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American rejected for job teaching English in South Korea because he's black
- Thread starter Dram
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Angelus Errare
Banned
lol no they're not. North Korea would rank higher than S.Korea easily.
TheBryanJZX90
Member
And the youngest people will just scream and run away.
Zoe
Member
They probably get just as many black people from Africa as they do from America, so there isn't necessarily the stereotype that being black = impeccable English.
Meus Renaissance
Member
Visiting is one thing. But staying there longterm to work with others? Why would you put yourself through that if there is a culture that is disgusted by your existence?
Reading that teacher's blog made my blood boil. I sat there, late for work, trying to process what I had just read. It's not even the mindset that angers me most; the demonstration of disgust (getting out of their seat and moving away for instance); the dehumanisation of someone next to you is utterly repugnant.
This is why I'm such a strong advocate of multiculturalism.
Reading that teacher's blog made my blood boil. I sat there, late for work, trying to process what I had just read. It's not even the mindset that angers me most; the demonstration of disgust (getting out of their seat and moving away for instance); the dehumanisation of someone next to you is utterly repugnant.
This is why I'm such a strong advocate of multiculturalism.
Mr. Wedgewood
Member
Not a country but people in Hawaii can be pretty racist toward Caucasians.
Heard stories from aquaintences they used to have "kill haole day" in high school https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_Haole_Day
triplestation
Member
All he wanted was some mushu
boiled goose
good with gravy
They sometimes don't even hire Asian Americans because they want white people to teach English.
jongkookie
Member
Oh yeah most definitely the Philippines is much more tolerant with so many things. Hell, gays can roam the country freely despite the fact that the Catholic church is well ingrained in our culture and government. Yet here in Texas, if so much as two dudes hold hands it's about time to cock the shotgun and shoot the shit out of them.
I was born and raised in one of the better cities in Mindanao that isn't Davao or Gen San, that's also a hotbed for terrorism(that's enough of an hint right? lol). And back when I used to live there the air force base was actually full of Americans training the AFP.
You'd rarely see them outside of the air base since they were usually high ranking officials or something along those lines. But yeah, they were pretty much treated like royalty. They were at many public events supposedly as guests when in fact they were there to make sure the MNLF or the Abu Sayyaf wouldn't show up to wreck shit.
It sounds about right. As a western-born Asian, I've been exposed to a lot of Chinese/Taiwanese/Japanese/Korean attitudes towards foreigners. Sometimes they forget that I'm a foreigner altogether and say outright racist things about other coloured people.
In Taiwan, a lot of people are mocked for having darker skin, as the stereotype is that darker-skinned Taiwanese people are less-educated as they never stay indoors and study. Plus, most of them tend to be labourers who stay out in the sun all day. This stereotype most likely applies to China, Japan and Korea too.
Then there's that whole traditional sexist notion of women having to stay indoors/home all the time, thus the whiter the skin, perfect wife blah blah blah. It's backward, and they will deny it in front of your face, but everybody accepts this norm regardless.
I suppose I wouldn't call Asians "racist as fuck", more ignorant than anything. A lot of it comes down to not being weary of worldly situations and events, as opposed to overt, vicious racism.
Shanks D Zoro
Banned
It is part of my job to hire new teachers here in Korea.
Me and my Korean counterpart do take appearance into account. I have never not hired someone because of their skin colour, and in fact just hired a black teacher and also have an indian teacher who we hired a couple months ago. What is important for me is how warm and friendly a person looks. I tend to rule out obese teachers because we teach kinder and need to have energetic teachers.
I did know of one overwight amaerican girl who was hired over the internet at my friends school who when they saw her at the airport sent her straight back.
Also in my previous school i know that they would not hire black teachers. The women in charge wanted only white british men, and thought kids would not understand black people because of their lips.
on the whole, i have known a lot of black teachers here and most have not had problems with their schools, but then I don't know how many other black teachers never even get the chance to come because schools flat out reject them.
Me and my Korean counterpart do take appearance into account. I have never not hired someone because of their skin colour, and in fact just hired a black teacher and also have an indian teacher who we hired a couple months ago. What is important for me is how warm and friendly a person looks. I tend to rule out obese teachers because we teach kinder and need to have energetic teachers.
