Korean Job Discussion Forums

[lostandforgotten]

Do you get offended when Koreans call you a "foreigner" or "waygookin"?

[Homer]

Why would you be?

From their perspective you are exactly that: a Foreigner, a Foreign worker....

Also waegukin..look up the meaning. It is not meant to be insulting or demeaning.

Taking offense at this is in my opinion missplaced outrage.

[RACETRAITOR]

Foreigners complaining about being called foreigners and waegs complaining about being called waegs remind me of this song:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Mh6rJ_kCYEY

(not saying I'm a NOFX fan)

[OiGirl]

I get very confused. I tend to think of "waegookin" as "outsider," i.e., those outside of my group, regardless of race. People are always correcting me as to who is waegook and who is Korean. I don't really care if you're Korean or not, I'm more interested in whether you are a member of my group of friends.

[skconqueror]

[marlow]

It would be nice if they bothered to use the correct nationality once they learned it. Instead of remaining the 'foreigner', it would be nice to become the 'Canadian English teacher'.

[jvalmer]

[OiGirl]

[kermo]

It's offensive if they know my name/job/nationality but they use my status as an outsider instead.

[skconqueror]

[jvalmer]

[Roch]

Koreans in North America refer to even the Founding Families from Roanoke and Plymouth as frikin' foreigners.

For example, there is an editorial in one of the English language newspapers in Seoul about an article lifted from The New York Times: "Japanese Restaurants Serving Korean Dishes."

The author states that "foreigners" serve Korean dishes in their restaurants. The ones in question are located in Singapore and Manhatten, U.S.A. Gee, a person with citizenship in either one of these nations is thus not a foreigner.

Keep in mind that every imaginable thing from Europe or North America is made here by locals and very few non-Koreans are employed by businesses that sell these things.

The owners of the restaurant in Manhatten visited by the Koreans have Western European-sounding names and, lamented the author of the editorial, employ non-Koreans. This, asserts the author of the editorial, is an outrage in addition to the fact that the Korean foods for sale are not described as being Korean-in-origin.

That nobody but Koreans or Gyopos should even think of having anything to do with profiting from anything to do with this nation is but another example of the extent to which racism is at the core of the general outlook of too many Koreans (and Washington D.C. allows these hostile people to move to the U.S.?!).

Gee, funny how the Korean Double Standard rears its self-serving head here, eh? In this case, Koreans can sell and make whatever they want from the West but somebody who's likely caucasian, negroid or some other non-Korean is committing an act of cultural genocide against Koreans by making Korean food and employing non-Koreans to deliver it to the tables of those who buy it from him or her.

R & B

[peppermint]

[RJjr]

Yes, I am deeply offended. I spent 5,000 won for a Canadian flag patch for my oversized backpack, yet I still get lumped in with the lowly British, Americans, Australians, Russians, etc. when Koreans call me a waygookin.

[Smee]

Not necessarily offensive, but it's uncomfortable to be reminded of my outsider status so frequently. If it were just something lost in translation---not "foreigner," but "outside country person"---then fine, but there are quite a few other unpleasant attitudes that make me loathe hearing 외국인. It's annoying when a kid on the street does it, but whatever. It really gets on my nerves to hear it from other teachers . . . not because I don't know I'm a foreigner, but because I dislike what the use of that term presupposes, and what it says about our working relationship.

Anyway, I voted "sometimes."