"I Tend to Stay Away From Korean Men ..." (Black in Korea) | MFiles

when it comes to dating I personally tend to stay away from Korean men welcome to the melon ated far in this series we highlight and show the stories of black people from across the globe remember to subscribe to this channel for weekly videos and also follow us on social media for regular updates let's get into the interview my name is Felicia and I'm from Toronto Canada well I chose Korea for a few reasons but I think my main reason was probably because of the pay I had student loans to pay off and so Korea offered pretty good salary and housing is also included for most teachers here so it was just the best thing for me in order to get rid of my Malone and I I have so so the thing that I like about Korea the most is definitely the food Korean food is so good I don't think I've tried anything that I didn't really like there's been a couple things but very few they just have different likes two dishes and rice dishes and any kind of meat so I love it I think my favorite food ooh that's hard I think my favorite is probably hey Jung gook so it's like a pork bone soup and its nickname is the hangover soup people typically drink it after a night of drinking or eat after a night of drinking but I like to enjoy it any time it's just really good socially during the winter I've been here for three years well my my biggest ambition since being here was to be debt-free and that has been something that I've been able to achieve since being here I'm definitely proud of but now I mean along along with when I first came here my I really wanted to just work on myself and just grow as a person and you know being away from family and friends and and all that and coming to a brand new country where you don't know anyone it really allows you some time to kind of hone in on yourself and focus on like myself as a person and so that's been something that I've been working on too and yeah being here is definitely given me that opportunity so the thing that I like the least it's kind of weird to say it's because it's also something that I like the most but it's a people so let me start off by saying like I love Korean people they're really sweet they love to you know show you their culture and they're very inviting and warm in that way but I think my biggest issue with Korean people as well has just been their lack of what should I say like they just don't know what to do once they come across someone that doesn't look like them because Korea is a very homogenous society as soon as they see something different they're interested by it which is nice but I just haven't appreciated how they've gone about expressing that interest and so you know they'll come and want to touch my skin and if I have braids in they'll want to play play with my hair and so that's just made me feel a little uncomfortable and so I try to I hope those moments don't happen often when I go out but unfortunately they do pretty pretty frequently over the last three years and they happen quite often but I mean yeah oh be it you know what it hasn't been too bad I know a lot for me personally it hasn't been bad I've heard a lot of horror stories but I can't say I share them all I mean I mentioned already having people Koreans come and playing with my hair that has been a little uncomfortable for me but I have to say that's pretty much like been the worst of it oh one thing that is difficult though as a black woman is dealing with my hair I mean since I've gotten here I feel like Korea has gotten a lot better with opening up salons and stores that cater to black women but it is still a little difficult to get things that are suitable for me for my hair another thing is with my with my students because for them like I'm the first black person a lot of them have ever seen and so I feel like I have to do a lot of like I just have to teach him a lot about about me and my culture and so that's just been it's been interesting I've never had to explain why my skin is black ever before or why you know my palms aren't my palms are white and why my you know my hand is not so that's been interesting and when I first got here I think I took it very I was a little negative about it and like I would almost get mad at my kids for for asking those questions but I mean when I realized that first of all the kids and second of all like I said I'm probably the first black person they've ever had an interaction with I realized I can't get mad over their ignorance right they're really just they're kids and so now like I get excited when I get that question and I just take that opportunity to teach them a little something about about Who I am where I come from it's it's a mix because there's they have like the older generation and the young generation so I think generally speaking the older generation doesn't have the greatest perception of black people and so you'll see it in you know the way they may look at you but again that's a generalization I've also had the complete reverse where I've had a lot of older people who come up to me and you know giving me a hug or you know giving me their seat on on a train or called me beautiful and so there's that but I feel like the younger generation is definitely more accepting of black people and more aware of a black culture and so they have like a more positive outlook which is nice so I don't know I always get a kick out of the the double takes that I get sometimes you know I'm walking down the street and someone will will look up and see me and after like do a double-take because I just don't they weren't expecting to see someone with my skin colour walking past them so that's always fun in a lot of ways Korea's pretty efficient I like the transportation system for one I think what they're doing with transportation is it's good you'll never get a train late or or very rarely anyways if it does happen it's usually due to things that they can't really control but it's very rare trains are on time buses are on time they run frequently but only qualm with the transportation system is that it doesn't run very late so it stops running about midnight for the most part and so by midnight it's difficult to get anywhere but other than that I think that's pretty good that's easy be kind to one another to others as you would have them do unto you I feel like if we live that way there's so much that would not happen because I mean if you're doing something that if you're doing everything that you would want something to do to you then I just feel like the world would be a better place I guess for one the homogeneous society just the fact that I think the percentage is like 90% of people in Korea are Koreans and so it was weird just being the only foreigner for you know especially when I first moved here I was living in a smaller city and so I almost get excited every time I'd see a foreigner we had like the Florin or not it was pretty cool so I think that was like the first notable difference for me another one would be oh the air quality yeah when I first got here I got really sick because the quality of the of the air is so poor in comparison to Canada and my body just started doing strange things I mean it was sick I had flu and cold and my face started breaking out and it was horrible but yeah I think I think those are the two big ones