Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Smee]

Straight-forward question which sort of branched off from the "foreigners' day" thread. Does being refered to as "waeguk"---outside country person---bother you?

At my hagwon I'm not refered to as "Smee" or "English teacher" or "native speaker" or "conversation teacher," but always as �ܱ�, and on my especially pissy days it does irk me. Sometimes I'll point out that I am �̱���� instead of �ܱ����."

There's some interesting stuff on Wikipedia about the word "gaijin," the Japanese word for foreigner which shares the same Chinese characters as �ܱ�. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaijin

[laogaiguk]

DP please delete

[laogaiguk]

Unlike most of my PC (ie wimpy) Western brethern, words don't bother me. Intent does (depending on the intent).

Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me

BTW, I was called gaijine sama once. I laughed and hence embarrassed the person (which I felt a little bad for )

[JongnoGuru]

Nope, doesn't bother me. And I've been hearing it (or the equivalent in other languages) for over a third of my life. Or maybe _because_ I've been hearing it for...

[patchy]

I get called waegook too. And I am one.

[RACETRAITOR]

I more often get called Migook which insults me more.

A bunch of my friends have shortened "waegook" to "waeg." It saves precious milliseconds that could be spent on more productive pursuits.

[coolsage]

It bothers me no more than to be called 'farang' in Thailand, farang being a variation on 'French', about the first westerners the Siamese encountered in 1605 or so. It simply means, in broad terms, western, or of European descent. Not a pejorative term, just a label.

[jajdude]

I believe the usage of "waygook" is automatic and practically unconscious to most Koreans. It's like seeing a hot woman and having an automatic response before even thinking about it.

Even so, it is a term of separation and exclusion. Koreans, like some (or is it most or all?) other nationalities, are clans written in large. Our western sensibilities are not familiar with this, or it may be that we have never been the minority before, but our groups have more variety. Yet some of us from small hick towns remember the reactions whenever an outsider appeared, be he or she black or Asian or whatever. So Korea is basically a big hick town. Big deal. Nature thrust this upon them. There's no one to blame. At least 90% of the planet is hickville, I figure. And what is the other 10%? Anything better? Nope.

I may have the percentages wrong. Whatever. In another 100 years no one will care.

[peppermint]

It bugs the crap out of me on the rare occasions when my co teachers use it to refer to me, but only because I've been at the school longer than them. For some reason the school has run through 3 ( Korean) English teachers in the last 13 months and hopefully they keep the newest one. The kids have already given up trying to remember their names.

[SeoulFinn]

[jaebea]

The Russian thing seems to be a lingering link to when the only fair skinned women in Korea were usually Russian women-of-negotiable-affection, if you get my saying.

If you consider the actual meaning, wae-gook-in isn't the most accepting term for people who aren't Korean, but then again, the term "foreigner" (in English) is about the same.

jae.

[Angelus]

That's like a Native Korean person going to the states and saying he doesn't like the word "foreigner." That's what waygukin means. I don't see the logic in hating this term.

[Picotrain]

[Wangja]

Bothers me about the same as being referred to as a "limey" by the Yanks and "rosbif" by the Frogs.

[Wangja]

Sorry for a second post, but I had a thought and it being lonely, I wanted to share it.

If you think waeguk is a perjorative, go to Korea town in Los Angeles, call all the Koreans "waeguk saram" and report back here as soon as possible.