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Len8
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Location: Kyungju
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 Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 4:05 am Post subject: Korean Imperialism |
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Went to the International center in Kwangju on Saturday, and listened to a presentation on Imperialism by an expat English teacher. Was quite interesting. Anyway one of the questions put to the speaker after the lecture was "Is their Imperrialism in Korea?". No one had an answer for the question.
I have since thought about the question, and am wondering if the influence of the conglomerates(Chaebols) are Imperialistic. They impose their influence subtley of course, and most of modern day Korean culture revolves around POSCO, HYUNDAI,SAMSUNG, LG and others. Their influence isnt overbearing and harsh the way countries imposed their imperialistic might, but it's still there. It's an unconcious Imperialism developed conciously by certain groups in each of those organizations.
Maybe their influence is a little sinister, because the influence exploits the natural inclinations of the Korean personality. |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 4:28 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| the influence of the conglomerates(Chaebols) are Imperialistic. They impose their influence subtley of course, and most of modern day Korean culture revolves around POSCO, HYUNDAI,SAMSUNG, LG and others. |
Koreans gaining and exercising power over other Koreans is NOT imperialistic because there is no foreign power involved.
The actions of their subsidiaries in India and eastern Europe might indicate such, but that's not what you are talking about. |
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ChuckECheese
Joined: 20 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 7:03 am Post subject: |
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| If Koreans had the same or near equal super power and economic status as the U.S. , I have no doubt that they would become highly imperialistic country. Besides they have lots of ax to grind against nice neighbors like Japan and China. |
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Smee
Joined: 24 Dec 2004
Location: Jeollanam-do
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| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 7:22 am Post subject: |
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| A driving motivation behind the "Korean Wave" has always been cultural imperialism. |
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kaizer
Joined: 03 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 9:50 am Post subject: |
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| Smee wrote: |
| A driving motivation behind the "Korean Wave" has always been cultural imperialism. |
Yeah, I guess that makes japanese fever/wave through out the world is also an imperialism.
The only imperialistic nations in this world are America, Russia, and China. |
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JMO
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Location: Daegu
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| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 9:54 am Post subject: |
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| kaizer wrote: |
| Smee wrote: |
| A driving motivation behind the "Korean Wave" has always been cultural imperialism. |
Yeah, I guess that makes japanese fever/wave through out the world is also an imperialism.
The only imperialistic nations in this world are America, Russia, and China. |
What about France, Spain, Portugal etc? |
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kaizer
Joined: 03 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 9:55 am Post subject: |
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| JMO wrote: |
What about France, Spain, Portugal etc? |
Spain and Portugal? This is 20th century we are talking about. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 10:02 am Post subject: |
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| Korea needs to be a bit more imperialistic. They aren't because they haven't really given it any thought. If they had decided a decade ago to give benefits like resident visas to people that could pass a high-level Korean language and history test they might have had a great deal more people studying the language. In the realm of language they're about one of the least imperialistic nations there is, and you can see it on their face when they're surprised at the person who 'deigned' to study Korean after some five years or so living in the country. To a people with an imperialistic spirit it's never any surprise that someone outside of their country would want to learn their great language. |
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Smee
Joined: 24 Dec 2004
Location: Jeollanam-do
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| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 11:33 am Post subject: |
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| kaizer wrote: |
| JMO wrote: |
What about France, Spain, Portugal etc? |
Spain and Portugal? This is 20th century we are talking about. |
No we're not.
And we can throw England, Holland, and Germany in there, too.
The OP asked if Korea was imperialistic. There are different aspects of imperialism, not simply geopoliticall. Why do you think people deride Coca-Cola and McDonald's all the time? The McArmy never invaded anybody. |
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Tjames426
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 4:23 pm Post subject: |
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| ChuckECheese wrote: |
| If Koreans had the same or near equal super power and economic status as the U.S. , I have no doubt that they would become highly imperialistic country. Besides they have lots of ax to grind against nice neighbors like Japan and China. |
Obviously, which is why Korea is presently divided. |
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gsxr750r
Joined: 29 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 4:41 pm Post subject: |
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| mithridates wrote: |
| Korea needs to be a bit more imperialistic. They aren't because they haven't really given it any thought. If they had decided a decade ago to give benefits like resident visas to people that could pass a high-level Korean language and history test they might have had a great deal more people studying the language. In the realm of language they're about one of the least imperialistic nations there is, and you can see it on their face when they're surprised at the person who 'deigned' to study Korean after some five years or so living in the country. To a people with an imperialistic spirit it's never any surprise that someone outside of their country would want to learn their great language. |
They need to change the rules regarding learning Korean first.
