Korean Job Discussion Forums

[madeinkorea]

You probably know this Korean TV show "My Neighbor Charles" which follows the lives of foreigners -and in a number of cases their Korean spouses and families in Korea. What irks me about it is the portraying of Koreans as huge family lovers who would do anything to support it in the name of love and such. Of course they omit to mention the massive ditching of kids when Korea was still dirt poor.

In other words should we conclude that the richer Korea became, the more their so-called family ties blossomed? Discuss pls, thx.

[denverdeath]

I think a lot of Koreans I've spoken to don't like to talk about the adoption stuff too much because they actually DO know, on some plain, the reality of it all. People you talk to could've lost, likely, a sister along the way. Most who give a child up for adoption here do so due to the main reasons others do elsewhere...finances or a mistake...mistake meaning the parents were too young, and didn't realize at the time the significance of bringing a child into the world and all it entails. Pretty sure most Korean mothers/fathers don't just dump their babies without some thought. I'm just a dad, but I know most Korean parents wouldn't easily give a child up. Same now, as then. Honestly, I feel that it's a shameful thing for them. One of the primary reasons I don't bring it up much. But, yeah, it would probably help a lot of people to discuss it a bit more openly.

[madeinkorea]

If they could've lost a sister along the way due to their relatives giving her up for adoption then why be so rude towards this possible sister when she finally returns to the mother land... I got treated badly by Koreans on markets and the like as they witnessed I could'nt speak Korean... I don't think it even crossed their mind I might have been adopted and if it did then it explains my point even more. Honestly, the impression I got from Koreans is that they are very self-centered as well as money centered. No surprise they would not hesitate to abandon their children for the sake of sparing some dollars. If they would really attach such great importance on family, the massive ditching of kr kids to the West would not have taken place like it did.

Oh and the goshiwon where I was staying took advantage of me not being familiar with the language and such to charge me more (a 43000 won extra to be precise instead of the price that we had agreed at the beginning of my stay). And this goshiwon woman (ajumma) knew very well I was adopted as she had not only seen my passport but also heard it from me when I introduced myself. If such is the treatment 'a so-called sister' would receive then I can say Koreans don't treat their sisters well - at least this one. Just saying.

[Fox]

Many (obviously not all) Koreans really are "huge family lovers," which is to say that they'd do a lot for their own families. Here's the thing though: a foreign citizen of Korean descent who never bothered to learn Korean isn't actually their family member, and while Koreans will often go out of their way for their own family, that does not mean they're willing to do the same for another person's family member. Korean society is predicated largely upon concrete relationships, and shared ethnicity really doesn't count as a concrete relationship in that scheme; bonds of ethnicity might grant someone the legal right to enter Korea, but that is all. This is something with which North Korean refugees struggle, and they at least know the language. A person of Korean descent here is going to be expected to comply with Korean codes of cultural conduct, which actually leaves gyopos and the like in a fairly difficult position.

[madeinkorea]

Anyway I wanted to say that "My Neighbor Charles" does not show the real Korea. The real Korea are the hundreds of thousands of kr children that were ostracized from Korean society and send away for adoption, not the lovey-dovey family hypocrisy KBS likes to air. It's like those kr dramas where everybody seems to be living a happy comfortable life in modern highrise buildings and/or cosy rural settings... As if.