In culturally homogenous South Korea, tentative steps toward multiculturalism

[unreal.livejournal.com]

South Korea has long been known for its lack of cultural diversity. Even today, the country is more than 99 percent ethnic Koreans. But things are slowly shifting, with more foreigners moving to the country and having ethnically mixed children -- which has presented new challenges for the government and the Korean people.

Cultural homogeneity is a source of pride for many South Koreans — but their nation is going through a demographic change.

Over the past decade, hundreds of thousands of Korean men have married women from Vietnam, Cambodia, China and other Asian countries, and the number of children born to these couples is on the rise.


Enkhjagal Khishigbaatar comes from Mongolia, but her two young sons were born in South Korea, like their father. The boys have Korean names and don’t really speak Mongolian, but Khishigbaatar says she hopes they won’t forget their roots.

“I always remind my sons that they are also Mongolian, that they should be proud to be Mongolian," she said.

Mixed families like this are increasingly common in South Korea, according to Hong Inpyo, who heads the Seoul Multicultural Family Clinic.

“Multicultural families are really helping out Korea’s low birth rate,” Hong said. “By 2050 their children will make up 10 percent of the population. These children will be the next generation of the nation.”

Just this month, Seoul opened the Dasom School, the country’s first publicly funded school for multicultural children. Liang Man Ni, 18, who moved here from China in 2009 with her Korean mother and Chinese father, said she likes the school very much.

“I’ve made friends from Japan, Hong Kong and Vietnam," she explained.

So far, Dasom has 48 students who were raised abroad. But soon, school administrators say, they expect to enroll children who’ve grown up entirely in Korea.

Korean authorities say many children from multicultural families aren’t attending school at all, especially in rural parts of the country. A recent survey found that about 30 percent of these children stay home with their foreign mothers, and many don’t learn to speak Korean proficiently.

That has the South Korean government worried, according to Chung Chin-sung, a sociologist at Seoul National University. Chung said she doesn’t want to see these kids fall through the cracks, even if it means educating them in separate schools.

“In principle, children from different backgrounds should be integrated with other students,” she said, “but there are children who cannot adjust to normal school. Without any help they cannot be prepared to get into normal society. I think this school can be a last chance for those children.”

Discrimination is also a factor. Many Korean kids bully their multicultural classmates, according to Kim Heekyung of Save the Children. They’re teased about the way they look or talk, she said. And Korean kids pick up stereotypes from their parents about children with Southeast Asian mothers – for instance, they’re not as smart or they’re poor.

“Southeast Asian countries are less economically developed than Korea. So that’s why they assume they are inferior to them,” she said.

Kim said isolating these kids in their own school isn’t going to reduce prejudice. Last year Save the Children launched an anti-discrimination pilot program in a few Seoul elementary schools. Students acted in role-playing games that had them pretend to be kids from non-traditional families.

Cha Eun-seo, who is 9, said she learned she shouldn’t tease kids with parents from other countries.

She said she and some of her classmates have made friends with a boy from a multicultural family, and they’re trying to teach him Korean.

Source: pri

Comments

[plantbottle.livejournal.com]

This so much. :|

[lonelymoon.livejournal.com]

Yep. They learn it from the parents mostly :|

[laceandskin.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry but I don't get those fangirls that say that they dream of living in South Korea. It sounds like a terrible place to me.

[elizajet.livejournal.com]

It's a wonderful country to live in, but it has a long way to go to understand other cultures.

It's been SO homogeneous for so long, and with nationalism being a big thing, it's hard for things to change quickly.

Personally, I've not had many problems being foreign, but I'm also blonde/blue-eyed, so I don't face nearly half the problems that those of Southeast Asian heritage face- it's really shocking the ideas that even little children have.

[sunlight-kisses.livejournal.com]

It sounds like a terrible place to me.

It isn't. Korea has pros and cons just like any other country.

[miki-831.livejournal.com]

I want to study abroad there so I can see what it's like for myself, not just take other peoples' words.

