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Things back home that would annoy Koreans/foreigners
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happiness



Joined: 04 Sep 2010

PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 5:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

its not the changes in culture, i think most people dont want to have their world shifted, which some of us did when we came here. difference is, Korea is quite Americanized, so there is somethings we have here (starbucks, steak, whatever), but the US is not Koreanized, so they go to Korea towns and its more familiar maybe
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PatrickGHBusan



Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -

PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 5:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

happiness wrote:
its not the changes in culture, i think most people dont want to have their world shifted, which some of us did when we came here. difference is, Korea is quite Americanized, so there is somethings we have here (starbucks, steak, whatever), but the US is not Koreanized, so they go to Korea towns and its more familiar maybe


That is also a good point.

Side story, you want culture shock for a Korean? A guy I met in Busan way back when married a local gal. They moved to Canada in the mid 2000s and settled where he is from....where is that?

A small town in Saskachewan, in the middle of nowhere. His wife sure had an interesting time adjusting! Last I heard, they had moved to Calgary, Alberta...
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Newbie



Joined: 07 Feb 2003

PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 9:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Steelrails wrote:


Sure they miss it. Annoyed by it? I don't think they expected to find Kimchi in every restaurant when they came over.


You're absolutely right here, and it dawned on my after my post. The OP asked about "annoy" not "miss." So in that sense, yes, it's odd for anyone here to assume that Koreans would be annoyed by the lack of kimchi. But it is definitely on top of the "miss" list!

Steelrails wrote:


Really, in my 200+ member church, at my workplace with my Korean boss, and with the KISA group no one seemed to have a problem with this concept.

Are you sure you aren't projecting the views of a vocal few, who might be exaggerating their words or not attempting to point out the exact distinction of what they know and feel?


Again, sorry if this was not clear. I did not mean to imply all Koreans would feel this way, and I don't doubt that the Koreans you know are okay with this (although ... "200+ member church" ... can you really speak for all of them?) As I tried to explain, this one point was based on the 8 different students my wife and I have hosted here and their reactions to multiculturalism here. These were all fresh off the plane people, so their reactions were more of a shock and disbelief. They were Korean, and the question was "what might annoy Koreans" so I thought it was appropriate to relate stories from my experiences.
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Newbie



Joined: 07 Feb 2003

PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 9:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

madoka wrote:
Newbie wrote:

Random things that are insanely expensive here compared to Korea (Batteries, for example)


Hmmm. . . I've had the opposite response from the Koreans I've met. It's much more of a 'holy crap!' everything is so much cheaper here response. The Hyundai Equus is $40,000 less to their own Samsung/LG big screen TVs being half the cost to $10 all-you-can-eat Korean BBQs - it's mind blowing to Korean tourists. The repeat visitors bring a ton of cash to go on shopping sprees at outlets. The only things I've found significantly cheaper in Korea was photo processing and Korean fast foods.


I should have bolded "random things". It's the small, strange things they seem to notice: batteries, socks, underwear, etc.
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Newbie



Joined: 07 Feb 2003

PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 9:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

PatrickGHBusan wrote:
newbie,

That was an interesting post. I will say one thing, it is (to me anyway) understandable that a person coming from a largely homogenous society that has next to no immigration would be shocked or surprised at diversity when coming face to face with it.

My brother's wife is Japanese and on their first visit to Canada she was shocked in much the same manner you described. It is less about nationalism and more about social view in my opinion.

I could also say that my wife has been asked (she lost count)where she is from and has had to then answer the "no, I meant where are you originally from" follow up question (which is not offensive or meant to insult). You could take this further and discuss how white canadians from small towns or from certain parts of Canada react to diversity and multiculturalism when they visit Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal.....the results are not always " oh look at all these Canadians".... Laughing


Yes, "nationalism" might not have been the best word to use.

I'm interested in the bolded part: You guys have only been here about 5-10 years, right? I'm surprised your wife would answer with anything other than "Korea" when asked "Where are you from?"

