Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Cheonmunka]

Just watching it when making something TV on in front of me. A TV program about a German man I think he is who decided to retire back in Korea. His Korean was fine, quite good and fluent enough. He was filmed shopping for a broom brush for his house, a trad. style house.
His friend, a university student of his, had changed his citizenship to Korean. I'm not sure about the professor guy who the special was about ... maybe F5 or something. Anyway, he is talking and the captions are underneath in Korean also for the hearing impaired or people who can't hear their TV's. He says, "우리 한국사람들은 ..." Well, I hear that and look at the captions and that (very specific) part was left out. I felt a bit sorry for the guy. He puts a lot of cards on the table and a bit of effort, but the whole, 'you will never will be a Korean" stuff just reappears time and again. I felt it was a shame. And a bit of a sham, too. Why not just leave it in there, why specifically cut it?

Just after that part finished it goes back to the audience and the show and there are foreigner guests, you know those girls who have lived here a couple of years and get picked to support shows as a foreign spokespeople. One girl has a few seconds of something I couldn't comprehend before she is cut in on then onto the next show.

My beef is this:
There are plenty of Americans who came from Korea. They are Americans. Plenty of Kiwis (the golfer Danny Lee for example) who came from Korea before but now everyone calls him a Kiwi. He lived in NZ what, nine years. That ain't as long as some Kiwi people lived here.

I wonder at what point would you ever, ever be able to become Korean?

Never.

Still after 50 years, you are a foreigner and people will let you know that from time to time.
Imagine it, you are sixty years old and lived here since 20. Forty years of your life. You go to a supo and a person talks about how you speak Korean well for a foreigner. You hear young people in quiet voices - or with those back biting catcalls - 'Mikuk saram,' or a verse of song from 'Fㅜcking USA,' stuff like that. Whatda yah do? What would the old man do? Wouldn't he get so fuㄷking sick and tired of it? Even while filming on the show it happened that he described to people in the market who he doesn't know his personal history with Korea which really does seem at times that one is merely justifying onself to others to placate them, not himself, and he gets nothing for it. Well nothing fulfilling in any way.

Wonder why you bother .. doing that several times a day ... explaining one's existence in that way.