Ruminations in Korea

Comment by Ziggy Freud

16 November 2005 @ 8:58 am

6. They are utterly incapable of self-criticism. Passing the blame is a national pasttime. Rather than accept their own failures and work to fix them, Koreans actively blame others, usually outsiders, and tell you that that they themselves were powerless or helpless to do anything about it.

“I’m just a shrimp among whales” is a national slogan here.

Comment by take

22 November 2005 @ 3:52 pm

Dont forget anybody who does critise Corea is a racist and anything they say is wrong.

Comment by marine1expfor

23 November 2005 @ 2:06 am

Before I begin, let me say that I am Korean by background only; I am American, born and raised. Now, I am not your typical KA hanging around with only other Asian Americans, pimping up the car, TyPiNG LIke ThIS, etc. I actually despise that kind of crap. Actually, my friends are all of different ethnicities and I criticize Korea and Koreans and some Asian-Americans and KA’s as described above….but that’s not to say I don’t criticize anything else….I’ve live in Japan now, but also I’ve lived in Europe too, and boy do I have pages and pages to write on those also….

Anyway, having been to Korea several times, I can say that I agree with the comments in the Herald. I’ve had my share of bad experiences in the country. Koreans ignore Korean Americans (the ones I ran into anyway) and don’t think much of us until we make a name for ourselves. Then they get all hypocritical and say oh, he/she is one of us now, we can take pride……I can’t stand that crap!

Also, by all the negative Korean remarks, I hope you are referring to native Koreans, as in the ones that live and are of Korea; not Koreans of other nations IE Korean-Americans, Korean-Japanese,K-Canadian, K-English, K-Russian, etc…. etc…because I can tell you not all “Koreans by background” think and act like native Koreans.

Oh yeah, and in respose to Ziggy Freud, I am actually very self-critical, and people have often told me that I need to give myself more credit. So like I said, Koreans and Koreans By background are not really the same (not that you implied it by any means of course.)

Thanks for the time.

Comment by Jeff in Korea

23 November 2005 @ 3:02 am

Marine1,

Hoo-rah! Well put.

Comment by ziggy freud

25 November 2005 @ 10:38 am

Marine,

Of course I was referring to native Seoul-born and raised Koreans.

These traits are not genetic, they are cultural. It matters not the tone of your skin, but rather the environment in which you grew up and learned to be an adult.

Please don’t think my tongue in cheek assertion was meant to imply some flaw in the DNA of the Korean people. I was pointing out a cultural trait observed during a 20 year stay in Seoul.

Happy Thanksgiving, and thank to all people of all colors and backgrounds whose abilities and hard work contriobute to make America an interesting and successful country.

Comment by Marine1expfor

26 November 2005 @ 3:46 am

Hey Jeff,

Thanks for your comment. As I said before, I can’t stand some of the things that Koreans do, but of course there are postive things as well. And what I like about your blogs are that you try to present both positive and negative things about Korea and Koreans. I can’t say the same for Matt, who runs the occidentalism.org blog site. He states he tried to tell the “truth” about the distortion of Korean media, the hypocricy of Koreans, etc…but never once did I find anything criticizing Japan and its media, views, etc. He even ignored my questions upon it. The way I see it, his FAQ and such provide no answers, more like justifications to convince himself that he is not a otaku fanboy Japanophile, and extremely biased in his views.

Sorry for ranting there, but if you read the stuff he and most of the postings (including ignorant post from both sides- Japan and Korea) you’ll se what I mean. I’ve even been labeled as a pro-Korean when I’ve made it clear that I hate a lot of what Koreans do.

Anyway, keep up the great work. It’s great to criticize things that are wrong, and every country has its faults. As I said before, nationalism blinds people from rational thinking.

Ziggy, thanks for the comment also. I knew you were referring to Native Koreans on the issue. Hope you gave a good holiday too.

Thanks, all.

Comment by pysc

26 November 2005 @ 2:18 pm

About number 6 above. A Korean college psyc professor once illustrated the “blame others” socialization with this example—-If a child is playing and runs into a tree, the western mother will tell the child to be carefull and pay attention to his suroundings, but a Korean mother will tell the child it was the tree’s fault and even encourgae the child to strike the tree. This may make the child feel better, but it also teaches the child he is not responsible.

Comment by Sean in Canada

1 December 2005 @ 12:28 pm

If the comments “above statements were made by a Korean professional about Koreans” and “A Korean college psyc professor once illustrated…” are true then what is the validity of the comment
“6. They are utterly incapable of self-criticism. Passing the blame is a national pasttime. Rather than accept their own failures and work to fix them, Koreans actively blame others, usually outsiders, and tell you that that they themselves were powerless or helpless to do anything about it.”

Comment by David

28 December 2005 @ 6:59 pm

I totally agree with the Korea Herald. As a Korean American in Seoul, I have enjoyed working here and learning about the Korean economy. However, I definitely do not want to educate my children in Korea when they reach schooling age. The quality of education in the United States is head and shoulders above Korea for all the reasons mentioned in the Korea Herald article, and then some.