I did know of one overwight amaerican girl who was hired over the internet at my friends school who when they saw her at the airport sent her straight back.
Also in my previous school i know that they would not hire black teachers. The women in charge wanted only white british men, and thought kids would not understand black people because of their lips.
on the whole, i have known a lot of black teachers here and most have not had problems with their schools, but then I don't know how many other black teachers never even get the chance to come because schools flat out reject them.
HORRORSHØW
Member
it's like that here too in the states. difference is, you get shot for being black.
how would you view a korean who is more than qualified to teach english but is heavily tattooed?
bearythebear
Member
The vast majority of the world is a lot more racist than America. Most of the world lives in relative homogeneity.
Black-Wind
Member
I just love how people try to defend Asians when this racist shit comes to light.
"Whatabout Racism in the West, huh!?!?"
Or the lovely " I wonder where they get their racist idles from ... maybe from American Media!!!"
As if these places/ people/ cultures don't have a fucking long history of being racist/ nationalistic/ xenophobic that's been deep rooted in them far before movies. Shit isn't new.
Will never understand why people want to kiss up so hard to Asian nations when this pops up.
Anyway, this actually was a shocker to me. Mainly cause I never thought about the process people go through to teach English over-seas in these places. I figured that there was just an arrangement/ deal in place where Organization A would just send people they deem qualified with clean records and full background checks to Schools X Y and Z and be done with it. Didn't know they had to do interviews or anything like that ... never really thought much about what English teachers go through at all really.
"Whatabout Racism in the West, huh!?!?"
Or the lovely " I wonder where they get their racist idles from ... maybe from American Media!!!"
As if these places/ people/ cultures don't have a fucking long history of being racist/ nationalistic/ xenophobic that's been deep rooted in them far before movies. Shit isn't new.
Will never understand why people want to kiss up so hard to Asian nations when this pops up.
Anyway, this actually was a shocker to me. Mainly cause I never thought about the process people go through to teach English over-seas in these places. I figured that there was just an arrangement/ deal in place where Organization A would just send people they deem qualified with clean records and full background checks to Schools X Y and Z and be done with it. Didn't know they had to do interviews or anything like that ... never really thought much about what English teachers go through at all really.
Shanks D Zoro
Banned
Grimløck;170650037 said:
Tattoos are pretty much a no no. If a teacher can keep them hidden then fine, but the parents just want professional looking people. It is why parents at my school have been fine with non white teachers because they have always looked warm, friendly, and professional.
PdotMichael
Banned
Lol, that doesn't sound like the work of professionals.
Shanks D Zoro
Banned
There are some bad schools out there. My friends school was a bad one. But that was a school out in the sticks. Seoul schools from my experience are much better.
chaobreaker
Member
I know most here are arguing that SE Asia is in general full of rampant unabashed racism, but I took a look at this wikipedia article and holy shit.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_ethnic_nationalism
Are other Asian countries like this? Seems Koreans seems to take super special pride on their ethnic background and shun everyone who is not Korean or Koreans who patronize with non-Koreans.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_ethnic_nationalism
Are other Asian countries like this? Seems Koreans seems to take super special pride on their ethnic background and shun everyone who is not Korean or Koreans who patronize with non-Koreans.
HORRORSHØW
Member
funny you should say that because i have friends who were deported from the states to korea and they got jobs teaching english there. mind you, they don't have college degrees and they barely scraped by the toefl test. they do keep their tattoos nicely hidden, though.
BladeoftheImmortal
Member
all the fucking time in china.
BladeoftheImmortal
Member
called white privilege for a reason, bro.
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
I thought you were cool, Korea.
Korea is East Asian which are mostly homogenous
South-East Asian countries in contrary are probably the most diverse region in the world, ethnic wise
The title is singular, but this literally was in the FAQ when I was looking to teach English in South Korea. There were headings for "What if I'm black?" and "What if I'm Asian?" and the answer was basically that schools want white people to show off to the parents, so you're probably not going to find a placement.
chaobreaker
Member
Typo, my bad. I meant East Asia. Seems like Japan and S Korea share many parallels with each other when it comes with how their homogenous population treat foreigners but it looks like S Korea has them beat by a long shot.