[purkin.livejournal.com]

They think that what they see in dramas and music videos = South Korea. Just wait til they have a fun run-in with an indignant ajhumma.

[chunsakuma.livejournal.com]

Every country has its pros and cons.

[yuki-yang.livejournal.com]

only kids from Allkpop would say that
living in homogenous Asia in general is very difficult for foreigners. It's not JUST SKorea.

I'm Japanese...but whenever I go to China or Skorea..or Taiwain...people ALWAYS ALWAYS make sure to ask me what nationality I am. It's like unless they know that I'm Japanese..they wouldn't know how to treat me.
I think this sentiment is very accurate.

"bitch, I'm Amuuuurican >:-)" is what I would realllly like to say.

[asth77.livejournal.com]

Enkhjagal Khishigbaatar
how do we pronounce this name?
“Southeast Asian countries are less economically developed than Korea. So that’s why they assume they are inferior to them,” she said.
They also assume it because they are stupid
She said she and some of her classmates have made friends with a boy from a multicultural family, and they’re trying to teach him Korean.
:)

[valieleen.livejournal.com]

Mhmm interesting article. Dasom School seems like an acceptable solution for children who lack the necessary Korean skills to follow the curriculum at a 'normal' school, but I'm not sure how far it will go when it comes to integrating the students. I feel like it would be a better idea to give more funding to schools in all of Korea so they can support those students who are having hard time integrating, and so that anti-discrimination programs like the one from Save the Children can reach more schools/students. It's just kind of sad to see that all of the mentioned projects are based in Seoul when the children who seem to be having the most problems tend to be from rural areas... But I suppose you've got to start somewhere.

I also wonder how difficult it is for foreign wifes to integrate. It must be quite difficult, especially in the rural areas.

[laeryn.livejournal.com]

Isolating them isn't going to help. Idk, in my school, kid who couldn't speak Spanish or came from less developed countries were put in a class together for some subjects and when they reached the needed level of the language and/or they got used to the new enviroment, they were slowly put with the rest of us. I think even though there was a lot of prejudiced people, it worked better than just isolating them. Tho it's true that a lot of the time, they isolated themselves and you could see that groups were made out of /where/ they came from.

Idk, it's complicated but I hope South Korea can sort it out. Cultural diversity is a really good thing for a country if they know how to deal with it :)

[uledy.livejournal.com]

I wish this article delved more into how and why many of these children don't speak Korean, if many of them have Korean fathers. Are the Korean father's presence lacking? And if so, why? Because of the families' financial status or some other reason? This was really interesting. I think I'll look more into it on my own. Thanks for posting :)

Also, Multicultural families are really helping out Korea’s low birth rate
hint hint Japan. Narimiya Hiroki, get over here :3

[chunsakuma.livejournal.com]

Korean authorities say many children from multicultural families aren’t attending school at all, especially in rural parts of the country. A recent survey found that about 30 percent of these children stay home with their foreign mothers, and many don’t learn to speak Korean proficiently.

It seems like many of the children who don't learn how to speak Korean well live in rural areas, so I think it's safe to assume that their Korean fathers are out working all day, maybe doing farm-work or other jobs involving physical labour. Since the children spend most of the time with their non-Korean parent, they become native in the language that that parent speaks, purely because they aren't around their Korean parent as much.

[brianathebard.livejournal.com]

I know that the US isn't the pinnacle of cultural understanding, but I did work in a English-Spanish bilingual school for a couple of years and it really does help kids who don't understand the main language at all keep up with the normal curriculum, but also to learn English at the same time so that they can communicate and lead a normal life here. The thing is that kids are like little sponges, and they can soak up something like another language so much better than adults can. What can take a normal adult years to learn a different language, to a kid can take a year at most, as little as a few months. My grandpa has stories of American kids who lived on military bases in Japan that could speak fluent Japanese when playing with the Japanese kids. It really is amazing.

