AS extravagant real-estate costs and gentrification do away with most of Manhattan’s ethnic neighborhoods outside Chinatown, the valuable commercial strip of West 32nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway remains firmly, surprisingly, overwhelmingly Korean. It is here that many New Yorkers and visitors first taste kimchi (spicy fermented vegetables), bulgogi (thinly sliced marinated beef) and bi bim bop (Google it), and here that Koreans and Korean-Americans gather for parties and social events.
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Many will say you haven’t experienced Korean New York without a trip to Flushing, Queens, but you can easily fill a weekend without leaving Manhattan. Among the culinary choices on and near West 32nd Street, Kunjip is your standard Koreatown restaurant, offering generous portions of do-it-yourself barbecue, other traditional Korean dishes and several brands of soju, the clear Korean liquor. Across the street, Woorijip is an informal, by-the-pound Korean buffet that also stocks Korean snacks like spicy shrimp crackers and sweet rice drinks, good for a quick lunch or bargain dinner; Korean-style fried chicken — with a full bar — is available at the largely hidden, chic gathering place Bon Chon chicken.
At the upscale vegetarian spot HanGawi, which back in the day got two stars from Ruth Reichl when she was restaurant critic for The Times, you remove your shoes as you would in a Korean home; it features rice bowls and hot pots with a stress on ingredients like mushrooms and tofu, and reasonably priced prix fixe menus take the stress out of choosing. (There are plenty of other upscale Korean spots elsewhere, such as Woo Lae Oak in SoHo.)
By SETH KUGEL
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NVDL: Of late I have been missing Korean food 0 spicy - a lot. Especially the barbecue-do-it-yourself meals (with bulgogi) would be a huge hit with South Africans. Anyone want to start a Korean restaurant with me?
Showing posts with label understanding koreans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label understanding koreans. Show all posts
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Who Is That English Teacher in the Window? (OHMYNEWS)
[Analysis] Discrimination encountered by foreign language educators in Korea
They zipper their overstuffed suitcases, kiss their loved ones goodbye, and take off on a plane for what may very well be the journey of a lifetime: teaching English in Korea.
If only it were that simple.
The complications that come with teaching English in a foreign country are numerous. From arranging one's housing, to overcoming language barriers, to adapting to a new environment and cuisine, to learning how to navigate a fresh cityscape, the challenges can seem daunting from the get go. But in Korea, two other problems complicate the smooth integration of foreign educators in Korean society: discrimination in the hiring of English teachers and new E-2 visa restrictions. The two topics are often treated separately through online forums or newspaper editorials, but in reality both are inextricably intertwined.
Take for instance my friend who came to Korea to teach English with his significant other. Both were hired through a recruiter, which meant that the entire hiring process was handled by a middleman. On multiple occasions during job interviews with schools in Seoul and with their recruiter, all parties involved wanted to make sure that the two men were 'just friends.' Essentially, they were put in a position where they had to lie about the nature of their relationship in order to secure jobs. The discriminatory sentiments have continued in the workplace, and although no one overtly asks about the nature of their relationship, these men feel they have no legal protections if they were to be "outed" and consequently fired.
Another friend of mine was fired from her first teaching job after she complained to her boss about her 13-hour workday. As a "tall, white, female," she was easily able to find a job with another school that offered more reasonable hours. She observed that many schools tend to prefer white, female teachers to men, who many school officials now associate with perversity and highly-publicized media scandals. She has also heard of foreign teachers being turned away by hiring officials at Incheon Airport if they appeared to be "too big" or overweight for the recruiters or school officials.
For more, go here.
NVDL: Having taught in Korea for 4 years, I can certainly attest to the discrimination going on there. I felt discriminated against, not in terms of getting work, just a lot of unpleasant attention and name-calling in Korea, in public, because I was bald. Sometimes quite funny, sometimes quite hurtful. More to the point, the Koreans as a general rule prefer not to hire black people to teach English (with a few exceptions). They also avoid employing overweight people, or people who look (to their eyes) 'too old'.