Pila
Member
I loved the accurate estimate. ^^
Depressing article, racism is everywhere. People here are shitting on Asia and America, do you think Europe is immune?
It's still a big stinky shit everywhere if you ask me.
freakzilla149
Banned
It's not just racism against non white people. There is some other level brown nosing of white people.
If you watch Korean TV, movies etc you'll see random white people with barely a grasp of Korean scattered everywhere. For no reason, not even like the scene is in Europe or something. It just looks wrong.
Same shit with Indian cinema. So disgusting.
If you watch Korean TV, movies etc you'll see random white people with barely a grasp of Korean scattered everywhere. For no reason, not even like the scene is in Europe or something. It just looks wrong.
Same shit with Indian cinema. So disgusting.
King Tubby
Member
As bad as it can get in the States I'll take multicultural over homogeneous any damn day of the week.
freakzilla149
Banned
I loved the accurate estimate. ^^
Depressing article, racism is everywhere. People here are shitting on Asia and America, do you think Europe is immune?
It's still a big stinky shit everywhere if you ask me.
Sure, Switzerland is shit but do you honestly believe an ad like that would make it to the public in the UK, US, Scandinavia etc?
Pila
Member
I'm sure I could find some racist ads from the UK or Norway if I had time to google a bit, they probably wouldn't directly show black faces, because they know they can't.
(btw, second one is from Italy, not Switzerland)
My point is: racism is still a common thing all over the world, we're wrong when we assume we're immune and just laugh at a place like Korea. They know they can't have that "in your face" attitude, but they're still here.
Hahah I am really regretting not taking you up on your offer hahah.
Melkezadek
Member
This sounds so outlandish I swear it could be used for a Chappelle Show skit.
Casual attention is hard to classify as positive - but it'd be difficult to describe without experiencing it - imagine being gawked at as an animal in Zoo (although I got worse experience with that in Japan).Estellex said:Did you get a lot of "positive" attention from the girls?
Once you get to actual human level interaction - the attention is mostly down to curiosity - which you will get everywhere if you sound "foreign" to the locals. I've known people that actually had that down to a science when they studied in US/Canada.
WTF? This isn't scripted, is it?
Oh, fine then.
Laieon
Member
I've been here a year. I think Koreans have been insanely accommodating and some of the nicest people I've ever known, but unfortunately this isn't the first time I've heard of this happening. Luckily there's still plenty of schools and hagwons that will hire just about anyone.
Eh, I disagree. Most Korean TV shows (at least of the K Drama variety) tend to take place or around Seoul. White people with barely a grasp of Korean are fairly common there. I say this as a white people who knows pretty much just survival and basic conversation Korean who's living in the suburbs of Seoul.
If I remember correctly (I think I read about this on /r/Korea a few months back), the guy is on some TV show here. The lady recognized him and was just surprised to see him.
edit: this is apparently him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Okyere
Eh, I disagree. Most Korean TV shows (at least of the K Drama variety) tend to take place or around Seoul. White people with barely a grasp of Korean are fairly common there. I say this as a white people who knows pretty much just survival and basic conversation Korean who's living in the suburbs of Seoul.
If I remember correctly (I think I read about this on /r/Korea a few months back), the guy is on some TV show here. The lady recognized him and was just surprised to see him.
edit: this is apparently him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Okyere
I love how multicultural racism is in this picture, there's a north african, an african, an european, and an asian.
Hate everyone equally, bring a tear to my eye
Shanks D Zoro
Banned
all you need to do is ask.
Dickhead you don't always respond to my messages.
CadetMahoney
Member
Whole of 1st world Yurop has loads of different cultures and foreigners in their countries, especially compared to Korea and Japan.
In this case, understanding the reference doesn't really make it any funnier.
I assume he's referring to Google photos mislabelling some black people as gorillas. That shouldn't make it ok to casually describe black people as gorillas, but I guess that's less important than iunderstoodthatreference.gif (and now probably nofunallowed.gif)
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