for me when I first got here so for for hair products luckily like I was informed before I got here that I was gonna have a hard time finding that kind of stuff here and so I literally bought a suitcase full of just hair products and I'm happy I did that because it did last me for maybe my first two years if that and so after that I was ordering products online or going to they have a store in a peon tech close to a military base called honey hair and that that saved me as well she also has an online store so Dinah's helped as far as like makeup and stuff like that I also brought a lot from home but luckily I had like friends coming and going to to Canada and so it was able to get some with get them to bring some back with them because otherwise I would not find into my foundation in my complexion here I never seen anything remotely close but yeah I mean other than that it hasn't been too bad bring your suitcase full of hair products you will need it and if you have like foundation or anything like that that you wear definitely carry that as well but other than that just come with an open mind and and stay positive and I think with that you'll have a good great experience here one of my favorite places to go to in Korea is down south it's an island called go J island so it's actually just connected to Busan which is the most southern city in Korea it's connected by a bridge so it's pretty accessible you can take a bus from almost anywhere but it is absolutely gorgeous there's a lot of trees and nature they have most the most beautiful beaches I've seen in Korea and so I definitely recommend to go there smiling glassy and making other people laugh and smile too okay so I think my superpower would be just smiling and being positive and projecting my energy on other people my earliest memory was probably oh I had a really bad oh it's not good I think it was when I got stuck in mud so I was playing with my sister and a friend in our neighborhood and you decided to go out a little farther than we were supposed to at the playground and we ended up in this field of mud and it was like quicksand I was probably only four at the time and following my older sister but I just remember sinking in this mud and being so afraid but luckily like somebody heard us screaming nearby and I remember I'm like coming out to rescue us so this is a bit tragic but it was good it ended well if I can change one thing in the world it would be people's outlook on life I feel like as a society that we're just too negative and that we really need to spread more positivity amongst each other and that if we did that I think I think so many things would wouldn't happen in our world so my proudest accomplishment is being the first person to graduate from University and my family I mean this is a very common one but I think it's so important to live each day like it's your last because tomorrow isn't promised and I feel like I'm reminded by that every day just with seeing you know things that are going on in the world or you know losing losing friends you never know what what tomorrow is going to bring and so one thing that mostly this year that I've been really trying to do is to you know if I have something that I need to say I'm gonna say it you know if it's to a friend or to a family member if it's you know telling someone that I love them because you don't know that you'll have the next day to do that or if there's something that I want to do I mean to be quite frank Yolo has been my my my my motto because yeah I just want to make sure that I have I don't live a life full of regrets and that I'm doing exactly what I said I wanted to do so oh that's a great question I would love to have dinner with probably I think it's a tie between Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres I just like what they stand for as as as women and I would just love to sit down with them and first of all thank them for everything that they've done for me I mean I've learned a lot through watching they're talk shows and seeing the things the humanitarian things that they've done around the world and yeah just learn more through them so I think those of you two people I think there's a lot of fear surrounding coming to Korea just because of what's going on in North Korea and so to anyone who's interested in traveling abroad teaching in a foreign country I say do it like fear can be a really crippling thing and you really shouldn't let it hold you back from anything so I mean the whatever's going on in North Korea has affected me at all and so I really think that if this is something that you want to do just do it don't don't let fear hold you back oh goodness so dating in Korea has been interesting for me I work at a private school and so I have pretty long hours and it doesn't really allow me to get out and meet people especially in the neighborhood that I that I do live and work in and so for me personally I think the best way that I've found to just see who's in the country see who's around is through dating apps and although some of them are not ideal I have like made some pretty good friendships on on them so even if we don't end up dating I have formed some great relationships so but it tends to be difficult I mean because there are a lot of people who are on these dating apps for me the reasons other than just dating and so you kind of have to weed through all those people to get through you know get to someone who who might be genuine so it doesn't become difficult and I've had countless times where I've deleted the app and absent been done with them and we downloaded them again so so it's when it comes to dating I personally tend to stay away from Korean men only because especially if I'm if I'm looking for them on a dating app because first of all I find that they then specifically are just on there to find forehead and curls and they're not really looking to have any real relationship other than a sexual one perhaps and so but I mean there there are there are plenty of people who have dated Korean men and have had great relationships but there tends to be a divide or some differences between or sorry there tends to be some problems sometimes with what family comes into play and so I know a lot of Korean parents aren't too fond of you know men their children dating foreigners so I know like that's been a problem for some and so for me personally I I tend to just stay away so online you can find me on instagram at fifi underscore frank thank you so much for watching if you would like to share your story or have us visit your region send us a message on any of our social media platforms 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Channel: The Black Experience Japan

Views: 202,116

Rating: 4.8788137 out of 5

Keywords: i tend to stay away from korean men, black in korea, mfiles, melanated files, the melanated files, the black experience korea, black experience korea, the black experience japan, black experience japan, dating in korea, life in korea, foreign in korea, black in korea interview, black in asia interview, black women in korea, black women in asia, being black in korea, black women in south korea, dating in south korea, south korea, seoul, canadian in south korea, korean men

Id: sgbwD_wlHLI

Length: 16min 19sec (979 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 04 2019