Now, when my Canadian born, ethnic Korean friend gets asked the follow up of "No, I meant are you originally from?" I could see why that would be annoying.
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PatrickGHBusan



Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -

PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 12:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

We moved here (Canada) in late 2008 so it has been 4 years or so.

She answers Korea to the question sometimes and now our home city in Canada sometimes. If she answers, our home city in Canada then she usually gets the second question (which is very common). An Indian woman that works in my department (she was born in Canada, her parents moved here before she was born) gets the same "no but where are you from originally" follow up.

It happens and for the most part it is no meant as an insult or as an offense...just a habit I suppose.
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edwardcatflap



Joined: 22 Mar 2009

PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 1:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nowadays if I meet someone who looks Asian or Indian etc with a British accent I don't even bother asking them where they're from at all in case I cause some kind of offense from either them or people overhearing the conversation. Such is the PC world we're creating.
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Captain Corea



Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul

PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 4:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

PatrickGHBusan wrote:
We moved here (Canada) in late 2008 so it has been 4 years or so.

She answers Korea to the question sometimes and now our home city in Canada sometimes. If she answers, our home city in Canada then she usually gets the second question (which is very common). An Indian woman that works in my department (she was born in Canada, her parents moved here before she was born) gets the same "no but where are you from originally" follow up.

It happens and for the most part it is no meant as an insult or as an offense...just a habit I suppose.


Yeah, generally speaking I think they could be meaning"where is your family(history) from?"

Sometimes that can be a very exclusive question, so it has to be used carefully... but other times it's simply a pick up line or icebreaker.

"Geez, dark skin and green eyes, where are you from?" (of course meaning - what's your family background/ethnicity).
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jvalmer



Joined: 06 Jun 2003

PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Captain Corea wrote:
Sometimes that can be a very exclusive question, so it has to be used carefully... but other times it's simply a pick up line or icebreaker.

If they had any tact, they'd phrase it a little better..

"What's your ethnic background?"

as opposed to...

"Where are you 'really' from?" -- which can come off as offensive, but depends on how hot the person asking is.
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seoulsucker



Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Location: The Land of the Hesitant Cutoff

PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 3:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

After several (almost 10) years in Korea something that rubbed me the wrong way after a trip back home wast the bill splitting/tipping conversation that ends up taking 20 minutes and an algorithm to solve at the end of a group dinner.

Koreans tend to share food and treat group dining as a communal experience and pay the bill as such. 10 people and a $100 bill? Split it 10 ways, not "Oh, I only ate some fries off of her plate and drank coffee so I'll just pitch in whatever coins are in my purse right now."
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aq8knyus



Joined: 28 Jul 2010
Location: London

PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 4:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Steelrails wrote:
Quote:
Strange. Why would you think that Koreans wouldn't miss Kimchi? That is perhaps the most obvious. It's like Canadians missing Tim Horton's, Europeans missing good beer, and Americans missing... I don't know: apple pie?

Also, I'm not conceptualizing what other people would feel, or telling fantasies based on prejudices: I'm relating things that have been told to me by Koreans. Many visitors, and many who have lived here for 5, 10, 15, 20 years. Now, perhaps I could have been clearer and mentioned that the items on my list were not brought up by ALL Koreans I know, and not all items were "troubling", some were just "hmmm. weird" or "interesting"


Sure they miss it. Annoyed by it? I don't think they expected to find Kimchi in every restaurant when they came over.

I guess its a bit semantical, sure there's things that are missed, but I wouldn't sense much annoyance over them. They know they aren't going to turn on the TV and see KDramas or go to Applebee's and find kimchi.

Quote:
"Why are there no Canadians / Why is everyone Asian / Aren't you angry there are no Canadians." And almost all of them can't seem to buy it when I tell them that most of those people could very well be just as Canadian as me.


Really, in my 200+ member church, at my workplace with my Korean boss, and with the KISA group no one seemed to have a problem with this concept.

Are you sure you aren't projecting the views of a vocal few, who might be exaggerating their words or not attempting to point out the exact distinction of what they know and feel?

