Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Alyallen]

So, my class is doing a roleplay using the public school english book. There are two characters Jin-ho's mother and Peter. Peter, for those of you not lucky enough to use this fantasic book (and yes I am being severely sarcastic), is Black. So the dialog goes like this...

Jinho's mother: Help yourself, Peter.
Peter: Oh wow, thanks!

two of my students go up and say this
Jinho's mother: Help yourself, 깜둥이.
Peter: Oh wow, thanks!

My jaw drops and I say "WHAT??" My co-teacher kind of whacks the kids upside the head and carried on with the lesson.

So why was I sort of shocked. Naver.com provides the answer

깜둥이
1【살빛이 까만 사람】a dark-faced person
2【흑인】a Negro;a colored man;a n@gger;a darky;a blackie;a blacky《구어》

My Korean is not the greatest but why use that instead of
흑인
흑인(黑人) a black (person);a colored person;a darky;a n@gger;a Negro

I guess I just can't win in the Korean language. I have heard 흑인 often enough and seen it on TV, so I suppose that's the more "polite" way to say Black person but...I really don't know.

Oh and yeah, I was really pissed that they used Korean instead of the damn English dialog.

This is just not a good day for me, I guess.

[SeoulShakin]

And they wonder why racism and xenophobia are abound in this country. Nobody takes the time to correct them and explain that what they said is unacceptable.

I remember I was perusing through some Jr. Naver English songs to see if there was anything I could use with my young 1st and 2nd graders (I have no co-teacher for them).

One song, "There was a farmer had a dog and bingo was his name-o", showed the farmer kicking the crap out of the dog everytime the students should clap to substitute a letter. Let's condone animal abuse everyone.

There was another one (one little two little three little indians), which showed a Korean going into the jungle and encountering some Native Americans. They were of course dressed in tribal attire and were sporting spears and bows and arrows. Everytime the song counted an indian, it showed the Korean guy shooting the heads off of the indians one by one, blood splatter and all.

Seriously..... what the hell is this country thinking?

"We need to make an animation for this song to appeal to children and teach them English.... but I bet at the same time we can teach them to hate other cultures, kill other people, and beat animals".

.... I ended up choosing different songs for obvious reasons.

[koon_taung_daeng]

i think you have to be very upset when something like that happens and explain to them why this is wrong. Or call them dirty gooks and see how they like it

[Alyallen]

[xtchr]

[quote="SeoulShakin"]And they wonder why racism and xenophobia are abound in this country.
quote]

I don't think they wonder at all. I think they're blissfully unaware, i.e pig ignorant.

[spliff]

If you're at that unit now, you are behind....

[Alyallen]

[marlow]

I'd have a talk with your co-teachers just to make sure you're on the same page in the future. No need to have stuff like that happening.

[shaunew]

I did that unit last week. But every time peter is on the t.v. kids say things about his lips or his skin color. I've been here for 3 years and know how Koreans are so nothing surprises me. I'm on the next unit "I'm stronger then you."

[genezorm]