I hope this ads break the deep-seated racism in Korean people and also lessen the unnessary nationalism. Loving one’s country is one thing but when it becomes the reason to hurt other people, just like Japan has done, it must be stopped.

An interesting thing to note about your point that Korea is mono-ethnic and that that may affect perceptions of nationality: Koreans have had (and still do, to some degree) have options for which Korean state to choose. Not the same as American perceptions of being an American, but it does provide one slight degree of difference with, say, the Japanese or the Filipinos or the Vietnamese.

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USA! USA! USA!

Yep, that was the same perception in my office. Nobody quite figured out the nuance, which I chalked up to misunderstanding of the use of stress in the sentences. The words stressed in “I am an American” were “I” and “am” but not “American”, making the message more about how those various people were all included in the fabric of America and equally “American” as the native-born.

Being an “American” is the best volunteer job in the world.

Perhaps in mono-ethnic states it’s harder to visualize nationality and loyalty as anything other than tribal.

it’s not really something new, though. three of the people in the ad were in a series of tv documentaries from a year or so ago. actually, the first guy to appear is married to the only woman, who is second last to appear. there was this sad scene where he goes around finding casual work on construction sites. all the other workers try to speak to him in broken English, although he speaks Korean to them, never anything else.