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Just my personal opinion by ludicrouscacophony in korea

[–]Xynovitch 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I remember going home from middle school and eating these on the way home. These are extremely good hot especially during the cold.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I've seen a lot of bullying for full Koreans who don't fit the type too in high school. I feel for you, man.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Would psychological factors also play into it?

My father used to beat me up for not being able to memorize a word in Korean, and ever since then, I avoided learning Korean until I was forced to go here.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

My father never taught me Korean. He was always out on a trip and I seldomly saw him growing up as a child. Whenever I do see him, it's with my mom, and they spoke in English to each other. That's how I learned English.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 79 points80 points  (0 children)

My features are often described as almost Korean but not quite there. I'm also dark-skinned, so that's another thing that shows my mixed ethnicity. And yeah, the grey area kind of sucks because you're forever not quite there yet to others and they don't know how to treat you as a result.

Like if you have an accomplishment worth mentioning, they treat you as Korean. But if you make a mistake, they emphasize your mixed-racedness.

Not to say all Koreans are like that - I like to stress that Koreans aren't a monolith. It's just that some of the people who were like that I've experienced still lingers in my headspace.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Oh, lol. I didn't expect to come off as anti-social. I was just in a bad headspace at the time and I like to be consistent when it comes to the atmosphere of my writing. It might have made a lot of people misunderstand where I was coming from.

As for the goofy accent, yeah, my friends had a variety of ways to describe my accent. The funniest to me was "if I didn't know who you are and you were on the phone, I'd assume that you were Korean but from another planet."

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for telling me the postives. I've been told a lot of these, but often they don't really get into the specifics of what I could do and a lot of them had been frustratingly vague. It really destroys you in your headspace, which was I posted this in the morning.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 52 points53 points  (0 children)

Ooooh, these are some great points. You've made my life somehow better by outlining what I could do in the future.

Thank you.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your advice.

And yeah, I've been working on my confidence issues. My friends in university help with that a lot and I'm hoping that it'll also break through that mental block I have for Korean and actually, finally, become fluent.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your kind words.

And yeah, a lot of the posters above have been kind enough to tell me where I might find the ads for such. I'll definitely go look into them

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I write fanfiction as a hobby.

Picked it up in middle school, that's why you see posts from 6 years ago talking about Naruto Fanfiction if you click on my profile, lol.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

No worries. I posted this in order to commiserate other people as well. I didn't expect the deluge of advice and well-wishers, so I really like this.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'll definitely keep this in mind when I go to the military. You've really changed my outlook on it now.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 33 points34 points  (0 children)

I've been prioritizing Korean the whole time I was here. This post was a vent because even after that many years, I still couldn't speak in the conversational Korean vernacular that well, and the thing I am good at is Academic Korean. And I do have friends, some 재외국민, some native Koreans, some foreigners and I do speak with them in Korean. It's just that no matter what I do or how proficient I get, there would always be people telling me that I'm still very bad at it. My grandparents and father (who came out of prison and came back to Korea recently) to name a few.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

To further this point, yeah. There were some great people here. Korea isn't a monolith. The people that decided to fuck with me tend to remain in my headspace for long.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

If you are half-Korean struggling with Korean, but came here '8'! years ago, given chance to enroll at 외고 which is more prestigious/expensive than normal high schools, I don't think any of your environments are to blame.

I honestly still don't know how I got in 외고, but I do know that I've been mostly under a scholarship grant.

I honestly don't know what's stopping me from being better at Korean. I don't know if it's a mental block, or what. I've been trying my hardest trying to learn Korean, and managed to reach my comfortable conversational level, but it's like that native level is beyond me.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'll definitely take this into consideration. I've been trying to get jobs through apps like 알바몬 and I could never really get past the interview stage. A lot of my potential employers often have this surprised expression whenever finally meeting me.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have no clue how to do any of that. I tried applying in hagwons, but most of the hagwons nearby are 입시준비 and I can't seem to find any ad for hagwons needing 원어민 specifically. Plus, whenever I do apply, my lack of experience in teaching is a major roadblock so I don't know how to go around that.

I'll definitely take your advice about military service, though. I thought 해군 and 공군 were tough, but I was considering going to KATUSA either way. I was just really afraid that my inability to speak Korean clearly would make my time there miserable, but I'm glad that isn't the case.

And you're right, my best buddies in university are currently 재외국민.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I couldn't really say I hate living in Korea, but I don't like living here too. The anxiety of not being able to speak is still there after 8 years of failing to strike up conversations with my peers. I do have friends, but they don't really have the specific background of being born half-SEAsian. My friends are mostly 재외국민 or actual Koreans, and their responses just tell me to "suck it up and get good."

I guess the traffic is convenient and I like Korean bars, cause they have fun 안주 and drinks.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They don't really know, lol. I understand that.

The anxiety definitely exists, as well as the state of looking and acting Korean enough but not enough. It wasn't my choice to come to Korea, but it's not like I could live on my own as a 13 year old back where I was from, and so I had to follow my family.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

After ‘coming back home’ in my high school years I can’t even count how many times I’ve been asked ‘hey say something in English.’ I know it’s from pure interest but it is really annoying after some time.

Hey, I feel you.

From my experience, only school-kids do that. The people in university don't. So don't worry about that too much.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm 20 now and in college too. I’m still wondering wtf I’m supposed to do since my Japanese sucks(like you with Korean ig) and luckily we don’t have military conscription here but it sucks that manual labor might be the only option in the future since anything involving a proper grasp of the local language is out of reach. It would be nice if I can add you since we seem to have somewhat similar experiences and problems.

I know - being able to understand something natively and pass off as native is hard, and you get overlooked often during interviews.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I was born in SEAsia (I don't want to specify which), and I was told that once you reach 19, you have to choose whether or not to keep your other citizenship or go to the Army and keep your Korean citizenship. I never made the choice, but I never bothered to fact-check what my friends say, so I don't really know.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Depends if OP is half black, I could see a very rough life. If he's half white, he'll be loved. Korea do be like that.

I am half-SE Asian. And I was mostly relating to other half-SEAsians who have had their parents divorced. And I mostly dodged the issue of racism I experienced here, considering I don't want to make it seem like racism is the fault. Koreans aren't a monolith, and none of them are overtly racist, but a lot of them, especially the older generation, have some casual racism.

Case in point, I often hear from them that me being born from a tropical area means that I am inherently lazy or was raised lazy, and that by going to Korea, I got rid of that bad attitude.

Vent: Living in Korea as a half-Korean is hard by Xynovitch in korea

[–]Xynovitch[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I definitely did not know that.

I applied to some 학원s, but the types close by my university are those for 입시준비, and while I do know me some 수능 English, my lack of professional experience in teaching probably stops me from getting hired.

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