Korean Job Discussion Forums

[T-J]

[edwardcatflap]

[/quote] I would like to know if you're actully objecting to what she said or the translation of what she said. If it's the former then what is it specifically that she said that you find out of step? Does the Korean national anthem strike you as racist as well? Should 대한 사람 be stricken from the chorus?
[quote]

Lots of people on here, going by the subtitles, object to her talking about the racial homogenity of Korea as if it was a positive attribute. If that's not what she really said, why don't you, PatrickgBusan, Cedar or anyone else with a superior knowledge of Korean and Korean culture, tell us what she was really saying?

By the way, you can't compare what she said to national anthems, they were written in a different age, were specifically intended to fire up nationalism and are not how people actually talk. Especially not when they're trying to promote their country to foreigners.

[ippy]

a couple of things strike me about this.

First: this is clearly excerpts from an interview. Interviews usually have questions. The framing of said question may indeed have led to her discussing race/ethnicity/culture in a way that would be universalising and somewhat unsubtle.

Second: Most people on the planet don't have a great aptitude for nuance with the language they use. Not everyone understands that race, ethnicity and culture all have different connotations, (just as most people don't understand that gender is not in fact a synonym of sex). People wield language (for the most part) like a sledgehammer to the face.

Still, I'm sure once Hyori logs in and reads all the posts on here, she'll quickly realise that foreigners in their foreign culture and foreign social sciences don't consider race and culture to be one and the same, and will no doubt re-evaluate her perspective to something more appropriate.

Finally: and touched on several times, there is an editorial objective here to which her comments are clearly directed. Again, the better question is who is making this film, and for what purpose? As someone pointed out earlier in the thread, if its directed at foreigners, it seems a bit of a silly way of marketing your country.

Finally finally, korean taxi drivers are the most irritating human beings on planet earth. I just needed to say that.

[Weigookin74]

[quote="myenglishisno"]Just the other day I was trying to explain to my elementary students that skin colour and race don't define people.

It wouldn't have come up but a 9 year old girl in my class kept asking me why I had black hair. I told her that it was because my dad had black hair. Then she said that I'm not white because white people must have blonde hair and blue eyes, to which I replied that many white people have several different eye and hair colours.

Then her classmates chimed in, in Korean, explaining that I was Canadian and Canadians look different than Americans because Americans always have blonde hair and blue eyes. I gave up.

quote]

Funny, had a chick I was friends with telling me this. Canadians have dark hair and Americans have blond hair. But except for this one K chick, haven't really heard it any where's else. These people seem obsesed with blond hair. I mean I've seen some guys who were not great looking but had a smoking K chick girlfriend I think because of they were tall and had blond hair.

As for me, back home, I always like brunettes better than blonds. So, asian women fit the mold well for me. (When they're not crazy. Ha ha.)

[Yangachi]

[edwardcatflap]

[The Great Toad]

THere is a very removed but perhaps alluded to message - as has been said before- that

1) Korea is made up of Koreans who are like each
2) this physical race similarity makes us more like abig family
.... and 3) therefore you could assume IF these are facts then IF there are more and more Koreans who wed and non-Koreans then these children will NOT be part of the big family and thus detract from the happy oneness that is KOrea...

that is of course long-inferencing from her statements - and that is of course if you take here statements as fact... so you have to be take a cynical leap to make the inference and begin that by assuming She is opposed to non-korean korean children... and she is not at all opposed to that as she continues to correspond with me claiming she still loves me but can not marry me until a few more years when her career tanks and weeding a waygook will have no huge effect on her lapsing career.

Also, in a sense she is correct - that is you can go to Mexico and see distinctly different peoples - the mountain indaians who mostly did not take Spanish husbands and the Mexicans in the cities who did - these persons are different in race and culture - the same goes for the USA or England or France where you have persons who are distinctly different in race or culture for example an Irish catholic guy and a Chinese American or a British Hindu lady and a squeaky whining Welshman from Wales - they are very different in culture and race... South Koreans more or less are the same - I know I know you have some Chinese who cam and Japanese and even some odd Europeans before - however up to the 80s/90s I would guess KOreans did NOT marry 3rd world nation brides like they do now - so she can argue to some degree that KOReans are more homogenous then say Britain - but of course that is changing. And then there were always those very dark - and often pretty (though they and others said ugly) girl students I had on Jeju how were nice and dark covered exotic looking when compared to a pale Seoul lass - I think the Girl at the Girls' school I was at had had grandmother or something who got forced to wed a Japanese bushi - or perhaps her great great great grandmother was the victim of a pirate raid from some Jeju free booters (there is still an old wall in Jeju that was built to keep out pirates according to the historical marker sign).

So the point is she is right in the sense that South Koreans are more Koreanish that an American is Americanish or a Brit is Britinese -

but yes I can also see the point how this sort of oneness speech can be hurtful to all the ESL Big Papas who wed a fine K-lady and had cute kids with her... but you have to remember Korea is NOT politically correct yet and you can easily see that by the offensive blackface acts that will pop up on TV here every now and then.

[Fat_Elvis]

[T-J]

The whole thing boils down to the translation of the word 민족. It is a word that predates the notion of race as we understand it and use it today. Literally it means nothing more than a group of people, a clan, nation.

There are different ways and criteria we as humans have used to define our groups. Language, culture, borders, and yes blood relations.

Yes, Korea has historically relied on blood lines to define itself as a group. This is hardly unique for countries or peoples that have experienced a history that prevented using other criteria due to shifting borders, invasion, and occupation.

Jews have used blood lines as a defining characteristic for centuries. Germany also used this due in part to the shifting borders and loss of other defining criteria at the conclusion of WWI.

This last example is what taints the opinion of those from western cultures when discussing race and blood lines.

There is a difference between defining "our people" or "the people of (insert country name)" by heritage as an unifying cause whilst welcoming others, and doing so in an effort to expunge those that do not fit.

The western views of race are scared by the history of the latter, while Korea quite ignorant of that history and how it affects the western audience uses terms in translation such as "pure blood" and "one race" while pursuing the former.

The fact is that the term 민족 does not mean "race" regardless of how dictionaries translate it. It can't because the word predates the concept. Furthermore, 한민족 is 韩国人 not 一国人.Therefor the OP's outrage is completely misdirected.

[T-J]

As an aside to the OP. If you want to continue to pull quotes from other conversations out of context that is up to you. It does nothing to accurately reflect my opinions in the context of this conversation though.

To be specific when I said that your daughter and my son were not Korean or Foreigners, but instead a mix. It was addressing your problems with Koreans calling her a foreigner and you insisting she is Korean.

My view on them being neither but rather a combination of the two comes from having lived in the States, where he faced the opposite AND having lived here where he faces the same. And this is the important part, regardless of where he is, who he is doesn't change. The statement I made in the other conversation was addressing this point. When you move to back to your home country, will your daughter suddenly stop being Korean and become X?

Again arguments for the other thread. Best if we leave them in that thread and not attempt to pull sound bites into this one to paint a picture that is inaccurate for lack of context.

[Steelrails]

[Menino80]

민족 certainly does mean race, it's used quite extensively in China to designate Han and non-Han inhabitants (民族), especially in regards to the tribes.

[T-J]

[PatrickGHBusan]

[eamo]