one of the most frequent questions that I receive is, are you Japanese? So today I'll tell you the characteristics of Japanese. This is a method to recognize Japanese at a glance. So this was when a flight attendant spilled drinks on Korean, Japanese and Chinese passengers. Korean passenger loses his temper. He accepts apology and a moment later, he apologizes to the flight attendant saying, I'm sorry for getting angry at you just a while ago. And it's over. In case of Japanese passenger, they smile and say, Oh, no problem. No worries. They smile. And a week later, a complaint letter is sent to the airline company. Chinese passenger. They get furious and yell. They murmur their complaints in loud voice. And in small voice, they ask for the first class seat. They take the first class to their destination. Yo, this is a pretty funny way to talk about like cultural and behavioral patterns that are different. It's just like in situation X, how does a Japanese, Korean or Chinese person react differently? Dude, this was so clear. I mean, it kind of did fall in line with the typical stereotypes that we all believe about each other, or at least the more traditional version of ourselves. Like Koreans have extreme emotional swings, right? They're very temperamental, but they can cool off and feel a lot of guilt. Japanese people, they're very, very polite to you, but you don't always know how exactly they feel about you. And I think this applies more to Japanese from Japan, of course, not really Japanese Americans as much. And then obviously Chinese, they will make a fuss out of things. They do feel anger, but they can be calmed down if you compensate them with something of money value. Oh man, I'm not going to lie. I remember one time we went on a church trip and somebody in our church group got mistreated, possibly because they were Asian at this hotel because nobody wanted to deal with them because they didn't have English as their first language. And I remember they were so mad that it was like pretty much kind of racist or prejudice against them. But then the manager came through with like five buffet coupons that was worth like a 125. And it was just like all good. David, a lot of people also say, and I kind of agree that like Northeastern Chinese people, Dongbei Chinese people, and then Mongolians and Koreans often do share this kind of like emotional, like temperamental background, which can be fun and fiery and good and bad in different ways. But why do you think that that is? Like, why do you think they share that? To be honest, I think there's a lot of nomadic tradition. And that was sort of like the way of life of people who are like moving around and herding animals and stuff like that. But I will say that even in America, there's different like regional sort of like attitude patterns. Like there's a lot of white people in Boston. There's a lot of white people in Seattle. But how come everybody in Boston is so aggressive and everybody in Seattle is so passive aggressive, even though it's on the same latitude? Why is everybody in Texas so proud of being in Texas? Don't mess with the Lone Star State. I'll tell you what, I'll blow a hole through your chest, boy. You know, who knows? Why are these ways the way they are? I mean, for sure there is a reason. I will say this, Andrew. If a Korean was as mad as that Chinese guy was in our group and the manager was just like, uh, here's some buffet coupons. They might be like, no, it's not about like coupons. It's about respect. You have to respect me. Like they might've been like, nah, like I'm not rocking with it. You like violated my honor, you know? And then like we said, you know, the Japanese person, they might be like, hmm, the treatment was okay. But then literally they're gonna like write a letter and try to take down the whole thing. And why do I think that Chinese people are so impacted by getting money? It's because I think Chinese value making money and having money so much that when you give them money for an apology, they actually accept it because they understand money is the one thing that they would not wanna give you. There is actually a saying in China, and I'm sure there's sayings in Korea and Japan about the differences between all the Asians, but there's one from China that says, Japanese people love work. Koreans love their country and their people. And Chinese love money. And I'm not gonna lie, guys, Japanese do love their work and they love being artisanal about artsy things, man. They love art. Chinese f***ing love money. Chinese people f***ing love money. So mainly today we're gonna be talking about differences between Korean, Chinese, Japanese, but we found this infographic online and we're just talking about face shapes. Right. Purely appearance. And I think this is very true. Stronger defined jaw lines. Oh yeah, that's true. Single eyelids. Kind of pouty lips. Yeah, that's what they like. A very pouty, small lip. And also the eyebrows. I find a lot of Koreans, they like the big, straight, prominent eyebrows. And you see a lot of