American Pop Culture Immigration

Warm up:
1) Do you consider Korea as a multicultural society? 2) Do you think Korean society is comopolitanism or nativism? Why?

3) If you think Korean society is nativism, do you think we should change our attitude and become cosmopolitans? Why or why not?

Unlike America, Korea has a short history of immigration and it has been a country that has one ethnic group speaking one language. Since many Korean people are not used to diversity, there are many social problems occurred in Korea these days such as discrimination and hate crimes. To solve these problems, Korean government and notprofit human rights organizations carry on campaign and hold events for immigrants and mixed race children. There are some efforts to change peoples perception about immigrants. Discussion: 1) Compared to the past, how often do you see foreigners these days? 2) Have you ever discriminated immigrants? 3) Do you think those campaigns organized by Korean government is working?

As weve seen through several Korean TV shows, Koreans like to introduce their culture and expect foreigners, who are staying in Korea, to enjoy Korean culture and to act like Koreans. Discussion: 4) There are many immigrant support programs. For example, Korean language course and teaching how to make Korean traditional food such as Kimchi and Songpyeun. Some people say those programs help immigrants to fit in Korean society well but others claim that offering them those programs has a connotation that they should abandon their own culture and learn Koreans to live in Korea.

5) If we should respect other cultures and be tolerant to differences, how far should we accept? Is there no limit?

American Pop Culture Immigration

Reading: Koreans intolerance of differences and uncertainty avoidance.

Koreans are not very tolerant of different things, and thus they cannot easily accept the disabled, foreigners, and mixed race children. These things should not be reasons for discrimination. Why are Koreans not tolerant of those different from them? Why do they not consider such differences as attractive things or sign of individuality? Koreans consider uncertainty to be a dangerous thing; they try to avoid anxiety caused by meeting people who are considered different by society, such as the disabled, foreigners, and mixed race children. One of the common traits of countries that have a higher tendency of uncertainty avoidance is the distinguishing of outside things and regarding such different things as dangerous. Modified from: Readings in Korean Culture for Foreigners, (2010), By Kim Hae-Ok.

Koreans dont like differences

Koreans are not tolerant of differences because Koreans tend to avoid uncertainty. This tendency stems from historical events. Korea has suffered from frequent invasions such as Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592 (), the Manchu war of 1636 (), Japanese occupation of Korea ( ), which make Korean people clannish and distrustful of outsiders. Inside mind of Korean people, they feel insecure and have fear of facing different people and things. Discussion: 6) Is there any other reason, which can explain why Nativism is more prevailing in Korea?

There is a gap between what we should be and what we are now. We know we should respect other culture and have mature attitude toward differences. But we cannot be cosmopolitans over a night. We need more time to get used to differences and learn how to deal with them. So, suggesting only cosmopolitanism is not the best solution for Korean society. 7) Korean government only show bright side of multicultural society and say we should be generous and open-minded to differences through advertisements. But what side effects of cosmopolitanism could appear in Korea?