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| This is how old I feel, writing this. |
They just don't build foreigners like they used to.
The last three years has seen a massive influx of foreigner teachers and boy howdy, the quality control has been low. Some have been awesome. Some have been awful though. Just...awful.
From bar fights that break out into the street to the bitching over working 15 hours a week, new foreigners are ruining the reputation of those that came before. More importantly, they are destroying opportunities for future prospective teachers.
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| How I feel seeing young men fight nowadays.Calm down, children. There are drinks for everybody. |
N00bs don't care that their actions represent foreigner teachers as a whole. They don't feel a part of a collective, unless its as part of negative profiling. Then they circle the wagons and have a bitching session about everything wrong with Korea and Koreans.
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| "Did you hear how they are making me stay at work and not do anything ? THE BASTARDS!" |
Why should they care? As far as they are concerned, Korea is set up perfectly for them. They don't have to worry about medical insurance. They don't have to worry about housing. They don't have to worry about teaching. They have it made.
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| "Dear Mom and Dad,Please send more Salt and Vinegar Crisps." |
Of course they have it made. It was made by the blood, sweat and tears of those who came before them. The framework of foreigner society is something that took an ice age of careful diplomacy. All those publications, Facebook groups, societies, and social clubs took more than just zeal and enthusiasm. They needed to work through the logistics.
Think of how hard Marty Nedjelski busts his hump, or Jason Palmer and Doug Karalius work hard for those sports societies to have their fields. Think about Craig White, Jess Hinshaw and Scott Fuzion,
perhaps competitors now but still, working to create more opportunities within Daegu society for expression.
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| Marty's the short blonde one. Save the Marty, Save the world. |
N00bs at this point are like, "who?" right now. I'll tell you. They are all examples of people who had to tread softly and make nice with an intractable infrastructure, found ways to open it and to work within it and help open the doors for those who came after. And those after.
Now it seems like foreigners can travel halfway around the world just to carry on the social life of a frat boy, of a zef, of a chav. Get drunk, fall asleep, eat pizza, and repeat. When your Korean cultural acceptance extends to only Soju, makeolli and SamGim sal, you make all of us look bad.
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| Although he had never heard of Makeolli, he was sure he missed out on something. |
So I'll say this for the new crew. You're here to experience culture. You're here to work. You're here to grow. You're here for a bloody good time. Good for you. While you're here, you're a representative. Of your race. Of your culture. Of your fellow TEFLers. Of me.
Have a great year. It could be your best.
Next up, Veterans and their inflexible viewpoints......
If people see me as a 'representative of my race,' aren't they being racist?
ReplyDeleteDoes that matter? does their racism then justify poor behavior?
DeleteYes it matters in an off-your-topic way, and no it doesn't justify anything. That's not what I was trying to say hehe. Just trying to demonize the act of stereotyping.
DeleteIt's not racist... Only if they hated you based upon the color of your skin without judging your character.
ReplyDeletewait, What's not racist?
DeleteAnd what are you talking about "ONLY if they hated you." I'm pretty sure saying "oh you're black, you must be good at basketball" is also racist.
I wasn't trying to start a hostile argument, but now I'm just confused.
I sense no hostility; there is nothing wrong with point/counterpoint conversations.
DeleteAllow me to restructure my sentence (without changing meaning) to make things clearer. "If they hated you based [only] upon the color of your skin without judging your character" then yes, that would be racist.
This means that just because you're a different skin color does not mean that they automatically hate you because of it. However, as I'm sure most people are aware, lots of foreigners openly don't care about the norms, customs, traditions, or overall culture of this civilization. A lot of the foreigners here tend to promote a horrible image that builds upon an overall negative image that is viewed by the globe. E.g. Westerners are arrogant, inconsiderate of other cultures, and generally cause trouble (to name three).
Now what I was referring to as not being racist was viewing an individual as a "representative of your race". Yes stereotypes are bad and generally promote negativity rather than understanding. However, I counter that there is a fine line between the negative connotation between stereotyping and simply categorizing. If you notice a sharp influx of a specific type of human (namely: westerner English teachers) entire your homogeneous society then it is human nature to observe and learn things about them, and ultimately categorize them so that you simplify it and make it easier to comprehend (not everyone has time to meet every single Westerner that enters Korea and make an independent judgement regarding each individual, categorization makes life easier).
