This Blog

Reading this title you may assume I’ve decided to jump ship and bat for the other team. Well, no, honestly that isn’t the case at all.

The wording behind the title is looking at a common and ever-increasing trend in Korean-foreign online society in which young Koreans – nearly always females – are seeking young, wealthy Westerners who happen to be outside of the much maligned English teacher/GI job spheres.

The reasoning behind this is not surprising given the largely negative press both groups receive in the Korean press on a very common basis. But, I must admit deep down it saddens me when I see a young Korean choose to turn their heads to the potential of making friends with people of the two career paths I honestly believe have helped, more than other expat career fields, make South Korea the 13th largest economy it is today.

Anyone whose spent a decent amount of time in Korea and perhaps managed to learn a bit of lingo – or at least, managed to find some Korea-based English-language discussion boards and/or blogs – realises fairly quickly that GIs and English teachers are not held in particularly high esteem on the Korean peninsula. This is largely due to the media’s over-zealous publishing of seemingly any and every negative story – factual, or more usually embellished or outright false  – regarding GIs or English teachers, when they commit or are perceived to have committed heinous acts. These stories get processed into the recesses of the average Korean individual’s mind and with little or no counterbalancing positive stories to reflect the good that the vast majority of individuals in these positions do, well the mud sticks.

Now, I’m going to come truthful here and tell how I’ve happened to have come across this increasingly prejudicial phenomena affecting Korean twenty- and thirty-somethings. As you may know, I’m a single guy and as such I decided to join one of Korea’s more well-known dating/friendship sites, you know just to see what’s available. Hence, through my perusal of said site, I’ve happened to have come across several young women with seemingly well-developed English skills seeking anyone wealthy (what a surprise!) yet not of the English teacher/GI career paths.

This saddens me, not because I’m desperately seeking stuck-up princesses. But, because hell, their English is so well developed thanks largely – if not entirely – to the work of previous English educators here in South Korea or overseas. In fact, if their English ability was largely acquired overseas, it pains me more to see this prejudice as it shows that they spent time – in some cases, perhaps a significant portion of their lives – overseas yet cannot detach themselves of the prejudice that befalls English teachers and GIs in this nation. As such, whilst they may have learnt the English language, they learnt little critical thinking, reasoning, openmindness and empathetic skills whilst learning said language. And, this saddens me.

I may not be a gung-ho warmonger who loves the military – in particular the US military – and all it sets out to achieve. And, yes the US military did, has and will make plenty of mistakes, including here on Korean soil. But, for the most part I think the US military has done a decent job with the people of South Korea and has such I believe the South Korean populace should at least tolerate, hopefully respect, and if possible, thank the US military more than they do so presently. The US military is far from perfect and its role in the Korean War was also not perfect. But, I still do not believe the US military and its personnel deserve a fraction of the distorted, or wholesale fabricated, half-truths, mistruths and malicious slander it has been known to receive. Or, the grudging animosity, mistrust or downright disdain its soldiers are known to receive at the hands of members of the local population. Having family members in the Australian defense forces and having met some officials of the US military, I know the sacrifices, dedication and often self-less work these individuals put in to protecting others. To see that dedication disregarded or downright treated with disdain, saddens me.

In closing, Korea I already love you but I would respect you a whole lot more if you were to respect those who come from other lands to assist you and your people. 99% of said individuals are decent, law-abiding folk who come with the best of intentions, hoping to help your citizens whilst at the same time perhaps learning a bit more about the country. Most of said individuals are not bad, vile, lecherous, disease-ridden, drug-addled convicts as your media often likes to universally portray.

I ask your people, in particular your young people, to accept, help when needed and welcome those who come, have come and will continue to come to help you become a more developed nation. I know many already do and I thank the kind folks of this country from the bottom of my heart, as I have been truly blessed with kind gestures from friend and stranger alike. I just wish I could see more goodwill being extended to those who come to help and learn more about you and your country. Thank you.