Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Don Gately]

I'd just like to say "thank god" that someone finally started this thread. I mean, you hardly ever hear Canadians talking about what it's like to be Canadian. You pretty much have to hold them down and twist their arms to have them tell you what's great about Canada, how Canada is different from your country and how being Canadian informs their experiences in Korea.

Hell, a lot of the Canadians I've met I would have never known they were Canadian unless I'd really pinned them down on it. They're very understated and modest. It's not like they walk around with flags or anything.

[Bladewarrior]

Really Gately? You've found it difficult to find out whose Canadian? I guess for me, it's always just been one of the first questions I ask people, hoping to find another Canadian to relate to...

[travel zen]

Now,

I went to Oedo Island with my gf, and I wore my modest Canadian pin.

When the ferry driver saw the pin, he asked "Canada?" I said yep.

He started to cry! Then he related a story about his children going to Canada (from his hand gestures) and he cried some more. In front of the whole travel group of Koreans!

Wow. That's some love.

I asked my gf to translate, but she said that the southern Koreans speak a different dialect and she couldn't understand. Too bad. He shook my hand at the end of the day. Proud? Yes, I am

[Don Gately]

[Kimchi Cowboy]

We, as Canadians, have very little sense of our own identity and our "place in the world". We define ourselves not by what we are, but instead, by what we are not.



Or so we would have everyone within earshot believe.





There's your chapter. Hell, that's your whole book.




(Edited 'cos of the wine.)

[neandergirl]

Four or five years ago while walking passed a department store in Daegu I was accosted by a group of Koreans yelling 'Yankee go home!'. Since then, when I'm with people I won't see again (like taxi drivers etc) I make a point of telling people (when asked) I'm American (I'm not) just because.

[Pak Yu Man]

[Maserial]

[darkhorse_NZ]

[oskinny1]

[jajdude]

[twg]

[Geckoman]

You can often tell who is a Canadian by who is bashing America. Many Canadians love to bash America. Bashing America is part of the mainstream culture in Canada. So many Canadians get brainwashed by the mainstream anti-American culture of Canada and so become full-time America bashers. It's the truth.

If you ever spend much time with Canadians, particularly if you have gone up and lived among them in their country, you will discover a people that have an identity crisis. They are wantabee Brits and will praise England ("London is the greatest city in the world," etc.). After all, they still have the Queen of England as their head-of-state (and whom still has legal power). One would think that the head-of-state of Canada would at least be a Canadian. And they are haters of America and want everyone to know that they are not American. In their attempt to prove that they are not American they will bash America. But in reality Canadians are so much more similiar to Americans then they are to Brits.

It is this identity crisis of being a wantabee Brit and wanting to prove that they are not American that is the Canadian national character. The Canadian mainstream culture of being anti-America is quite sad. It really is. You might find a Vietnamese guy whose brother got killed by the American military during the Vietnam War, and that guy will say: "I have no hatred toward the US or the American people." And yet you will find Canadians who never suffered a single harm from America and yet who will have such venom of hatred toward America that it boggles the mind as to why this Canadian hates America so much. I speak the truth.

[Homer]

First off...good luck with the book project.

As for being a Canadian in Korea....it does open your eyes about many things. You are confronted with being a visible minority (often for the first time if you are white for example) and with living in a mono-ethnical society.

Living here opens your eyes to how Canada is perceived for sure but also about the big gap between what people in Canada project (open to differences for example) and what they are when confronted with the reality of differences in a society that is not geared in their favor...now thats an interesting discovery and a real eye-opener....

[pest2]