Korean Job Discussion Forums

[steroidmaximus]

This is my 6th year in Korea, and I have to admit I've never felt so put out / angry / pissed off / annoyed / hurt. When I first came to Korea, I had all the usual rock star treatment, being invited to dinners, coffee, etc, getting presents from every Kim, Lee and Park etc. Now, I'm lucky if I can make it through a day without someone scowling at me angrily, or calling me 'devil! devil!' as one kid did yesterday in front of his father, who did nothing. I was with my daughter at the time, and I can't wait until I can explain the varying degrees of ignorance. I never wanted the rock star treatment, and I certainly don't want the opposite; I just want to treated as a normal person.

Maybe Koreans got pissed off because they treated so many of us well, and so many of us turned around and pissed in their kung na mul gook, so now they are no longer going to throw open the welcome mat. Maybe the whole SBS thing was started by one guy who had his girl taken from him or spoiled by a foreigner, so he sought revenge. A backlash if you will. Or maybe many Koreans have been led to think of their own greatness as grounds for dismissing the world, since Kimchi does protect against SARS and AIDS, while science and medicine in the rest of the world can't even stop the common cold. I don't know. But what I do know is that from what I can see, fewer and fewer expats living here are willing to stand up and defend Korea and Koreaness, myself included.

I've found myself in many a debate with some noob who went on about the ills and problems of those who inhabit this land of morning clamour; yet often there would be a few voices (mine included) who would dissent, show the opposite point of view, and defend Korea or at least offer a balanced point of view by asking incisive questions. Even on this board, there were always a few who would stand up and defend it; these days, those few are fewer, embattled and becoming more embittered with the expat community. At least one of those voices hasn't even lived here for a few years (think H, five letters), so can't understand the changes that have taken place.

So this is the backlash.

I used to give 110% to my job, I worked hard to be a good member of society, I broke no more laws than the average person, I contributed my uniqueness to make this country better. . .only to have it rejected, belittled, spat on by some wanker who can't understand that if it weren't for the billions pumped in here by America and Japan after the Korean war, they'd still be pushing water buffalo round the pastures and living in bamboo huts like they do in Vietnam. If it weren't for the sacrifice of people like me now and in the past, they'd be bowing before a picture of dear leader and wondering when they might be able to eat a bowl of white rice again. Because of the cold war and America wanting to turn Korea into a showcase country of what you could have if you towed the party line, they enjoy their SUVs, colour TV's, internet VDSL and love motels.
Because of their western educated experts, they prospered.

So the bottom line is?

all the affluence and quick paced change has ruined this once fine country. Take it all back and let the Koreans be Koreans, instead of relunctant bitter Ameriasians; then I can walk around in peace without wanting to backlash, admiring the quaint, backward ways of these graceful, timeless, wannabe Chinese.






















this was of course, mostly tongue in cheek. Except the first bit. And the middle. Well, some of it was.

[rapier]

The fundamental racism that sees all foreigners as separate will find reasons to justify itself-i've also noticed a marked deterioration in korean's media-fuelled attitude. Yes, there was maybe one unfortunate or misrepresented incident. But there is no justification for the unbridled nationwide wave of anti-foreignerism.

if it gets any worse, how about a peaceful protest/ demonstration?
or maybe we should all just vote with our airline tickets and leave Koreans to learn English by cassette tape.

[eamo]

I understand completely the POV expressed here.

I try to stay as positive as possible about Korea and Koreans because my personal situation (i.e. marriage and work) has me staying here for at least another 5 years to add to my 5 already 'served'.

It's trying though. Most Koreans seem to accept that the price of their relative affluence is that foreigners will come here for employment. Yet, there seems to be something hardwired into their brains that we are so frickin' different that we can never really fit in or understand Korean culture. The classic examples are an experience shared by most foreigners after awhile here.
"Wow, you can use chopsticks very well!!"
"Can you eat Korean food?"
"Wow! You speak Korean??!!"
................................................and so on. The inference I derive from these seemingly innocent remarks is that Koreans are constantly surprised that people from other countries can share part of their culture or have anything in common with them. They have been taught to see Korea as such a unique entity that they don't deal well with the idea that they aren't so different or unique.

[mercury]

Maybe the kid who said 'devil devil' was actually treating you like a rock star! Maybe he was a fan of Kid Rock, DEVIL WITHOUT A CAUSE

[peppermint]

the "you can use chopsticks very well" line is taught in the public school curriculum. I spent most of my day cringing because we're doing that very lesson now.

[JongnoGuru]

At what age do they teach "point and giggle at the non-Korean"?

[Barking Mad Lord Snapcase]

[crazylemongirl]

Just as a flip to this I was teaching my boys the word 'foreign'.

What is foreign food.. hamburgers pizza.
What is a foreign movie ... harry potter.
Who is the foreign person in the room... tick tick tick....

After some prompting they remembered that it was me.

[peppermint]

[Corporal]

[Gwangjuboy]

[Corporal]

I know, and they probably wouldn't get it anyway, but I still think it'd be fun to say.

