Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Butterfly]

I remember reading a post a while back, a guy wrote how an old Korean woman came up to him in the street asked him for directions in Korean, he told her, she thanked him and walked off without a single acknowledgement that he was a foreigner. It was quite a surprising story at the time, for me. And the poster as I remember was pretty pleased about it, it was certainly worthy of a posting at Dave's.

Then it happened to me, and has done a a few more times since. I felt thoroughly embarrassed that my Korean isn't that great actually, because I was so glad not to be made a fuss of as a foreigner. I felt I didn't want to let them down as I was so grateful that these people were treating me normally, without the barrage of questions and broken English and 'welcome to Korea' fussing.

In my gym there is a couple of buffed older guys, maybe in their fifties and they are kind of gym 'know-it-alls' (you know the type, a bit annoying) who go around telling people that their workouts are all wrong and they should do like this or whatever. Well one of these guys came up to me and showed me a new shoulders excercise , in his language with again, no acknowledgement of my difference to the other people in the gym, no 'where are you from?' 'do you like Korean food?' just a new excercise. Later I saw him doing exactly the same thing with a Korean guy, in exactly the same way (only he was annoying that guy, I could tell). It's like he didn't even notice I was a foreigner.

Now it may just be me, and my language getting better, but I think people are not only getting used to us foreigners being around, but slowly they are starting to not even notice us and I wonder if this is good or bad.

Sure, it was nice to be treated the same as other Koreans, but at the same time I wonder how much longer we'll be regarded as such a great commodity as English teachers when as it seems to me, we're becoming part of the furniture.

[eamo]

I'd say that if Koreans stopped treating us differently and stopped according us our "celebrity status" half of the foreign teachers here would go home. Some of us here love the fact they stand out.

[the_beaver]

Happened a few times but was most common when I lived in Kwang-ju. It is an incredibly wonderful feeling.

[in_seoul_2003]

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[Butterfly]

[Corporal]

[in_seoul_2003]

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[Eazy_E]

I've always been quite happy with the way I'm treated in Korea. I live in a small town and yes, they stare at my big nose and occasionally give me some of the "Hello! Welcome to Korea" stuff.

But Butterfly is right: it's great to be treated as a normal person who happens to live in Korea, not some kind of alien or celebrity. Most of the time this happens with older people. They're also the least likely to stare or address me in English. Maybe they consider it natural to speak Korean if you live here. I've been here for 6 months so my grasp of Korean is barely past the beginner level, but I'm trying and people really appreciate it.

Canada, where I'm from, is probably one of the most tolerant countries in the world in accepting immigrants, but we seem to do this partly through just ignoring the newbies. They get their own piece of the pie and even get to carry on their customs as they would in their own country, but the concept of multiculturalism seems to preclude any whole-hearted embrace of new Canadians. In contrast, Koreans are not quite sure what to do with newcomers. Some stare and a few are rude, but most are quite warm and friendly if you show some interest in Korean language and culture. Some shopkeepers toss in some freebies for me even for my modest chit-chat skills in Korean.

So that's a little disjointed but I think that Korea has an unfair reputation for being xenophobic. If you look different, you get some stares but on the whole Koreans are kind, generous, and really want you to be part of the scene here.

[Butterfly]

[Corporal]

[Kwangjuchicken]

This reminds me of a story, that is also a good example of:
"Be careful what you wish for, it might come true."

One day, I said aloud, "I wish I could fee normal for just one minute."

Then, this guy comes up to me and says, "Hi. I am Bruce Normal, and you can feel me as long as you want."






















































I just made that up. It is NOT true.





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[kangnamdragon]

[Kwangjuchicken]

[Corporal]

[Kwangjuchicken]