Korean Job Discussion Forums

[harddrive]

What do you think? Is Korea more racist than other countries you have been to? Is it far more racist? Far less racist? Where have you been that was worse? I mean racist against whites, and against other ethnic people. More so against other ethnic people? What is up with the love/hate relationship Korea has with white people? Maybe we can narrow it down and just talk about Seoul.

How does it all play into the guy girl dating thing with foreigners and Korean men and Korean women? What have you experienced?

[Gopher]

[deleted]

[Gopher]

[deleted]

[Emu Bitter]

Lived in 3 countries, Aussie, England & Korea, married to an American, spent a fair amount of time there.
Korea clearly the most racist.

[jajdude]

I'm from Newfoundland, Canada. Racism is not a thought there (exceptions among the few ignoramuses disregarded, they are a small number I hope).

We simply do not think of it and do not care about it. I don't give a crap where you are from or what you look like. It simply never crosses my mind.

But I have been in Korea a long time. It matters a LOT to Koreans where you are from or what you look like.

I consider Koreans very racist!

I spent a year in Taiwan. I felt no racism there. In fact they seem welcoming and friendly to foreigners. Unlike Koreans.

Vietnam for 5 months. I understand there is some racism there. But their poverty has to make allowances.

Thailand seems quite tolerant. But poverty must allow that. Would you be racist if your daughter could marry someone 10 times as wealthy as you are?

[Emu Bitter]

Good point about Thailand, mate.
This is just my personal experience, but I find Americans & English more regionalist than racist.

[mnovak]

I think Korea is racist and is more racist that most other I've
been to. Having said that, I have encountered racism in
every country I've been to.

A lot of people here have the believe that Koreans, as a group,
are superior to everyone else. This contrasts with most
other countries (but certainly not all) where the racism
is more focused on a certain group (usually a minority group
or a neighboring nation). It's less of the Korean "we
are superior" but more of the "they are inferior" attitude,
if that makes sense.

I think that the Korean attitude is due to the fact that
very few Koreans could leave this country in the 1950-1985
period. The latter part of the period also coincided with
the start of an amazing economic growth in Korea, which
led many to believe, until the crisis of 1997, that it
would never stop and that there were no limits to what
Korea could achieve.

Only in recent times have koreans been moving abroad,
studying, traveling. And, in fact, even now, in many cases their
experiences abroad are very limited as they stick together,
tend to socialize with only other koreans or travel in groups.
It's only when they start to access information from other
sources (non korean) will their attitude change (and even than
it will take time) and that's why it would be great to see
their English improve.

In Korea, for whatever reason, whites have an easier time
than other groups. Although a lot of Koreans do believe
all sorts of nasty things about whites and now "teachers" of
course, it is nothing compared to the treatment the 3D
workers from Sth East Asia, Bangladesh, Pakistan etc.
receive. Having befriended some of the workers from those
countries, I was really appalled to lean how they are
being treated. Obviously people in those positions were
never going to command much respect but their
complaints are of being treated as sub-humans and trash.
Some of them are actually quite well educated and knowledgeable
about the world -- more than most koreans, certainly.

I think what makes Korea a little unusual is that other countries
of similar economic strength have laws protecting different
groups from discrimination, while Korea is still catching up.
I can understand not being welcome based on my appearance
in some drinking hole in a backalley or a slum of a bigger city
anywhere in the world, but here in korea it seems any club
or any establishment, even an up market one, can put a sign
outside saying: "Americans not welcome here",
"Non Koreans not welcome" etc. and there is not much
you can do.

Finally, if anyone is still reading this, Korea as we all know is
a patriarchal society and there is certain group greatly resisting
change here. I was just thinking of my 3D worker example
and I remembered what happened recently in my hogwon.
My alcoholic, middle aged boss, who obviously got wasted
the night before, screamed, in front of everyone (even the kids) at one
of the koreans teachers. She was meant to call all the parents
but failed to do so because she had to catch the last bus
at 11 pm. She recently got married and he screamed at her,
"Your husband must be embarrassed to have you now.
I'm sure he will divorce you soon." He does this once every two
weeks or so, usually after a big night (or while still being drunk).

[Moldy Rutabaga]

It's a sad fact that humans are racist everywhere-- or at least something-ist. When I lived in Newfoundland, sometimes there was prejudice against me for being a 'mainlander', or there were townie vs. baymen prejudices-- but certainly these were minor irritants.

Nevertheless, mostly it is irritation and not death threats like a Serb or Croat might experience. Maybe the food is monotonous, but it's still pretty safe here.

Ken:>

[Ya-ta Boy]

I'm going to be a little contrarian here. I think there are plenty of bigots in Korea, just like every place. I don't think there is racism though. To me, bigots dislike, distrust other people based on ethnicity, class, nationality or other factors. Racism is the legal institutionalization of bigotry. I don't think that happens in Korea. I don't think the government notices when a "NO Foreigner" sign goes up. I'm pretty sure there isn't a law about it.

Except for soldiers who were kept isolated on bases most of the time, foreigners didn't live here in any numbers at all until 20 years ago. Now there are quite a few living, scattered among the Korean population. This is a new phenomenon for Koreans. A couple of years ago, when it became widely known how bad conditions were for guest workers, NGOs pressured the government to reform the system to better protect them. In addition, almost everyone here says Koreans are generally very warm and friendly. The 'rock star of the neighborhood' thing is real. That couldn't happen in a racist country.

[inthewild]

I'll go with the line... there are racist people, not racist countries.

I know, I know, generalizing is a bitch... we all do it. But still.

[bossaco]

i always tell my husband that it's so unfortunate that the koreans only source for information is their media and their government... so most of the time, they believe what they learn from them... even if korea is the broadband capital of the world and everybody has access to internet, most of them just get their information from korean sources... still they don't have access to a wider source of information because of their limited language capability...

[itaewonguy]

[billybrobby]

[billybrobby]

[Corporal]