For my weekly English conversation class with Korean teachers at school, I decided to discuss an article about how over 1% of students in Korea will be multiracial by next year. That brought up a host of topics, which are broken down below by subtopic:
Multiracialism in the Korean Classroom
Yes, you read that right. Just over 1%, which for those of us from diverse countries like the U.S., is unfathomably low. But in Korea, that's HUGE news!! Note: "Multiracial" in Korea means something more like "multi-nationality" in the U.S...it doesn't have anything to do with being Hispanic or of African descent, and rather refers to having a non-Korean parent. So, while most people in the U.S. wouldn't label the child of a Chinese man and Korean woman as "mixed race" because both are Asian, this combination is considered multiracial in Korea.
I asked the teachers what implications this multiracialism might have in the classroom. They agreed that this diversity will create challenges in the classroom because teachers simply don't know how to handle non-Korean students. Actually, teachers have difficulty with anything unKorean about any student because of the nation's monoculturalism. One teacher recalled her experience of knowing a Korean-American girl (Korean mother, father from the States) in elementary school. She said the girl was often teased, bullied, and mistreated because she was different. The teacher went on to describe how she sometimes sees waygooks (foreigners) around the city and immediately feels fear, although somewhat inexplicably.
"I see a foreigner and I am afraid of them. I'm ashamed of it, but they make me uncomfortable."
This thought sank into me like a dagger. It's a story I had heard before, but from another foreign English teacher--not from a Korean. I keep wondering what makes us all so scary, aside from the fact that we're different. I didn't prod her too much on this question, instead allowing the conversation to flow naturally to the next topic: what is means to be a waygook (in the eyes of a Korean person).
I See a Waygook
The teachers asked me what my experience was like in Korea. I told them that I was very much enjoying my time here, and that cultural adjustments were still definitely taking place, which they thought was normal for a foreigner. We mulled over the term "waygookin," which the aforementioned teacher said was what she naturally called me without thinking about it because I wasn't Korean. It just seemed "normal" to call me a waygook.
What was interesting, though, is that the Korean teachers thought an American would feel the same way about outsiders. I explained that the U.S. is radically different in that we have inherent diversity, while in most regards, Korea does not. We can't look at someone and say, "You don't look American...you must be a foreigner." I concede that in some small cases, you can guess that someone is a recent immigrant, but in general, you don't know because there isn't an "American look" from our perspective.
I then explained how in some parts of my country, kids are raised to speak a non-English language better than or as well as English. This blew their minds because they assumed that everyone just spoke English. Breaking down these stereotypes was great fun for me, as I used myself in many examples (not that I'm an "average American," whatever that is, but y'all get the point).
More on multiculturalism in Korea later!
