A couple of days ago, the Segye Ilbo ran a piece on a recent research paper than suggested that Korean university students held greater racial prejudices than foreign students studying in Korea (HT to reader).
Today, the KT ran a story on it, meaning I don’t have to translate it. Yippee!
Their sense of discomfort is not groundless as such prejudice has been revealed in a recent paper by Bang Hee-jung, a professor of Ewha Womans University. The paper looked into “differences in explicit and implicit racial attitudes between Korean and foreign college students.’’
For the paper, the professor surveyed 121 Korean students and 53 foreign students in Seoul and found that Koreans have a bias against non-Caucasian foreigners.
When the Koreans were asked to grade on bias and preference, white marked minus 0.25 and black and Southeast Asian recorded minus 0.51 and minus 0.55 respectively, indicating locals have hold South Asians, blacks and white Westerners in low esteem. In addition, none of the three groups received a plus grade, meaning that local students have a bias against non-Koreans.
Southeast Asians also came at the bottom when Korean students were asked what races they wanted to make friends with.
Marmot’s Note: I’d be more keen to see a comparative study between Korean students in Korea and, say, American students in the United States. The fact that foreign students studying overseas are, on average, less biased than their local counterparts just doesn’t seem all that surprising.
(HT to reader)
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
http://koreabeat.com/?p=3424 for more on this.
Today’s top headline: ‘Korean Students More Prejudiced Than Foreign Students’
followed by: ‘Sun found to radiate heat’
I think the study shows that Koreans have an unfavorable opinion of foreigners, especially Southeast Asians, but I think the opinion of the foreigners in the study is not a true representation since the sample was only of foreigners in Korea. To fairly compare the opinions of Koreans and foreigners, they would have had to get the opinions of foreigners outside Korea.
Foreigners who come to Korea are more likely to have a more favorable opinion of Korea than those who do not since they have chosen to come to Korea, just as those Koreans who visit places like the US are more likely to have a more favorable opinion of Americans than those who do not visit the US.
Actually, I just added a similar opinion above.
Agree, they should try to design a poll on racism comparable to those taken of university students in other countries if they want to make a comparison. But, then, hey, aren’t all foreigners the same anyway? Looks like the pollers might share some of these same views.
@3 On the contrary, I would think that foreigners in Korea, however they felt upon arrival, would, after spending some time here, be more likely on the whole to hold negative attitudes stemming from their experience.
While there are of course many who are somewhat racist in the west, the majority of foreign people who haven’t visited Asia wouldn’t likely have specific notions about Asians. I know I didn’t.
Korea is a huge adjustment, and everyone, to some extent becomes jaded when staring into the cultural divide. Eventually you gain perspective, but that road isn’t easy.
I have no comment on the survey itself, which appears not to have been constructed with enough methodology to even be considered a real survey. However, Pohang’s comment reminded me of this most excellent diatribe by one of the best writers ever to have operated the Mizar5 handle. Do read it in its entirety here. If you follow the thread you’ll see it struck a chord with some of our KorAm commenters.
“Pohang’s comment reminded me of this most excellent diatribe by one of the best writers ever to have operated the Mizar5 handle.”
My sock puppet wjk may have been responsible for that one.
With declining birth rate across East Asia, I think this will be less of an issue in the future as Korea, Japan, Taiwan, etc. accept more immigrants as inevitable. About one in 8 children born in Taiwan today is considered multi-ethnic.
linkd,
Although I already wrote a long post on why complaining expats complain about Korea, recently I came up with a different theory.
It all started when I started thinking about the obvious question: if expats hate Korea so much, why don’t they leave? Then it dawned on me — who other than expats complain about Korea all the time, wish they could live in a different country, but nonetheless continue to live in Korea at the end of the day?
Answer — Koreans! Try riding any taxi in Korea and talk to the driver about the Korean government for 30 seconds, and you will soon encounter the vilest invective against Korea (as long as you are not a 외국인. That changes the equation.) At any restaurant later at night, railing against Korean society is the favorite 안주 of the drunk 아저씨들. Sure MH comment board gets frisky at times, but the harshest, dumbest, most broadly-generalizing criticisms against Korea happen at Daum or Naver comment boards. Korean people says 이민 가고 싶다 so often on those boards it makes an immigrant like myself snicker.
So in essence, expats are developing hatred against Korea because they are getting assimilated. They are becoming more like… Koreans. The horror.
It is a massively unskilled society
What does this mean exactly? Aren’t broad generalizations like this grounds for immediate dismissal or mockery of everything else said by the author? But yeah, most of the other stuff in that comment seems alright.
It is a massively unskilled society
testing, sorry.
That’s a pretty good theory, theK. Mrs. Linkd came up with something similar a few months ago, saying “We’ve become so Korean after all our time here that all we want to do now is move back to Canada for the sake of our kids’ education.”
JW: the original Mizar5, so far as we know, had a management-level position with Samsung Electronics for a couple of years. That is, he was in a position to work with the people who are supposed to be the best-prepared Koreans to sally forth as world-class competitors in the age of globalization. Even if he is/was full of shit, though, no one with chaebol experience has uttered the slightest peep to counter his views. Be the first, if you have something to share.
I can speak to that linkd, but not from this keyboard that belongs to my chaebol master…
It is a massively unskilled society
Can’t drive? Check. Can’t make buildings that don’t fall down? Check. Can’t add without calculators? Check.
Hey LinkD,
Sure, I’m not saying he’s full of shit. It is a distinct possibility though considering that statement. What does it really mean to say Korea is a massively unskilled society considering everything the economists have said about Korea for the past 20 years? Miracle on the Han? Do these appraisals not matter as soon as soon you find some nearby evidence –legitimate no doubt — for corruption and laziness? And what is the measuring stick used to propel the validity of such statements?
It’s a massively disorienting statement, to me at least. Maybe the problem is I take some of the comments here too seriously.
#10
I’m about to hit the sack. Thanks for the scary bed-time story!
What does it really mean to say Korea is a massively unskilled society considering everything the economists have said about Korea for the past 20 years?’
I taught university English in Korea for 6 years. Very, very few of my students seemed to have any ability in the language of instruction despite having passed 10 years of instruction in English in Korean schools. That is a lack of skill.
Miracle on the Han?
Congratulations, you have a polluted, over-populated hellhole of a capital. What a miracle.
Do these appraisals not matter as soon as soon you find some nearby evidence –legitimate no doubt — for corruption and laziness?
Some evidence? Some? How about non-stop evidence everywhere you look?
And what is the measuring stick used to propel the validity of such statements?
You can’t propel validity. Statements are valid or not, regardless of whether or not they are propelled. Except in Korea. Propel on, my little Korean friend. Propel on.
Even if true, having a lack of skill in one thing (second-language capability) does not a ‘massively unskilled society’ make.
Response to Marmot’s Note:
A recent study conducted at York University in Canada (with York University students) found that there was a higher level of tolerance for racism among
Canadian university students than predicted.
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/01/08/racism-tolerate-study.html
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