As an English teacher, my lessons really don’t get to stray beyond the textbook. The moments of feeling like the teachers that inspired me are few and far between. There’s no opportunities to inspire the students to greatness, or make them want to change their life for the better. But once in a while, I find ways to slip bigger lessons into my classes. A few weeks ago, I covered what was one of the biggest, and most difficult lessons to teach.
For the year 3 students (Grade 9 in Canada), the chapter we were working on is “Our Foreign Neighbours”. The activities in the textbook were absolutely awful, and I couldn’t even fake caring, so I decided to spin the lesson a bit.
Generally speaking, I hate lessons that talk about foreigners, because it’s too easy to start talking about stereotypes. The textbook went on about the different foreign neighbourhoods in Seoul, mentioning Chinatown in Incheon, Itaewon and Seonae in Seoul, and Namhae down in Gyeongsangbuk. They did well to not stereotype too much, but I really didn’t want to paint a picture of foreigners who hide in these neighbourhoods, despite knowing many who do. So instead, I decided to teach about internationalization in Korea, and introduce the idea of people being duel citizens.
This all sounds pretty basic, until you remember that there is no such thing as duel citizenship in Korea. You are either Korean, or you’re not.
The lesson responses were really varied. The advanced classes, where many of the students have studied overseas for some period of time, seemed to quickly catch onto the idea of someone being able to be from two places at once. However, there were a lot of students who haven’t had that overseas exposure. As one student said very clearly, “Teacher… I don’t understand!!” This was a very new concept for them; being Korean AND something else, or being Korean even if one of your parents is from a different country. After a while though, the idea seemed to settle in.
Then, I asked a question that I doubt many expected: Do you think there is racism in Korea?
Like before, every student who had studied overseas at some point answered with a very quick, absolute “Yes.” Any other levels just seemed to shrug, not quite sure, or would shake their head. Of course they’ve never seen the racism in Korea before. I would then ask if they thought it was a small problem, or a big problem in Korea. Only the students who have been overseas knew the answer was yes.
For those who thought that it wasn’t a problem, I quickly summarized what some weekends can be like for me, with people staring, pointing at me, talking about me as if I don’t understand, and so on and so forth. The students were quite surprised to hear that their very own English teacher had to deal with daily troubles just because I’m not Korean. Being told to go home, being insulted for my size, being verbally attacked and once in a while groped on a train and being able to do nothing because it’s my word against his… A lot of the students had trouble understanding that it was real.
Because I didn’t want to spend the whole time acting like a victim (that was the last thing I wanted, really) I quickly jumped to common examples in the media. The one that was the most obvious was the use of blackface in comedy acts in South Korea. Sadly, this is a common enough occurrence in South Korea, and yet nobody seems to really understand why the international community gets upset. I tried to explain it very generally to my students, saying that it was considered incredibly rude and inappropriate in most western cultures, and that we have spent the last century fighting for people of different colours and races to be treated equally. Some of the students seemed to understand, while many didn’t care.
There are MANY other blogs out there who have covered the MBC Blackface controversy, so I’ll simply link to them if you want more information about what happened:
Eat Your Kimchi
Roboseyo
The Unlikely Expat
Monster Island
A great essay, Three Decades of Blackface In Korea
Another very indepth essay, Blackface, Korean Media, and the Context of the American Vaudeville Show
So it’s been covered in depth on the internet, but to save my students from thinking I was going on a Korea hating spree, I kept it short. They are, after all, just 9th graders. I DID follow up with a few comments about how casually people insult other countries around them, like Japan, China and South East Asia, and how western cultures don’t relate or agree to comments like that, so they as the future of Korea should think about what they say and how it makes other people feel.
