The Power of Nunchi Book Summary - The Power of Nunchi Book explained in key points

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The Power of Nunchi summary

Name: The Power of Nunchi
Rating: 4.3 (134 reviews)
Author: Euny Hong

Euny Hong

The Korean Secret to Happiness and Success

4.3 (134 ratings)

22 mins

Table of Contents

The Power of Nunchi
summarized in 8 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Learn how to connect with others.

Knowing how to read other people’s thoughts and emotions has huge benefits. If you can figure out the challenges your boss is facing without asking, you’re more likely to build a positive working relationship with her. Likewise, if you can guess what that guy with the lovely dimples you keep bumping into is thinking, you might be able to initiate a friendship and – who knows? – then maybe something more.

Nunchi is a form of emotional intelligence that can serve you in all spheres of life. By teaching you how to pay attention and glean information from observing others, it’ll pave the way for you to build rich and satisfying connections. In doing so, it’ll take your professional and personal life to a whole new level.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how to pay attention and learn about those around you;
how to create a good first impression; and
how to influence your colleagues at work.

Nunchi is the subtle Korean art of reading other people’s thoughts and moods in order to build trust, harmony and connection.

Suppose you’ve just started a new job. You’ve been invited to a work party, and you want to make a great impression. You walk into the room and notice that everyone is laughing at a not-particularly-funny joke made by an older woman you’ve never seen before. What do you do in this case?

If you have good nunchi, you might guess that the woman telling the joke is important, and quite probably the boss – after all, everyone around her is laughing at her bad joke. You’d then find the first tactful moment to introduce yourself to her.

Nunchi – the Korean art of gauging other people’s thoughts and moods from their behavior – is key to navigating complex social situations. In Korean, the word nunchi literally means “eye-measure.” It’s the ability to see or sense what is around you and to constantly recalibrate your assumptions based on changes in your environment.

A key aspect of social life in Korea, nunchi is an art that developed out of that country’s unique history. Korea lies at the crossroads of the two Asian superpowers, China and Japan, and it has been invaded as many as 800 times. Yet despite this tumultuous history, Korea has not only survived, it has thrived. How? Through the art of nunchi. Korea was too small to fight these large invading empires, so it had to accommodate and work around them. When their country was colonized by the Japanese from 1919 to 1945, for instance, Koreans had to walk a fine line between appeasing their Japanese overlords and protecting themselves and their culture by tactfully preserving Korean newspapers, non-Japanese religions and Korean instruction in schools.

Because of its important contribution to Korean history and culture, nunchi is celebrated in the country’s folk tales – such as the one about the sixteenth-century “Korean Robin Hood” Hong Gildong. Hong used his nunchi to overcome an assassination attempt, overthrow a king, and then become king himself.

But just because nunchi has its roots in Korean culture doesn’t mean that it isn’t applicable in other contexts. In any culture, nunchi can help you choose the right romantic or business partner, help you advance at work, and protect you from people who might want to pull you down. Indeed, Jeohong Heo, professor of psychology at Kyungpook National University in Korea, found that people who scored high for nunchi skills also had higher senses of self-esteem and satisfaction with life.

So, to lead a happier life, consider embracing the subtle power of nunchi.

The key unit of nunchi is the room.

How do you define a room? Well, it’s an enclosed space that’s surrounded by walls and a roof. It probably has a door, and maybe a window or two. But a room is much more than a physical space – it’s also a social space.

When it comes to applying nunchi in daily life, the room is the key unit. In other words, the object of your observation shouldn’t be just one person – it should be the entire room and how everyone is interacting within it.

Mastering nunchi requires embracing the values of collectivism, “roundness,” and understanding.

If a Korean child is standing in line with her mother waiting for a buffet and she complains, “I’m hungry!” her mother is likely to respond, “Are you the only person in the world?”

In Korea, this is a common parental retort to children who express impatience. It’s a chastisement that expresses the importance of collectivism, a value at the heart of Korean culture, and of nunchi. In collectivism, no man or woman is an island. Each person is part of a larger group and must act accordingly, just as bees act in concert to sustain their beehive.

The practice of “stilling” – paying mindful attention to what others are doing and saying – is key to nunchi etiquette.

It’s rush hour. You’re standing on a subway platform as the train pulls in. You quickly scan the train cars and notice that while almost all are crowded, one is completely empty. Something’s up; that car probably smells bad. Even though there are plenty of available seats in there, you skip it and hop into the next, more crowded car.

In this situation, even though you’re surrounded by the hubbub and noise of rush hour, you engage in stilling – that is, you pay close attention to your environment and the people in it.

Nunchi helps you hone your first impressions of people and create a good first impression yourself.

Sherlock Holmes, the Victorian-era detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is a master of first impressions. At his very first meeting with Dr. John Watson, who goes on to become his sleuthing partner, Holmes notices Watson’s tan and his haggard face, as well as the awkward way he holds his arm. Based on these physical details, he correctly guesses that Watson has recently served as an army doctor in Afghanistan.

We can’t all be as clever as Sherlock Holmes, inferring such precise facts about other people from just a first impression. However, nunchi can help us hone our ability to read people we’ve just met and make better judgments about who they are.

By highlighting the importance of indirect communication, nunchi helps you cultivate smoother social relationships.

Say you’re a teenager with something really big to ask your parents. Maybe you want to get permission to sleep over at your best friend’s house or attend a concert with your friends.

You’ll probably think very hard about when it would be best to ask for what you want. You might know that asking mom before her morning coffee – when she’s tired and irritable – is not the best time. Or that dad is more likely to say yes while he’s watching his favorite sitcom in the evening.

Nunchi is essential for helping you read your workplace accurately so that you can move ahead in your career.

You know that person in the office who’s climbed up the career ladder much farther than you think she should have? She may be competent, but she’s not exceptional, and yet she gets ahead. How? It’s not because she has some special connection to the boss. She gets ahead because she has really good nunchi; if you want to get ahead at work too, you need to watch and learn from her.

That’s because the office is not a transparent environment. In fact, it’s the epicenter of indirect communication and doublespeak. It’s for this reason that nunchi is such a useful tool for navigating the office.

Nunchi gives you the tools to influence people at work.

If only you could shake a magic wand and get everything you want at work, from promotions to choice assignments. The trouble is, getting what you want largely depends on your ability to influence people both above and below you in the office hierarchy. And influencing people is not always an easy task. Thankfully, nunchi shows you the way.

The best way to influence your boss using nunchi is to figure out what he needs and then present yourself as the solution. Let’s say you want a promotion, but you know that your company is going through rough financial times; just going into your boss’s office and asking isn’t likely to work.

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What is The Power of Nunchi about?

The Power of Nunchi (2019) is an introduction to the subtle Korean art of gauging other people’s moods and thoughts in order to create trust, connection, and harmony. While nunchi has its roots in Korean culture, its lessons are applicable to contexts far beyond Korea. That’s because nunchi is a social skill that’ll empower you to read a room and understand others so that you can improve your relationships, get ahead at work, and influence people in any context and place.

Best quote from The Power of Nunchi

You learn more from listening than from speaking.

—Euny Hong

Who should read The Power of Nunchi?

Employees who want to get ahead at work
Wellness seekers who want to better connect with others
Korean culture enthusiasts

About the Author

Euny Hong is the author of the book The Birth of Korean Cool and a journalist who has written for publications such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. At the age of 12, she moved from suburban Chicago to South Korea without knowing how to speak Korean. Within a year she was at the top of her class – thanks to her mastery of nunchi.

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