Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Paddycakes]

I've always wondered what's it's like in Korea for people who are half white and half Korean.

How do the Koreans treat you?

And for those of you who were raised in Korea, and who speak Korean perfectly and who know the culture, what's it like?


Does everyone assume you're a foreigner and treat you accordingly?

Does it affect your career?

[Captain Corea]

Do you want to hear from the people themselves... or perhaps their parents?

[Julius]

Up until now most half-koreans have left Korea... and preferred to live in the west.

So there's nobody left to say what its like.

[PatrickGHBusan]

[some waygug-in]

[Paddycakes]

[andrewchon]

One maybe (depending on individual's desires) exempt/excused/excluded from army service for looking not-so-Korean.

[12ax7]

There is very little discrimination for those who are able to speak both Korean and English fluently. Being able to speak English fluently makes the person a 'global citizen', and that's viewed very positively.

[alongway]

I don't know how many grew up here. I know of at least one, and his father is a sometimes poster here. He might be able to relate it for us. Most of the others I know of are still pretty young, so they're not really in a position to comment on it.

For simply being half white half korean and here, there are a fair number of gyopos that come over that were perhaps the kid of a service member who married a korean. They may have moved stateside when they were young and come back to learn more about their country. I think those two experiences would be very different.

[HANGRY]

I'm a half-white gyopo.

My features are pretty white, so most of the time, I get treated the same as your typical white American. I don't speak Korean either which kind of reinforces that treatment. Maybe somebody who spoke Korean fluently would be treated differently.

I look enough like an Asian though that sometimes random people on the street start coming up to me and start speaking to me in Korean. It takes them a second or two to take a hard look at my face and realize I'm not Korean.

It is kind of interesting the treatment I get at people who KNOW I'm half Korean though. Like I still get the typical "Oh, you should be careful, that is really spicy" or "Wow, you use chopsticks really well!" comments from them. In my head I'm like "Um... I grew up eating spicy food and using chopsticks... It's not a big deal..."

Basically though, as with most things in Korea it boils down to appearances. If you look foreign, people will treat you foreign. If you look Korean, people will treat you Korean. There is no middle ground here.

Regardless of how people treat me, I just try to remember who I am, and that other peoples perceptions have no bearing on that.

[12ax7]

[Squire]

I've read several times on here about people not wanting to raise their kids in Korea because of the education system. I imagine it would be a strong incentive to leave Korea to save your kid the constant pressure of middle and high school. Also with an Asian parent pushing a kid to study in the western education system they are likely to go far. I know for a fact I would have done a lot better in school if I'd had a Korean parent pushing me to study every night (or even one night a week )

[Julius]

[12ax7]

[Julius]