Korean Job Discussion Forums

[dyc]

Let me preface by saying I'm not trying to be inflammatory/racist/prejudiced, etc. Just "hear" me out.
Additionally, I'm not sure if the term "white" offends anyone, but I apologize if it does. It's just that I've been told "Caucasian" is not a good term to use, because it harkens back to the old racist discourse of "Mongoloid," "Caucasoid," etc.


Aaaanyway...

As the title says... not all "foreigners" are white! It just really annoys me when blogs/vlogs about teaching/living in Asia (and posts/threads on Dave's) say things like "It's hard to ______ as a foreigner" when they really mean "It's hard to ______ as a white person." What sort of triggered this is the latest Eatyourkimchi video; they were talking about getting a haircut in Korea and said "Korean hair salons are not used to dealing with foreign hair."

Well, if by "foreign" you mean "not from Korea," I am a foreigner. But, being Chinese-Canadian, I have a very similar hair type to Koreans. So no, my "foreign hair" will not be difficult to cut for them.


I know I might be acting a bit oversensitive, but it's just annoying to hear because lots of these vloggers/bloggers/posts/etc just assume all people interested in working/living in Asia are white.



To conclude... does anyone know of any Asian "foreigner" blogs/vlogs regarding working & living in Asia? Maybe not a gyopo blog/vlog though if it's Korea.

[PatrickGHBusan]

Very interesting post and something that is often overlooked in the hurry to discuss "foreigner" issues here!

[Konglishman]

You are right that not all of us foreigners here are "white". In fact, some of us may even be "black". And I dare say that "black" hair while I am assuming that it does not usually have the stereotypical "static electricity" property of "white" hair, does nonetheless have different properties than stereotypical "Asian" hair. With all that said, I really do not see what the big deal is. I have never had a problem getting a decent hair cut here and my guess is that the same is true for most other foreigners.

And as far as caucasoid, mongoloid, etc. terms are concerned, I do not believe there is anything offensive about them. These are in fact proper scientific terms to use in the fields of physical anthropology and even forensics.

[comm]

[DorkothyParker]

Oops, my previous reply was meant to be in the bow tie thread.

LOL

Actually this is what it said:

[Died By Bear]

Mama, take this badge off of me
I can't use it anymore.

[nate1983]

I definitely hear what you're saying...I'm white, and once went out with my Korean class and teachers to a small restaurant when it was raining. All of my classmates were Asian females (Chinese, Japanese, Hong Kong) and I made a joke about the weather to my teacher as we all walked into the restaurant together. One of the ajummas there apparently overheard what I said and found it amusing, so she said to her coworker, "Oh, the foreigner said...." Well, considering there were about 9 of us "foreigners" there, myself being the only non-Asian, I was kind of thinking "What the hell?" when my teacher politely pointed out to her, "Actually they're all foreigners" and I just pretended not to hear the exchange.

Koreans don't necessarily view fellow Asians in the same way as white or other foreigners. I'm not saying they're likely to be any more inclusive in an intimate setting, but for someone of East Asian descent there's probably not as much of the immediate feeling of estrangement at first glance. Of course maybe they would feel less apt to cut you slack on cultural things they'd give white foreigners leeway on since you "look Asian," and should therefore be in touch with your Confucian side and all. A gyopo friend of mine did an internship in Shanghai (obviously he doesn't speak any Chinese) and said people clearly expected him to speak Chinese more than they would a white foreigner. Koreans also tend to classify people by blood, while in the west we generally think about people by their native country or cultural background. The first girl I ever asked on a date had parents who immigrated from Germany in the 70's, I never would have thought about calling her German or even "German-American," to me she just seemed American. But in Korea, if I was talking about a couple of my closest friends (a gyopo and K-A adoptee) and a Korean asked me where they were from, normally I wouldn't think to give any qualification except about the country they were born/raised in, and then when the Korean meets them they're like, "Oh! It's a Korean! I thought it would be a foreigner." I guess living there has made me more cognizant about identifying people by their ethnicity, so now I'll more readily identify people as "Thai American" or "Chinese American" or "Indian British" or whatever when talking about them.

[travel zen]

In Shenzhen I was tired of shaving my head so I asked my gf to take me to a barber. I was skeptical from the start.

We found one near a giant shopping mall. The barber was fascinated and thrilled that he could cut a black guys hair, he was practically jumping with anticipation. Cool.

He started right away shaving my shadow of a beard...without any foam or shaving cream !!?! Ouch!

So i told him that's not how we shave people, but he was so determined and felt so right that my hair didn't need any shaving cream.

We left. I shaved my own hair after that.

[eamo]

I've never assume foreigners in Korea to be white. A 5 minute walk around Itaewon or parts of factory towns in Gyeonggi-do would put that idea to bed!

Plus, I've worked with at least 3 non-white English teachers here.

We're mostly from multi-cultural countries, so it follows that of the people who come to Korea to teach, some will be non-white.

[nukeday]

[UknowsI]

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

Regardless of race, most people, when plunging headfirst into endless self-centred whining, do NOT take the time to say 'they don't know how to cut foreign hair, unless, of course, that particular foreigner happens to be of Asian descent, in which case it is most likely that they would'.

The reason for this is because being that ridiculously PC is both time-consuming and pointless, especially when everyone should already know exactly what the point is-- feeling sorry for one's self.

If you really think that it's worthwhile to include yourself in one of these rants, then maybe you should start up your own blog and start editing things and adding footnotes so that all of these angry, bitter, self-centred people are more open to pitying foreigners of other backgrounds as well.

[NohopeSeriously]

You're telling me. I'm a gyopo who neglects the typical Korean mentality.

[chungbukdo]

I take a Korean class provided by the government for foreigners. Out of about 90 people, there is one white person. She doesn't speak English, she's from Russia. I'm half white half Indian, which I'd say is close enough to white too. So maybe 2 out of 90. I'm the only Anglophone.

There are tonnes of foreigners in my city. Almost none of them are white or speak English. There are a few white guys though. I saw like four guys in Emart the other day but they were speaking some type of slavic language. Many of the easily identifiable foreigners are from Bangladesh, and some are arabs from whatever arab country.

Most of the other teachers don't realize this. They say things like "There aren't many foreigners in our town." Maybe I have a better eye for it or its because they don't speak Korean well, but I can identify the Indonesians, Vietnamese, Filipinos, Chinese etc easily before they speak. The English teachers I know don't even notice if someone is speaking Chinese because they don't speak Korean or recognize the sounds.

[Zyzyfer]