25 Responses for "폭탄영어 #7 - Being Black in Korea (Deep Conversation Series)"

1. Jae Young March 10th, 2008 at 12:33 pm 1

   http://accent.gmu.edu/

   Same concept. I was obsessed with this site when I first found it and I think I even recorded a clip of myself speaking the sample phrase. It was a total trip. I wish I sounded a little more New York tho.

2. Felicia Shelton March 10th, 2008 at 4:31 pm 2

   Thank you and Jennifer for inviting to take part in BombEnglish! I had a great time and will continue to enlighten Koreans and foreigners about this great site!

   Merci!

   Felicia
   http://www.nearandfar.wordpress.com

3. Michael March 11th, 2008 at 1:59 pm 3

   Jae Young - Thanks for the resource! I was listening to it obsessively as well. Hehe.

   Felicia - No, thank YOU for coming out and being on the show! We hope many people will get a lot out of it in the future.

4. Kay March 11th, 2008 at 2:21 pm 4

   Hi,
   I keep listening to this podcast & metropoliticking in Seoul these days. Especially when I have spare time at work (I can’t listen podcast on the bus because it’s too loud..)

   I really enjoy because I get very good source to introduce some of Korean culture and characteristics of Korean to my colleagues (Australian). Even though I am Korean I think you, as an American, have much more information on our culture.

   Before this podcast, I didn’t know how to express certain Korean phrase in English that I want to explain. Thanks for making this podcast and helping me to understand American or Australian’s perspective towards Korean.

   Anyway, yesterday I was craving for Mexican food after I’ve listened one of your podcasts (talks about Choi’s taco). I will definitely visit there sometime later :).

5. Kay March 11th, 2008 at 8:41 pm 5

   Also about this week’s topic, I’ve been working with African- American boss for over a year and she is really smart & I’ve learned a lot from her. I think Koreans just have much less chance to meet people from other countries or experience other cultures than people in US/Canada/ or Australia. (In Korea– lack of multiculturalism?) So they don’t know much about African-American. As globalisation develops in Korea, I believe that the prejudice is going to disappear.

6. easy March 12th, 2008 at 8:23 am 6

   i am very busy these days….:( i have downloaded the podcast and will be listening to it on my free time (i hope i could).

   I have been visiting Felicia’s site ever since Michael introduced her in The Metropolitician. I liked her way of seeing and feeling emotions beyond facial expressions.

   See you around…

7. Hyunwoo Sun(선현우) March 12th, 2008 at 12:50 pm 7

   AWESOME talk once again

   Merci Felicia pour tes histoires et encore une fois c’etait une episode magnifique!

   Very interesting topic and I must admit that it was the same for me when I first saw an African American person about 10 years ago - that was when I first realized that I didn’t really know anything about what it would be like to be black in Korea, but then I learn more about it as I made more friends who are not only white.

   It will take some time before the general Korean public will realize how biased they have been, but I’m glad that there are people making effort to change the way things are like you guys making this podcast!

8. ofiv March 13th, 2008 at 12:17 am 8

   it’s my first time to post a comment~~

   i really wanna speak English well~but i don’t~^^

   anyway, this podcast is awsome~and really hilrarious~
   also very helpful for me~

   i can’t wait next episode~ plz keep going~~^^
   thank you~

9. Jennifer March 13th, 2008 at 12:50 am 9

   Jeez, Hyunwoo, how many languages do you speak?!? Next thing we know you’ll be slinging around the gaelic ~
   an bhfuil gaelige agat?
   And welcome, ofiv! Don’t worry, more are on the way!

10. Hyunwoo Sun(선현우) March 14th, 2008 at 12:57 am 10

    Jennifer, no, I don’t understand gaelic yet (and I had to google your sentence to figure out that it means “Do you speak Gaelic?”) but I’d love to learn one day

    ofiv, welcome to the site !! (if I can say that as a fellow listener… heheh) I love this podcast too!

11. Eric Whitman Sangrin Shin March 14th, 2008 at 11:25 am 11

    younji! you`re so calm..;; Fight on!(USC`s slogan)

12. barabogi March 14th, 2008 at 4:37 pm 12

    I have the only comlain of this nice conversation.

    Volume of encorded sound is quite low. isn’t it? I have to volume up to highest value. While I am listening, sudden beep of MSN kill my ears.

13. Jennifer March 14th, 2008 at 10:50 pm 13

    did somebody just mention “The School That Must Not Be Mentioned”???
    There’s more than one reason this page is blue and gold, my friend!^^

14. lelia March 15th, 2008 at 2:47 pm 14

    hi all
    it was very niced talk. about being black in korea.
    For me, I have seen before when i was middle school, you know enlgish class . so i think this experience made me no problem white or black. it doesn’t matter for me.

    ohh i sometimes, i couldn’t understand what u guys talking like slang or deep meaning things, so that after read trascription, then i ask some foringer friends.
    but u know they also do not understand what this means lol
    Thanks all anyway i love this podcast!!!^^

15. Michael March 16th, 2008 at 11:26 am 15

    Lelia -

    That’s interesting your foreign friends couldn’t figure out what was being said. That seems a bit unusual. Can you give an example or two? I’m just curious.

