Yea Kyum Kim
Division of Communication & Media
It was truly hard to find a topic to write about. First thought was to write a useful column for possible readers but then the thought of telling people what I wanted to say about my country won over it. Therefore, this writing will be about how I have been thinking of people from other countries having attention towards Korea.
About 10 years ago, when I was too young to even know that there is another Korea except us (I even replied that I am from North Korea just because I thought the higher one was better), whenever we said we are from Korea one of the most frequently received questions was “Where is Korea?” Most of the time our nationality was either Japanese or Chinese to strangers. Surprisingly now Korea gained popularity and its various entertainment attracted people’s attention world widely. Not many people expected this to happen and it is still sudden for us too. Recently in social media, where a lot of videos related to Korea is uploaded too, there was even this comment saying “it is literally a trend to be Korean.”
At first this attention made me happy. The fact that people from various countries acknowledge Korea’s charm and culture made me feel proud to be included. However, naturally people started to realize the problems within Korea. There was nothing wrong with finding out the negative side of the country. It is rather very positive and valuable. However, the fact that so many people seemed to get suddenly obsessed with Korea and then suddenly hate it just by seeing its real self made me become very confused. As Korean, few people’s unilaterally built Korean fantasy was uncomfortable but how some people immediately hate and sneer at us for the problems we had were equally confusing.
For sure, Korea’s problems cannot be overlooked. Suicides, school bullying, lookism, and more are serious social problems here. We have been too focusing on economic development that we missed the social and cultural development. Significant numbers of my friends in Korea wanted to or had given up on Korea and escaped its problematic society because of it. Therefore, it is thankful that the world is watching us with genuine attention and is ready to provide a criticism. Once, my mom and I described South Korea as a teenager. How its outside is almost close to an adult but its inside is actually immature seemed to describe our society perfectly.
Desirably, that is also the stage I want the world to perceive us at. No developed countries began as developed countries. They had the stage where hate and misconception empowered the society. Our country was considered poor in 1980s which is merely 40 years ago. We need the stage to improve ourselves and we believe that we can reach the stage and complete it successfully. Although many people find this country as negative as few of my friends who left, people like me will always be here trying to find a way to change this country.
Like how any changes are better done slowly than suddenly, I wish the people around the world will rather understand and watch us with interest in our problems than rather blaming at us blatantly. I want to thank all the foreign people who are constantly observing this country’s social conditions. Also, I want to say please watch what we will do and believe on us, rather than blindly hating us because of its detrimental side. Even though that may somehow sound infantile, I am sure that will encourage us and change us in the end.