In some ways this is understandable. It's understandable because Korea is an intensely homogeneous society. All their people look virtually identical, so to some, westerners can appear quite frightening at first glance. Some small children burst into tears when they encounter us western monsters for the first time. This is changing, but slowly.
I encountered discrimination all the time for simply being South African. They could not believe we speak English in South Africa, or have any education to begin with. This is not as odd a concept as it may appear. Remember, Korea has grown phenomenally to become the 11th biggest economy in the world (with a population the size of South Africa, but 1/1oth SA's landmass, and none of our mineral resources). This being the case, why would they want to educate their people from an apparently 'backwoods' country? The answer is, of course, many South Africans are highly proficient at English, and in many cases, the average middle class person in South Africa has a better command and can spell, and read and write better than the average middle class American.
Another odd thing: white women in Korea are generally stereotyped as Russian prostitutes, and white men, as American teachers. It is a whimsical, but sometimes infuriating country.
They zipper their overstuffed suitcases, kiss their loved ones goodbye, and take off on a plane for what may very well be the journey of a lifetime: teaching English in Korea.
If only it were that simple.
The complications that come with teaching English in a foreign country are numerous. From arranging one's housing, to overcoming language barriers, to adapting to a new environment and cuisine, to learning how to navigate a fresh cityscape, the challenges can seem daunting from the get go. But in Korea, two other problems complicate the smooth integration of foreign educators in Korean society: discrimination in the hiring of English teachers and new E-2 visa restrictions. The two topics are often treated separately through online forums or newspaper editorials, but in reality both are inextricably intertwined.
Take for instance my friend who came to Korea to teach English with his significant other. Both were hired through a recruiter, which meant that the entire hiring process was handled by a middleman. On multiple occasions during job interviews with schools in Seoul and with their recruiter, all parties involved wanted to make sure that the two men were 'just friends.' Essentially, they were put in a position where they had to lie about the nature of their relationship in order to secure jobs. The discriminatory sentiments have continued in the workplace, and although no one overtly asks about the nature of their relationship, these men feel they have no legal protections if they were to be "outed" and consequently fired.
Another friend of mine was fired from her first teaching job after she complained to her boss about her 13-hour workday. As a "tall, white, female," she was easily able to find a job with another school that offered more reasonable hours. She observed that many schools tend to prefer white, female teachers to men, who many school officials now associate with perversity and highly-publicized media scandals. She has also heard of foreign teachers being turned away by hiring officials at Incheon Airport if they appeared to be "too big" or overweight for the recruiters or school officials.
For more, go here.
NVDL: Having taught in Korea for 4 years, I can certainly attest to the discrimination going on there. I felt discriminated against, not in terms of getting work, just a lot of unpleasant attention and name-calling in Korea, in public, because I was bald. Sometimes quite funny, sometimes quite hurtful. More to the point, the Koreans as a general rule prefer not to hire black people to teach English (with a few exceptions). They also avoid employing overweight people, or people who look (to their eyes) 'too old'.
In some ways this is understandable. It's understandable because Korea is an intensely homogeneous society. All their people look virtually identical, so to some, westerners can appear quite frightening at first glance. Some small children burst into tears when they encounter us western monsters for the first time. This is changing, but slowly.
I encountered discrimination all the time for simply being South African. They could not believe we speak English in South Africa, or have any education to begin with. This is not as odd a concept as it may appear. Remember, Korea has grown phenomenally to become the 11th biggest economy in the world (with a population the size of South Africa, but 1/1oth SA's landmass, and none of our mineral resources). This being the case, why would they want to educate their people from an apparently 'backwoods' country? The answer is, of course, many South Africans are highly proficient at English, and in many cases, the average middle class person in South Africa has a better command and can spell, and read and write better than the average middle class American.
Another odd thing: white women in Korea are generally stereotyped as Russian prostitutes, and white men, as American teachers. It is a whimsical, but sometimes infuriating country.
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