celebrities go for that look as well. Whereas Chinese, I think it's not as pronounced. It's subtle because they're very fair. Whereas Chinese, you do have a split. I find a lot of them when I went to Japan, their teeth, it's almost always crooked. Yeah, actually Mike and I did a video about that. It's called Yeba Teeth. These clips revolve around the physical differences between Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese people. Obviously, we're talking about looks-based things. This is the most basic visceral thing that an average person can understand. I think when you talk about climate and geography and Korea's made out of granite and Japan's made out of lava and sulfur, these things are very grad school to wrap your mind around. But even a child can see that different people just look different. So I would say that this chart that they came up with and also this one picture that you can find on the internet that is trying to talk about the differences, it does fall in line with the stereotype. Obviously, right now, Koreans are considered the hottest, right? I don't know, they're considered the best looking. Now, that is partially because of plastic surgery but also partially maybe because they find the hottest actors and partially maybe because they do have certain features that are considered attractive as well, right? But I do think that this topic can get sensitive, obviously, when there comes to this feeling of feeling inferior looks-wise. If you're gonna say Chinese have the round face and then Japanese have the thin face, are we saying that all Japanese are better looking, right? I mean, definitely, the truth is in a media sense, Japan and now more recently in the past 15 years, Korea has had a way more soft power looks advantage over Chinese people. And the truth is, Chinese people are the most populous people on earth. They're mixed with like 100 different tribes, so there's incredible variability in the way they could look and they don't care about looks as much culturally, like we said earlier, tend to more just care about money and just like accomplishments rather than sort of like this whole package type thing. And I just think that that creates the perception that Chinese people are not as good looking on an average basis. And whether that's true or not, the situation is completely different, like we said, because Korea, oftentimes, Andrew, is theorized to come from one tribe of Yayoi people, literally one tribe created Korea. Japan is primarily comprised of three tribes of people, you know, sort of like a Southeast Asian, Guamanian, Okinawan look, sort of like an Asian-y Asian-y look and almost, I knew that almost looked like kind of part Western, like Russian-y from Japan, you know what I mean? So it's like, China's literally made up of like 100 different tribes, so you're just gonna see like every look. Yeah, I think in most Asians that you meet in your life are going to be Chinese, so you're gonna meet some very attractive ones and then maybe some not as attractive. And I don't think Chinese value looks as much because I think the whole wave of Korean media would push people to kind of think about it more. Plus, they also running the beauty skincare product game. So obviously, they care about looks the most. So if you grow up as a kid, caring about your looks more than another kid, what are the chances that you grow up to become a little bit better looking? I guess it makes some sense. Yeah, I mean, wherever you put your focus in your work is where you see the progress. I will say there's something that's really interesting about China is that a lot of Chinese people in the Guangdong region, they can be mixed with Taika Dai or Southeast Asian. In the Western region, they could almost be mixed with like Arabic or Indian people. In the Northern region, they could be mixed with like Mongolian, you know, Turkish. There's so many different looks in China, you wouldn't believe it. However, for the longest time, Andrew, it was mostly people from Southern China immigrating to America for like 100 or 200 years. So really now you're starting to meet all these people from all these crazy regions that are mixed with like all these different things, but they're all Chinese. All right, you guys, now we are getting into the language section, both on a spoken and written level. There's a way you can tell Asians apart from other Asians. It's by their accent and only if they have accents. Hi, I'm Heejae from Korea. Hi, I'm Jane from China. Hi, I'm Kotoha from Japan. Korean, Gucci. Japanese, Gucci. That's cuter. Chinese, Gucci. It's pretty much the same. I think they use the tongue a lot in China. Yes, that's right. There's an accent that's twisted. Korean, Michael Jackson. Japanese, Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson. All right, you guys, this clip kind of shows how Japan and Korea actually use a lot more English loan words due to them having like an alphabetic system whereas Chinese try to translate the meaning. So for example, Andrew, popcorn is bao hua in Chinese. Bao