After about one lesson on this topic, I realized that me saying everything just sounded like a foreigner talking down on a culture, not understanding anything about Korea. It’s a fairly common way to shrug off complaints, saying that foreigners just don’t understand Korean culture, and we never will. So I chose to show a video with a Korean person saying everything I wanted to say, in Korean. In one of the many idol reality shows on TV, there was a half Korean, half African American girl named Michelle Lee, who was incredibly talented and should have made it farther than she did. Despite getting glowing reviews from the judges, she was constantly in the bottom, and eventually was beaten by someone who was clearly lacking in skills, however had a very strong fan base. Park Jiyoung, aka JYP from JYP Entertainment, did NOT approve of this decision, and spoke out about it to the people of Korea.
After Michelle was voted off, JYP went on to say the following on national, prime time television:
I have one thing to tell Lee Michelle. I kept asking her (during our training) why she couldn’t clearly express her true feelings. But she just said, she couldn’t express herself because growing up she’s been hurt so many times by so many people.
“I strongly believe that all the parents (in Korea) must continuously teach and educate their child not to make fun of someone, or make derogatory comments, just because of that person’s skin color or race. I wonder if there’s any other country than Korea that’s so close-minded and oppressed in that manner. And I would like to applaud Lee Michelle for overcoming all the barriers and showing a new possibility with her performance today.
This was a fantastic way for me to end my lesson because these were words I really wasn’t allowed to say. I’m just another foreigner, and whatever I say will be brushed off as a misunderstanding of Korean culture. However, to have someone so well known and influencial in Korean culture saying these things is huge, and hopefully made a lot of discussion.
After I taught this lesson, I was filled with a lot of nerves regarding the class. Had I offended anyone? Were my students or teachers upset? I asked my coteachers quite a bit if they were okay with the subject matter, and they told me time and time again that they were glad I was teaching it because it is a very important lesson for the students to learn about, even if it’s difficult. Learning it from a foreigner with first hand experience also helped make it real, especially since it was a foreigner they knew personally and cared about a lot. They could see that it hurt my feelings, and a lot might think twice before saying rude things. I still was wary though.
A week later though, I was out with my friends, eating dinner like normal, when a Korean woman came up to me and asked if she could get a photo with me. Apparently, her assignment from her English teacher (WHAT?!) was to take a photo with a random foreigner. I was upset, and felt like a creature in a zoo, but what could I do? I posed for the photo, unsmiling and hesistant. Two booths over, I could see a group of my third year students, staring with shock. The lesson that they hardly listened to before suddenly became very, very real.
And despite the fact that I felt like a fool as the woman thanked me for the photo (clearly unable to read the atmosphere of “GET AWAY FROM ME”), the look in my student’s eyes as I sat back down and poked at my food, appetite gone, made it clear that there may be three more girls who think twice about racist comments now. So perhaps it was worth it.
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PS – If you do plan to do a lesson like this, and have a class that you feel could engage in discussion about how Koreans see foreigners in the news, I’d highly suggest using MBC’s Shocking Truth about Relationships With Foreigners, and asking students how much truth they think is in the video, and how different communities might feel when they watch this video. You can discuss things like the methods of getting information, the lack of reliable sources, and hearsay to prove a point.
What you speak about at the end of the article happens quite a lot in China and none of my Chinese friends never understood why we were being offended. It happened to me once in Korea, and I was really shocked because I was far from being aware that Korean people may act like Chinese people, about foreigners.
I thinh it is great you taught your students about it. For facing racism for over a year in China, I really believe that it is something that you should be taught to children… Because in France I am shocked when I hear people being racists… but it shocks me even more to see that college students from my age cannot even imagine that something is wrong in being looked at as if you were out of the zoo.
Yeah, I’ve found that the thoughts are the same across the board with the three big countries in Asia (Japan, Korea, China), it’s just that Japan is too reserved to actually ask for photos unless it’s at some event where you REALLY stand out. Like the beach. Or wearing yukata. The other two, it’s like “DUDE, WHITENESS.”
That’s the thing that bothers me the most is that there’s really no attempt to change it. The people who think it’s horrible stay quiet, while the assholes continue to make terrible videos about foreigners and mock other cultures.
