Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Tiger Beer]

[weatherman]

Well, first let me say, I like your post and it is a long over discussion. I think it is impossible for any foreigner to be truly Korean. Not because they can't, but becuase of some much institutional blockage keeping them out. That said, I really admire foreigners who know and act Korean. I think for anybody wanting to stay here long term, you should assimilate, it is only natural. But you should still have the social skills to deal with other foreigners even though you might have changed. The way I see you question is that the dude you met or observed plain didn't have a set of social skills. That is his problem and not yours.

[Tiger Beer]

Yeah, this can be an interesting topic.

I agree with Weatherman.. its really weird for someone to completely assimilate.

Most foreigner I know keep really good social skills and foreigner friends.. many they'd known for a long time. But they never seem to quite go over all the way. For one, the social skills used for interactions are totally different and not so easy to change over into.

But I do recall one co-worker who was kind of a jerk and an idiot combined. He spoke really Korean really well.. and oddly the very very few times when we'd drink in bars with Koreans.. he'd actually seem to embrace arguments so he could wine and do the weird noises particularly with Korean guys.. and then do all the touchy-grabby-feely weird stuff of drinking with them as well. That was the most impressive 'adjustment' I'd seen above the rest.

[Holyjoe]

I'm often curious about the people who choose to take Korean citizenship ahead of their previous nationality and how they get on in Korea.

I'm sure there are quite a few, but 2 high-profile ones I know of are football players - namely Anyang goalkeeper Shin Ui-Son (Russian, formerly known as Valery Sarychev - his Korean name means "Hand of God") and Seongnam striker Lee Song-Nam (Russian, formerly known as Denis Laktionov - his Korean name is the same as his football club). Sasa Drakulic, another Seongnam player, might follow suit.

Shin Ui-Son became a Korean citizen primarily to get around a K-league rule which states that no club is allowed to field a foreign goalkeeper, and Lee Song-Nam only became a citizen this summer. He's already run into problems as the K-league doesn't accept a foreigner as a Korean citizen until he's been with his team for 1 year (he's approaching that now though).

I guess these guys are planning on spending the rest of their careers and lives in Korea so in that sense taking citizenship and doing the 'Korean thing' would be of benefit to them, but I wonder just how well they can actually fully integrate, if at all...

[Tiger Beer]

Hmm.. thats interesting HolyJoe.

Particularly since they are Russian guys. I haven't met many Russian guys in particular.. but they seem or appear to think drastically differently than a native English-speaker thinks.

For all we know, its a much easier cultural adjustment for some reason or another.. hard to say. It is quite interesting nontheless.

Also, being that Russian is their native language.. they probably have a drastically different experience than native English-speakers.. and we tend to have such a different world as we can function so completely and entirely in English which probably makes us immune to really absolutely being required to function in Korea and Korean culture in the same way.

But I don't know.. just rough thoughts off the top of my head..

[rapier]

There is no betrayal involved in closely integrating with your host country. You should try it fonzie. Its better than eternally being stuck in the "us and them" mentality.
After a year in holland, I was fairly well spoken in Dutch and preferred to hang out with them, rather than my constantly pot-smoking co-workers. I adapted and learned a new perspective, they didn't.
We are citizens of the world nowadays, learn to swim in every ocean you enter. It doesn't necesarily involve rejecting your own culture, just getting a perspective on it.
True, I'm not overly hot on hanging with other waegooks excessively- been there, done that. Koreans often present you with something new and amusing: a mannerism, an expression, whatever,- that you just don't see in westerners.

[Homer]

Itaewonguy,

I wonder why your portrayal of Koreans is automatically associated with negative traits:

[Son Deureo!]

[colcho]

People are strange when you're a stranger.

[Zed]

Women seem wicked when you're alone.

[anae]

[Tiger Beer]

[Son Deureo!]

I got that number from an article about an American who had become a naturalized Korean citizen. It was an interesting article, and it mentioned that the U.S. Embassy put holes in his U.S. passport, telling him he could never go back to the U.S. His reply was that he was living the American Dream, just doing it somewhere else. Alas, I can't find the damn article.

My Google search found this article instead. According to this article, my numbers are way off, and there are thousands of naturalized Korean citizens from around the world. It's not specific on which ones aren't kyopos, but it's pretty clear that the number is a lot higher than 15. Here's a link to the article I can find: http://commonkore.com/ck_article/200306/200306_kor_multi.php

[dogbert]

A professor of mine, years ago, claimed to have been the first Westerner to have received R.O.K. citizenship. He had gone to live in Korea in order to assist the wife of Syngman Rhee, who herself was not Korean.

[endofthewor1d]