Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Len8]

Found this on another site, and thought it made some interesting points

http://koreanfriendfinder.com/intgroups/gi1701/qi9705/acview_thread_message.html?

post has since been deleted from original site


Following is the authors profile on KFF. Hard to believe someone studying abroad could have such a one sided warped view of life in Korea.
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i'm now in australia for my study and profession.
i'm majoring in "teaching languages other than english", which means that i'm gonna be a korean teacher in australia or english teacher endorsed by my previous degree. anyway, i'm really into language stuff. i have had a lot of experience in terms of the diversity of culture as i have many friends from different backgrounds. you can send me to Korean FriendFinder if you are interested
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In my experience of working as an English teacher in Korea, in fact, I used to live with other English teachers from English speaking countries.
I guess it's not only the problem of G.I but also other foreigners especially English speaking people in Korea. So, I want to generalize they are foreigners staying in Korea.


I would say what you are saying is true. Most foreigners want to have fun with Korean girls, mostly wanting to have a sex. And, some Korean girls are that easy.


I agree with the fact that there is not much entertainment for G.I and white English speakers who are mostly ESL teachers. And I agree with your comment, Mr., JaMeSnCoReA, about discrimination for foreigners in Korea because they are often treated by Korean like aliens.


But, Mr., JaMeSnCoReA. there is something you have to accept because cultural difference between Korea and other English speaking countries is very severe in the context.


Your country, USA, is a multicultural or culturally democratic society that accepts the differences of races, religions, and other ideologies. It means that your country has had much experience of dealing with foreigners through immigration policy or other political reasons. But, Korea is not. That is, Korea does not have much experience of being together with foreigners historically.


What I'm saying is what you are looking at Korean context is totally based on your perspective that there should not be discrimination; wherever he is from, he should be treated equally. Because you are grown up and educated in USA without any discrimination, I understand, you could say what you are seeing in Korea is discrimination.


However, we have a different value and cultural asset although Korea is rapidly westernized. When the value is threatened by one culture, it is inevitable to confront between two cultures. Korea is well known as a Confucian country. Even though Korea looks physically like a well-developed country in a western way, when you look at skyscrapers in Seoul, there are still some values based on the Confucian preach. For example, I believe that most Korean people still believe that there is only one forever love in his or her life time. In addition, you can not look at another guy and girl to be loyal to your marriage if you are married. You have to respect other people even if you don't know them well. You should be always responsible for what you have done.
Of course, there are some Korean people denying the value but, in the bottom of their hearts, there are the values.
Korean people have been grown up in such the context emotionally and ethically. Can you guess what kind of emotion or feeling is involved with the other Korean people looking at a foreigner hanging out with Korean girl?
Firstly, I guess psychologically the other Korean people would feel betrayed by a girl. Therefore, she would not look loyal in Korean perspective. Even though she enjoys freedom, because she does not care about what the other people feel about, the other people feel very uncomfortable with a girl hanging out with a foreigner who doesn't usually care about the other people either. It's your definition of freedom, not caring about others, isn't it? And, they look irresponsible because they try to enjoy their life without any commitments. Can you see the point?


On the other hand, Korea has not had positive experience of living with foreigners. Historically, Korea had had many battles and wars in about 5,000 year history. But, Korea rarely invaded into other countries. Through the experiences which would be traumatic, which you could say it is a part of war, our young girls and married women were kidnapped and raped.
Even in recent history, during the Japanese colonial period, thousands of Korean women were raped and killed. But, Korean government has not solved the problem yet with Japanese government.
Moreover, some foreigners made some serious violations like killing innocent elementary kids a few years ago. But, they denied the fact that they made the crimes, and Korean government could not punish them by law, which is not equally established, because they are from USA, which is the most powerful country in the world.
In addition, if a foreigner can get in Korean night club, if he did something wrong like rioting, especially if he is a G.I, Korean law can not punish him. So, to avoid that problem, a foreigner is not allowed to the clubs. So, what is the discrimination about?
Is Korea an independent country?
In this context, what would you feel about that if you were a Korean man?


I will not deny your point that some Korean men treat a girl that bad you mentioned. How about westerners? They seem to know quite well about how to treat women. Supposedly, they have been educated how to do that. But, I would say most foreigners are superficially treating korean girls to accomplish a goal to F**k them because they are staying a short time in Korea. And, not most Korean men treat girls that bad.


To add, I told you I used to live with some foreigners in Korea. They were my co-workers. They often introduced to me a girl and said that she is my new Korean girl friend. And then they kept changing their girl friend. And, they told me they need more experience. I used to say. "Yes, you can". They often said to me how easy Korean girls are. There are some Korean girls who foreigners can f**k with and have fun with. That may be true. I have seen many Korean girls wanting to have relationship with a foreigner because there is no responsibility they have to take. In this case, the mutual deal is established.


But, have you ever known what some Korean girls feel about her one-night-stand foreign boyfriend? Despite one-night enjoyment, most Korean girls would feel falling in love with the guy she slept with, because they are too loyal to their emotion generated by the value. And then, most foreigners stay in Korea for fun so they easily get over her, because there are many other girls out there for another fun.
What I can not stand is why the girls wanting to have fun with a foreigner is always crying in the last scene of the relationship for the separation as they couldn't forget about him. But, the foreigner never knows and guesses what they feel about him because a foreigner is from a different cultural background and so selfish sometimes. The girls are deserted as foreigners want freedom like easy come, easy go.


There are many Korean-foreign married couples living in Korea. I would cheer them up with clapping for their loyalty to their relationship, commitment and responsibility.

[Teufelswacht]

It would have been nice to also have the site name or URL posted.

[sheba]

This is not an attack, but rather a defense.

A very interesting read indeed...

[jaganath69]

This could spark a whole new thread on the quality of local english teachers. I bet he has a degree in englishee too

[rapier]

[quote="Len8"]

[shakuhachi]

I am at a friends place and do not have time to disect the egregious distortions in this text, but I will take a moment to confront one untruth.

[Maugrim]

This is one of the more interesting things I've read here. It's nice to have access to a different point of view.

That being said, even taking the language barrier in to account, whoever wrote it seems to have a pretty boiler plate viewpoint (aside from coming off as just a tad on the dull side). Not much deep thinking here.

I would really love to read of some wacky-progressive Korean social commentators (my embarrassingly poor Korean isn't getting me anywhere). They've got to have them somewhere. Who is the Korean Mark Twain? The Maupassant? The Orwell? The Fatema Mernisi? I refuse to believe that the pinnacle of Korean self-consciousness is the schlock I read in the English language dailies.

[Kimchi Cha Cha]

[peppermint]

Westerner= white man
English teacher =GI ( same same)

interesting leaps of logic she's got there.

[Gopher]

[deleted]

[Hollywoodaction]

[SHANE02]

[Ilsanman]

Korea also doesn't have 5000 years of history.

[PolyChronic Time Girl]

[Gollum]

Entertaining to say the least!

This is likely coming from one of those "goody-goody" Korean girls who has attend female-only schools since grade school, and is totally ignorant to function of the endless stream of adult motels, room salons, and barber shops which she passes on a weekly basis.

I'm sure every one of the ajosshis that enters those places is crying himself to sleep at night over how he has once again betrayed his "one true love."

Whomever put up the analogy of the Korean girl with 3 boyfriends was absolutely DEAD ON.

This woman obviously has no idea of what the rest of the world is like. I've been around the world (although certainly not as much as many of you here) and Korea is right up there in the top 5, a few notches below Thailand for prostitution and human traffiking.