Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Koreabound2004]

I teach high schoolers.

Today I played a game with some of them...where I put 3-5 students at the front of the class, and I tell them to talk about a given topic(cars, books, Canada) until I say stop...if they pause to think or stop talking at any point, they are out of the game. They only have to talk for maybe 15-30 seconds at a time, but this is quite a challenge............

Anyways, today I said, "Mi Hee, talk about Africa."

The first words she said were, "I don't like Africa, because I don't like the colour of their skin." The other students roared with laughter...

I didn't interrupt the game at that point...but I would like to teach them at some other time, that such attitudes are not acceptable. Maybe this behaviour is common or acceptable among other Koreans, but this is something that they need to learn about, and no one else will likely ever teach them that it is wrong. It is 2005, and people should not think that way in this day in age....regardless of where they live. There is no excuse. We are all human!

I encountered this sort of thinking last semester, and I taught my students about racism, prejudice, etc and the importance of accepting all people regadless of age, gender, ability, race... and other foreigners here told me not to do it, that they didn't know any better and I should leave it alone....but if I don't do something, they will never know that it is wrong, and this sort of thinking will continue. This is high school....they should know by now...it's not as if I am teaching elementary(or am I?).

I am so tired of kids telling me that their skin is nice b/c it's white, or that they need white skin. I am darker than most Koreans and other foreigners working here, and I ask my students, "Am I ugly because of my skin colour?" Of course they would never tell me to my face...but this sort of stuff just needs to stop. I am so sick of it. I know it's not my culture, not my country, and I need to respect that...but I am here to teach them from a Western perspective, and to share my culture, and in doing so, I believe that I should educate them about such matters. I truly hope that you do the same in your classes.

[sadsac]

It's a difficult culture to change. They are taught to be racist. They see nothing wrong in making statements such as your student made. I've had some very intense discussions with my adult classes about the inherent racism in Korea and they see no fault in it. Good luck!

[matthewwoodford]

Yes, tell them it's bad. Tell them that kind of talk is unacceptable where you come from. I think you'll set yourself up for disappointment if you hope to change attitudes overnight but they should certainly know how racism is viewed in other countries.

[julian_w]

yeah,
completely agree.

Totally support you in going for achieving whatever you can. Challenge them to the hilt.

And at the same time, look after yourself, emotionally.
It is emotionally exhausting work, because it can so often seem like a bottomless pit into which you can endlessly through effort and enthusiasm for what seems like zero reward. Speaking from very recent and closely related experience.

Challenge yourself to keep positive, and think of creative things you can do to support yourself.

eg. I worked with a staunch Canadian woman in my first job in Corea. She was a smoker and had real difficulty being told not to smoke in public while all the silly young men were dangling their little white phallic symbols around in public.
She made posters and teaching resources from western magazines and internet pics. of beautiful women smoking etc. and including those pictures in her resources somehow.

As an adaptation of that, I'd probably look at doing some such poster-resources for my class walls with pictures of Halle Berry, or Bianca Jagger or ... hmm. You get the picture. (Who else is there? What guys are there?)

Just a start.

Any other ideas out there?

[dogbert]

That's all Koreans need -- some nutty nicotine addict convincing them that not enough of them smoke already.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I've never had anything so bad about Africans, despite teaching guides that have a 'typical' African dressed up in a loincloth holding a spear. I get some anti-Americanism that's pretty funny. I'm anti-American in the sense I'm very anti-Bush myself (other things about America I really like), so it's not like it bothers me. But it's fun to ask them how many Japanese the Americans killed and get their reaction.

[Koreabound2004]

I cut out faces from my magazines....people from all cultures....and I made it into a huge collage and put it on a bulletin board...it's pretty obvious that I am trying to promote all cultures...today the kids pointed out all the darker people in the collage and laughed and made fun....it really can get you down....but I am gonna keep at it. If I can change even a few peoples opinions, I will be satisfied with my efforts.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[julian_w]

if you have vocab lists or similar,
include words like 'stereotype,' 'social expectations,' 'mindless conformity,' 'monotonous uniformity,' 'diversity,' (...re: size, for a variation of topic - 'voluptuous,' 'buxom' ...) and of course 'beauty.'

Give points to whomsoever can offer the best definition for each.

Or, for homework, get them to study different definitions of beauty/ attractiveness across cultures and eras.
eg. Samoa, where a wife has something like greater status with greater size;
or, ...was it the Raphaelite era in art with all the extra-well-proportioned nudes...;
look at the 70s (wasn't it...?) when westeners were obsessed with getting tanned to a crisp, before the awareness of skin-cancer risks. (And you can find an interesting set of pics. of Paris Hilton online (apparently...) 'before' and 'after' what's supposed to have been cosmetic surgery. Far as I can tell the biggest change in those pics is her skin colour and use of make-up.)

Also, another tack could be to look at the whole rise of consumerism, fashion and fads, which can be fairly directly traced back to that 'Sun-King' dude, Louis 14th of France; and then link it to the pervasiveness of US and western fashion media and the power of marketing.

Heh. Yeah, i know: how to put it all in simple terms for esl high-school students...?!

Well, if you manage to develop any ideas and get some good material or experiences out of it, share them here, and see if we can't spread a few more ideas.

[keithinkorea]

Racism is disgusting. The best way to combat racism is to present them with positive black men and women such as Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.

Racism should be commented on. African people are not 'funny' they don't wear bones through there noses, white people don't all have huge noses.

Black people are not ugly some of them are stunningly beautiful.

[Zark]

I don't figure that they hired me to teach social mores or for cultural engineering. My contract is for teaching English.

If I can bend an attitude through some sort of deductive thinking or activity in which they see the light on their own - it is likely to be far more effective than just telling them it is "wrong".

I spent five years in Saudi where any kind of political (and EVERYTHING was/is political) was expressly "forbidden" And you know what - they were right - they didn't hire me to change their culture or society. Pretty much the same here.

The only real saviour of this culture is international travel (where they can experience that so much of the crap they were told is flat wrong) - and they are traveling in fantastically greater numbers than 12-13 years ago. You might be quite surprised how different some of the thinking is - even in that short time.

I agree with all of you about the primitiveness of their attitudes - but flapping our angel wings in disgust - solves nothing. Though it might help you feel better.

[crazylemongirl]

I don't cover current events in my classroom. Personally I don't think it's up to us to teach morals. We can answer questions, about what our own experiences are but it's not up to us evanglize them about the evils of korea. The kids can decide their own set of personal morals when they are good and bloody well ready.

[funplanet]

Try to get them to understand that those attitudes just are not acceptable if they think they are gonna be the Hub of NE Asia and play on the big porch with the big dogs....

they need to understand most of the civilized world abhors that way of thinking....

[captain kirk]

For any foreigner in Korea racism is a personal issue. Foreigners have issues about racism, an axe to grind.
The racism of Koreans is something harmless, good sport. At least as far as they're concerned.
For class to remain friendly I don't talk about racism. Too close to home. They, the students, could never understand how it impacts the foreigner....and I don't think they care to understand.
Best to keep things light.

[redbird]