Okay, so this is something I may have already mentioned or briefly talked about, but I thought I'd do a post in a little more depth today. I also want to note that this post will purely be from my perspective. I do not know what other peoples experiences are like and I do not want, in any way, imply that everyone will have or has the same experience. I don't know for sure, but a guy, or a POC may have a very different experience in Korea. Also, people's experiences might be different depending on where in Korea you are. I'm sure someone in Seoul will have a different experience than me, since I am in a much smaller city. Also, my generalization of Korean's are simply of the Korean's I've met. I don't want to generalize too much, but it's hard not to generalize at least a little to save some time and space and whatnot.
Anyway, moving onwards. First, I'd like to say, my experience has been mostly positive, although I do have some advantages, mainly the advantage of blonde hair and big blue eyes, which, lets face it, are usually held in some sort of esteem in many other parts of the world as well. So do people treat foreigners differently? I guess so. Apparently I get stared at more, but I honestly was oblivious to this for a while until a foreign friend pointed it out to. And I do get stared at, quite a bit. People definitely openly stare at me sometimes, but I'm actually pretty used to this due to my stunt with a full head of red hair a couple years back. That gets you pretty stared at in Canada as well.
The other thing Koreans love to do is tell me I'm pretty or beautiful, which is fairly awkward, it is pretty cute to hear an 8 year old go, 'teacher,' points at your face, 'blue eyes, beautiful'. Korean's also love to stare into my eyes, especially the kids. They also love to look at my and go, blue eyes, pretty or beautiful. My land lady has said this too me, also the other day at work my coworker took my photo so she could show her four year old what I look like. I presume since her daughter isn't school aged she probably hasn't seen a foreigner yet. Little kids and elderly are usually the ones who stare the most as well.
Last thing Korean's do that I think is actually kinda cool, in the right circumstance anyway, it would get creepy if random dudes were hitting on you by doing this. Koreans love to speak to you in English. Random hello's on the street to full blown conversations asking where you are from. I think they just like practicing English, they're being friendly and curious. I don't mind it. One day I had a guy come up to me at the bus stop and ask where I was from and we had a short conversation about it. I think he had a relative in Vancouver or Victoria or something.
That is another thing about Korean's they all seem to have relatives in North America somewhere and they always tell you this, or they've been to North America. I are just being friendly and trying to relate to you, which is cool, but it's actually sorta predictable now when they immediately tell you about there cousin in Toronto or there son in Vancouver or Minnesota or whereever as soon as you say where you are from. This literally happened to me yesterday when I went to the doctors to get a prescription (don't worry mom, it was just for allergy medication!). The Doctor told me all about his son in Toronto.
Okay, last thing I want to talk about here, not so nice occurrences. Now, lucky for me I haven't really had any bad experiences with Korean's yet. Of course there is the language barrier which can be pretty frustrating, but there's also something else, sometimes, just randomly, you'll a cold look from someone or a hard stare that seems to say 'why are you here' and it kinda sends a shiver down your spine. I'm sure I could be reading these looks wrong and the majority of Korean's I've met are friendly and nice to you, even if they can't understand you and vice versa. I feel like I definitely have an advantage being a young, white female so tell me about your experiences in Korea! I want to know about other people's experiences as foreigners. Or what you think of mine. :)
Anyway, moving onwards. First, I'd like to say, my experience has been mostly positive, although I do have some advantages, mainly the advantage of blonde hair and big blue eyes, which, lets face it, are usually held in some sort of esteem in many other parts of the world as well. So do people treat foreigners differently? I guess so. Apparently I get stared at more, but I honestly was oblivious to this for a while until a foreign friend pointed it out to. And I do get stared at, quite a bit. People definitely openly stare at me sometimes, but I'm actually pretty used to this due to my stunt with a full head of red hair a couple years back. That gets you pretty stared at in Canada as well.
The other thing Koreans love to do is tell me I'm pretty or beautiful, which is fairly awkward, it is pretty cute to hear an 8 year old go, 'teacher,' points at your face, 'blue eyes, beautiful'. Korean's also love to stare into my eyes, especially the kids. They also love to look at my and go, blue eyes, pretty or beautiful. My land lady has said this too me, also the other day at work my coworker took my photo so she could show her four year old what I look like. I presume since her daughter isn't school aged she probably hasn't seen a foreigner yet. Little kids and elderly are usually the ones who stare the most as well.
Last thing Korean's do that I think is actually kinda cool, in the right circumstance anyway, it would get creepy if random dudes were hitting on you by doing this. Koreans love to speak to you in English. Random hello's on the street to full blown conversations asking where you are from. I think they just like practicing English, they're being friendly and curious. I don't mind it. One day I had a guy come up to me at the bus stop and ask where I was from and we had a short conversation about it. I think he had a relative in Vancouver or Victoria or something.
That is another thing about Korean's they all seem to have relatives in North America somewhere and they always tell you this, or they've been to North America. I are just being friendly and trying to relate to you, which is cool, but it's actually sorta predictable now when they immediately tell you about there cousin in Toronto or there son in Vancouver or Minnesota or whereever as soon as you say where you are from. This literally happened to me yesterday when I went to the doctors to get a prescription (don't worry mom, it was just for allergy medication!). The Doctor told me all about his son in Toronto.
Okay, last thing I want to talk about here, not so nice occurrences. Now, lucky for me I haven't really had any bad experiences with Korean's yet. Of course there is the language barrier which can be pretty frustrating, but there's also something else, sometimes, just randomly, you'll a cold look from someone or a hard stare that seems to say 'why are you here' and it kinda sends a shiver down your spine. I'm sure I could be reading these looks wrong and the majority of Korean's I've met are friendly and nice to you, even if they can't understand you and vice versa. I feel like I definitely have an advantage being a young, white female so tell me about your experiences in Korea! I want to know about other people's experiences as foreigners. Or what you think of mine. :)