hua obviously does not sound anything like popcorn. It means bursted flower, which kind of sounds like nice and poetic in a way. Computer is actually dian nao, which is electric brain. Also a very interesting way of framing something that is modern using old words. I saw this one comment that actually made me laugh and it was like, Koreans, oh yeah, let's just say this the Korean way. And then it's like Japanese are like, oh, okay, we have to say this word the Japanese way. And then the Chinese are like, oh yeah, let's deconstruct the word and let's come up with a poetic meaning that can reflect its actual figurative definition. So it's a completely different word. And I thought that that was so funny because obviously Chinese do have some loan words, but there's not that many. And when they do come up with new words for modern things, it like sounds completely different. And it has like some crazy like poetic meaning to it. Yeah, I mean, long story short, guys, China is the last, I believe, purely pictographic language left on earth. So it's almost like hieroglyphics, to be honest. You know what I think would be interesting to get into in a later video, not this one, is all the loan words that all the East Asian countries share. I do think both ways, but for the most part, mostly from China. So I think that that would be really interesting because I believe Andrew, 49% of Japan's vocabulary actually came from China. Yeah, but however, if you almost go based off of a usual, regular everyday conversation, whether it's in Korean or Japanese, it's gonna be primarily their own language. But sometimes when you go up to the tier of like college level or like certain terms, law and technical stuff, it becomes more Chinese. All right, you guys, let's get into the way that different languages are written because I could see this being confusing for some people. Boom, as you can see, Korean language uses a lot of circles and angles. It almost looks like in a weird way, maybe you're trying to draw little robot faces. Or crop circles. Or crop circles, yes. Japanese looks like almost kind of hipster and artistic because it's got a mixture of rigid characters, Chinese characters, the kanji in there, as well as the katakana and the hirakana. So you got all types of stuff going on in the Japanese system. Yeah, I think the Japanese system, it kind of looks like a lot of the characters could be written with a sword, Bushido blade. Anyway, and last but not least, Andrew, especially the traditional Chinese characters, they look hyper complex and they just look like little game characters or little maps or little photographs or little paintings. Like alien invaders, that video game. Yeah, they could look like they're shooting lasers. All right, you guys, that was actually a pretty fun like 101 class. I think you can really get into the food. Do Koreans like kimchi the most? Obviously they do. Do Japanese like sushi the most? Obviously they do. Do Chinese like dumplings the most? Obviously they do. But, you know, this video was not about like the food. I think it was really funny to get into quick anecdotes about behavior, look, and then language. I think one of the most beautiful things is not pretending like we're all the same, but accepting the differences and appreciating each other for it. And I would like to think that that's like the place that we can get to as East Asian Americans, perhaps, or whatever these, you know, there's always these hierarchies and everybody's trying to play these games. I get it, I get it, I get it, of course, right? You always want to rank the highest. Who doesn't, right? That's your incentive. But I just think ultimately, like, have more of these conversations, talk about these things, joke about them, don't judge each other. Yes, some of them are kind of true. Yes, some of them are kind of not true. But you know what? Like, hey, to break stereotypes, you got to know the stereotype first. Yeah, and I think that obviously we are American so you could say, well, how much do I want to understand these? Well, you don't have to. You could just see yourself as an American. But I do think to truly get to the root and get to a point where everybody can, like, legitimately support each other, we actually have to understand our differences and almost like get over it and like burn that candle out. And yeah, I just think it's fun to talk about, man. All right, everybody, we're going to leave it right there. Please let us know in the comments down below. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of comments, a lot of research comments, probably going to throw some statistics out there. There's going to be some nationalistic comments. Always, I find them entertaining. So please let us know in the comments down below what you think about these differences. What are some other ways that you would describe the difference between Japanese, Chinese, and Korean people? Hit that like button, click subscribe, and check out other episodes of The Hot Pot, boys. And until next time, we out. Peace!