Korean Job Discussion Forums

[RichardT]

Hello everyone. I'm new here, and I hope you'll be seeing a lot more of me. I'm a sophomore right now but this is what I want to do after graduation and there is just so much research and preparation it seems like I can't get started asking questions and figuring things out quickly enough. I'm very excited to be on the boards. I read a few threads already, but I didn't want to troll to much before registering. I'm not sure where I should have introduced myself, so I decided to jsut come out and ask one of the questions racking my brain to break the ice.

Call it racism, or whatever you like, but a common report about south Korea on the negative side is that its still a homogeneous country. I feel like, from things I've read, its getting better. Still every report I read has a lot to be desired. I'm still not exactly clear on how these attitudes are being demonstrated, or to what degree they are saturated. So if you would be interested in humoring me, I'd like to perform a simple series of little case studies.

Could you tell me a time(s) you were treated with racist/hostile what have you attitudes in Korea? Include as many detail as possible about exactly what happened. If you could, give me demographic information about your example. How old was the person in question? What gender? What socioeconomic status (if you could venture to guess) and very important to me is where were you in Korea and in general (a store? your school? your building?) and also, please include anything you think you could have done to aggrevate this action.

This doesn't have to be hate crimes, little things you think might be related to your status as a foreigner would be nice to know too. Lets see if we find any pattern here at all.

Thanks, and again looking forward to getting to know everyone.

[milspecs]

If you're a soph, why would you want to come to SK to teach? Wouldn't you try to at least find a job and then come to SK as a last resort?

Sounds like you're just trolling for information...

[RichardT]

I'm not trolling for information. And why would it be a last resort? I want to come to Korea because I've wanted to travel my whole life but its to expensive unless I'm being paid to do it, I'm fascinated by Korea and really Asia in general and since I've begun learning Korean I've wanted more and more to see the country. I'm a psychology major with a minor in special education and I'm interested in ESL. Teaching in Korea after Graduation would actually be great because it puts a year of experience minimum on my resume, (if I only did a year) lets me pay down a bit on my student loans, and gives me the chance to actually see if I like being in a classroom before committing to a masters degree and thousands of dollars. That's honestly a little disturbing you'd consider teaching in another country a job of "last resort"... In any case I'm sorry if my post was misleading, I assure you I'm no troll.

[Kimchifart]

[Kimchifart]

[Fishead soup]

You won't experience much overt racism just loads of double standards.
Most of the racism is carefully hidden Koreans are very concerned with their image abroad. As a foregner you will really stand out in a small village.

In the past there was a lot of hostility towards mixed couples. Particularly when the women looked Korean. This has pretty much disappeared. However if you work in a rural school you might create a scandal if you start dating a young female staff member.

I would be really careful about dealing with police matters. If a local acts abusive towards you it is better to walk away and not get the police involved.

[RichardT]

[jvalmer]

[RichardT]

I've heard that before about police involvement. Frankly there are places in the United States where I feel the same way. And that's kind of the funny thing I keep thinking of now when I read about any problems with being in South Korea. I can usually think of a situation or place here where the same thing happens.

One other thing that always gets me, is that I live in an area with a reasonably dense Korean population. There is a Korean church at the end of my street, at least three others I know in the county, several restaurants, and a Korean market closer to the city (I live just outside of Richmond Virginia). I know several Koreans, including my teacher and a lady from Busan who works in the same building as me. I have yet to meet one Korean here who wasn't friendly polite outgoing and not in the least racist. But then I suppose HERE is the key word. The kind of people that move to another country are likely a special breed of personality. Would you agree?

[Underwaterbob]

In six years here I've only been openly discriminated against twice, both times in a bar and alcohol was involved. The first was just some loud mouthed, middle aged guy who started yelling at a group of us to speak in Korean since we were in Korea. In his defense, we were yakking it up pretty loud, I'd probably be annoyed if a group of Koreans came into my local watering hole back home and started blabbing away at high volume. Mind you, this was also a Wabar, so not exactly quiet atmosphere to begin with.

The second time was in the exact same bar, and it may have just been a case of the guy being a complete asshole rather than actually racist. Basically he acted friendly, but made snide remarks in Korean and talked so loud and obnoxious he couldn't help spitting in my face. I ended up moving seats rather than slug the guy and likely end up in jail. He also tried to order us drinks, then put them on our tab. Luckily I knew the bar owners and he didn't. They didn't charge us for the drinks he ordered for us, and last I saw of him he was being accosted about them by a rather large bouncer..

[RichardT]

[Underwaterbob]

[computermichael]

I usually like Korea and know a lot of decent Korean people, but I've been having a bad week and will take, this opportunity to gripe on the internet since somebody has kindly requested it.

The worst incident of somebody being racist towards me happened on my birthday last year. I went to dinner with a mixed group of friends (Korean and foreigners), and these really drunk guys sat at the table next to us. This guy kept staring at my friend and me for minutes at a time, so we finally acknowledged him, but not in a mean way. We made small talk for a few minutes, and then he went on a drunken rant about foreigners stealing Korean women. He put his cigarette out in my friend's food and then he left. A few minutes later, he came back and started yelling at us some more. Everybody in the restaurant was laughing at the situation, and nobody who worked there would kick him out even though he was obviously really drunk. Eventually, some of my Korean friends told him to get lost, but nobody actually touched him or anything. After that, he called the police. Nothing ended up happening, and so he left.

Scenes that overt are rare, and I usually only get yelled at if I am drinking outside of a convenience store late at night with another male foreigner. There are a lot of subtle things that get to me occasionally. I used to have this boss who would always say, "Ooooh, look at the Michael, he is so good at using the chopstick. That so hard for the foreigner," nearly every day while I was eating even though I had been living in Korea for over a year and had used chopsticks innumerable times by that point.

The boss at my newest job told me that everyone thinks foreign teachers are monkeys, and she has even lived abroad before. She only hires males and sexually harasses the ones who'll let her get away with it. I feel bad for one of my younger, more handsome coworkers because I know it really bothers him, but I know there's not much anybody can really do about it.

Korea's pretty nice in general though. I've met some of my best friends here and have learned a lot. I've never gotten tired of Korea so much as I have of teaching or the work culture here. Then again, that's part of the life. I've never had a job I've liked anywhere else anyway, so that keeps me going. Don't let people tell you not to come here because it is a good choice in my opinion. I also got the idea when I was a freshman or sophomore in college and followed through on it.

[fugitive chicken]

A lot of the racism I've experienced here is just from not really knowing what to do with us as foreigners. Their culture and language is very specific to Korea and they know that foreigners don't share it, but they also don't have any other life experiences in another culture. They aren't taught about diversity or multiculturalism as kids, they are taught the Korean way. This viewpoint is shared mainly by the aging population (also brought on by a bit of xenophobia from the war 60 years ago).

Anyway, my experiences with this have mostly been being treated like a child. On several occasions with different people, if they wanted to lead me somewhere they would take my hand and physically guide me.

They don't think I have any understanding or experience with Korea or don't know anything. I'm repeatedly asked if I've ever tried kimchi, been to Seoul, and are often surprised that I can read and semi understand Korean despite them knowing I've been here for 2 years.

A lot of what I've run up against is just not understanding different cultures, less so with the 20-30 year olds, more so with young kids and the elderly.

Oh, the funniest situation I've been in was a bunch of us were in Busan riding a city bus and talking (not loudly), and an older man came up to us and started yelling, "Englishee no! Here Korea! Korea time! Korea time!" and my friend started talking to him in English trying to set up a time for Korea time and a time for English time.

[nathanrutledge]