[lastat06513]

To tell you the truth, I honestly think I am counting my days here, as many expats have.

With all that is going on now, I think we are seeing the end of the easy and unrepenting life that the average expat used to live here in Korea.

I honestly think it is not the SBS program that started it all, I think they have been going after all foreigners for a while now for the reason that they are scared that the "pure bloodline" would further be tainted by foreign seed.

And now we are branded criminals again, just look;

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200509/kt2005092118311710510.htm

Everytime they complain about "foreigners" in the media, they unwittingly put all of us in the same catagory as the people in the statistic. Why? For the simple reason that the average Korean can't tell the difference from one person to another. Or it is just plain ignorance that they are not "True Koreans".
Koreans don't understand that everyone is different, have different languages, have different cultures and have different ways of thinking.

I love being here, I feel that being in Korea has brought many rewards to me and that my life here is alot better than what it would be in the US.
Fortunately, for me at least, I have nothing to hold me here. But I don't need a wife or a girlfriend to love being in this country. I am here because I have been to several other countries in the region and I find Korea the most "quaint" (Japan too expensive and fake, China too cheap and dirty).
But like the OP, I sometimes feel like I'm getting sh*t on alot. Not by my job, but by society. And I feel miffed because I have lived here for almost 10 years of my youth, trying to make a life fr me here.
Can I continue? God only knows.....

But I'll give it a try, as most of us are trying to do.

[rapier]

Laststat i think that article deserves pasting up. How much misinformation and hypocrisy can you fit into one piece of "journalism"?

Crimes by Foreigners on Rise

By Moon Gwang-lip
Staff Reporter
The number of criminal offenses committed by foreigners has surged amid an influx of more migrant workers into the country.

The Ministry of Justice said in a report Wednesday that the number of crimes by foreign residents rose from 8,046 in 2002 and 9,338 in 2003 to 12,821 last year.

The figure has already reached 7,591 in the first seven months of this year, according to the report that was submitted to Rep. Lee Eun-young of the ruling Uri Party for parliamentary audit and inspection.

Traffic law violations have topped the list since 2002. They increased to 2,225 last year from 1,136 in 2002 and 1,364 in 2003.

The number of rape cases stood at 58 last year, up from 51 in 2002 and 55 in 2003, while that of murder cases rose to 55 in 2004 from 34 in 2003 and 42 in 2002.

Drug offenses also rose from 264 in 2002 to 374 in 2003 and 400 last year.

The number of foreign residents has been on the rise with migrant workers rushing to South Korea. But, law enforcement authorities have not properly coped with increasing crimes by them,���� said Rep. Lee.

As foreigners with no clear residences and jobs are easily tempted into crimes, the government should come up with a system to manage foreign residents from their entry into the country to their departure,���� she added.

Meanwhile, a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) said about 2,500 Korean-born offenders were jailed in five major immigrant-crowded areas in the U.S. _ New York City, Los Angeles, Orange County in California, Harris County in Texas and Maricopa County in Arizona _ in the 2003 fiscal year.

The figure ranked fifth in the list of inmates by country of origin for foreign-born offenders.

Mexicans led the list with 108,000, followed by 10,500 offenders from El Salvador, 5,500 from Guatemala and 3,000 from Honduras.

Drug offenses and immigration law violations were the top causes for the imprisonment of foreign-born convicts with 45 percent, followed by theft with 15 percent and murder and robbery with 12 percent.

We should not forget Koreans are foreigners in other parts of the world, and need as much legal protection as they can get,���� said Kim Jung-ah, an activist of human rights group Sarangbang.

So, it is not right to attribute the rising number of crimes by foreigners only to a loophole in the management system and it is not right to arbitrarily crackdown on them,���� she said.

korea times, 21/9/2005

These are the sentences that make me laff:

"Traffic law violations have topped the list'- foreigners are excessively targetted for J-walking, I presume. meanwhile i've seen Korean drivers commit more travesties of road safety in 5 minutes on an intersection than I have seen in a year of driving in London.

The number of rape cases stood at 58 last year, up from 51 in 2002
Police follow up and publicise any rape by a foreigner to stoke up more nationalistic sentiment; yet ignore the out-of-control levels of unreported rapes by korean males on their oppressed women. Police and society here provide almost zero support to rape victims, let alone any incentive to report them. I wonder what korea's actual statistics for rape would be if women came forward?. The reported figures alone for physical abuse of women in this country is 30%. 1 in 3 korean women have been battered or raped. Women are 3X more likely to be abused in korea than in the U.S.

We should not forget Koreans are foreigners in other parts of the world, and need as much legal protection as they can get
(-but don't provide any legal protection for foreigners in korea)


To be honest, I wonder how many "crimes by foreigners" are actually unwarranted attacks on foreigners, who are then blamed for them by one sided courts. or, how many robberies by foreigners are by disgruntled ddd workers who have been ripped off and unpaid by abusive/ exploitative bosses?
And how many crimes/assaults on foreigners by koreans go unreported?

[Sooke]