Korean Job Discussion Forums

[stevemcgarrett]

My wife is Chinese; I'm American. We've been married nearly a decade now and happily so. She's a beauty with brains from Hangzhou but her skin's a bit darker--a healthy complexion, I say.

It seems like whenever we go somewhere, we are treated well as customers in stores. But the minute she goes off on her own she comes back with stories of woe. Whenever people ask her where she's from and she says "China," they grunt, sneer, or go silent. I've witnessed it happen from a distance on occasion.

Of course, this reaction is not limited to Koreans. She got the same treatment, even from store clerks, in Hong Kong, where people falsely believe they're better than mainland Chinese even though most of their better habits were acquired from the British. Same can be said for Singaporeans. When we encountered them in hotels in Malaysia and Thailand, among other places, they were almost uniformly snobbish. But the attitude, to her at least, seems more prevalent here.

So I ask all of you "mixed" couples out there in Dave's ESL Land: what forms of prejudice, whether attitudes or behavior, have you encountered here in Korea? Do you find it worse than anywhere else you've lived or visited? Do you blame it on xenophobia, and overabundance of insecurity masking as national pride, or sheer one upmanship?

[jaganath69]

Nothing of the sort for my wife, although a rude taxi-driving adjoshi kicked her out of his cab half a kilometre from our apt when she was six months pregnant in winter. That aside, I find she is treated very well by Koreans, probably more so now she has the baby in tow.

[RACETRAITOR]

One of my friends is dating a Chinese girl right now and he claims they always get discriminated against and called rude names. Then again, this guy is a tattooed skinhead who speaks very loudly all the time about having sex with prostitutes regardless of who's nearby, so I'm willing to guess most of that discrimination comes from his behaviour.

[wo buxihuan hanguoren]

[Corporal]

[Captain Corea]

My wife and I have been married for 3 years. Rarely do we get any static. The most is the occasional glance on the subway.

Ok, I lied... that was before she got pregnant. Now that she's walking around with a giant belly, we get nothing but looks.

[dog_disco]

MARRIED TO K-WIFE... 3 YEARS... NEVER ENCOUNTER RACISM HERE... IN CANADA YES, BUT IN KOREA NO. (WRITING EVERYTHING IN CAPS MAKES ME FEEL IMPORTANT).

[RACETRAITOR]

WHEN I WAS IN JAPAN I WAS STARTING TO GET FREAKED OUT BY THE NUMBER OF FOREIGNERS I SAW WALKING AROUND WITH THEIR PREGNANT JAPANESE WIVES OR PUSHING BABY CARRIAGES. BASICALLY IF YOU SEE A BABY CARRIAGE, THERE'S A FOREIGNER NEXT TO THE THING.

WRITING LIKE THIS IS SORT OF LIBERATING.

[KumaraKitty]

We've never had any problems here, but we've had friends who were korean female/Foreign male have serious issues, including physical attacks. Everytime we hear or see the aftermath(one time our friend's wife was attacked by drunk k-girls and her face badly clawed) we give thanks that Koreans generally seem happy with our Canadian female/Korean male pairing.

[wo buxihuan hanguoren]

[samd]

[wo buxihuan hanguoren]

[samd]

[RACETRAITOR]

Yeah, why live somewhere if you hate it? Obviously your life was a lot better in China or wherever you were previous.

[twg]