Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Stalin84]

That time of year again, I'm editing the school's English newspaper in its entirely. I usually enjoy doing this and tend to look for my favourite student's articles.

Every year though, its a pain to come across certain articles after being told that I'm not allowed to correct factual errors, only grammatical and spelling mistakes.

The highlight of this year's batch was an article about the increasing amount of foreigners in Korea. The author was a student who had been in my class for the entire year. She had also been present for the classes which I held after I returned from vacation in Canada that were solely about Canadian culture. I found, of all the classes I taught this year, the classes about Western Culture and Canada as compared to Korea turned out the best as they really got the student's talking. I learned stuff, they learned stuff, no one was offended and many were involved.

Here are some gems from her article:

"Foreigners do not know about cell phones. Korea has the best cell phones..." (huh?)

"Korea has the fastest internet in the world" (true) "and many foreigners don't know about the internet." (?!)

"In foreigner's home country everyone has a gun but in Korea there are no guns" (ugh, I take it she isn't referring to my Daisy "Red Rider", is she?)

"In Korea foreigners can experience nature and of our countryside. They can experience countryside people's kindness to all, foreign or native." (In context, this sounded like it was something we don't have in our own countries. In Canada we don't have any nature, thats a new one, folks).

"Foreigners really like the Korean language and see how it can express better and is more natural [sic] than their own language."

(This is all post revision, it was a grammatical mess before I got my pen in there).

...and it goes on. There are a few other things that stuck out, like how Korea has more public safety and security than other countries. She also made a point that Korea was a lot more convenient, which is somewhat true, but then took it further to say that we don't have any businesses in our home countries that have Customer Service desks that help customers nor do we have any businesses that are open for long hours (she cites 7-11 as an example, the irony!)

She also went on to say that foreigners in Korea work "short hours" and make "more money" than Koreans who work much longer.

There is an element of truth in some of these points but a lot of the time it isn't really worth noting. As a whole though, I'd be the first to throw this in the nationalistic garbage heap. Even my co-worker who was supervising the newspaper club was a little bit embarrassed about passing it to me first without reading it himself. He'll submit it for publishing but only after heavy revision.

The thing is, why would any kid in this day and age, anywhere, think this way about the world outside of their country? This is a high school student. I might not be as surprised if this had come from and elementary school student but this article comes from a second year student whom is preparing for a university career followed by being an English teacher (she speaks better than she writes, actually).

Just what are these kids taught in their classes about foreign cultures? Even in 2010, it still sounds like Korean high school students are being fed propaganda about the outside world.

Anyway, normally this wouldn't bother me so much but seeing as how I'm going to be leaving soon, I see these last few months as a time to reconcile myself with the things I don't like about Korea. All evidence seems to point in the direction of not being able to do so. As much as I like various aspects of life here, I don't think I'll ever be able to reconcile my worldview with a population that thinks so low of me as an individual simply because I wasn't born here.

[rabidcake]

[rabidcake]

[spaceman82]

[beercanman]

They simply don't know any better. The world is more connected than ever yet people all over the globe, old people too, are still largely clueless about (most) other cultures. Maybe there are too many of them?
We fill this void with silly ideas.

Sounds a bit like stuff I read and edit coming from Chinese adults with pretty good English but limited exposure to foreigners. They too use statements like, "Americans are..." Beyond "Friends" and a bit else how would they know any better? But when you talk with educated people who have some idea of all this, at least they know they don't really know.

[seoulsucker]

Sounds like she's a perfect candidate for an editorial internship at the Korea Herald/Times.

[Mr. BlackCat]

Not too surprising. My adult co-teachers have TOLD me that in America/Canada, teachers work 4 hours a day 6 months a year and start at $100,000. I explained to them that elementary teachers (can't speak for others) in Canada work waaaaaaaay longer hours than in Korea, like 7am-7pm for the first few years and still 8 hours after, and only have one extended break (2 months) while starting at peanuts. Yes, it gets higher, but more like max 80-90k after 15 years.

Koreans tend to learn things in an us vs them framework. Koreans work hard, therefore THEY work less. Korean food is spicy, therefore, THEIR food isn't spicy. And so on. It's a zero-sum culture. If you like Japan it means you like Korea less. If you like Indian food *this* much, then you like Korean food *this* much less. Hence many Koreans' fear of expressing any fondness for anything not Korean. It would mean they love their homeland less, whereas in Western culture we don't think enjoying a trip to Paris means you necessarily like your hometown less. You can like two things at once for different reasons.

Gee, I have this whole place figured out, don't I?

[kabrams]

[PeteJB]

[The Goalie]

[dbmctague]

I'm gonna chalk this one up under the "people in general being ignorant of history" column, but my co-teacher (in her mid 40's) guessed that America lost around 500 men in the Korean War.

I'm more curious as to how they're taught about the Korean War and how much the south relied on outside powers to prevent from being annihilated.

[Stalin84]

[Seoul'n'Corea]

[isthisreally]

I stayed in the countryside of Nepal one night. One of the high school students I met told me that on meeting you make out with an American woman. Korea is doing quite well...

[Moldy Rutabaga]