Korean Job Discussion Forums

[BackRow]

Before coming to Korea I spent my entire life in Canada. I am the child of immigrant parents and was raised in multicultural city, where in my neighborhood and at school I was surrounded by kids from avariety of backgrounds. Due to that exposure (and basic human decency), I never held racist views, people are just people after all and to hold negative views over an entire group based on race is ridiculous. But...after living here for 2 years, I realize I've developed some racist views about a particular group of people.

Am I talking about Koreans? No, certainly not. I deal with so many every day and just like any other group the vast majoriity are great people with a few bad apples thrown in the mix. To introduce the people I'm talking about, I'll describe my afternoon as a way to illustrate things.

Today was grey and drizzly, so I thought I'd go visit the 63 City aquarium as I had never been there before. Once inside I was greeted to behaviour I no longer am surprised by. I saw a woman continuously push her scared kid's head onto a glass display that an alligator was pressed against so she could snap a good picture. Groups of them standing shoulder to shoulder, blocking narrow passages without any regard to others. Some deciding to camp out infront of displays to eat, blocking the views of others and denying them opportunity to see anything. Using the flash on their cameras on the displays filled with sensitive sea creatures (ignoring signage and common sense). Speaking, at full volume, to people right beside them. Throwing trash on the ground. Before reading on, try taking a guess who I am referring to.

Ever since living here, I feel like I've developed a pretty negative view of the Chinese, the people I am referring to above. Everywhere I've gone in Seoul where there's been many Chinese people, I have seen lots of awful, classless behaviour whether it's at markets/shopping districts/malls, museums, the subway, cafe's, and especially at the big tourist sights.

Now clearly, these people don't represent all Chinese people given that the average Chinese person doesnt make nearly enough to travel and that these represent the nouveau riche Chinese who have a bad reputation everywhere. But then you look at Filipinos, of which many also visit and you can't attribute the same negative behaviours even though just like Chinese they represent only the well off residents of their poor country.

So, I guess I'm a terrible person, but it is what it is. Anyone else ever wonder about similar things while living here?

[CentralCali]

You've come to that view out of seeing an incredibly small minority of Chinese? Remember that there are more than one billion Chinese. And also remember that the misbehaving ones, such as those you've described, are also lambasted back in China by their fellow citizens.

[optik404]

Some people are just rude. Maybe deep down you were always a racist. Didja ever think about that?

[metalhead]

[OBwannabe]

I was confused by your post as you said it wasn't Koreans you were talking about. Yet, all clues were clearly pointing to Koreans. At least the Koreans I encounter daily.
Then, I thought, perhaps you were talking about a sub-group of Koreans, those being Ajummas and grandmother-aged women. They are the absolute worst offenders, so that was beginning to make sense to me.
I've heard people complain about the behavior of Chinese people in public, but I've found them to be not much different than Koreans. Perhaps slightly more tolerable.
But to answer your question...no, I don't feel like I've developed racist views. I've just made observations of the behavior of Koreans, which often irritates the hell out of me. But I don't think being observant is the same as being racist.

[Stain]

[greene]

deep down your sweet old granny was a sick selfish perv? how's that belief system working out for you?

[Stain]

[atwood]

[Stain]

[Chaparrastique]

[Rockhard]

Yeah, writing off an entire people because of the behavior of some is the very definition of racist. I don't see how you could possibly do that. There are 1.3 billion people in China. Surely you can't believe they are ALL assholes.

We are all human. The DNA which lays the basic programming of our bodies is more of less the same across populations. But what happens after we are born, what we are taught, the truths we hold, the expectations we have, the habits we perpetuate, can vary greatly. Culture is a learned system of truths, behavior, and language. Culture endures because it helped a certain people work together harmoniously in a certain time.

People aren't going to fight over who is a hottie, because that's something controlled by DNA, but white skin as a sign of wealth is a cultural thing, a learned thing. It might seem stupid to us, but it's just normal for them. Same as some things we do might seem stupid to them.

[Stain]

[atwood]

[guavashake]

"I'm sure we all agree that we ought to love one another, and I know there are people in the world who do not love their fellow human beings — and I hate people like that!"

Tom Lehrer