Now, here's where the "hate due to racism" vs. "hate due to poor behavior" distinction needs to come into play. Sure, there is a negative image of foreigners here in Korea. However, is it entirely unfair? Why do our fellow westerners routinely get drunk multiple times a week and almost assuredly black out every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday? Is it because this is the way they would live if they were at home? I have my doubts. My point being is that many westerners treat Korea like vacation rather than a respectable country with a respectable job, and take very little responsibility for their actions. We start fights out in the streets with little provocation and sometimes just for fun. This is not something Korean civilization approves nor tolerates. Does that make them racists? No. We routinely have westerners show up to work exhausted from a weekend of belligerent drinking and perform poorly at our jobs. Does this make Koreans racists for disapproving? No, especially since their work culture dictates a much more rigorous schedule than ours, and it's only natural for people to be jealous of the freedoms enjoyed by their coworkers. I'm sure everyone sometimes feels jealous of a coworker here and there. Does that make you prejudicial?
Now, are these westerners the majority? No. Are they close to half of population (I am, of course, referring to the Western English Teachers)? No. Are they a small proportion of people that are over-represented in the media and casual conversation? Almost assuredly. However, it is much easier to remember the bad things we see in the media rather than the good, and it is much easier to destroy a reputation rather than build one, which I believe was the overall message of this article.
P.S. saying "Oh you're black, you must be good at basketball" is not racist. It's stereotyping without a doubt, but racism is about a superficial superiority of one's own skin color over another's. Saying that someone is good at something and implying that they're better than yourself at it, which the quote does, is not an attempt to gain superiority based upon your skin color. Now, that quote is obviously a slippery slope into racism, which is what I believe you were implying, but at that particular point it had not yet reached true racism. Granted at this point I might just be arguing semantics, which I will preemptively apologize for doing. hahaha. However, I do stress that racism is about people believing their race is superior to others with the added emotions of hatred and intolerance. There was no hatred nor intolerance implied in the quote previously stated.
DeleteP.P.S Please do not interpret this as a hostile argument, I mean no ill will to you or anyone else. I firmly believe in an open and healthy discussion of any and all topics. You are free as air to disagree with me and remain unpersuaded. I would also enjoy reading about your opinion because I believe that you are a well educated individual with a good mind and an opinion that could be highly beneficial to all audiences.
--Mathew Miletich
I understand stereotyping exists as "human nature," as you say. It's hardwired into our sensory nervous systems. That's how cavemen knew to run from things with pointy claws and chase things with meaty ribs. It's a primitive brain function that we no longer need to constantly employ, considering our current environment's survivabililty plus the hyper prevalence of information, and considering the function's shortcomings. Despite the attitudes expressed above, there's no reason why respectable gentlemen such as yourself should be burdened with a sense of personal guilt because someone else was passed out in a puddle of vomit in front of a kindergarten at 2pm. Nor should you feel any false sense of pride or accomplishment because someone else dashed into the same kindergarten, while it was burning, and saved all 100 children. Of curse we should have moral reactions to such events. I'm just saying you, personally, are not directly responsible. Your skin pigmentation does not make you responsible. You could argue that most people think it does, sure, but most people are also relics, already dead on an evolutionary scale.
DeleteAs for racism, semantics perhaps, but racism is not ONLY about claiming "superiority of one's skin color." That's one half, but it's also about the other skin color(s) receiving (or being forced into) inferiority of their own. Trying to distinguish the negative effects from the positive to define a "true racism" is pointless and subjective. "Race" as a theory originated as the claim that humanity has five subspecies: white, black, brown, red and yellow. It was invented hundreds of years ago to simplify and justify continental colonizations. No such concept existed prior (Even the ancients knew skin color related only to sun-exposure) and no such reality existed, ever. No modern social scientist thinks in such outdated terms. So why would we? Simply put, if I even believe "races" are a real thing(i.e. "I am a member of the whites and therefore must have these characteristics, and you are one of the blacks and must have those characteristics"), I am in fact racist (and delusional). The problems of stereotyping and superiority/inferiority are merely side effects of such delusions.
Another side effect could be an imaginary dilemma of identity such as yours: "They don't hate me due to racism, they hate me due to my race's poor behavior." haha. But anyway I think in most cases of hatred, if it even exists, the problem lies within the one hating, not the one being hated. There's nothing to do about that except smile and maybe prove them wrong.