[akaich0u.livejournal.com]

This is true. I came to the US when I was 4 and was fluent in English within 6 months. My cousin came here when she was in her teens, though, and has been unable to ever lose her accent. So there is a rather narrow window of time in which the language cortices of the brain are best able to acclimate and we really need to work with kids when we can to maximize learning potential.

I know that the US isn't the pinnacle of cultural understanding
It's a shame there's an unspoken (yet misplaced) need to include this kind of disclaimer before bestowing praise upon something the US does. There's a lot to fix about public education in America but it is still a damn good system IMO.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_redneckbitchx/]

I don't think accents are that big of a deal. I know a lot of people from different countries. Some have studied English longer, but they still have strong accents. One girl I know has been fluent in it since she was 3 and she still has a strong accent. I met some exchange students last semester who only studied it in their school days but they barely have accents now. My roommate last semester moved to the US from the Ukraine when she 13 (she's 18 now). She doesn't have an accent, but my roommate this semester moved here when she was 8 and she still has an accent.

[akaich0u.livejournal.com]

I myself personally don't mind accents all that much either, but in some fields it can make life a little harder. For example there was this one organic chemistry professor in undergrad whom everyone despised because she wasn't a good teacher AND had a super thick accent.....o chem is hard as it is already without spending that extra time deciphering what's being said to begin with lol.

But yeah I suppose it can vary with the environment you grow up in as well and the primary language spoken there.

[miki-831.livejournal.com]

"Cha Eun-seo, who is 9, said she learned she shouldn’t tease kids with parents from other countries."

Exactly. Racism is taught; parents need to stop letting their kids be racist!

[michurusan.livejournal.com]

Interesting, I had this talk in my Korean Drama class about foreigners and immigrants. We even watched a little documentary how koreans claim that they treat everyone equally when in fact they ignored the south easterner. I honestly believed that people were so willing to help the white man because he was white and they didn't help the south easterner because korea is becoming a more popular, rich country while these asian countries aren't. This was just my guess.

This is quite sad. :( To see how these kids are being bullied . Kids at a young age must learn to treat everyone equally that way when they grow older they can treat everyone with respect and teach their kids.

[akaich0u.livejournal.com]

The economic and cultural ruin Vietnam fell into as a result of the war--and consequently the impression it gives un-informed foreigners--will never cease to bother me to my very core. I doubt those kids know that pre-war, Vietnam was actually financially better off than Korea and that its modern state is an exact picture of what South Korea would've been like had their cease-fire with North Korea not worked and if borders between the two had not been successfully erected. Vietnam today is a "what if" picture for Korea and vice versa; they are two sides of a similar coin and have been battling imperialism (Japan on Korea's end and China on Vietnam's end) for millenia and communism for decades so the lack of empathy is really depressing to read. In an even playing ground where the demographics coalesce like the US, any number of Kims, Parks or Lees in successful, economically-prosperous fields requiring higher education are evenly matched by Nguyens, Trans or Les--and then some. Furthermore, we're part of the same (Sino)sphere of culture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinosphere) so the divide makes even less sense.

I'm glad steps are being made to be more open and encouraging. It's been a long time coming.

[aznmoonchild.livejournal.com]

I always felt similarly with Korea and Vietnam being two sides of a similar coin but for me, the difference was the US "won" the war in Korea and lost in Vietnam.

I just wish people can view each other as people and not as nationalities.

[akaich0u.livejournal.com]

Yes exactly. They're almost two perfect examples of what it's like to 'win' a war vs. lose. It's a very eye-opening picture for anyone who's willing to spend the time learning about it.....or hell, just an hour comparing the two in pictures speaks volumes of what it means to live in a democratic society, and how just having freedom paves the way for prosperity. Like night and day.

Same. It makes it easier that culturally, Korea and Vietnamese & Chinese are already close but ultimately we are all individuals and deserve to be respected as such.

[vag-breath.livejournal.com]

i watched a documentary about defectors to north korea during the korean war and it was absolutely fascinating. soldiers that crossed over to nk in the 60s and have lived there ever since/married/had kids/embedded in the north korean life

[sirhin.livejournal.com]

AWESOME!!! ^^