Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chronicpride]

[mithridates]

Good point. I've seen that before when the conversation was actually
��~ �ܱ����� ���� �;���~, �ܱ�...

[chronicpride]

One time, I saw some GI's get on at Samgakji station and some Korean schoolgirls were fascinated by them and said innocently to each other, �� �̱������� �ܱ���ó�� ����;�. And one of the GIs looked over at her and uttered a poorly pronounced Korean swear. I can't imagine the feelings of the poor girl who, up until that moment, held foreigners and living abroad, in such a positive regard.

[katydid]

Ok, so there's gaijin the Japanese word for foreigner.
There's farang the Thai word for foreigner.
There's gweilo the Chinese word for foreigner.
There's weigugin the Korean word for foreigner.

I am assuming that every other culture in Asia has a word to distinguish themselves from those unlike themself. I wonder, are their words like this in African languages, maybe even European ones? I'm just finding it hard to picture someone saying "That person isn't Greek" in a way meaning that the person is on the outside looking in, like there's the Greek then everyone else, and not just a visitor or what have you.

[Swiss James]

I remember overhearing a conversation at work a while ago and hearing �ܱ� blah-blah, I turned to the translator to find out what horrible vicious lies they were telling about me, when she explained they were talking about an foreign data interface.
Paranoia.

[dogbert]

Yes, I mean "waegookin" is as far as I'm concerned a neutral term and certainly the particle "waegook" is used as a prefix, so to speak, for anything not domestic. I wonder if some of the confusion doesn't come from a lot of people thinking that "waegook" itself (without the "in") means "foreigner".

[chronicpride]

[J.B. Clamence]

[chronicpride]

I see. Well, anyways, I think western folk naturally don't like being lumped into a label. Remember how pissed off so many people got over the 'Gen-X' label? Then the razzing that the 'metrosexual' inventor got? It makes us feel less unique.

[itaewonguy]

in Italian we call foreigners. stranieri meaning strangers - foreigners

[Sage Monkey]

[jajdude]

One feeling I have had in Korea, including Seoul, is like going into a strange small town, being an unknown element. It's like in the movies where some guy straggles into a local bar, and all the regular locals regard him with suspicion as they don't know if he's a troulemaker or not.

I actually had this feeling in my home province before. Me and my buddy went to a small town an hour or so away from our hometown. The locals in the bar, who looked like regulars, didn't exactly smile or greet us warmly, though I'm sure most likely they were all fine folks.

An even worse feeling sometimes is the feeling that you accidentally wandered into a stranger's house. Staying in a big apartment building or visiting one can evoke this feeling, especially if they rarely see foreigners around the building, or you might be the only one.

[Sage Monkey]