Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ejmlab]

I've been showing my high school students the movie Napolean Dynamite this week (the week before final exams) and I've noticed that when Kip (Napolean's older brother) greets his girlfriend Lafawnduh off of the bus that my students have a bit of a meltdown (She's a black lady). I've even heard a couple of "monkey" comments. It immediately raises my "ire" but I haven't addressed the issue because I feel that the movie deals with the subject quite well. This isn't the first time in the past couple of weeks that I've heard the monkey comment. Two weeks ago I was doing a World Cup lesson and the book had a picture of Henri heading the ball. It was right around the Togo game and I heard a few students make the monkey comment. I read another thread in which someone mentioned a World Cup skit on Korean TV portraying the Togo team as monkeys. It's really shocking to me because my students are usually very good, academic oriented and realtively worldly (a few in each class have lived abroad for extended periods of time). Has anybody experienced these monkey comments lately? If so how have you dealt with them?

Cheers

[dogbert]

If you follow Korean bulletin boards, you can find many comments comparing Japanese to monkeys. For some reason, Koreans feel it's a huge insult to Japanese to call them monkeys.

I like to tell people who say that if the Japanese are monkeys then how does it feel to have been ruled over by monkeys for decades? Them must be some special kind of monkeys.

[ejmlab]

hmmm...interesting. So is the monkey comment just a general term of derision amongst Koreans. I know I've heard it before but since World Cup began I've been hearing it frequently.

[mithridates]

[Newbie]

I've been called monkey once or twice just as a result of showing my arm hair (and I am far from hairy)

Don't be surprised when it comes from kids, it happends all over the world. It's when the adults are still doing it that you have to wonder.

[laogaiguk]

[doggyji]

[thursdays child]

I'm always calling kids monkeys - coz they're ALWAYS touching each other and picking at each other..... drives me bananas.

[ejmlab]

[stumptown]

[djsmnc]

If kids saying someone is a monkey is stressful and aggravating to you, it sounds like you have it pretty good...

[Qinella]

[huffdaddy]

[Billy Pilgrim]

I don't think anyone can argue that Koreans aren't racist when it comes to African countries. Hopefully a bit more exposure to the outside world will fix them, but until then, I say come down hard on any students who suggest it.

[Natalia]