There's exaggeration on both Gladwell and Ask A Korean's side. I have been living and working in Korean for the past 5 years, and have been married to my Korean

There's exaggeration on both Gladwell and Ask A Korean's side. I have been living and working in Korean for the past 5 years, and have been married to my Korean wife for 6 years. Based on the transcript that Ask A Korea posted, it's very clear that that first officer is acting deferentially to the pilot. Specifically, the first officer uses polite speech with the pilot, and the pilot uses familiar speech with the first officer. In my company, neither my manager nor my manager's manager uses familiar speech with me, I'd have to go up 3 levels for that to start happening. Also, when I described what Gladwell mentioned in his book about hierarchy to my wife, she didn't think it was exaggerated. There's likely a large grain of truth to Gladwell's representation of what happened. Also, Ask A Korean is usually fairly nationalistic in his posts, which is a common trait amongst Koreans that I have interacted with.