I agree with the fact that racism does exist in Korea and I saw the MBC report. But, I don’t understand why you would feel like a zoo exhibit when asked to have your photo taken. Perhaps the girl’s teacher wanted to encourage interaction with foreigners so they could be exposed to the real deal rather than keepin the sterotypes of what they learned on TV. Have you never taken a picture with a local while traveling?? Either way you shouldn’t feel that others are being racist toward you just because you’re being looked at or pointed at
No, I’ve never asked for a photo with a random stranger, because it’s rude, turns them into a tourist attraction, and dehumanizes them. If I were to take a photo with a local, it would be with someone I’ve made a connection with, and will have a good memory of. I wouldn’t interrupt someone in the middle of their dinner simply because of the colour of their skin or their clothing and assume that it is my right to get a photo with them, simply because they’re different.
And I shouldn’t feel like people are treating me differently if they’re pointing at me? Then how should I feel? Because if I’m simply trying to live my life, and I’m treated like I’m some kind of attraction to watch and look at and point at, just because of the way I look, I’m going to call it for what it is. Have you experienced it? Being watched, stared at, pointed at when you’re just trying to sit on the train and get about your day? It’s awful.
I always felt I got away very, very lightly in Japan – while I got a fair number of stares and a handful of whispers, I knew it was a far cry from what some people get, in Japan and other countries. Let’s face it, racism is a problem in every country, but it’s worse in places like Japan and Korea where there are fewer foreigners around, and those that are there stick out like a sore thumb. I had no idea Korea didn’t allow dual citizenship though, that’s just… weird.
With regards to the photo-with-a-foreigner thing, it just smacks of rudeness. Taking a photo with someone cos you’ve met them and had a chat; fine. Taking a photo with someone because they’re wearing an outfit or doing something that you admire; ok. Taking a photo with someone purely to go ‘lookit me, standing next to this strange person!’; not cool.
This was an interesting article and I found your thoughts and experiences on the matter inspiring and intriguing. I’m sorry that you’ve experienced such hardship while dealing with this sort of racism in Korea, but I suppose the hardest lesson I’ve had to teach my children was that there is racism almost everywhere, not just Korea. I don’t feel like its a “free pass” or an excuse that Koreans are using when they say its their culture, because frankly, it kinda is. Culture isn’t something that syncs like an Iphone when the Western world decides that something faux pas and condemns other countries for exhibiting those social norms, its something that changes gradually. Language, which is a reflection of changes in culture and social norms, clearly shows this. Korean culture IS changing because of Western influence and exposure to ideas outside of their borders, but having been cloistered for such a long period of time I would have expected that most foreigners coming to this country would have anticipated some level of “culture shock” at the level of (relative) ignorance that (some) Koreans exhibit. When we debated about racism in Korea, I predicated that discussion on racism in the U.S and South America, being Mexican-American I have had my share of racism from both countries so this was an easy topic to lecture on. The idea wasn’t becoming the victim but simply exposing students to a new concept, to accept people regardless of their background, beliefs, appearances, or ethnicity. That was a hard lesson, exposing that every country has a high level of racism. While I agree with the overall sentiment of your post, I heartily disagree with your statement that this was a hard lesson to teach my children.
http://www.nymbp.org/reference/WhitePrivilege.pdf
Oh, I certainly agree, there is racism everywhere. However, since I’m in Korea, and my kids are Korean, and many of them never have and might never will leave the country, I consider it best to start local. Of course we all expect the culture shock, and I’ve handled it better than most, considering I’m nearing two years in Korea and have spent well over three and a half years teaching overseas. But just because we anticipate it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t wear you down after a bit. My lesson was mostly to show things that they might have already seen on the television (since both the blackface issue and the Michelle Lee one had been covered in news and prime time television) and help them see it from a different angle. The whole point of the lesson that I taught wasn’t “You are all racists” but “As you go through life, I want you to listen to the people around you and think about how you’d feel if you were the target of their words.” I used clips of Koreans talking about the issue more than myself talking, just to avoid giving the feeling of saying “Your culture is wrong” because the last thing I wanted was to make them feel like I was coming into the country and expecting them to change overnight.
