* "Us versus them: More about 외국인."
* "So were they American or Armenian?"
It looks at a couple things, including Koreans' use of "외국인" when abroad to describe the natives. Both posts are old, but I didn't have enough comments on new posts to put something timely together. This one was another example of a "column" that was hard to trim down to near 600 words.
While I like what Anna said, and concluded the piece on that note, but I like, too, what t_song had to say:
This whole argument is such a White conversation though, the feelings of not being accepted into the majority. I don't want to riff too long on this, but you never hear white people complaining that they're not black. So assuming you were like the one white family in an all black neighborhood and you were the only white person in your school, you'd perhaps be accepted, though not completely. If that makes sense.
The translation to foreigner and all the feelings of non-inclusiveness is, frankly, a fact. The fairly direct translation is only a fault of the original translation and the oversensitivity of Westerners in Korea.
You can argue that bi-racial children will challenge the notion of who is "Korean" and who is not, but I think Westerners, in particular, are too quick to classif themselves as "bad" when in fact they're just "different."
Especially about being a "White conversation." I just didn't have enough space to take it there.
15 comments:
Her arguement has too many holes in it. In many cases, a minority who grows up in a white neighborhood and has associated with white people for a long time, will usually act white. But we will always be the other country people to Koreans.
Has anyone yet made the correlation between the use of "의국인" and the use of "gentile?"
I've never thought the word foreigner is used exclusively to mean someone from another country, which you seem to be implying. Surely one of its meanings is just someone who is not of your own group - a sort of example is "johnny foreigner". That seems to be one of the meanings for foreigner in dictionaries that I've come across - "someone from outside your community".
If I'm in a restaurant in a foreign country with some of my friends from my home country, the other people there are definitely "foreigners" as they are not from our group.
I think T_Song misses the point. Foreigners in Korea don't complain about being called foreigners, so complaining about being called a foreigner while in one's own country has nothing to do with inclusiveness and everything to do with Korea-centrism. Americans used to call Europe simply "the continent" until African-Americans objected. I guess complaining about Euro-centrism is, borrowing t_song's terminology, such a Black conversation.
I think it comes down to the way Koreans define nationality--they do not define it by passports, but by where your ancestors come from. My students were shocked when I told them that Korean-Americans were Americans in nationality (as English users use the word), even if they identify strongly with Korean culture. They also consider the ethnic Chinese who have settled/lived here for generations to still be Chinese, even when they become Korean citizens (which is NOT granted to them at birth in this country--my friend who was born in Seoul had a Taiwanese passport).
I think your insights are very interesting to read, and I look forward to reading your article.
If Koreans visiting another country/living in another country, want to use "의국인" for the natives, well, it's their language. But if they attempt to speak the local language (say, English), they need to update their English. Calling a native a foreigner or an outsider just ain't cricket.
Although the literal meaning of "의국인" is "foreigner", the way Koreans use the term in their speech is closer to "non-Korean", which is how I translate it when I'm reading an article.
Good work on the article once again, Brian.
I also like t_song's comment about this being a "white conversation": I think that helps to put things in perspective a bit. It's easy for me, as a white Canadian, to say that my home country draws a distinction between ethnicity and nationality which Korea doesn't ... but tell that to the non-white Canadians who, while in Canada, have white people asking where they're "from", even if they've lived in Canada their entire life and speak fluent English/French. I don't think I have any meanignful understanding of how frustrating that must be. So I think some white westerners in Korea (myself included, when I lived in Korea) can be overly sensitive about this "us and them" stuff, because we're not used to wearing our nationality on our sleeve.
I'm a bit curious about this use of the word 외국인 by Koreans abroad because just yesterday my Korean roommate (I'm in the US) while telling me about his day used the word and quickly corrected himself saying, "Oh, but I guess I am the 외국인 here."
Do locals in other countries experience being called "foreigner" by Koreans abroad? Especially those who "look" or would be considered "ethnically local," since, as Diana pointed out, such is the way many Koreans define nationality.
It's just that I'd be surprised if this were a common occurrence. More likely, to me, would be the case that Koreans do use 외국인 to refer to those who are in fact locals, but only while speaking amongst themselves. In this case, it would make more sense since within that context, the local country and culture is the foreign entity, regardless of physical locality.
There is a racial (not racist) connotation to the word "foreigner" as used by Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese. Generally, the word "foreigner" is used to identify people who are not Northeast Asian. There is a logic to this. A Japanese in Korea or a Korean in China is easily distinguished as such whereas the nationality of an American, Pakistani, Mexican, or Nigerian is not always evident.
Koreans' use of the word "foreigner" isn't something to bitch about or get angry about. It is a window to understanding Koreans' 內 / 外 worldview. I worked at a university where 75% of the Korean professors had earned PhDs overseas, yet most probably lived in apartments or neighborhoods without a single foreign resident, and their kids all probably attended schools with a 100% ethnic Korean student body and staff.
The only thing that slightly annoys me is the tendency (found mainly amongst the English education crowd) to refer to any random white person walking down the street as a"원어민".
Really? I've never heard anyone do that before, Ross. That doesn't make any sense; they might as well just call Koreans 원어민s, too. Cause they are.
Brian you've never heard that before? You're kidding right? Funny.
ZenKimchi, that's a good point.
Steve, I know what a 원어민 is, but I've never heard foreigners calling each other that. Mostly they just call each other "waygooks," or "foreign countries," so far as I've heard.
Just to clarify, I meant the Korean English education crowd, not NETs. I think they are just used to calling foreigners 원어민 at work so it's really just an annoying slip of the tongue.
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