Being a Foreigner in Korea

외국인
Above is the word "foreigner" in Korean, and if you aren't Korean, you will be called this in Korea. Don't take it personally when they call you this... It's just what they call people who aren't Korean.

A lot of people have asked me questions like "What is it like being a foreigner in Korea?" and "Do you get treated differently since you are a foreigner?" so I decided to make a blog post about it.

Everyone will obviously have a different experience with this, but since mine honestly won't be much help to many of the people asking these questions, I got some help from my fellow NSLI-Yians!

My Personal Experience: Looking Korean

So I am Chinese, but everyone in Korea thought I was Korean. I speak a good amount of Korean and have been told I have very little of accent, so I was mistaken all the time for being Korean, even when I was speaking (although I have terrible grammar so that could give it away lol).
This was good in a lot of ways, but there are definitely cons to looking Korean when you're not Korean [and aren't fluent in the language]!

Pros

• Not being approached by random strangers- While alone, I was never approached by a Korean person because I was a foreigner [like many other people experienced]. Multiple people from my program talked about how Korean people would come up to them and either try to speak in English or ask them to help them with their English. Some could view this as cool, but some find it weird. It is kind of awkward, and I'm grateful it never really happened to me. The only time I remember being "approached" by a Korean person was when I was with my two other friends on the subway. He came up to my one friend and started talking to her in English and he ended up talking to me in Korean about what I was doing here. It was kind of awkward for me, just because it was the first time that happened. That was my only experience with something like that... In fact, I was approached multiple times by Korean people asking me for directions/help/etc.. hahaha.
• Not being stared at or pointed at- I think this is probably the thing that made a lot of people on my program the most uncomfortable. It's pretty common, but if you look Korean, they won't do it (because they can't tell you're a 외국인 hehe). 
• Not feeling different&super self-conscious about being different- You won't get labeled right away as a foreigner and be treated differently. It definitely helped me adjust because I was being treated normally and not always being pointed out as different. It also was nice when I would go out with my host family or Korean friends, people didn't like pick me out or stare at me.. I just kind of felt Korean haha.
• You get to practice Korean a lot- People will talk to you in Korean right off the bat and not in super slow, loud Korean (you know how people do this in every country to people they don't think understand the language well, right?). You will hear a lot more Korean, get more exposure, and get lots of opportunities to practice. Also, people may feel more comfortable(?) around you and not just super freaked and surprised you're a foreigner... especially when they don't know you're a foreigner and just speak to you like a local.

Cons

• Being spoken to at a normal level and pace- While it is nice that you're not spoken to suuppeerrr loudly or reaallyyy slow like you're deaf or don't know anything, it can be difficult when people speak to you at what seems quick, especially when you don't have that great of Korean. 
• Being expected to understand everything&have good Korean- From my experience, Korean people are extremely encouraging and supportive when they learn that you, a foreigner, is learning Korean. However, if you're Korean or mistaken as Korean and don't speak much Korean, they might be like judging you like why doesn't this person know any and they're Korean? It's probably a lot more difficult for 교포s, but if you explain things it'll be okay. Just right off the bat it's kind of eh... and sometimes they might say something sassy about you not knowing Korean but don't let it affect you!!
• Being misunderstood when you make cultural/language mistakes- This was actually one of my biggest worries being someone who looks Korean in Korea. I don't speak formal language like ever, and I didn't want to accidentally use banmal and then get viewed as some disrespectful Korean teenage girl who doesn't respect her elders. It is easily understandable if you are a foreigner (an obvious one) and do something that culturally isn't accepted/normal there because it's like "Oh, they don't know better but now we can teach them so they know!" If you are mistaken as Korean, however, people might see you do something that is disrespectful in Korean culture and think you're Korean and ruuuude and get scolded. 
• Not being treated differently/special- Some people enjoy the attention of being different or a foreigner. If you don't look like a foreigner, you'll just fly under the radar and blend in. You might not get some "foreigner special" as easy or you won't get a lot of attention like people talking to you or wanting pictures or whatever. This can be a pro or con depending on the person.

Those are the main pros and cons I can think of about looking like a Korean in Korea (which also can apply to 교포s who don't really speak Korean that well). I personally loved the fact that I could blend in and just feel normal and not different while I was in Korea. I truly felt welcome and completely myself in Korea! It was nice just being able to talk to ahjummas like I was just some normal teenage girl waiting for her friend at the subway station, to workers at cafes who recognized me as a regular, to strangers I asked for help from who didn't freak out over me being foreigner, etc... The one thing that was a little tiring sometimes was being mistaken as a translator for my obvious foreigner friends and expected to translate. Also, I just got nervous sometimes that I would be misunderstood as rude, but other than that I loved it. I also had friends who loved being a foreigner and looking like it. It's an interesting experience and definitely opens your eyes to things! I hope this was helpful.... hehe.