16. Ilkyoung March 16th, 2008 at 11:54 pm 16

    If anybody believes that black people are less smart than others or caucasians are smarter than others, that’s quite similar to belive that women are inferior (or superior) than men. Most modern, generally educated people would know that it is not true. (Any rational man would not say it to his mon, wife/girl friend, or daughter.) It’s same to say that Koreans (조센징/반도인) were inferior to Japanese (내지인) and it was natural that Japan took over Korea a hundred years ago. That kind of idea really pisses me off.

    However, it is quite interesting that kind of disgusting racial prejudice is quite much spread. I met an African-English engineer living in Doha, Qatar. He was with Qtel which is that largest telephone company in Qatar. He used to work for British Telecom and was very smart guy. One day, he told me that he could not make decisions officially in his organization while his position is a ‘manager’. I asked “What?” and he explained that he could not do something other caucasina managers in the company could do just because he was black. I said it was ridiculous and he said ‘yes, but it was the reality he faced in Middle East’. Then, I paid some attention and figured out the racism in rich Arabic countries are quite widely spread. In Qatar and Kuwait, there are several grades in the people living there. First one are, of course, local(Their own citizens.) plus caucasians especially from western countries. The second grade are Arabics from those countries that do not produce oil and well educated Asians.(Indian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Malaysia, etc) Third is the rest, and the majority, of poor immigrants from India and South Eastern countries. I even watched those people being abused by locals by myself.

    I believe that a lot of Koreans look down immigrant workers from South Eastern countries in that context. A lot of them work in a very tough environment, often being abused phisically and verbally.

    We really should think about the others in the context of ‘what if I were that person?’.

17. easy March 17th, 2008 at 11:07 am 17

    hi, michael. You do look like a Filipino.

18. Bombass April 6th, 2008 at 10:46 pm 18

    i chose it because of the topic you guys talked about.
    it was good, but too long to listen at one go.
    Jennifer! why don’ u speak more, huhh!?

19. Jennifer April 7th, 2008 at 3:38 pm 19

    I’m glad to hear you were interested in the topic . . . we’re still working out how to deal with really long episodes like this. And I talk all the time, but Michael is so envious of my beautiful voice and intelligent commentary that he cuts it all out!

20. taemin May 14th, 2008 at 2:40 pm 20

    I enjoy your programs.

    But…who is this hair-dresser that you talk up? How can I find him?

    Thanks!

21. Javis June 13th, 2008 at 3:26 pm 21

    Hi, mid-atlantic/midwestern, white American here.
    I enjoyed this episode. I hope that a lot more Koreans can gain the confidence to engage foreigners in conversation, especially those that look and speak differently from the stereotypes on Arirang TV.

    and this part made me double take –

    Korean school kids:
    “We’ve never seen a black person say anything intelligent before.”

    Huh? Weren’t you standing in front of the class teaching them history? I guess they had become comfortable with you just as their teacher, and the big deal was seeing an intelligent, black stranger on a video.

    Thanks for the hard work, and special thanks to Felicia for contributing as a guest.

22. Tasha June 25th, 2008 at 2:55 am 22

    Greetings,
    Wonderful discussion.

23. Cas July 15th, 2008 at 11:27 pm 23

    Hello, I’ll be heading to Korea with the R.O.K.(non Jay-Z affiliated) Ministry of Education TaLK Scholarship Program. I am an African-American male from New York and I’ve been curious about what the atmosphere in Korea will be like. I’ve been assigned to Danyang, Chungcheongbukdo. There, apparently with a Korean University student, I will be responsible for teaching rural elementary school children English in a 3 hour after school program every weekday.

    During my interview, the representative expressed concern of how I will be treated as an African-American in such a rural part of Korea.
    I encouraged him that I would be the perfect person to bring transparency to media stereotypes of Black peoples in general.
    While my confidence hasn’t faltered, it’s just great to hear the experiences of people who have already been in the situation.

    However, I will assume that rural Korea is, like most places, less acceptin of change and difference. Have either of you ever taught or lived in rural areas of Korea?
    Do you have any tips for a fairly inexperienced English teacher?

    Thanks for the Podcast!

24. Jennifer July 16th, 2008 at 5:38 am 24

    Michael might be better equipped to answer this question, but personally I found that there were some real advantages of being in a small, rural town. Yes, there’s lots of staring and occasionally some moments that can cause some real discomfort - but being in a small town, people will also figure out who you are and what you do very quickly. After people know about you, it will probably get a lot easier. The most important thing to staying happy is to keep a good sense of humor about life. Even the bad stuff.
    As for teaching English? Start out scary and strict, then mellow as time goes by. Have fun. And while you’ll almost certainly have to adjust your lessons (trust me, nobody teaches what they thought they would be), keep your expectations high. The kids can do it, with encouragement and help.

25. james w bolt July 27th, 2008 at 8:20 am 25

    Hi Jen I enter Korea on the 6 July 1950 At Pusan.Where is the city that you are teaching located. If some of your student would like to contact a person that was in their country in the in 1950 Sign 40 Yards