Korean Job Discussion Forums

Ukon · Joined: 29 Jan 2008

I always here about them on dave's but nobody ever mentions them in person nor have I run into any of them....

Maybe it's moreso directed at the white guys and Indians, but I can't say I've been treated badly by anyone here.

I've been to others countries like China which people on here claim "love foreigners" but I can't say I was treated significantly nicer there...not to mention attempts to rip me off or scream my head off once they realized I wasn't going to throw money at them....

I've been to rural and traveled around korea a bit...where are this racist hicks I keep hearing about?

xingyiman · Joined: 12 Jan 2006

bluelake · Joined: 01 Dec 2005

xingyiman · Joined: 12 Jan 2006

tenchu77491 · Joined: 16 Mar 2009

Only crap I felt was from other foreigners.

cj1976 · Joined: 26 Oct 2005

There are plenty of Koreans with strange perceptions about foreigners that range from quaint all the way to outright offensive. You need to look on Korean web forums. My gf tells me some of the stuff on there that is amazing. One woman was scared she might have swine flu. Why? Because she went to Itaewon.
There are websites dedicated to K-girls with foreign boyfriends and they attract the vitriol of xenophobic men. Some nasty comments on there about us, mostly derived from the negative media reports.
The xenophobia is definitely there, you just need to open your eyes a bit more.

xingyiman · Joined: 12 Jan 2006

redaxe · Joined: 01 Dec 2008

Manuel_the_Bandito · Joined: 12 Sep 2009

cj1976 · Joined: 26 Oct 2005

redaxe · Joined: 01 Dec 2008

eamo · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.

Not many Koreans actually have pre-meditated racist feelings or even xenophobia. Korea being quite an insular society, we are off most people's radar.....

........so what you tend to get, and this is the only thing that actually bothers me much after 9 years in Korea, is an ignorance of the rest of the world and an intolerance of the possibility of doing anything different from what they've always done. As well as quite a few preconceptions of what foreigners are like. Probably from the movies or from misinformed elders.

The hagwon generation, those born about 1990, are much better. Some of the kids in my neighborhood talk to me in an absolutely natural manner, whereas, when their parents come along, it's all awkward smiles and, 'do you like kimchi'?

Steelrails · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Location: Earth, Solar System

Mixed in with all the Koreans who make a big deal about knowing someone foreign and feeling pride in the fact that they had a 5 minute conversation with someone foreign.

For every xenophobe there are one of those "Hey look at my foreign friend" types.

And for every "look at my foreign friend" and "get off my lawn foreigner" there are 4 people who could care less and have food/drink/sex/money on the brain.

Ukon · Joined: 29 Jan 2008

fermentation · Joined: 22 Jun 2009

just because you don't experience or don't realize it doesn't mean its not there. My friends and I have been yelled out at a few times in Seoul. Its the usual "This is Korea, speak Korean" or "Go back to your country." The weird thing about this is the how indirect they(the bigots) are about it. Even as they're screaming, I hardly see these people directly face us and look at us while doing so. Even when they do, they keep a distance and a closed posture. It never bothers me because I find it incredibly unthreatening.

So, its there, but it's not as bad as some people here make it out to be. Some of my coworkers and family members harbor violent fantasies against foreigners and other countries, but I highly doubt any of them will actually act out on it.