Appreciating Differences

"...and Japan also believed that everyone from the outside looking at Japan thought this way as well (that everyone in Japan is essentially the same). They are teaching them 'everyone is the same.' Everyone is the same, so you don't discriminate. But in fact, indifference, disregard, basically the lack of appreciation for peoples' differences becomes discrimination."

- Dr. Yasunori Fukuoka

Saitama University


I was watching a report on Al-Jazeera English TV (on YouTube) about the plight and struggle of the Zainichi Koreans living in Japan, who face discrimination if they reveal their identities as Koreans. The above statement is very profound because it is so true in our world today, and my thoughts about the professor's insight kept rolling.


We live in a world that is globalizing. With communication and travelling become more accessible and cheaper, more people are on the move. People's curiosity about the outside world have never lived in a prime time of opportunity to pounce on their desire to seek and sightsee places of other cultures. That's why I'm going to Japan again! Jyea!


I think the biggest challenge for societies, especially in East Asian countries like Korea and Japan, is how will they cope with this trend? Living in South Korea for ten months now, one of the biggest fads for future is "we are the future hub of Asia," aka hub for technology, transport, and economic cooperation. Koreans are trying to make their society improve by making it English-friendly (which they've done especially well), implement English instruction in the classrooms, and recruiting all sorts of foreigners for works of all kinds. Trends for success? We'll see.


At first glance, Korea is a wonderful country built on a strong economic uprising (even though it got somewhat rocked in the late 90s due to the major financial fallout). It is home to some of the most powerful companies in the world (Samsung, Hyundai, KIA, GM-Daewoo, POSCO, LG), and a society that is very modernized and well off.


But for some friends and I, becoming comfortable is a difficult task. Being a foreigner, I have alot to offer this country. Globalizing means to share in each other's cultural assets and improving on them, to create inter-cultural understanding.


Yet, one of the interesting things about Koreans, especially in very remote places in South Korea, they have hardly seen or met foreigners. They stare at them (I too am a foreigner, but I attract less attention because I fit in better, until I speak English) and some like to point, which is rude to us. To them its not rude, and they are just being curious.

My quick and major point is that to really become globalized is to change your way of thinking. It does not mean you have to sell out your culture so that you can suck up to the English-speaking world. On the contrary it means to adapt and showcase your culture in a way that people can understand it.

One writer, Maarten Meijer, wrote in a book called What's So Great About Korea, Maarten? that Korea has this "us or them" mentality. Basically its us (Korea) versus the world. "Our culture is unique, only Koreans can understand it, you can't touch it."

Yet slowly and surely, the trends are changing. I'm seeing more mixed couples in the street, usually a male foreigner and a Korean woman, a more diverse foreign community here in Incheon/Seoul, and a more influx of foreign influences. What Korea can start doing is take the English education that they are so desperate for and start using it, share their culture with us! That's one of my purposes of coming here...to share with my students that there is a world out there for the taking, and I want to learn from them.

The older generation, though appreciative of the foreign influences that helped shape Korea for the better, seem not ready for change. They want to keep the culture and way of life intact. They sometimes distrust foreigners because of the stuff they see on TV or from the stereotypes they get from films or the general media. They are not sure these new trends of globalization will benefit them or start to change their people for the worse.

The solution is that you don't have to change your country...just appreciate the differences from your new friends, the foreigners, and add the things that you can use to help improve your society. Appreciation means saying, "wow, that's neat they are from that culture. Tell me more." Indifference means "wow, that's weird. Don't tell me more."

Appreciation or indifference? Take your pick. Look at my country or South Africa to see the reprucussions of the latter. It can be done.