Multicultural Korea

The Diplomat discusses Korea's multicultural future.

A link from a Korea story on CNN took me to a story on The Diplomat about Korea's multicultural future. I think the article makes a lot of good points about what the country might need and where it's going.

Some of the responses -- as usual -- are just ridiculous and even infuriating. Again, I'm not telling you to bust your ass and learn Korean. I'm saying that if you want Koreans to accept you as a member of their society and respect you, you'd better put forth the effort. You can get by here without Korean, but you'll never earn any respect or acceptance from the people.

Anyway, here is my response on the article's forum:

Let's get this out of the way right now. Considering all the times the Korean peninsula has been invaded or occupied over the last few hundred years, to really think Korea's "one, pure blood" myth is real is either stubbornness or a terrible case of naivety. Unfortunately, that idea still does exist.

I am an American who married a Korean girl and have lived in South Korea for three years. I plan on living here for a few more years because we're opening a small business together.

While I agree that the average Korean can be unbelievably cold and unwelcoming, it would be wrong to group them all together; just as it's wrong to think they all have 100 percent Korean blood.

My wife and her immediate and extended family have been as welcoming and loving to me as anyone in my whole life. I'm as close to them as I am to my own family. I also have a large group of Korean friends that welcomed me immediately without flinching.

Here's the issue. We, as foreigners, look at Korea and think that they owe us the same politeness we give people back home. That's not how the world works. Of course the government sets up a language test before you can get permanent status.

Why should a whole country that speaks Korean be so catering to people who speak English? I understand that English is the current international business language, but there are millions of Koreans who only need it to understand some K-pop songs, commercials and nothing else.

You know what will help you become a part of Korean society? Learn the language. From the day I got here, I studied Korean. And there is nothing about that effort that has been wasted.

Complain all you want, but if you are married to a Korean, have lived here for two years or more and still can't speak Korean, then you're a waste of a human being.

My wife spoke zero English when we met, and only knows some now because I help her study. But our language of communication is -- and probably always will be -- Korean.

While there is institutionalized racism at companies, anyone who is truly skilled is a prized asset. If we have kids, they could run this country in the future. They'll be as fluent as a native speaker in English and Korean. If you look at a lot of schools and companies, the amount of "teachers" or "English speakers" who speak both languages fluently is surprisingly minimal.

I'm not telling you to throw away your own culture. I hold true to a lot of things I learned back home. Though I attribute that less to being an American and more to having good parents and a supportive family.

Hold onto your culture, but you have to make a concerted effort to learn about Korea. That includes language and culture. Even the weird stuff like fan death is something you'd better know about, even if you laugh about it openly.

Want to be accepted? Set yourself up to be in that position. Only after that can you truly know if Koreans can handle a multicultural society. They totally accept anyone who puts in effort at being a contributing part of their country and society.

So give that a shot first, and see how the reaction to you being a foreigner changes from disdain to thanks and awe.