Some of my rants, raves, thoughts, adventures, experiences, lessons, mistakes, and general words of stupidity from Seoul, South Korea.
S@#% My K-Boyfriend Says: "Koreaboos" and Yellow Fever
Reblogged from smykboyfriendsays
This is a post that’s been in my mind for a while. I apologize in advance, as I’m not the most articulate person in the world and often times I have trouble putting the thoughts in my head down in words, but please bear with me as I try to get my point across.
I’ve seen a lot of blogs,…
[Because my response won’t fit in the ask box]
Hey, I came across your last post about Koreaboos and I wanted to play a bit of Devil’s Advocate. As a Korean myself, I think I can put myself into the mentality of the people there a little more (but, I understand that it’s not even just the native Koreans who use this term and stereotype). As one of the most ethnically homogeneous nations in the world (most likely behind North Korea and Japan), South Korea is pretty xenophobic. The fact that foreigners are almost always labeled as ‘American’ may just shed some light on how much so. If you’re black, white, brown, green with pink stripes, you’re American. As long as you’re not Korean, you’re American. Now, growing up in the States and self-labeling as a Korean-American (I think of myself as more Korean than American), I tend to get grouped as a ‘Korean’ when I’m there. But, for the most part, whatever “dilutes” the water, so to speak, that’s what you are.
I believe that it’s a matter of pride for many Koreans that foreigners are taking interest in Korea, but I also believe that they would rather have foreigners be interested in the history or politics of the country and not pop culture, which is how many people (so called “Koreaboos”) begin in their interest. They’d much rather have people ask about the last G20 Summit or US-Korea FTA agreement or the 2014 Incheon Summer Asian Games or the biggest news, the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. These are all important to EVERY Korean, while pop culture may not be considered as ‘legitimate’ of a conversation topic.
Let me try to put it another way: if you were waiting in line at the grocery store and wanted to strike up a conversation with the person next to you, you would try to pick a topic that was generally publicly known, whether that be the weather or the recent news about SOPA or what have you. What you would most likely not do (unless they were reading some celebrity magazine) is strike up a conversation about how Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher are getting a divorce; most people wouldn’t know, or frankly, wouldn’t care about that news. It’s a bit the same in Korea; some people just don’t follow celebrity news or don’t care to. It’s pop culture and while there are some people who do enjoy following that sort of media, there is an even larger majority who doesn’t. [And then there are the people who follow the news when they’re interested in it, which is my case: I tend to follow what news interests me or the things that seem big enough to come on the nightly news.]
Therefore, by having such a huge influx of foreigners interested in what might be considered frivolous news, I think that Koreans tend to see those specific people as a bit illegitimate when it comes to their interest in the South Korean nation. One also has to take into consideration the fact that the people in Korea who dedicatedly follow the social/celebrity news are considered a bit on the fanatical side, which is another reason that foreigners who do so are also fanatical.
Just my two cents and I’m not saying that I agree with labeling people based on their interests, but it’s an interesting topic of conversation.
Edit: It was also pointed out to me that American culture is so ingrained into other cultures that it’s almost given that other countries know at least a bit about US history, culture, language, etc. while if Americans take interest in other cultures, it stands out.
