Korean Job Discussion Forums

[byunhosa]

I wanted to get the members' thoughts on an issue that came to my attention in reading some recent posts on this board.

As is the case for any minority population anywhere, there appears to be a tendency here to ascribe any harsh or disrespectful treatment by Koreans to racism. While this is certainly present, what you are just as likely, if not more likely to find, in Asia is a form of "reverse racism", where whites are generally preferred and given more respect and deference on sight than they have earned to that point.

So my question is, for those who do not treat the ESL community well, is it more a case of them casting aspersions on industry members in general, rather than acting out of a racist animus?

I say this as a foreigner who has spent time in Korea at different stages of my life, and felt I was treated much differently depending on my income or employment level (though, to be fair, at no point was I treated as badly as some allege here).

Any insights on this?

[The Hierophant]

In my experience:

[RACETRAITOR]

When you make a mistake, you attribute it to external causes. When someone else makes a mistake, you attribute it to internal causes.

It's a common reaction when you see a Korean do something, to generalise it for the whole population. For instance, my wife loves picking up our cats even when they don't want to be picked up, so I could assume that all Koreans love cats.

[SuperFly]

Don't forget ageism.

[VirginIslander]

I'm go glad I did my first two teaching years in the Caribbean. Reverse-racism. Anybody who has only taught and lived abroad in Korea has little experience with real reverse racism.

If anything, I feel like a superstar here. Yes people stare and it gets annoying sometimes but I never feel unsafe or unwanted by the general population.

Students and their parents dont look down on me because of my race; just my occupation. It was the exact opposite in the Caribbean when I taught science. Many people intitially didnt like because of my race but respected me because of my occupation.