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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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Marlboro
Joined: 31 Jul 2006
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 Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 3:57 am Post subject: |
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ive only been here a few days and i met a black guy,and im not seen as 'white' myself either,so see how that pans out,woohoo  |
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Anne0
Joined: 30 Nov 2005
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| Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 6:13 am Post subject: |
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| mamaille wrote: |
I recently decided to come to Korea to teach and knew that it would be different for me as a black person.
I didn't have a problem getting interviews and offers but one recruiter made me start thinking about the racism there. He told me that Koreans don't like to hire black people and I should feel previleged that he's offering me a position. HE would hate for me to pass it up and not get anything else. I couldn't believe that he said that to me. He was obviously trying to scare me into taking the position but I knew there were some truths to his comments.
I started wondering what my experience would be like as a black person.
I'm learning on this forum that there aren't that many blacks there and I can't even prepare for the experience but I won't let that deter me from going.
Unfortunately, racism is something a lot of us can't avoid. |
Well, i'm a black female and i've lived here for 8 months now. The job I work at has a *very* international group of peopleso I can't say anything about jobs not hiriing black people.
What I CAN say is I haven't met any discrimination from being black in the 8 months that i've been here. I live in Bundang which is a very weathly area. I work at an English Town and the cities of seongnam and bundang send their students here for one week at a time. When I ask the bundang kids where they learnt english I get answers like "oh i lived all over europe" or "I lived in (US/canadian city) for (x amount of) years". So yeah. Very weathly place.
What I get are people tend to talk to me more. When they do ask where i'm from America is the first thing out of their mouths. If I DON'T say yes to america within 2 seconds then they ask canada and then africa. There have been some people who ask if I speak English. There are so many "black" people from so many different countries that I don't take offence to that. I could be from africa. I could be from france. How would they know. But they ask first and I think it's very good that they don't assume you are from somewhere they ask where are you from.
The othere thing I get are a lot of free things. The most recent happened last monday. Monday was my last free day before a two week camp and so I was trying to buy a weeks worth of cloths to compliment the weeks worth I already have. So I was buying these skirts and speaking the little amount of korean I know. After I bought the skirt the sales lady quickly took this beautiful green necklace out showed it to me for a millisecond and then stuffed it in my bag. Then she smiled this i'm not supposed to do that smile and said "service" (free for anyone who doesn't know).
Or like when I was in samsung plaza and walked by these middle school kids. Man they woulkdn't leave me alone. They kept saying "what is your name" "where are you from" "you are very pretty" "I love you" (and making the heart sign with their bodies). It took me 5 minutes to get away they had me completly surrounded!
At my school on saturday we teach everyone including parents. At first I was very nervous because I thought they might be racist to black people but no. They were very happy to be in my class and after class they'd ask me to take pictures with them and ask for my phone number and/or e-mail and i'm talking rich 60 year old korean women.
Oh yeah and I tend to get surrounded by korean women as they talk about how pretty I am to each other in korean. The whole time touching my arms and face.
Koreanmen also hit on me a lot. It's fine most the time but sometimes I get the black girl obsses korean men and they creep me out cause they spend the whole time talking about h ow much they love black people and how happy they are that i'm talking to them because they love black people so much. That makes me very uncomfortable.
The taxi drivers like to talk to me too. It's only a short drive from samsung plaza (my local hang out spot) to my english town but they spend the whole time asking every question they can and if I speak korean then they REALLY talk me ear off the whole time cause they think I can understand. I do understand enough to respond but I sit in dread of the question that I can't answer cause I don't understand the words>.<.
The taxi driver are cool but sometimes I get taxi driver who spend the whole time asking me why I don't have a korean boyfriend. During that time I sit there wishing the taxi ride would end already.
So yeah, I'm african-american, i live in a rich area, i've visited many places in seoul and i've had nothing but positive experiences in the 7 months i've been here. That's all I can say really.
There;s another black female here and she hasn't said anything to me about experiencing discrimination. She gets the same treatment I do. Like she went to a hot bath or spa or somepplace where you have to take your cloths off and people scrub you down. She says they speant the whole time touching her skin. Which is the same thing people do to me.
