Shibboleth

There have been some articles in the newspaper concerning racism in the hagwon system here in Korea. According to the Korea Herald, a Korean-American teacher was refused work on the premise that parents preferred their children to learn English from a blonde/white person, 'Aryan' if you will. I feel dirty just saying that word. Apologies. Apparently, she was told in a letter stating why she was refused the position not to feel too bad as 'the blacks have it worse here'.

These allegations come hot on the heels of a recent UN report on racism and discrimination in the Republic of Korea. It concluded that while pride in the homogeneity of the Korean people exists (this in itself is not necessarily a bad thing) if taken to extremes could lead to rampant discrimination based on race. The report recommends the government take steps to reduce this risk, namely legislate against discrimination based on race as it is not exactly illegal for an employer to turn a worker away based on looks (At this time all Korean citizens are equal before the law. This does not extend to foreign workers).

This led me to some theories of my own. Firstly, that Korean parents truly believe the only English speakers are white/blonde English speakers (very bad) OR that Korean parents truly have no idea that it is possible for a non- white/blonde person to be a native speaker of English (not as bad, just ignorant). I'm leaning towards the latter as I have experienced people's ignorance on the racial make-up of Australia first-hand.

On a side note, even I have been discriminated against based on my citizenship. It's a shibboleth of sorts. In Australian/English pronunciation, we say boss as 'bos' where most North Americans say 'baws' and many schools prefer their teachers to speak with a North American accent. I've even seen language books titled "Speak American" which would be fine if they were pronunciation books. However these are standard language books.

N.B., 'American' is not a language any more than 'Australian' is an independent language.

Personally, I find it offensive when a non-native speaker decides to correct me on my 'English' pronunciation, saying it is pronounced the North American way. Although I could go on a crusade and correct all my students on their incorrect pronunciation.