The inauguration of Roh Tae Woo as president of the Sixth Republic of Korea in February 1988 can be considered as a turning point in South Korean political history. The five years of the Roh Tae Woo administration, 1988–1993, contained many of the fi rst steps, albeit sometimes transitionally imperfect, toward democracy and an ultimate return to civilian rule of law, as well as greater political freedoms. According to Samuel P. Huntington, the Korean form of democratization was an example of transplacement, in which the government made concessions and opposition political groups accepted it to avoid mutual catastrophe. Furthermore, a case can be made for the mode of democratic transition in South Korea also being like Donald Share’s transition through transaction, Terry Lynn Karl and Philippe C. Schmitter’s transition by pact, and Adam Przeworki’s democracy with guarantees.

The work discusses using digital media in the processes of communicating and developing interests by the contemporary Polish and Korean youth. The youth’s typical behaviour in cyberspace is described together with an interpretation of their behaviour on the basis of selected theories of influence of the mass media on viewers and listeners.

Culture affects our perception of self, our communication styles, and how we are educated or choose to educate the members of our society. Cultural differ- ences affect teaching and learning styles. Educational strategies and practices in Asian and Western countries seem to be in contrast with each other, like their cultures. Although both cultures recognize education as an important tool towards life and educational success, each of them has a specific view on how educational goals could be achieved. The purpose of the qualitative study was to look at how culture impacts on education of a chosen East-South Asian country as well as of a European country. The South-East Asian coun- tries, characterized as Confucian heritage cultures, have regularly topped the international league tables, such PISA, TIMMS and PIRLS, for a few years. The main subject of analysis were the culture and education of Poland and South Korea.

At work, distance learning methods have been compared in Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice (Poland) and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul (South Korea). The results of the empirical research among the academic teachers and students conducted in both universities are similar: distance learning is not satisfying for both groups and it is not effective.