Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jajdude]

How weird is it that a stranger cares what you and another stranger are up to?

I can sort of understand the girl's family having some concern, but strangers need to mind their own business.

Hell, I guess you could be a Russian man out with a Japanese girl, and get the same reaction from a Chinese man in Canada!

[Paddycakes]

I lived in Korea for almost three years with a full Korean (my wife), we also have a baby together who looks very Western.

In all the time I lived in Korea, I have never been attacked or pushed around by angry Korean men.

Sure you get some looks, but an inter-racial relationship is an oddity in this very homogenous place, so what do you expect?

And the baby: She was bloody celebrity here. The Koreans would always come up to us to tell us how cute she is. They wouldn't do that for other Korean babies who looked like real Koreans. After awhile though that got annoying, and my wife got sick of all the extra attention.

Reading this thread makes me think either you guys are really paranoid or you're living in some kind of parallel Korea. And before you say it, I wasn't living in Seoul or Busan either.

[Real Reality]

[denverdeath]

Racism? Sure, there's enough of it here. A lot of it has to do with ignorance more than anything else. Please don't forget that there's still a s#$tload of it back home. I would say that 75-80% of the Koreans here really don't give a rat's ass either about you or your dating practices. 5-10% wouldn't want a foreigner near their most-distant, deceased relative. The final 5-10% think it would be heaven to be married to, or have their son/daughter married to, a foreigner; even though the reality may be hell. I've been in Korea more than seven years, in towns both small and large, and have really only had 2-3 somewhat serious incidents, one of which involved some dumb-ass ahh-juhhhh-shi who was all stressed about Choo-suhk. I told him to f#*k-off and pointed my finger in his face and told him, "You, GO!" in Korean, and he went. Having said all this crap, I feel much safer here than I did in my little backwater back home. Use your common sense and treat your partner with respect wherever you are with them and the problems you face will be limited.

[Paddycakes]

Real Reality wrote:

[Real Reality]

Are these examples of racism or protectionism or both?

Strict league regulations dictate the terms under which foreign athletes can play,...There is a salary cap of $280,000 that must be divided between the two players. Their Korean counterparts can earn considerably more; Mr. McHone says that star players make between $350,000 and $400,000. "We do the work," Mr. Lang says wryly, "but we're at the bottom of the totem pole." But it's impossible to ignore the foreign presence on the court, especially on the scoreboard. Mr. Won, the Thunders' translator, says he believes the two Americans take 60 to 80 percent of the playing load during any given game. Their contracts are rarely renewed for a second season, and the coaches consider constant turnover good for the team. Each team is allowed two changes in their foreign roster per year, meaning both players could potentially be replaced mid-season. Teams frequently exercise that option in pursuit of better players.
by Chanel White and Kim Sun-jung, JoongAng Daily (February 14, 2005)
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200502/13/200502132231128609900092309231.html

E-1 (Professors) Visa
A. The Object of Visa Issuance....
*In the case of a national or a public university, a foreigner is not permitted to be a full-time professor.
[Republic of Korea] Ministry of Justice, Immigration Bureau
http://www.moj.go.kr/HP/ENG/eng_03/eng_306030.jsp

[pest2]

Yes, I think anyone who has lived in Korea for a period of time might reach the conclusion that the people there can seem a little xenophobic at times..

But... maybe.... whereas some people in other cultures become that way because they need a scapegoat to place the blame for thier own misfortunes upon, some (well, alot of) Koreans become this way because they have been in a long historic struggle to preserve thier cultural uniqueness. Not just once in history did they nearly become just a part of some other country-- ie China or Japan. And yet, they always managed to stay, KOREAN... and this fact is as important to a Korean as "God given rights upheld by the US Constitution" are to any American.

So the Koreans have a tradition of doing what they can to stay Korean. They dont call it "the hermit kingdom" for nuttin'. They don't like it when a foreigner intermixes his or her blood with that of a Korea because each time that happens, the culture becomes a little more diluted.. of course, each and every Korean doesnt just rationalize it this specifically or at all... in fact, due the nature of 'dogmatic confucianism' that guides the culture in Korea, most Koreans don't think about anything at all except to follow rules set forth by elders in the Koreans' confucian heirarchy chain... so the father of the father said that Korean blood should stay Korean and particularly the blood of this family should stay the only the blood of this family so the son and grandsons think the same way as well since one of the chief rules in the confucian dogmatic book state, "do what your parents tell you without question"... and they think that way because to do otherwise would not be representative of the kind of dogmatic behavior that makes thier society run smoothly and efficiently; as if by robots on a Asimov-like program... haha...

so, the "racism" isnt exactly racism at all but something more like the effect of a wierd computer program-like behavior designed to maintain racial integrity in a world in which that integrity has been repeatedly threatened.

[jajdude]

[jaykimf]

[buymybook]

[Gollum]

[pest2]

When I worked in Korea, I knew a guy who was told not to come to a "hot place" by it owner because he has a non-infectious skin problem that, nonetheless, looks bad when he has his clothes off I guess... so he got one of the korean teachers to write, in Korean, on a sign, "this place discriminates against foreigners... etc etc.." He went to the place to picket. The next day, he came in with a black eye... so anyway I guess the point of the story is that just like any people, Koreans don't want to be seen as racist or accused of racism... in fact, if you ever try hinting to them that they are, they, like anyone else, become irately defensive about it.

[just because]

[Paddycakes]

[seungwun]