Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

In today's JoongAng Ilbo there is a good piece on discrimination against foreigners that would make a good basis for a discussion class.

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2880037

[Whistleblower]

Koreans are always saying my son is mixed blood. I feel for citizens from developing countries as they get treated pretty badly. I hope that my son, when he is old enough to go to public, will be treated equally to "pure blood" Koreans. However, my son has been treated pretty badly by some youngsters in Korea. My son's skin colour is not as dark as Korean and most kids think his father is American. I am British. Nonetheless, my kid was playing in a river this summer and a kid went up to him and said,"You can't play here because your father is American". My son kicked him. The mother came up apologising for her son's behaviour. This just goes to show that youngsters are taught early about homogeniality, ethnocentricism and unequality amongst "pure" and "unpure" Koreans. However, the adult generation (25~35 years) are more open minded. Things can only get better.

[contrarian]

Yesterday in my church one of the wives was a Phillipina. Very pregnant and with another small child.

No dsicrimination whatsoever. I do see that people from the Indian Subcontinent seem to rank pretty low. Lower than American blacks and just above, "Nigerians".

[Smee]

The idea of these mail-order marriages might be another topic. In Jeollanam-do it's reported that 25% of new marriages are international. Old attitudes toward foreigners will probably need to change, especially if a foreigner is your mother or is carrying your child.

[xeno439]

[Alyallen]

[Mr Crowley]

Didn't Koreans evolve from the mixing of Chinese and Mogolians ?

[ED209]

This whole notion of 'pure blood' needs to be kicked out of the water.

Do some DNA tests and see how pure they are. I'm sure half would come back with some Japanese genes.

'I'm pure blood Korean'

'Is that necessarily a good thing?'

[LuckyNomad]

I have conversations about racism with my middle schools classes from time to time. Luckily my co-teacher is intelligent and recognizes the duplicity of Korea's racial arguments.

I love asking them why Vietnamese and Filipinos are lower than Koreans.
"because Korea is richer."
"Really?! Well, Japan is the second richest country in the world and America is the richest. So I'm better than you and Japan is better than Korea."
And the richer argument collapses. (though a few students will, surprisingly, agree with the argument of Japanese superiority). Very shocking to me.
The smarter students will recognize the false logic of their prejudice(though probably only temporarily), but one must keep hammering away every once in a while.

You can also throw in arguments such as, North Koreans and South Koreans are the same race.(they will agree). North Korea is one of the poorest countries in the world.(agreed) Thus, Koreans are one of the lowest nationalities.(ummmmm.....)

[Whistleblower]

Read this article today:

http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2007/09/117_9419.html

More about pure and impure Korean blood which is related to discrimination.

[CentralCali]

Good article, thanks, Whistleblower. "Blood purity" is, essentially, what was used by the Japanese military government during World War II to justify its aggression.

I also have discussions with my middle school students about prejudice. One such conversation is when I tell them I won't tolerate racist slurs or comments in my class or around me, even if the slur/comment isn't directed at me. I find racism to be unethical and immoral. More important, it's the sign of an incredibly weak mind.

[riley]

Love your kid's attitude, Whistleblower, I don't always agree with violence but I think it's important to stand up for yourself. It definitely sounds like he is.

[SPINOZA]

[Ya-ta Boy]

When the UN report came out recently, there were positive editorials in the Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo and the Hankyoreh. I was concerned that the issue would then die.

The publication of two articles on the same day provides some hope that this issue will become a common topic of discussion among Koreans.

I think our job is not to lecture Koreans, but to expose them to what other Koreans are saying and then stand back and trust them to do the right thing.

[LuckyNomad]

I've never heard the oven argument before. Though there is the, "we modernized quickly," argument.

As far as inventions go, I'd say China takes the cake. But they don't like hearing that either.

No, we should not lecture Koreans about racism. But I think this is one thing that we must bring up because they're not going to be taught this sort of thing from their elders or their Korean teachers. Their foreign teachers are probably the only ones who are ever going to deliver the other side of the race story. Besides, I'm tired of my students telling me that Americans have blonde hair and blue eyes when I'm standing right in front of them and clearly do not.