Korean Job Discussion Forums

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I said I would post it so I'm going to (albeit with some trepidation).

This another feature I wrote for Yonhap, this time addressing the issue of diversity in Korea - specifically where foreign residents are refused services. Ultimately it falls quite short of what I had in mind when I first set out to write this story. I originally wanted to talk to business owners about the reasons they exclude certain groups. I thought that with the help of my translator I'd be able to get a good discussion going.

Couldn't even get a call back. No business owners that held a policy of refusing services was willing to discuss the subject with me. Perhaps understandably as they probably feared it would damage business/reputation.

After conducting some interviews through a few organizations my next thought was the write the article specifically about Southeaster/Southwestern Asians living here and the problems they face. I had managed to get a hold of a few people and things were looking good. They told me their stories but only under the conditions that it would be off the record because they feared that their employers might find out and it would cause problems for them. So, while they helped to influence the direction of the final article, their stories could not be included.

So the two voices that I think really need to be heard from could not be included. The result is an article that I think has mostly been done before. I think the final product is a more balanced and accurate view of the picture than what I have read elsewhere, but ultimately it's not what I had imagined. I hope that people reading it understand the direction I was trying to shoot for. I had quite a few people read it over (both Koreans and Foreigners) and the general consensus was that it was a fair representation.

All that said, I'd like to also point out that the article is in no way meant to be a complaint or slam against Korea. Like it or not, issues of diversity exist here and they deserve to be put under a microscope. Though I'm sure some will read it as me taking an easy shot at the country, that's not what I was trying to accomplish.

I most likely won't respond to a ton of comments (and definitely won't respond to anything that is inflammatory), but if you have something constructive to add to the criticisms I've already made myself, go for it.

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/n_feature/2011/12/21/62/4901000000AEN20111221007400315F.HTML

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