Perhaps you had more confidence when it comes to teaching these subjects. I personally found it very difficult because racism isn’t openly discussed here, so opening up a discussion on it can be very hit or miss. I was nervous through most my classes, and that NEVER happens when I teach, so it was incredibly difficult for me. You are very lucky that you were able to comfortably teach this topic.
As for your “White privilege” pdf… With that numbered list? None of them apply to me. I have a few privileges here in Korea due to the colour of my skin, but even those come with their own backlash. I can’t move to where ever I like and I’ve been bothered while shopping many times. When I turn on the TV or open a magazine, there are only Koreans to be seen. The foreigners that ARE on television are caricatures of stereotypes, and make me turn off the television out of embarrassment. Finding ingredients to suit my cultural tastes involve me travelling an hour to an overpriced shop to get a few staples. No matter what I say, think, or do, it will be brushed off as a foreign opinion, even if the suggestion is solid. There are entire groups of people organized to get rid of foreigners in the country, not just a few neighbours or co-workers (even if most Koreans think they’re a joke, it still exists). So while it’s great that people in America are being taught to be more aware of the privileges they are given while living at home and it’s making people more open minded… Please don’t assume that these privileges are global. I know many who have gone overseas and moved home early because of that mindset.
Have you ever noticed that Koreans stare at each other?? Whether they are overweight or wearing crazy clothes or have tattoos, Koreans stare and whisper. The Korean mindset has been based on group identity and not sticking out for hundreds of years. Just because they look doesn’t mean they’re all racist.
This is true, staring doesn’t always equal racism. However, when you do understand what they’re saying, and they start insulting foreigners, talking about them like they don’t understand… Then it’s less of a cultural thing and more of a being an asshole thing.
Nice post. I’m really interested to hear from people who are trying to teach this lesson to Korean kids. I’m happy to hear your Korean coteachers were supportive.
I mostly taught adults in Korea, and felt totally unable to say anything about the racial issues here to them. They were much too unable to listen to criticism about Korea from a white dude. When I did teach kids they were completely racist, and my lessons fell on deaf ears. I also thought the contrast within your classroom was really interesting, with the kids who’ve been outside the bubble of Korea having dramatically different perceptions. That contrast is always amazing, for Koreans of all ages.
I work for a Korean textbook company, and we’re writing material like the stuff you had in your lesson plan. I was really frustrated last week because of how bad it was, something I related in a recent post about Korea’s lame English books and how Korea is bombing at multiculturalism.
After being in Korea for several years, I don’t have much hope for this changing. Korean culture is much too comfortable being extremely ethnocentric.
On a final note I have had my picture taken too, although I’ve heard that is more common in China – where Foreigners are still more of a novelty. I sometimes get approached on the street by Korean students with fake surveys, or some other activity they had to make. Apparently many Korean English teachers think this is a good way to force Korean students to force Westerners to talk to them in English. That can be okay, but having one’s picture taken is a lot more pointless and exoticizing. How messed up is that as an assignment?
Keep up the good work, both in the classroom and on the interweb.
Thanks for reading! (Lol, it took me a few minutes to write past this, I got caught up in reading your own blog)
I’m really glad to hear from others out here that they’re trying to teach the same lessons in their own ways. The textbooks here are…. Well. Not good. The one we’re using is better than most, but it’s too easy for the teacher to fill in the blanks and make it useless. I know it will be a long process, but all I can hope to do is encourage my young students to not be the same as their grandparents. Then in 30 years or so, it might be a little different. Hopefully a little less hateful.
I actually like doing the pointless surveys. I think they’re kinda cute. And they’re actually speaking, and having to write, so I know the photo is to document that they actually spoke to us. But just getting a photo? That’s ridiculous. 😛