Introduction

Korea is a region that is found in the eastern part of Asia and is divided into two parts namely the northern and southern Korea. Their main speaking language is the Korean language, and there are 80 million speakers of the language worldwide (Kim, O’Grady, & Schwartz, 2018). Mexico, on the other hand, is a country that is found in the middle of the United States and South America. Mexicans speak in Spanish and are the second largest Spanish speaking countries in the world. There are over 500 different dialects in Mexico and this account to the number of ethnic groups too. Both Mexico and Korea have their heritage and beliefs which contribute to the health care approach to diseases.

Korean and Mexican people heritage and their similarity

Korean people have their beliefs, and they believe in the respecting of the older and seniors. This respect is shown whereby people don’t address the elderly while looking directly into their eyes. On the other hand, the Mexicans have respect for their superiors too, and this is similar to the Koreans where they don’t address them with the direct contact of the eyes (Elias‐Juarez, & Knudson‐Martin, 2017). Another similarity between the two communities is that they follow the roles and gender responsibilities. Men are regarded as the heads of the families, and the women are expected to stay at home and take care of their children. In the naming of children, they are given the first name while the last name is always the surname in both communities. Gays and lesbians are highly disregarded, and they are not part of both communities.

Healthcare Beliefs and Their Influence

Both the Korean and the Mexican heritage have their beliefs towards the issue of health, and they influence the delivery of evidence-based health care. In the Mexican communities, the eating of natural foods is highly regarded, and many of the women and children are fat and have weight. This on one side is positive since their bodies get immunity to fight diseases while on the other side diseases like obesity are prone among them. The Korean people are prone to calcium deficiencies because most of their meals contain rice which is the most available food amongst the Korean communities (Kim, O’Grady, & Schwartz, 2018). In the Korean culture Touch in the realm of health care is readily accepted. With these beliefs, a clinician would be in the best position to understand how to use evidence-based health care to approach the sick people among the communities.

Customs among the communities on how to cure diseases

Korean people also believe that the medicine to a common cold is the mixture of cold soup made from bean sprouts garlic and other hot spices. Koreans also believe in the use of herbal medicine to the cure of some diseases. Examples of some herbal medicine include ginseng, seaweed soup, and haigefen (clamshell powder). They are used to cure diseases such as muscle pains and fatigue among the community members. In the Mexican heritage, the members go for the over the counter drugs but if there is a persistent in the conditions that’s when they tend to seek the western medications. To the Mexicans, they also do not cut the nails of their newly born young ones until they attain the age of three months. With this, they believe that if they cut their nails, the child is in the risk of becoming blind or becoming deaf (Elias‐Juarez, & Knudson‐Martin, 2017). To a pregnant woman, they are not permitted to walk outside in the moonlight during the nine months of carrying the baby. This they argue that helps to prevent the woman from issues of deformity and miscarriages.

Conclusions

Communities around the world have their own cultural beliefs and heritages that they follow and that they use to identify themselves using. The Korean community and the Mexican community are examples of those communities and have some rich cultural beliefs too. These beliefs contribute a higher percentage of how they receive health care services to the community members. Some of the beliefs are old fashioned and might be overtaken by the modern ways of health care delivery. Lastly, it is essential for communities with rich cultures to invest in them and avoid the alienation by the modern ways of doing things.

References

Kim, K., O’Grady, W., & Schwartz, B. D. (2018). Case in heritage Korean. Linguistic      Approaches to Bilingualism, 8(2), 252-282.

Elias‐Juarez, M. A., & Knudson‐Martin, C. (2017). Cultural attunement in therapy with    Mexican‐heritage couples: A grounded theory analysis of client and therapist  experience. Journal of marital and family therapy, 43(1), 100-114.