So because this really only helps Korean-looking people or Korean-Americans, I asked some of my NSLI-Y friends for their experiences of being a foreigner. I asked them a few questions and got their answers, so keep reading if you're interested. This will probably be more relevant to a lot of you! 

So my one friend who I talked to about being a foreigner in Korea had a different experience. She has blonde hair and is very obvious foreigner, so hearing her experience was interesting!

"It was interesting," she said. "In general, people were really nice and just curious about where I was from and why I was here." 

When I asked if people approached you, this was her response:
"YES, lots of people approached me, some of them kind of creepy, but a lot of them were ahjummas (older ladies) who wanted to just talk." She also talked about one lady who had studied abroad in Canada so she was excited to talk to her in English. (This is something pretty popular... Korean people wanting to practice their English with you). A lot of people did talk to in normal-speed Korean, which she found challenging, but that is also a good way to stretch yourself! A lot of elementary students would yell to her in English, and my other friends said little kids would always stare at her. She ended saying "I never felt uncomfortable about being a foreigner. It was mostly just discomfort about not speaking Korean." This is definitely true for a lot of us, Korean-looking or not. You kind of get paranoid that when you're out, people are talking about you and you just can't understand what they're saying, making it kind of awkward and uncomfortable.

One thing to note is that there are a lot of foreigners in Seoul, so people are fairly used to seeing white people/foreigners and it isn't that bad.

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Another friend I asked provided a bit of a different experience!

When I asked her if she ever got "special treatment" as a foreigner, she couldn't really recall a time but did say "There was this one time I was looking at a shirt and this guy lowered the price for me because I said I was from America." (Sounds great, right? But don't expect that to really happen much haha)

As far as people staring went, she said that she didn't notice people staring at her a lot. She's sure that people probably did stare, but especially in Seoul people are so used to seeing foreigners that it wasn't much of a big deal. Also added was that everyone she met there was really nice and helpful!

A frustrating part about being a foreigner in Korea to her was not being able to express herself due to lack of Korean. When she had visited her grandma's house in the countryside and her grandmother wanted to know something about her, she would mostly just talk to her host parents about her and not directly ask her herself. She found it slightly awkward, but she did understand she doesn't have the best Korean.

"The whole time I was there, I felt like many people I met were very willing to share Korean culture with me despite my Korean skills," she concluded her account of being a foreigner in Korea with.

And I found the same to be true as well! Everyone is super excited you're interested in their culture and language and trying to learn it. They'll encourage you and help you as much as they can. It is really nice.

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I hope those accounts were helpful and provided a little bit more about what it may be like for you. Just remember everyone will have different experiences!!! I'm just trying to give you a glimpse of what it may be like from what it was like for people. You may experience something similar, or you may have some completely different experience. All of us were in Seoul, which is a city with a lot of foreigners (people there for work, military, traveling, etc..). If you go to the countryside where there aren't many foreigners, there is a good chance your experience will be quite different! Just embrace it and don't ever get discouraged!! :)

ALSO, when I was with my Korean friend in Korea, we talked about foreigners in Korea so I wanted to include what he said about foreigners and his thoughts when he sees them. He is Korean and has grown up in Korea, but he did spend time abroad (in my school) in USA (and Australia). I asked him if he stares at foreigners when he sees them and he admitted that he does sometimes, but it's not because he views them in a weird way or anything. He told me stares because he's curious about them!
"I'm curious about what they're doing here and why they're here and wanted to come here. It's so interesting to hear foreigners' stories, so I want to get to know them when I see them. It's not looking at them in a judgmental way. I found my foreigner friends to be hilarious, so I would like to make some in Korea as well." This is coming from a teenage Korean guy, so I hope this also gives you some insight as to how Korean people view foreigners.

They're probably really interested in why you're here, not put off by the fact! Don't get down or feel bad/excluded if you experience different things because you're a foreigner. Like I said, just EMBRACE IT!!

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I really hope this helped answer the questions people ask about what it's like being a foreigner in Korea! I tried to cover different aspects to give you the most insight and a possible preview of what you'll experience.
Just to reiterate, you will NOT have the same experience as another person. This was just giving you an idea!

If you have any questions, though, feel free to contact me via SNS or through this blog!
Thanks for reading! Sorry it's so long and there aren't that many pictures haha.