Racism in choosing English teachers in Korea, what are your thoughts about this? Lone Gunman a member of Japantoday.com wrote:
“True. Korea’s one failing is that due to a relatively high rate of nationalism and some xenophobia (caused by living in a homogeneous society), many people feel other countries are inferior and that somehow Koreans are better. This is seen in Japan and many other nations as well. Even the US to some degree and the US is VERY multi-cultural. Be it because of a nation’s status, how their society looks racially etc, these things can often culminate into an inferiority complex resulting in people trying to justify their supposed superiority in front of others. It disgusts me. I mean this English teacher business is just despicable. Australia is not free from racism either, I have seen some pretty nasty stuff down here as well. Really I find it humiliating and just immature. Racism is childish and I think if we’re gonna talk Korea, we have to say that Koreans (as well as everyone else in the world as well I guess), should stop turning a blind eye. If they see racism on their doorstep, they should respond to it. If they see discrimination, they should respond. Koreans should be the first people to stop KOREAN racism. Not someone else.”
Years ago when I really didn’t know that much about S. Korea I applied for an English teacher position in addition to various other positions in other countries. So I sent in my resume and the guy emailed me back and said “ohh you would be perfect” blah blah blah ..”let’s set up a phone interview”. I was like “fine”. So during the phone conversation he asked me “what is your ethnicity”. Personally I was shocked because that is just something you don’t ask in an interview in the USA, you can be in big trouble with discrimination suits etc…. Anyways to make a long story short, I ended up getting a job here in the USA. Me and my 2 friends were talking about this during my recent trip to Seoul. Yes, the problem exists. Does the problem exist here in the USA with discrimination, yes. I would say one thing about the quote above in that no matter where racism exist, it should be stopped. There is no “first responder” when it comes to racism. Whether it be the Koreans or foreigners who experience racism, it should be dealt with.
yeah, somehow koreans are racist… xenocism is common. they think their race is the highest one. , if they will continue to have this kind of wrong thinking, they will soon fail and collapse. Filipnos are extending their skills and expertise with these Korean guys, yet some are ignoring our value…
I’m not sure that they think they are the best…but I do feel they need better education as far as diversity among the different races especially non-Caucasian races.
Every culture have racism in them. Even though Im Korean I admit there is somewhat degree of racism going in Korea and I also admitt it's usually to the Southern Asia such as Vietnamese, Cambodian, etc. HOWEVER, I think WHITES don't think about how did they do. Even though WHITES says taht they do not discriminate due to the ethnics, they do in their minds at least. I saw some WHITES who were surprised by not being treated better than any other racies. So I think U guys are using other countries racism to make u guys look better (not entirely but in some degree). Also for US too have huge racism problem unlike "Author of this article said" American should look into their problem before looking at other countries problems.
Thanks for your comment. This blog is about topics that range from a variety of issues and does not attempt to solve world problems such as racism but rather have a discussion about these types of issues. So I will continue to post such topics. Thanks.
Hmm… maybe for teaching jobs yeah they are racist, but when other foreign people go to Korea for working visa in order to earn money it's different story. Ignoring our value? As far for the values, how can anyone compare the american and asian value. Of course it is different. For talk about diversity you are not so much of open person either. I would say this is more issue of understanding if you talk about values. Sadly, Austrailia and some other countries still have racism, which is so wrong. Anyone who's not Caucasians including asian peoples still face racism anyways.