Living as a Minority in Korea

The other day I was rummaging through my travelblog from my time teaching in Korea in 2008 and 2009 and came across this entry.  I polished up the writing just a little, but thought it would be a fun blast from the past and good food for thought.  I’d love to hear thoughts from any of you that have had similar experiences when living in Korea.

From 2009 when I was living in Korea.

Its so interesting to live as the minority for a change.  Yes, in El Paso I was a minority of sorts, but that is of course still completely different.  Korean people have great pride in their race and culture, so it is a very homogenius place.  With my blonde hair and blue eyes, I stick out even more.  I have to say that even though there are times when I know I am being watch and talked about, I love the experience of living as a minority.  My entire life I’ve been in the majority.  Even in El Paso, a predominantly hispanic city, I lived on the west side where many of the city’s white middle class people lived.  As I have grown into adulthood, I have become much more aware of my character.  My hope is that every person strives to be the best person they can be. For me that involves accepting and loving my fellow man and basing my ideas about people on the content of thier character versus their appearance or circumstances of life.  

I don’t think many of us are truly challenged by this in the safe worlds we surround ourselves with.  Sure there have always been people that didn’t like me and people who have not been kind to me and I hope that I have still extended them some grace, but I know there are times when I have reacted by emotion, rather than understanding.  The experience of living as a minority has allowed me to understand much better the importance of looking to the essence of the person.

Also, for me, living in Korea among all “foreign” people has meant that I don’t have the luxury of secluding myself with those I am most comfortable.  Instead, I have had to open myself up to something completely different.  Because I barely speak any of the language, it is my actions that are judged.  It is my tone and my smile, laughter, or deference in respect that are being judged.  It has opened my eyes in ways that they couldn’t be opened before.

I am dismissed by those passing our fliers and am ignored in the elevator or on the subway.  I am sometimes (though rarely) given looks that definitely don’t disguise the negative thoughts of the person.  All I can do is try to show through simple acts like holding the door or bowing to somebody, that I am a not a threat.  So here I am, a person that is far from perfect, but has the best of intentions at heart and am being judged in no way by my character.  So how many times have I dismissed somebody because of the way they look, or the language they are speaking?  How many times did I miss an amazing experience because of my own biases and fear?  Surely its happened once or twice.