Anyways i'm just saying. It's not like discrimination is not there. But it's laos not like your skin is dark so your going to get discriminated against. I think it all depends on the people you encounter.
[edit] just in case your wondering. someone said that they were more likely to experice discrimination in the rich areas and that's why I made a point of saying I live in a rich area and I have recieved nothing but positive thing. I also made sure to only mention things that happened to me in this place where people are more likely to discriminate against me. |
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C76
Joined: 11 Jul 2003
Location: not nearly near enough to Toronto
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| Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:04 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for posting, Anne0. I appreciate you sharing your perspective. I've been keeping an eye on this thread.
*Back to lurking* |
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geedog
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Location: Seoul, SK
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| Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 6:23 am Post subject: |
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I'm of Chinese descent and I've had no problem teaching English in Korea. The only thing is everyone here thinks I'm Korean and speak Korean to me. It's quite funny.
The Daily Kimchi - http://thedailykimchi.blogspot.com |
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yospeck
Joined: 29 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 8:02 am Post subject: |
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Avenue Q said it best when they said everyones a little bit racist. Unfortunately its just ignorance, which in my opinion you cant always blame the person for, if you're brought up all your life being told one thing then its hard to break the mold. So when your boyfriend hears 'we thought black people were bad but you made us think otherwise', even thought I'm not black myself and can understand where you are coming from, for nationals from a closed off country such as Korea to say this, then its probably IS a big compliment.
Is it right that black people find it harder to get a job here? No.
Is it right that it is the ignorant teaching a new generation their same ignorant ideals? No.
Racism is everywhere. Anyone who says they arn't slightly racist is just a liar or in denial in my opinion. |
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i_teach_esl
Joined: 07 Sep 2006
Location: baebang, asan/cheonan
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| Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:28 pm Post subject: |
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i am still in the states. a couple of months ago, i decided to pursue a job teaching abroad. i was raised in the states and am Black and Filipino.
everyone i have pm'ed in the forums tell me to stay away from korea. 
i appreciate everyone's concern, but honestly, i didnt become black yesterday. i deal with racism every day. maybe i cant say, b/c im not there, but it seems to me that the only difference between here and korea is that koreans will be more upfront about their prejudices. the onlyblack person ive met in the forums thus far is a sister who wrote to me, "It's no different than being home. You find things you like about it and you find things you absolutely can't stand about it too." i believe her.
being black has never stopped me from doing anything. it's made some things harder, for sure, but stopped me... naw. |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 6:47 pm Post subject: |
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| i_teach_esl wrote: |
i am still in the states. a couple of months ago, i decided to pursue a job teaching abroad. i was raised in the states and am Black and Filipino.
everyone i have pm'ed in the forums tell me to stay away from korea.
i appreciate everyone's concern, but honestly, i didnt become black yesterday. i deal with racism every day. maybe i cant say, b/c im not there, but it seems to me that the only difference between here and korea is that koreans will be more upfront about their prejudices. the onlyblack person ive met in the forums thus far is a sister who wrote to me, "It's no different than being home. You find things you like about it and you find things you absolutely can't stand about it too." i believe her.
being black has never stopped me from doing anything. it's made some things harder, for sure, but stopped me... naw. |
Nice post!
Honestly.. there are tons of 'non-whites' teaching all over the place in Korea.. and many of them are having a good time here. Others don't.. no different than any other individual who comes here.
A major pet peeve of mine is hearing fellow caucasians discouraging non-caucasians into coming here.. I don't get the motivation either.
Usually its along the lines of claiming themselves to be tolerant but these evil racist Koreans won't let that tolerancence of theirs shine.. and if they can't personally take it being so tolerant themselves.. then someone who isn't white certainly won't be able to tolerate it. (That is usually the feeling I get when I hear caucasians telling non-caucasians not to come). |
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i_teach_esl
Joined: 07 Sep 2006
Location: baebang, asan/cheonan
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| Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 7:18 pm Post subject: |
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