Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Dev]

How do you feel in this country? As a visible minority, I often feel like an outsider. Lots of staring at me and the constant chatter of "weh-gun-nin, weh-gun-nin" behind my back. At other times, I get VIP treatment, but it just feels like they want to impress me. It all feels so fake to me. How do you feel? Are Koreans Xenophobic? What's the deal here? I get a bad vibe around them. I don't get this bad vibe in other Asian countries nearly as much. Thailand is an example where I feel like a welcomed guest.

[flotsam]

The mother of all .

Jesus Tapdancing Christ.

[ajuma]

Maybe I've been here so long that I don't notice the stares, or maybe it's the community I live in, but I feel like I'm home. No staring, no "hello chorus", no celebrity status. I'm just a part of the community!

[OCOKA Dude]

[Dev]

[quote="OCOKA Dude"]

[seoulsista]

I have lived in a country before where I really did feel like a welcomed guest nearly all the time. This experience in Korea has definately been different. Both countries had staring, "hello" brigades, and "getting to know you conversations." The difference (all of which can be explained away via the culture arguement) is that the conversations didn't end when the person ran out of English phrases. People rarely if ever got irritated or laughed when I spoke to them in their own language. People invited and recieved invitations to people's houses. People also encouraged me to participate in their cultural norms whether it be eating with your hands or wearing the traditional clothing etc. Hate to qualify it in such simple terms but it was a radically "better" experience.

Remembering that feeling has always made Korea a disappointment in comparison. I wish I didn't compare the two but it's always in the back of my mind.

[ajuma]

[JongnoGuru]

[OiGirl]

How do you act in Korea, like a guest or like an outsider?

[captain kirk]

Dev, I know where you're coming from and I think it all depends on one's mood at the moment. Sometimes you just don't want to be gawked at and treated like an amusing novelty. When you feel like that you are feeling lonely and want to be unconditionally accepted. Like your feet are on home soil, generations worth.

But there are Koreans around looking at you like you're 'completely different'. WTH! The genetic difference between someone whose forefathers are from Scotland and a person whose ancesters are Korean isn't worth so much apparent fuss. This is the kind of thing you think when you're in a lonely mood.

I'm sorry if the mention of the word 'lonely' sound maudlin but then it's as dramatic as the word expatriate. Sometimes I wonder what it would feel like to go to where my genetic heritage supposedly lies, northern Scotland. Would people look like me, think like me, and it would be just so totally right(?). Like an experience of total union, a kind of bliss....

It's the moments of longing when the irritation comes up, a mood thing. It's totally understandable. Don't you notice that getting over it makes you more stongly tied to the people you're with, whatever their race. You sort of get through it together....Koreans are having, perhaps, a homeland bliss feeling going on and take you in, given the communal consciousness/ mode of their society.

[Hyeon Een]

In response to the OP, I feel like a Welcome Outsider. I don't feel like a local, and I don't feel like I'm not wanted. Locals like me to be here but they, and I, know I'm less yellow than them.

[captain kirk]

Well, you know what I mean. Koreans are here in their 'Scotland'. The facial features and appearance rings bells with them, they can look at each other and appreciate kinship. I'm sorry if this sounds maudlin/longing again but Dev has a point and I think his OP is emotional and about the expat experience. People can tell him to go home, sure.

It's kind of interesting because that deep attachment between countrymen is lost to the expat but something keeps them going in spite of the discomfort, or lack of complete comfort. Dev's probably wondering what the heck he's doing here, having a Planet of the Apes experience, in those odd, reoccuring moments when it all seems surreal and poignantly superficial.

It's easy to get self-conscious about 'being alone'. Koreans, on the other hand, are almost never alone, are they? So I doubt they have such heavy, 'to be or not to be' musings in which the consciousness of a lonely bell of a soul resounds with, vibrating, 'wannabeeeeee.....wearing a kilt in Scotlandddddd.......'.

[Hyeon Een]

[The Bobster]

[VanIslander]

BOTH