Korean Job Discussion Forums

[victrolavs]

My girlfriend and I have decided to teach in Korea and were told by one recruiter that we should essentially lie about being gay. Both of us are very feminine looking and don't dress like "stereotypical lesbians." At the same time, it really makes me feel uncomfortable having to pretend that we're "just friends."

For any of you that are working in Korea now, what are your thoughts? Do you know anyone gay? Do Koreans tend to be homophobic? Our recruiter thought that admitting to being gay could actually prevent us from getting hired. Is that true?

[bogey666]

I don't know about homophobic since 90% of their male population engages in what most Westerners would consider to be homophilic behavior.

AND (and this really had me on the floor laughing so hard, I was crying)
...... gay men on this board have admitted their gaydar in Korea is completely "off" and one guy (the guy that had me in stitches) called Korean males the biggest drama queens in history. He said it made him, a GAY MALE - "homophobic". I cried laughing until it hurt.


but of course, homosexuality doesn't officially exist in Korea (except from what we hear, gay teachers here are never short of supply of many many male "friends")

lesbianism in Korea I don't know anything about, or perceptions of it.

that said, your recruiter is right. of course it COULD prevent you from being hired. In fact, I'd bet on it.

Best to practice don't ask, don't tell, or even to be on the down low.

I think one of the posters here, politica, has stated in her posts that she's gay - you may want to pm her and ask her if she disguises that, or not.

That said, I can't imagine anyone asking about your sexual orientation in a job interview. Whether it causes "issues" later is a different story and one I'm not qualified to comment on since I'm quite straight.

All in all, I would think you'd be wise to keep your private life private and most certainly NOT display your "girlfriend/boyfriend/partner" or whatever you call them in front of the kiddies you teach.

[bobbybigfoot]

It's very much a homophobic society and you are best keeping it to yourself.

[bogey666]

[cruisemonkey]

K-land is full of flaming gays... and the whole country is in denial... it's just weird K-land.

[ontheway]

[victrolavs]

We certainly don't plan to "flaunt our gayness." We'll be teaching at the same school and we wouldn't hold hands or kiss in front of any of our colleagues/students/superiors. At the same time, if we had been doing an excellent job teaching and there were absolutely no complaints about us and someone DID find out about us being gay, they couldn't legitimately fire us could they?

In terms of the piercings, would it be wise to remove an extremely small nose ring? It's a tiny diamond stud that's barely noticeable.

If anyone is gay on this board and teaches on Korea, I'd love to hear from you. I can't private message anyone as I've posted less than 20 times on this site.

[ontheway]

It is possible that at some schools you could be open about your relationship and have no difficulties, but if you are teaching children and your special relationship is exposed, then I would expect that you would be fired. Even if the school tried to keep you on, enough of the parents would pull their children out until the school had no choice about it. It is also likely that being fired for your sexual orientation would be considered the right thing to do by most Koreans and most government officials. If your recruiter has told you that being open will prevent you from being hired, then you should expect your employer to be even more angry if he finds out he was deceived from the outset. You may not want to accept this, but you're time warping back to the 1950s when you come here.

[traxxe]

You can be fired for being gay. Korea has no protection for sexual orientation other than heterosexual. Transgendered and gay individuals can be fired for just being gay or transgendered. You can legally be kicked out of establishments, etc.

I would suggest another country that isn't as blatantly legally supporting discrimination.

Source: Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2007/11/05/south-korea-anti-discrimination-bill-excludes-many

Basically in Korea there was a law that protected gays and transgendered and in 2007 the wise [Mod Edit] decided to remove the protections for gays and transgendered.

"The inclusion of sexual orientation in particular had come under attack in South Korea. The Congressional Missionary Coalition, a coalition of Christian right members of the National Assembly, plans to hold forums in November to oppose the law. A petition, spearheaded by an organization called the Assembly of Scientists Against Embryonic Cloning, was sent to all branches of government claiming that if the bill becomes law, �homosexuals will try to seduce everyone, including adolescents; victims will be forced to become homosexuals; and sexual harassment by homosexuals will increase.�

This law passed and protections based on sexual discrimination were removed for gays and transgendered. This means you can legally be discriminated against for being gay, be it lose your job, kicked out of establishments, etc. Does it happen? Not much, because everything is closeted. Is this a society you want to support though? If you come here to hide your choices then I would say its not worth it. If you are brave enough to be proud and act like all other couples then I welcome you and fully support you. Though since you're not Korean it won't matter.

Also in 1997 Koreans in their infinite wisdom and show of universal love of all people established that any site or broadcasting involving homosexual activity would be labelled as 'harmful and obscene'. They were subject to large fines and banned from the media, etc. They called this the Youth Protection Law. This law was overturned in 2005 I think. Anyway, I heard it was about to be passed again but haven't researched to see if that was true or not.

[The Gipkik]

[cruisemonkey]

I worked with a guy who is gay... everyone (FTs) knew, but the Ks were absolutely oblivious to the fact.

Treat K-land as you would in the U.S. military - 'Don't ask ask, don't tell'. Especially, don't tell a K!

[nero]

I'm a lesbian and I can honestly say: Keep it in the closet.
You would make the other K females really uncomfortable. It is not Korean culture to (generally) admit or accept homosexuals. It's just not. And coming to their culture you just have to respect it.
As for the nose ring - they probably won't say anything about it, but appearance is everything here and they will think less of you. (Older people especially.)

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Keep it in the closet. The Ks will never, ever figure it out if you don't tell them, even if your place only has one bed.

[bogey666]

[Yu_Bum_suk]