Korean Job Discussion Forums

[death.by.soju]

I've been around Koreans back home for years and have found them to be very innocent and sweet on an individual basis. However when I came here to the hermit kingdom I found it to be a completely different deal. I even caught up with a friend that I had made in Sydney who told me straight to my face that Koreans consider themselves "asian jews" and aren't too fond of outsiders, and that he didn't want to meet me anymore for that reason.

I've had good times but they've been few and far between. Seems like Koreans in general have no interest in foreigners, even if I can speak efficiently enough to them in their own language (in fact often it even seems to bother them, i guess they see me as their English slave and any attempts to integrate go against their schema of how waygookin should act).

I thought it might be homogeneity but I went to Japan and was delighted with my treatment.

Anyway I'm interested in knowing about what you guys do to get by as the minority here, in terms of how you deal with discrimination, attempts to integrate or not (befriending/ignoring koreans), whether you take a positive outlook or bottle it up and rant online, etc.

Also if anyone is doing something other than English teaching it would be interesting to know how your experience is, especially those studying Korean or something similar.

[minos]

Well, I do some professional work aside from TEFL.... My guess is the language barrier. Did anybody want to make friends with the fobby asian exchange student who couldn't speak any english back in school?


Korean culture here is more so based on knowing friends through friends. In west, we're really big on meeting random folks; here not so much. Know korean helps, but I ended up befriending alot of shop keepers becuase of it. Not random people my age.

I tended to meet koreans through activities or need(language exchange for example if not through friends. Finding friends in the first places requires luck.

It's a real pain in the butt meeting people around my neighborhood because it's a college area with no clubs. It's a fun place, but their college students and I'm not in college....In the west, this wouldn't be an obstacle.

[ZIFA]

Foreigners are generally temporary in Korea and viewed as such.

Most people do not want to invest time and energy in friendships that are doomed to end after 6 months.
When you're at home in the US do you habitually make friends with temporary immigrants? Maybe go pick up a family of Mexicans and invite them into your inner circle? I doubt it.

Particularly Koreans. Their idea of friendship is something that spans decades.

Koreans do make excellent friends though. But it takes time.

[Cyrs3]

I find that a lot of koreans will use foreigners as a status symbol for other koreans, but very few are really friends with them. They are so based on looks and status quo that they easily oversee feelings.
I have met many people who I am interested in being friends with only to find that they only want to talk to my pretty blonde friend, but even then they only invite her so they can gain social status. it's like f-ing hipsters except you are using another person instead of a bob dylan album to gain recognition. it completely boggles my mind how people can actually be like this, but I see it everyday. Koreans are extremely self concious and many of them won't let even eachother know the real them. heels, make-up, smartphones, popped collars, and foreign friends. whats the differince? we are all here temporarily so we have no feelings, we can't speak korean so we have no feelings, we are not the ideal foreigner, so we're not worth your time, if we are the ideal forienger you just want have a quick, one time occasion, so you can be the first of your buddies whose slept with a foriegn girl, and gotten a foriegn guy so drunk he forgot the way home. thank you for teaching me should be pleasently surprised when someone makes an effort to actually get to know me.

OK my rant is over.. Sorry I'm a little agnsty right now. college does that to one, especially a college as teeming with rich d-bags as mine is right now.

[AsiaESLbound]

[highstreet]

Most of my friends are Koreans. They're all cool people. Just keep searching if you want.

Naturally everyone you meet won't become a friend for life, but I think thats the norm anywhere.

[OHIO]

Outside of work, I seldom have anything to do with Koreans. There usually seems to be an agenda with them.

[Yaya]

[Steelrails]

There is a flaw underlying all of this-

Koreans do not exist to make you happy and do not exist to be your friend.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[oldtrafford]

Outside of work, I seldom have anything to do with Koreans. There usually seems to be an agenda with them.


I couldn't agree more.

[minos]

[joelove]

Someone once described them as a "closed shop" though I guess that could be true for many people in many countries, with cliques, language barriers perhaps, social or cultural rules and roles that outsiders don't have in common. Seems like the Chinese for example, tend to stick together too, as do foreigners in most or many cases. I've found we just don't have much in common. Funny, even in Canada, my brother told me he worked with a Korean guy before who I assume spoke English well. Brother asked him to go for a drink once and he said, "I only hang out with other Koreans." No great loss I guess with that mentality. An American friend and I used to get some strange looks in Seoul, more than usual I think. Took us a while to realize it was likely because he is nearly two decades older than me. You won't see that among Koreans.

[Malislamusrex]

you are a foreigner and they are Korean.... get over it, you are not going to integrate.

[rainism]