Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Bloopity Bloop]

Coming out of Dave's retirement because I NEED your help processing a conversation I just had with a co-teacher.

She comes up to me and asks me if I'd heard about the NK attack. I say, "Yes" and then I asked her if she was alright; she had tears in her eyes. She said she was fine and nothing else, but didn't move away so obviously she wanted to continue talking. For lack of anything to say, I told her an army buddy of a friend has been updating her on what they're doing in terms of mobilizing--nothing that violates restricted intelligence, btw.

My co-teacher goes on to say that she'd prefer it if America didn't help SK and let them deal with the issue independently. While I haven't really developed any opinion about the US army in Korea prior to this conversation, out of sheer surprise, I ask her, "Why?"

Then she goes on on some illogical (?) spiel about how SK and NK are one and the reunification will happen SOON. I understand the "one Korea" and "reunification" sentiments are common threads in South Korean thought, but it just seemed to me like she reverted to these as some kind of escape from reality--like when people can't handle trauma and revert to their childhood or... well, hopefully you know what I mean (didn't get much sleep).

I have no stake in the US military and do not care if my countrymen stay here in that function or not. I just could not understand why she DIDN'T want help from another military, regardless of nationality, if they were already here and mobilizing.

When I asked her point blank, "You don't want any help at all? What if you lose?" She just kept repeating the one Korea and reunification mantras. As if she was trained to go back to those happy thoughts in case things go bats***.

Has anyone else run into anything similar?

I hope I'm not coming off as anything but curious. Aside from the fact that I live here and am also at risk, I do feel for the Korean people as this is their home country.

Although it did peeve me when she would randomly insert this old chestnut into our conversation: "Well, I can't explain because you are not Korean." I'd tell her, "Well, I live here and so far everything that's supposedly been inexplicable due to my nationality hasn't been too hard to understand (noonchi, saving face, etc.--it really isn't that complicated)." So that bothered me.

But what is with my co-teacher? She HONESTLY (wants to) believes that reunification is going to happen soon... and somehow the attack catalyzed the process? Maybe it IS too Korean for me to understand. Or maybe I lack critical info regarding the entire situation. Please help me out!

[defaultusername]

You come off as anything but curious.

[wiganer]

Ask a South Korean and they want re-unification but the facts are, they do not want to fund reunification if it means they are going to go without - they like their standard of life nowadays and would resent 'helping' their brothers and sisters in the north.

As for the realities of re-unification. I am going to feel sorry for any North Korean in the new reunified Korea. They will discriminated to shreds as the government kicks out every 3D worker so the northerners can take their place on the totem pole.

I doubt it will happen anyway, China and the PLA will get to Pyongyang before the South Koreans anyway.

[Jake_Kim]

Seems like this woman blindly follows 'NK regime vs. ordinary people' dichotomy, in a sense that as soon as the NK regime collapses 'somehow', then two Koreas will be re-unified, which is the ultimate good no matter what, and the people of North and South will be happy-clappy altogether and live peacefully ever after.
She might as well be one of the followers of the thoughts, 'if only the US and Soviets left us alone in 1945, everything would have been perfect.' Quite a few Koreans, especially the younger generation who has no firsthand memory of the Cold War, follow this line of nationalistic romanticism.

[cheolsu]

I've never met many people like that, though I guess sane people don't get their own message board threads. Most of my friends describe it, correctly, as a very unfortunate situation. One of my best friends, who I tend to agree with, is a political hardliner and simultaneously a humanitarian (he loved the book The Aquariums of Pyongyang). I wish more people in their 20s were like that, but I often find that I know more about North Korea than South Koreans.

[blm]

My wife says most young people think of the north as a different country and it's only the oldies (though there's obviously plenty of exceptions) that hold onto the "one people" thing.

For all the **** that the North Says about fighting imperialism they are more reliant on China than the south is of the US and they only seem to kill Koreans rather than Americans.

[Los Angeloser]

Ask her if she prefers Kim, Jung-il or Lee, Myung-bak as her leader.

[Stan Rogers]

If she had tears in her eyes, that says it all.

Korean women love drama. She wants you to "ahem" comfort her.

While you were so busy trying to rationalize all this, it sounds to me like you missed a good chance.

Seriously.

[jdog2050]

[greekvvedge]

i think this is the main view of young people in korea, if they have an opinion at all.

[eamo]

Koreans who tend not to think very politically seem to get very emotional about reunification as if it's going to bring about some kind of Korean utopia /nirvana.......

Any Korean who just pushes reunification as the end-all-be-all hasn't really thought it all through.

[nathanrutledge]

[jvalmer]

[redaxe]

She's an idiot.

I talked about North Korea and the US military with a 50-something Korean executive at the company I worked for. He said that his generation has been around long enough to remember and appreciate what the US has done for South Korea. Young people today, however, grew up without knowing the aftermath of war or even experiencing poverty, so they don't have the historical perspective and take the support of the US for granted.

It seems older Koreans could alleviate this by teaching their kids about the role America has played in defending their country from Communism, but instead the idea that South Korea is a victim of American imperialism seems more fashionable these days.

Indignation has a much stronger appeal than gratitude, especially to the young.

[jvalmer]