Korean Job Discussion Forums

GoldMember · Joined: 24 Oct 2006

The most common English-Korean dictionary in Korea is the Sisa Elite, published by YBM.

The Entry for Jew, contains a sentence to illustrate how the word jew is used.
That sentence is, "rich as a Jew",
Other meanings include 사람 수전노, Miser.

Also Jew Down, in Korean is defined as a price discount.

The Entry for Negro, contains various synonyms, such as

Black, Colored Man and Nigger.

This may seem trivial, however in the Korean education system we have kids subjected to racist stereoytpes for 20 years, eventually they become adults and look at the result.
Xenophobic TV programs, articles and government policies.

genezorm · Joined: 01 Jul 2007 Location: Mokpo

whatever · Joined: 11 Jun 2006 Location: Korea: More fun than jail.

Captain Corea · Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Location: Seoul

indiercj · Joined: 30 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

Thunndarr · Joined: 30 Sep 2003

Smee · Joined: 24 Dec 2004 Location: Jeollanam-do

Those are all accurate usages, are they not? Politically incorrect, yes, but words like Jew and Nigger still carry the weight of earlier usages. And, as Captain Corea pointed out, the terms have had a long history before their arrival in Korea. I wish, and I hope, that certain words were tagged with "highly taboo" in the dictionary. For example, you look nigger in an English dictionary and there's no mistaking it for something else.

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

I've seen a few Korean writing students fall victim to that exact entry. They need to know what to call a black person in English, and the dictionary gives too many choices. One referred to coloured people and I told her never ever to use that term ever again, and the other one used the word nigger, and I told him if he hates blacks he shouldn't study English (using terms that are banned here). Both of them just randomly selected words from the dictionary.

SPINOZA · Joined: 10 Jun 2005 Location: $eoul

Interestingly, look at this Korean word for 'nationalism': 민족주의 (Naver dictionary).

It takes no account of countries where 'race' is completely absent from nationalism (because such countries, like the US, Brazil and Canada, are very multi-racial) yet where nationalism is strong.

Smee · Joined: 24 Dec 2004 Location: Jeollanam-do

You get the same thing on Naver. Four of the five entries for 흑인 are unacceptable, yet they're listed there as if synonyms. http://endic.naver.com/endic.nhn?docid=2950260

My point in my first post wasn't that those words are acceptable, but that they shouldn't just be stricken out of the dictionary. The problem is users---and probably the people making the dictionary, too---don't know the difference.

genezorm · Joined: 01 Jul 2007 Location: Mokpo

billybrobby · Joined: 09 Dec 2004

This really is just a reflection of American racism, but the dictionaries should be careful to mark certain words as slurs. If you click on the entry for n*gger, it is marked as such, but if you look up 흑인, black and n*gger are side-by-side as if they are the same.

endo · Joined: 14 Mar 2004 Location: Seoul...my home

Why is it racist to be called RICH?

Jesus Christ!

billybrobby · Joined: 09 Dec 2004

pkang0202 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007

The word "fag" is offensive in the US, but I hear its what Britains call a cigarette. I remember cuz in elementary school we would always look up bad words in the dictionary.

When dictionaries have to be politically correct and omit words and phrases, it really does defeat the purpose of a dictionary doesn't it?