Quote:
I'm not judging them, it's just a different attitude and way of thinking when it comes to nationalism. For 99.9% of Korean (IMO), you have to be Korean in blood to be a Korean. In places like Canada and the US, this just isn't the case (obvisouly... to us). But it's a different way of thinking for them.


That's an old world vs. New World attitude. All the old world countries were based on ethnicity.
===============================================
Quote:
In Canada there are two islands in the St. Lawrence river that are claimed by France. Yet there are no mass demonstrations, and noone is cutting off their fingers in protest. Most Canadians, when they even think about it, probably consider the existence of said islands as rather quaint.

That probably confuses a few Korean immigrants.


Like the British and the Falklands?

Or Britain, France, and America until their countries finally decided to act right in the 1960s and recognize that palces like Malaysia actually belong to Malaysians and are not the "British East Indies"


I just wanted to say that the Falkland Islands were Terra Nullius, the native people of those Islands are White Europeans. The only place in the entire Americas. Britain has continuously settled those Islands since 1833 over a decade before the US stole half of Mexico.

I once asked a Korean about her time in Canada and what she didn't like about it, she replied that Canadian pizza was too oily.
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tatertot



Joined: 21 Oct 2008

PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 5:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

PatrickGHBusan wrote:
We moved here (Canada) in late 2008 so it has been 4 years or so.

She answers Korea to the question sometimes and now our home city in Canada sometimes. If she answers, our home city in Canada then she usually gets the second question (which is very common). An Indian woman that works in my department (she was born in Canada, her parents moved here before she was born) gets the same "no but where are you from originally" follow up.

It happens and for the most part it is no meant as an insult or as an offense...just a habit I suppose.

Why would she ever answer the city in which you live in Canada? They aren't asking "where do you live?" Unless your wife speaks without any accent whatsoever, when somebody asks where she's from, the only logical answer is Korea. If I lived in Seoul for 10 years and somebody in Busan asked me where I was from, I wouldn't say Seoul.
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PatrickGHBusan



Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -

PostPosted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 4:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

tatertot wrote:
PatrickGHBusan wrote:
We moved here (Canada) in late 2008 so it has been 4 years or so.

She answers Korea to the question sometimes and now our home city in Canada sometimes. If she answers, our home city in Canada then she usually gets the second question (which is very common). An Indian woman that works in my department (she was born in Canada, her parents moved here before she was born) gets the same "no but where are you from originally" follow up.

It happens and for the most part it is no meant as an insult or as an offense...just a habit I suppose.

Why would she ever answer the city in which you live in Canada? They aren't asking "where do you live?" Unless your wife speaks without any accent whatsoever, when somebody asks where she's from, the only logical answer is Korea. If I lived in Seoul for 10 years and somebody in Busan asked me where I was from, I wouldn't say Seoul.


She does answer the city where we live sometimes as in: "I am from here" or "we live around here". However, as newbie said, most of the the time she will say Korea.

As for her accent it is not very pronounced. Anyway, no big deal.

As a side note, when asked where I was from (when living in Korea) I got into the habit of saying "Busan" after living there for 11 years lol It was nothing concious or planned, just that after a while Busan was home for me. Anyway...this is getting off topic.
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Captain Corea



Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul

PostPosted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 4:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

jvalmer wrote:
Captain Corea wrote:
Sometimes that can be a very exclusive question, so it has to be used carefully... but other times it's simply a pick up line or icebreaker.

If they had any tact, they'd phrase it a little better..

"What's your ethnic background?"

as opposed to...

"Where are you 'really' from?" -- which can come off as offensive, but depends on how hot the person asking is.


Totally agree. That's how I'd word it.
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roguefishfood



Joined: 21 May 2011

PostPosted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 6:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Newbie wrote:


Strange. Why would you think that Koreans wouldn't miss Kimchi? That is perhaps the most obvious. It's like Canadians missing Tim Horton's, Europeans missing good beer, and Americans missing... I don't know: apple pie?



Most Americans I know miss good Mexican food more than any other category. (Personally that's tied with a proper hoagie for me.) Take that for what you will.
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