Happier Abroad Forum Community

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ ... orld-yahoo 0_o

SK is more xenophobic than other Asian nations.

No surprise here, but I doubt they will find more than 1 HIV+ teacher, if that.

Why is Korea so Xenophobic? I was taking to a guy who was based in Korea for the Army and i said do the locals mingle with the foreigners and he said not really the bar girls were all Russian/Ukrainian and Filipino.

Kunold wrote:Why is Korea so Xenophobic? I was taking to a guy who was based in Korea for the Army and i said do the locals mingle with the foreigners and he said not really the bar girls were all Russian/Ukrainian and Filipino.

I just left Seoul a few days ago from an extended R&R + ski trip. Korea is notorious for being xenophobic and inward looking. But guess what. Its seems to have improved dramatically in the lat 10 years. As you must know, Korea has successfully developed strong global consumer brands and was an early adopter of high speed Internet. Young people are more in touch with the outside world and accepting of foreigners now. The capital seems extremely safe and friendlier than before. Many of the westerners I saw there were walking hand-in-hand with a local girl, sometimes a cute or beautiful one. And in Itaewon, the American GI and international area, I saw a large number of Korean girls at the western oriented bars.

But the general English level there is still very low. In some areas, I found Chinese to be a more useful language than English. Its a pain in the ass getting around and functioning if you don't speak Korean. In spite of the GI presence, you don't see too many westerners outside of the foreign district. Some days, I could go around all day and not see a one.

I think Terrance lived there for awhile so he can expand on this if he likes.

Saudi, Kuwait and Oman all test for HIV. Gee, I must have been tested like 20 times. And those are not xenophobic at all.