blueskies
Joined: 15 Jun 2006
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 Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 7:27 am Post subject: |
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| Cheonmunka wrote: |
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| If they (directors/owners) were SMARTER, they'd understand the VALUE of having a teacher who can speak English AND Korean, and understand both cultures. They can help students (especially older ones) with difficult questions, and they can also help co-workers understand each other. |
These are the ideal staff for language teaching.
However this ability with dual language competancy is not restricted to race. There are a handful of foreigners who fit the bill with dedication to Korea, second language ability, and teaching certification.
Because they are (no matter whether living in Korea 20 years with Korean citizenship) still simply regarded as 'foreigners' (damned skin color, long nose and wide eyes!) it's hard for them to find acceptance among the general population.
When I am with my wife and children, we sometimes take the train people really enjoy my (mixed) children and fawn about them. I am treated very well with smiles of encouragement.
But sometimes I have to take the cheerless train alone and sometimes, seldom but now and then, I hear things like '저 개새끼 양놈 봐.'
This makes my life very difficult and is the kind of langauge I am sure, as a 교포, you do not hear.
I can't help think that Korean Americans have a much easier time of it than a caucasian-Korean who has been here many years longer. In my own mind I am assimilated into this culture. Yet, on the outside how can I be?
So, going back, there are many Korean Americans who have found success easier and faster than I.
I am still struggling for my family to get ahead. And restrictions in the past, and attempts to restrict in the present, based on my foreign-ness, far more restrictive than for 동포 and 교포 alike, have enabled this inequity. |
It�s awful the hateful ignorant things that come out of people's mouths sometimes. I can't read hangul so I had to look up what you wrote character by character. No doubt it must get to you at times. I can't say that I have been called such a derogatory name but was told by one of the older head Korean teachers that I was pretending to be white and that good Korean parents would have made me learn Korean. I know I'm not the only non-Korean speaking gyopo to have had things said about our parent's parenting skills. Personally, I thought my parents did a great job raising me. They faced a lot of discrimination when they immigrated to the US coupled with the language barrier. My parents taught me to be independent, to think for myself, and to not worry about what others think (so un-Korean of them, how could they?). It bums me out to have to deal with sometimes very narrow-minded, judgmental people whose opinions, as others have mentioned here, are based on ignorance and lack of contact with people different from themselves. I feel for you and the difficulties you face as someone with a family who�s just trying to live a normal life in an environment that constantly reminds you are different.
It's not easy. I'm really thankful for some of the wonderful Korean people I've met here that helped me to keep my perspective when I just wanted to go home. |
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