They need to offer a language visa that allows us to work and make money (while studying Korean exclusively) to support ourselves while living in this expensive country. The language visa does not allow for this. Try it, and you will be deported, if caught.
The only such degrees that allow for work are FT 4-year uni students. NOT the language student visas.
It's also rather difficult, because most hagwon classes are taught at the same time as full-time Korean language classes at unis (or the overlap). Then there is the issue that, if you really want to learn Korean, you need to devote yourself entirely to it -- who has time to teach FT while doing this?
Foreigners are not encouraged to learn Korean (on a gov't level). If they were, they would change the rules. |
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DCJames
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 4:44 pm Post subject: |
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| Smee wrote: |
| A driving motivation behind the "Korean Wave" has always been cultural imperialism. |
Korean Cultural imperialism is a drop in the bucket compared to the cultural imperialism the US pushes down the world's throat. |
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Gwangjuboy
Joined: 08 Jul 2003
Location: England
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| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 4:45 pm Post subject: |
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| gsxr750r wrote: |
| mithridates wrote: |
| Korea needs to be a bit more imperialistic. They aren't because they haven't really given it any thought. If they had decided a decade ago to give benefits like resident visas to people that could pass a high-level Korean language and history test they might have had a great deal more people studying the language. In the realm of language they're about one of the least imperialistic nations there is, and you can see it on their face when they're surprised at the person who 'deigned' to study Korean after some five years or so living in the country. To a people with an imperialistic spirit it's never any surprise that someone outside of their country would want to learn their great language. |
They need to change the rules regarding learning Korean first.
They need to offer a language visa that allows us to work and make money (while studying Korean exclusively) to support ourselves while living in this expensive country. The language visa does not allow for this. Try it, and you will be deported, if caught.
The only such degrees that allow for work are FT 4-year uni students. NOT the language student visas.
It's also rather difficult, because most hagwon classes are taught at the same time as full-time Korean language classes at unis (or the overlap). Then there is the issue that, if you really want to learn Korean, you need to devote yourself entirely to it -- who has time to teach FT while doing this?
Foreigners are not encouraged to learn Korean (on a gov't level). If they were, they would change the rules. |
I agree with a lot of that. I work in a public school legally but my timetable is so easy that I have ample time to study Korean too. In fact, back home my job would be regarded as part-time. Incidentally, my Korean ability is one of the reasons my school is so flexible with regards to my workload. |
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gsxr750r
Joined: 29 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 4:51 pm Post subject: |
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Korean co-workers are more than happy to help you learn Korean. I had two of them meeting me for free classes, up until last week (they're office staff, and getting busy now, so we stopped).
It is my opinion, however, that the average person needs full-time Korean classes (immersion) for three to eight months to be very productive at it.
And how many teachers stay here long enough to bother? |
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venus
Joined: 25 Oct 2006
Location: Near Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 7:26 pm Post subject: |
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| The only imperialistic nations in this world are America, Russia, and China. |
I guess that's a fair statement as long as is taken in the context of 'at this present time.'
Hasn't Russia given up on all that now?
China is not acting very culturaly imperialist right now but based on past actions I would come as a shock but not a surprise if they went in that direction in the future... though their past imperialism was limited to a very narrow (not small in terms of land mass) area...
I do often feel a hunch that they have been sitting back for the past few hundred years watching the industrial west's actions as a kind of experiment to see where it would go... Now having got a clear picture of where that has lead and how it works they're getting in on the game themselves... or not of course... they must still be kind of pissed off about what the British did over there....
What was it that Napolean said - 'When China wakes, the world will tremble.' Something like that...
Who knows... |
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